The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-03-25
WHO WAS rARnAGUT,s FATHER /,
Naval Tradition Assigns That Honor
10 Admiral Pnrier. nj TrInaIl Es.a.

Naval Tradition Assigns That Hono OF
TO Admiral Porter, of TripoIt Fame.
About two hundred yards to the nortl,
OF the equestrian statue Of General Jack.
son. that highest type Of American man.
hood and noblest exemplar of American
citizenship. on Connecticut avenue.
Washington, d. c., where Sixteenth and
Seventeenth intersect that most beautiful
and finest Of all the splendid residence
streets Of the capital, in the middle
OF an exquisite little park, is the mas.
sive bronze statue Of David Glas.
coe Farragut, the first American admiral
and naval hero who stands second
to none whose feats are recorded in his.
tory. Not Howard, nor Drake, nor Fro
bisher; not De Ruyter, nor Van Tromp;
not Nelson, nor Collingwood; not Paul
Jones, nor Chauncey, nor Preble, nor De-
catur, can be named before him. In
sketches OF him it is said that he was born
in Tennessee about the time that Jeffer.
son was inaugurated President; he en-.
tered the navy at the age Of eleven, and
participated in the war Of 1912, which
terminated when he was less than four.
teen years Of age. He saw active service
in the Mexican War, and during the war
between the States he did rs much to
crush the South as Grant, or Sherman,
or Thomas. He died in 1870, as he had
lived, the head Of the navy.
There is tradition in the navy, how.
ever, that Farragut was not a Tonnes.
sean. The story is one that people love
to believe whether it be history or ro.
nance. 1t is told in the gunroom. and
believed in the forecastle, that Farragut
was the natural son of old Dave Porter.
who fought Tripoli at the beginning of
the century, and that his mother was a
native of one Of the Mediterranean isles
"a Greek, perhaps; may be Corsican,
or Sicilian; possibly Turk. or an
Arab. Tom Marshall used to begin that
eloquent and original lecture of his on
Napoleon Bonaparte by saying that
he had no doubt that could the truth be
ascertained it would be established that
the Corscan demi-god was q direct
hneal descendent of q son of julius
Caesar, begotten when the future worlds
master was prisoner in the hands Of pi-
rates in the Mediterranean isles. And if
Farragut owed his existence to the
mother navy gossip assigns him, we can
easily believe that some ancestors of his
were by the side Of Reguus when he
swept from the seas Carthagenian navies;
that another ancestor of his was in the
fleets of Don John, Of Austria, and
fought at Lepanto; that others yet Of his
blood fought with the Barbarossas and
the Dorias, making the azure waters of
those classic seas crimson with the blood |
OF heroic battle. II the tradition Of the
navy as to Farraguts parentage be true,
it only bears out what Shakespeare said |
upon the subject in classic language in
several of his plays, notably in Lear"
We find the children Of the house of |
Stuart by the right hand" imbeciles. |
while those Of the "left hand" nobility
the Duke of Berwick, were heroes. The |
same may be said Of the decendents of |
Henry of Navarro. A chapter ON tho
natural son among the worlds great men |
would be interesting and surprising his.
tory,