ch they longed.

Among these was William Bainbridge, who was born in 1774 and died in
1833. He began life as a sailor at the age of fifteen, and was in
several engagements before he was appointed to the navy in 1798, during
our war with France.

Another was Stephen Decatur, born in Maryland in 1779 and killed in a
duel with Commodore Barron in 1820. His father was a gallant officer in
the Revolution, and his two sons were among the bravest officers who
ever trod the quarter deck. Both entered the service in 1798, and
Stephen is generally regarded as the best type of the young American
naval officer during the early years of the present century.

Still another was Charles Stewart, born in Philadelphia in 1778, and,
like those whom I have named, he entered the navy as lieutenant in 1798.
It will always be one of my pleasantest recollections that I was well
acquainted with Stewart, and spent many hours talking with him about the
stirring scenes in which he took part. He lived to be more than ninety
years of age, dying in 1869, and for a good many years occupied a modest
little home, just below Bordentown, New Jersey. When eighty-eight years
old he was as active as a man of half his years. I came upon him one
wintry day, when he was of that age, and found him in the barn,
shoveling corn into a hopper, of which a sturdy Irishman was turning the
crank. The old admiral kept his hired man busy and enjoyed his own work.
He was of small figure, always wore an old-fashioned blue swallow-tail
with brass buttons, took snuff, and would laugh and shake until his
weatherbeaten face was purple over some of his reminiscences of the
early days of the Republic.

Think of it! He remembered seeing Benedict Arnold burned in effigy in
Philadelphia in 1781; he recalled Paul Jones, and had drunk wine and
talked with Washington.

Stewart and Decatur were of about the same age, and attended the old
Academy in Philadelphia. They were bosom friends from boyhood. Stewart
told me that Decatur was a good student, but there was hardly a boy in
the school, anywhere near his own age, with whom he did not have a
fight. He would "rather fight than eat," but he was not a bully, and
never imposed upon any one younger or weaker than himself.

A great many of my talks with old Admiral Stewart related to the war
with Tripoli, which began in 1801 and lasted nearly four years. As you
will learn, Stewart had a great deal to do with that war, and most of
the