llington, that a
general was not too old when he could visit the outposts in person and
on horseback.

The features of the admiral can best be realized from the admirable
frontispiece. As a young man he had the sallow, swarthy complexion
usually associated with his Spanish blood. His hair at the same period
was dark brown, becoming in middle life almost black. In his later years
he was partially bald--a misfortune attributed by him to the sunstroke
from which he suffered in Tunis, and which he to some extent concealed
by the arrangement of the hair. The contour of the face was oval, the
cheek-bones rather prominent, until the cheeks filled out as he became
fleshier during the war; the eyes hazel, nose aquiline, lips small and
compressed. At no time could he have been called handsome; but his face
always possessed the attraction given by animation of expression and by
the ready sympathy which vividly reflected his emotions, easily stirred
by whatever excited his amusement, anger, or sorrow. To conceal his
feelings was to him always difficult, and, when deeply moved,
impossible. The old quartermaster who lashed him in the rigging at
Mobile Bay told afterward how the admiral came on deck again as the poor
fellows who had been killed were being laid out on the port side of the
quarter-deck. "It was the only time I ever saw the old gentleman cry,"
he said, "but the tears came in his eyes like a little child." A casual
but close observer, who visited him on board the flag-ship in New
Orleans, wrote thus: "His manners are mild and prepossessing, but there
is nothing striking in his presence, and the most astute physiognomist
would scarcely suspect the heroic qualities that lay concealed beneath
so simple and unpretending an exterior; unless, indeed, one might chance
to see him, as we did shortly afterward, just on receipt of the news
from Galveston, or again on the eve of battle at Port Hudson. On such
occasions the flashing eye and passionate energy of his manner revealed
the spirit of the ancient vikings."

Throughout his life, from the time that as a lad still in his teens he
showed to Mr. Folsom his eagerness to learn, Farragut was ever diligent
in the work of self-improvement, both professional and general. His eyes
were weak from youth, but he to some extent remedied this disability by
employing readers in the different ships on board which he sailed; and
to the day of his death he always had some book on hand. Having a