The San Francisco call., 1896-03-15

HE name and fame of Admiral
David Glasgow Farragut are dear
TO the people by the Golden Gate
LIZ for more reasons than those which
make his glorious achievements
the whole nations common heritage.
Farragut was something of a California
pioneer. The spirit of adventure did not
bring him hither, neither did the desire
for sordid gain; yet. although he came in
obedience to a Government order, he was
Mare Islands naval pioneer, and the
commandants of that navy yard may
pride themselves on having as their primal
predecessor a man no less great than Far
ragut.
1t was in August. 1854, that Farragat
was ordered to California as first COM
nlandant of Mare Island Navy-yard. The
site had been selected in 1852 by q commits
zion OF three officers; but no nayy-yard
existed as yet, and it was TO be Farraguts
particular duty to plan and build it up
under the general instructions of the de-
partment. There were no accommoda-
tons on the island, and Farragut and his
family lived for seven months on board an
old sloop-of-war that was anchored hard
by. For four years he remained at this
station, and great progress was made in
the development of the island.
Men, now grown old in the service, who
were boys in the navy drilling at Mare
Island when Farragut (nearly three score
years of age) was commandant, tell numer-
Gus anecdotes to illustrate the great cap
tain's simplicity of character and to give
evidence of some of his remarkable traits.
Farragut was not spoiled by long au-
thority. a midshipman at 10 years of
age, commanding a vessel successfully at
II and gradually rising in the scale of pro-
motion, he was always the same simple,
unpretentious man. The sailors loved
him, and it has been related that it was
nothing unusual for him to call up some
of the crew under his command to have q
bout with the slngle-sticks. He was an ex-
pert in all physical exercises, and on his
birthday would invariably indulge in a
few handsprings, declaring that until such
time as ne failed in that feat he should
not feel that he was growing old.
While the relations of this country with
Spain are of nature decidedly strained,
while our representatives in the halls of
Congress are making the walls of the
capitol ring with denunciation of Spanish
despotism, while students of Spanish col
leges are working themselves into foolish
frenzy and showing hatred of Uncle Sam
by tearing up a few copies of the stars
and stripes, and while students of an ex-
ceptionalIy few American colleges are try
ing to outdo the boys of Spain by tearing
to tatters the colors of the Baby King, it
is not wholly uninteresting to stop and
note that the peerless naval commander
of our war of the rebellion, the hero who
ran the fiery gauntlet of rebel forts and
ships at New Orleans, and who. with his
glass directed the victorious feet at Mobile
Bay while lashed to the shrouds, was de-
scended from some of the best blood of
Spain.
Zone of his ancestors, Don Pedro Farra-
gut" SAYS Captain Mahan, ''served with
great distinction under James I, King of
Aragon, in the war against the Moors,
which resulted in their expulsion from
Majorca in 1929, and from the kingdom of
Valencia, in the Spanish peninsula, in
1238." The admiraPs father, George Far
ragut, was born on the island of Minorca
in 1755. AS that island had previously
been ceded to Great Britain, Farragut was
born under the British flag but he severed
his connections with his native country
and in 1776 emigrated to America, where
the beginning of the century George Farra-
CUTS adventurous nature led him to the
frontier, where North Carolina and East
Tennessee meet, and where he welded
Elizabeth Shine, the mother OF the future
admiral. David was, therefore, of Spanish
American descent.
During his four years at Mare Island
FaFragut furnished material for many an
amusing story. He was not one of those
who would seek to awe anybody by as