The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-05-15
WORTH BAGLEY.

| [ do not hope TO 90 any thihs my
! than to tell, as simply as l can soi'iG-
thing of the personal life ana surround
ings Of Worth Bagley as | knew thehl.
/ This much even L should keep us my
own nnless | knew that what / am say
mo were coming graciously to those of
:, home which, in the most fragrant
sensa has been for these four years to
me. also, home.
! AS n newspaper man, l do not feel
that I could write about my friend. BY
y strange cruelty in the limitations of the
newspaper craft. men know that the
phrase whether for the dead or for the
| living must be after the manner of con
vention. Therefore, for the purposes of
what will be here, l must, forgetting the
newspaper habit of hiding the heart be-
free to talk, unmindfu of the fact that
| have listener. as though, forsooth, |
we're only thinking aloud on this spot
which recalls the dead SO wildly to me.
For it was here that during the past
summer our holiday fell together under
the trees. Perhaps it was then that l
most clearly discerned those qualities.
that, when the bare news came that he
was dead, caused me to be sure that he
had died well. AT that moment, some
half-forgotten lines of years ago came
back to me:
by my good faythe, sayd the noble
Perssye,
Now haste thou rede Gudge) full right;
ct will / never yelde me TO the
Whyll / may stonde and fight.
| had not been mistaken. Later came
the story in all its blood-red splendor.
In the midst of all the narration, | clung
fast only to one saying, because it seem
ed almost Il companion-piece to the words
of the Knight of Otterburn's battle. Here
it is:
"Key West, Fla, May -. 1898.
''Wm. Russ. Mayor Raleigh. n. c.
Ensign Bagley instantly killed by
fragments of bursting shell while ut
post of duty aboard torpedo boat Foote
in action off Cardenas yesterday. :"
The Navy unites in grief for the loss of
so gallant an officer.
"BERNADOU."
That is enough
1t was the way in which he wished to
die. That much he had, said in my pres
ence. With all grace and tenderness of
manner, there was the cagerness con-
stantly expressed Of standing forward,
when possible, at the post of danger.
Such eagerness seemed to play grimly
even about his moments of levity or
laughter. A conversation comes to me
between him and Il cynical young Off
Ger aboard one of the fleet, at Norfolk.
1t took place in the Navy yard while the
Winslow was dry-docScd. The young
officer saw no chance in the navy for
advancement. In his reply. Worth Bag
ley's face, | remember. glowed with
earnestness, when he said he thought it
/ depended upon the determination of the
man. He was then waiting for the
| Winslow to be put into shape after the
narrow escape it had had in the terrible
gale off Fire Island. in which young
Bagley distinguished himself by the res
cue of two men on drifting barge.
Then it was that l had an opportunity
of observing at close range the conf
dence with which his commanding officer,
| Bernadou, depended upon him. He even
sought Bagley i'll social converse, and at
charming little dinner aboard the Wins
1 low he took occasion more than once in
the most companion-like way to compli-
ment his judgment and courage and en-
duranee.
| And Worth Bagley took it all with
even u blush. / could almost fancy in
Lieutenant Bernadou's account of the
engagement while he lay wounded on
the Hudson, that his mind was upon his
cherished young executive officer. 1--WE
went under orders from the commander
of the Wilmington" he said. 1t had not
been his to ask why-it was his only TO
90.
| Twenty-four years of age, Ensign Bag
| ley had. in the words to me of friend,
accomplished what man would have
been willing to live a hundred years for. =
| His life seemed 10 have marched I'M
| brokenly mp to its crown, He had been
cadet like others. Yet amidst them all
there was in him certain quality, not
Iself-assertiveness which kept him going
forward. Ambition? Yes. there seems to
me to have been much Of it in him, but
| his chief qualities. ms | knew him, were
| tenderness and nobility. Il certain ''cen-
trail dignity" too. This central dig
nifty" | have seen exhibited in the most
unlocked for and quiet way in CONVEX
sation with those about him. 1t was
almost without his being aware Of il
| the power that seemed to me to win for
him all that is implied in the 'eldcf
brother" 1t was composed in him foI
the most part of love and decision. II
cannot be wrong for me TO say that
have never seen q man more exquisitely
tender to those in his own home. FOI
that matter he came from a home where
the atmosphere was only that of ten
derness and good word for all men and
women. May not this thing of tender
ness. after all. be the food upon which
nobility comes to perfection. and may
not this thing of nobility. which. after
all. is love in its subtlest and highest
form, be the quality that causes men t.
smile in the flash Of bursting shells as
Worth Bagley smiled?
/ lay stress upon this. because / can
not account for this hero Of CardenaS
in any other way. In one sense he has
never left the arms Of mother-tht
pressure of whose hand he had felt upor
his shoulder at every point from child
: hood to Cardenas. The manner in which
that love was returned is one of tn,
, memories Of the Beautiful which treas
: ure.
1t is told that when the little Winslov
, sThe RoyaI 10 the highest grade baking powder
I khOwn. Actual tests show Il goes ore
a..