Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1908-12-24

| could have won Ellen Jones for his wife,
he would have been supremely happy as
we'll as very fortunate. If Miss Jones had
no family to speak of, Mr.. Smith had ab-
soutely none at all. He had been raised
i use the word advisedly. it was more
like raising then rearing-in an eleemosr-
nary institution-to wit, public orphan
asylum. The superintendent of the in
stitution. not being gifted with imagina-
ton. had named him Smith. He had a
regular list of names for the foundlings
which he bestowed upon his charges in
unvarying succession, and Smith fell to
the lot of this unfortunate. One of the
women attendants had further called him
Tommy" after her sweetheart To den-
tify the little waif from the New York
streets and to differentiate him from other
''Tom' Smiths. of whom there were not
a few. the authorities had inserted mid
die name. He had been picked up in
Beekman street, and in the records his full
name, therefore, ran this way, Thomas
Beekman Smith.
He was an unusually bright boy and as
homely as they make them-freckled, red
Irish parentage. He was jolly. cheerful.
willing, hard-working little rat. however,
who dearly loved a joke yet who was as
ambitious as a ward politician. The
superintendent of the orphan asylum hap
pened to have a brother who was a cap
tain in the United States navy. one of the
od-time. "1Sl2," sailing frigate captains.
The superintendents interest had been
excited by young Smith. He had com
municated some of this interest to his
brother, and-in short, at the age of
eleven the boy went to sea as q captains
servant.
BY and by old Commodore Bainboro,
observing there was good stuff in the lad,
had him warranted a ''reefer." Smith
went through the usual course of the
young asprant in those days He served
creditably as a midshipman in the Mexi-
| can war, and thereafter, being still young
enough, sought and received permission
to go through the Naval Academy. from
which he graduated in the class of 50.
| Behold him in the fall of 1861 a full
| hedged lieutenant in the United States
| navy, still freckledfaced still red headed.
still homely, still fond of jest, still
happy, and still ambitous-also in love.
He was one of those rare mortals who
can be happy, ambitious and in love at
one and the same time.
The war between the States had Just
begun. Opportunities for distinction
would be many. That some of them should
fall to his lot and be embraced according
ly was the determination of Smith He
owed everything to the United States.
and was resOlute to discharge some of the
obligations. Things did not look very
promising at first, however. Being with
out infuence-for old Commodore Balm
boro was long since dead-the best as
signment he could get for duty at the
outbreak of the war was the old-fashioned
sailing frigate St. Lawrence. Smith had
promptly applied for an appointment to
one Of the new steam soops- ofwar, but
his application had been passed over and
he had been relegated to his useless relic
of the past.
The commander of the St Lawrence
was Commodore Hiram Paulding, who
had been a midshipman in the War of
1912 and commended for his gallant con
duct while executive officer of the Ticon-
deroga at the battle of Lake Champlain.
The veteran also chafed at his relegation
to the st. Lawrence, but there was no
present help for it. In modern times he
would have been retired long since, so he
might perhaps consider himself lucky at
being given any command at all.
As have said, the war had just begun
Blockade-running was in its infancy. Pri-
watering in behalf of the Confederates
was, however. beginning vigorously. Had
it not been nipped in the bud by the
prompt efforts of the Federal cruisers it
might have done enough damage to have
rendered unnecessary the appearance Of
the Alabama later on. The United States