Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-03

portant work, but it was just routine
work, and the fact that he did it very
well attracted no particular attention
to him. He has spectacular job now,
but he does not know it is spectacular
He isn't thinking at all what it is 60
ing to get for him. All he thinks about
is how to do it we'll.
I'm other words, he is not grand
stander nor a self-seeker. In some re-
spects he is much the same type as Adj
miral Badger, self-effacing. You Will
recall that when the Vera Cruz incident
broke the senior officer down that way
was Badger. who was at Tampico When
the show started he could very easily
have slipped down from Tampico to
Vera Cruz assumed command and got
for himself whatever glory there was
out of it, though Fletcher was actually
in command at Vera Cruz and was en-
titled to whatever was going. Badger
just sat tight and let Fletcher alone
That is what Caperton would have done
under the circumstances.
cat the last Annapolis alumni dinner
Badger made a little talk on the sub
iect of ship loyalty in which he said
that bigger and better thing than
when he said it I thought at once of
Caperton. for he tynifies feet loyalty.
He stands not for the individual. not
for the mere ship. hut for the best in
terests of the whole fleet. and thereby
for the best interests of the nation.
**
There is a trace of the pedagogue in
the appearance of Admiral Caperton.
but 1t is in appearance only. Distinctly
this American viceroy is not of the
'highbrow" type He has no scientific
attachments to his credit He never In
vented any naval mechanism. But his
ships have always been happy" ships;
his officers and crews always have been
devoted to him, and any ship he has
commanded has always had high
efficiency rating. Always he gets things
done, and done the best and most ex-
peditious way, but quietly, without fuss
or buster. In other words, he has the
knack of leadership and the power of
command.
If he has any fad at all 1t is for
physical fitness. Always he has been
devoted to athletics, and from his
earliest youth he has consist rtly and
regularly exercised, with the result
that he is known as the youngest man
of his years in the navy.
And he is gregarious. the social in
stinct being strongly developed in him
as 1t is in his beautiful wife. In Wash
ington and Newport. where ne has
been stationed, both are socially prom
inent.
In his youth Admiral Caperton had
an intimate acquaintance with pow
efty. The fact that he was born at
Spring Hill, Maury county. Tenn. June
80, 1855, tells the reason for that. In
1871 he was appointed to the Naval
Academy at Annapolis. There he was
popular though not brilliant stu
dent, and was graduated about the
middle of a class Of thirty-two, getting
his highest marks for such purely mil
itary accomplishments as naval tao
tics" and fencing.
His ability to. command was early
nd a a
even in his first year. That he was
a we'll behaved student Is indicated by
the fact that in his graduating year
he accumulated only nineteen dement's,
the maximum dement's permitted be-
ing $50.
On graduation he made his FIRST
cruises In the Hartford. Farragut's old
flagship, and the Powhatan on the