Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-01-07

carry aH.. d shroud and iurl the ad-
mirai 10 tire deck. turned Il Knowles.
who was then acting as signal quarter
master. and ordered him to take piece
of '-sman stuff and Jump up there
and lash the admiral"
Knowles picked up a piece Of ratline
line living under his feet and T. the
twinkle Of an eye had skipped 8 che
main rigging and was tying the olCl 4
miral hard and fast when Farragut
gruffiy demanded what he meant
making yon fast sir" said Dick.
and who told you to do SOP said
Farragut.
1.-The captain, sir. F." said Dick
"Oh, all right, =" said Farragut.
And with that, said Dick, the old
man took hitch with the ratline stuff
himself. while l IN ade fast abaft him"
During the whole Of the fight, Dick
says, the admiral talked with the pilot
who was stationed in the main top.
Every once in a while though, he
would shout something down to Capt
Drayton, who was always close under
Meath
Dick is an old man now, and if it
were any other man than Dick"
Knowles he would have been railroaded
long ago to the sailors home. But
Dick prefers to be on active duty, as
he considers it. and what with teaching
the middies how to splice and growing
at all the new-fangled things Of to-day,
'Dick" does do a considerable work.
The old fellow is a ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
tive of that class of splendid seamen
now so rapidly passing away.
In build he is small of stature, and
his face is covered with great bushy
brown board, which leaves little else to
show than pair of small, twinkling
blue eyes. He is never so happy as
when spinning yarn to some MILDLY,
but the old chap can never be gotten to
talk unless engaged in some work at
the same time. Get him settled down
in a snug corner. and engaged, say in
'stropping block. and he is in a fair
way to be wound up. The middies
know this, and they have very little
trouble in getting the old fellow start
ed on twister
Dick has been a man-of-war's man all
his life, and says that he asks for moth
ing better when ne dies than to be
wrapped up in the Union Jack and be
buried with his rating badges and
medals all rightly in place.
To Dick. as to hundreds of the old
men-of-war's men. Farragut was little
short of an idol Old as he is, Dick still
scowls if any one even mentions to him
the name of Commodore Foote He will
tell you, even now, how the tars on the
old Hartford and all the rest of the
ships nearly mutinied when Foote'S
regulation came stopping the grog ra-
tions to the men.
Dick" claims that Farragut was as
mad at the regulations as the blue
jackets and he would give one the
impression that the men felt that
''Farragut ana the seamen" were being
il-treated instead of the seamen alone
Apropos of the Mobile battle. Lieut.
Watson, who was on Farragut's staff,
quotes the admiral as saying: How
curiously some tritiing incident catches
the popular fancy. My being in the
main rigging was mere accident, owing
to the fact that / was driven aloft by
the smoke. The flashing was the result
of your own fears, Capt Draytons)
for my safety"
AT the close of the war Farragut
yielded to the solicitations of Mr. Page
to stand for historical portrait in the
position in which he was first dashed -
n. Y. Times.