The age-herald., 1898-10-14
EPIGRAMS
AND HEROES

 Whether the observation of Sergeant Bill Anthony, who came to salute when he met l Captain Sigsby in m,d-air and discoursed to this effect: "Sr, I have to report that the ship has been blown up and is about to sink, "-whether this can be classed as an epigram or merely as a bald statement 1 of fact I leave for others to decide. Ger tainly Commander Wa'nwrights assertion at Havana, as he hauled down the frayed l and disco1ored rag that floated over the submerged scrap heap wh oh was once the | Maine, was epigrammatic. "We will col- 1 leet for this, and it won't be at the end of 1 a lawsuit, either" said the gloomy Wa'n- wright.
 ''T.se Spanish couldn't ht d. thing but | the water" was Captain Bob Evans profane criticism of the Spanish gunnery. shouted to a passing newspaper dispatch boat after a brief sea engagement In spite of it's profanity, perhaps because of t, it will I've in history.
 Captain Evans is also the author of sgnaled message to Sampson which, in one of its var ants, has been ascribed to Vain wright When the shore batteries at San Juan were engaged Sampson s'gnaled Evans to fall back still further from the forts. Evans responded with his flag: 1T am afraid to get farther away. I have strained my guns already at ths range.'
 
 This much for the wit of the war. The difficulty has been more prolific of heroes. Many names have been added to the Amer ican calendar of naval and military saints. The full list will be submitted to congress for o,,lr md ole from the departments. Some of the sub ordinate names on the naval register may be remembered longer than one or two of the tr.o of admirals who owe their grade to the war. Hobson, for instance will be remembered whenever forlorn hope or desperate chance is thought of. His act was without question one of the most pie turesque of the whole war. With his name are bracketed those of his seven compan- ions, selected from hundreds of volunteers from the American fleet. They are:
 Daniel Montague, machlnst on the New York.
 J. c. Murphy, coxswain on the Iowa.
 Osborn Deignan, coxswain on the Merri- mac.
 George F. Phillips, coxswain on the Merrimac.
 Franc Kelly, water tender on the Merri- mac.
 R. Clausen, coxswain on the New York
 George Charette, gunners mate on the New York
 These men took a collier under the guns of Santiago's Morro into the teeth uf Ger vera's squadron, where they sank her in mid-channel.
 For clean-strain courage the Merrimac affair easily takes rank with anything per- formed by naval heroes since the first days of the republic.
 Ensign Worth Bagley, of the Winsow, whose death was one for sa Tor and Il warrior will be remembered by American boys longer than his monument will en- dure. One of the youngest executive off1- cers in the navy, he, with his six pper, Lieu tenant Bernadou, went into the unequal fight with their marine bicycle against the shore batteries of Cardenas. Bagley and four of his crew were killed, Lieutenant Bernadou, still suffer ng from his wound, has just reported for duty at Washington.
 Perhaps I should have mentioned Dewey earlier in the list. It is the president in- tention to recommend Admiral Dewey for promotion from his present grade or rear admiral. which came to him with the thanks of congress for sinking MonteJos squadron without losing man, to the place of vice admiral. Dewey began the war, and with his bombardment and cap ture of Manila ended it.
 Admiral Schley-the title is comparatively new-is the next in the hearts of hero worshipers. His brilliant chase of the Spanish squadron as it fled from Santiago and the active part his flagship took in the ultimate destruction of the enemy have been the subject of so much newspaper comment that there is small fear Schley will ever be forgotten by the admirng pop ulace.
 Lieutenant Richard Wainwright, as he looked upon the wrecks of the Spanish ships, remarked grimly: "The Maine is avenged Wainwright was the Mane's ex- ecutive officer at the time of the war ships assassination. In the destruction of Ger vera's squadron he engaged with the re- formed yacht, the Glousecter, an armored cruiser and two torpedo boat destroyers. He subsequently, received Admiral Ger vera's sword in token of the lattec'3 sub- mission. Wainwright is a Washingten sSpl. he comes from a naval family, and was born and brought up in that city.
 Ensign Franklin Buchanan Sullivan, Baltimore boy grandson of the old confed- crate commodore, from whom he gets his given name, will have an advancement to a junior lieutenancy when the board for the recognition of bravery gets around to his case. He had charge of the after port guns of the Marblehead, and with one shot reduced the Spanish blockhouse to splinters. Sullivan is regarded as the best grounded student of gunnery, practical and theoreti- cal, in the navy. After the Maine affair, and prior to the declaration of war, he risked his life daily in Havana sin investiA gating the strength of the city's defenses and the condition of the batteries. His re- port on the Havana forts is one of the most complete of the kind on file in the depart- ment.
 Lieutenant Commander Adolph Mark, who, with the Scorpion, formerly the yacht Sovereign engaged and beat off six Spanish gunboats off Manzanillo, will be remem- bered when the honors are handed out.
 Captain Robley D. Evans has ever been a popular seaman. His bluff, manly ways won him admiration even before he gava an account of himself with the Iowa in