The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1908-05-27
SPERRY AND HIS work.
An Intimate Estimate Of Rear
Admiral Evans Successor.

MI JJIlItjudlC 6SlIIIIdlc u near
Admiral Evans Successor.
DIGNIEIED AND WELL Trained
In Spanish War He Missed the Glory,
but Not the Hard Work-A Quiet
Mathematician Who Has Been In the
Navy Forty-six Years.
An estimate Of Rear Admiral Charles
s. Sperry. who is to succeed Rear Ad-
miral Evans In command Of the Unit
ed States feet that will make a tour
of the world, is given In the New York
Post by E. W. Very, formerly Of the
United States navy, who says:
IDOL know Sperry? Let m see. He
entered the service in '62. That al
forty-six years ago. II that computa-
ton is right I have known Sperry for
ty-flve years and have known him init
mately some forty odd. Why, I helped
him get through with his wedding Ger
emory, and a year afterward I brought
a bride Of my own to visit the happy
couple. However, you want to know
what kind Of a commander In chief he
is going to make and how he came to
get the appointment In so far as the
feet is concerned. I AN say without
hesitation that precisely as Evans has
reported from Magdalena bay that the
feet Is in better shape than 1t was
when 1t left Hampton Roads 50 Sper-
~ will be able to show to an inspec-
ton board when the ships anchor there
again.
"As to the reason why he receives
the appointment, since neither political
nor family influence has anything to
do with It and since he in a manner
missed the chance to r. glory in the
late war with Spain, the circumstances
are perhaps worth explanation. In the
first place, sperry had the good luck to
enter the service very young, SO that
his retiring age comes quite later than
that of his classmates, the majority Of
whom are already retired. Then he
had the common sense and brains nec-
essary to graduate from the academy
away up in the single numbers Of his
class. Thus. you see, right at the start
he got into shape to become a rear ad-
miral early and to stay late.
"His start in active service was as
romantic as the start Of a narrowing
dime novel, although I never could
persuade him to view it in that light.
He started for the China station on the
corvet Sacramento, and they got along
all right until somewhere near the
mouth Of the Hooghly river on the
way to Calcutta, when the ship went
ashore at night in a fog and was a to-
tai wreck. No lives were lost, and no
clothes were saved, so all hands came
home rich only in experience. If I
were commissioned to write Sperry's
biography I could no doubt rake up
lots Of such material of narrowing in
terest to the people who pass their
lives at home, but in order to be truth
full I should have to get my detailed
facts from the fountainhead, and right
there is where I should meet with de-
feat, for the reason that all such cpl
sodes would appear to him as too COM
monplace to be worth even recalling.
"Sperry is phlegmatic. I doubt much
If he took his shipwreck any more Sc
riously than a person would who step
ped in a mud puddle. It was all over
as soon as his pajamas got dry. The
day that he got married you would
have thought that it was his sixteenth
experience instead Of his first one. Ap-
pearances are often deceptive, and the
matter Of fact air may come from alb
solute vacuity of mind, but such IN &C.
cusation can hardly be laid at his door.
His innate mathematical talent sent
him repeatedly to the Naval academy
as an instructor in higher mathematics.
Only the best talent in the service
would ever be picked for president of
the Naval War college, and he served
In that capacity for three years, relin-
gushing it to 60 as the naval member
Of the last Hague conference.
II have said that he missed the glory
Of the Spanish war So he did, but he
by no means missed the hard work Of
it, for as ordnance officer of the New
York navy yard he had anything but a
sinecure. To the ordnance officer fall
all the details Of fitting the vessels out
with their entire artillery outfits. There
was scarcely a day for more than six
months that at least a dozen of the
purchased yachts were not at the
docks to be armed and started off in a
hurry, but not a mistake must be made,
this only in addition to the repairs and
equipment Of the main feet.
II saw Sperry at his work often in
those days, and 1t "a a joy to the
spirit to see the machine work. There
was a tangle in the thread every Eve
minutes, but it came straight in a mo-
ment and without a stop in the regular
motion Of the shuttle. He is going to
handle the feet Of battleships in ex-
actly the same way. It Is not merely