the mouth of Santiago Harbor, so that 'the smashing of Cervera's fleet was as much his work as if he had fired every gun that day.' Perhaps too the anxiety in his eyes did not indicate what some observers have called his lack of humor, and he may not have been merely tactless years later, as has been implied, when to Schley's signalled congratulations immediately after the battle of Santiago, he replied briefly, 'Report your casualties.'

Sampson's natural leaning was towards the scientific branches of a naval officer's profession, as his return to the Academy as an instructor in physics indicates; and his most creative efforts were at the gun shops of the Washington Navy Yard. His four years of management at the Academy were marked by the smoothness with which the school functioned, in contrast with the continual 'reforms' of the past; his discipline ruled automatically, as it did in later years in the fleet, where many of his old scholars and friends served under him. Sometimes those who suffered from his rigid ideas of duty may have thought him unjust; he was in manner simple, kindly, diffident, serious-minded, and intent on duty only; and though he inspired affection, he possessed little of what is called personal magnetism or bonhomie. Perhaps, therefore, though he was admired and respected by all his associates, it is not entirely strange that when he became the passive victim of a controversy for which he was in no way responsible he should have been vituperated by the smaller men who could not appreciate him; but his election to the Saturday Club in 1900 may certainly be regarded as a significant vote of confidence. His brave nature bore the attacks in silence; and Secretary Long remarked that he died not of, but with, a broken heart. We do not know whether or not he liked popular applause; but it is certain that he never courted it.

Time has silenced the accusations brought against Sampson in the famous, or infamous, 'controversy.' According to Professor Ira N. Hollis there were two things that the public seemed to hold against Sampson; the telegram announcing his victory,' and an

"The fleet under my command offers the Nation, as a Fourth of July present, the destruction of the whole of Cervera's fleet. No one escaped. It attempted to escape at 9.30 A.M., and at 2 P.M. the last, the Cristobal Colon, had run ashore sixty miles west of Santiago, and has let down her colors.

'The Infanta Maria Teresa, Oquendo, and Vizcaya were forced ashore, burned, and

endorsement upon the application of a warrant officer to be promoted to commissioned rank. The telegram was sent when he was inundated with work that could not be delayed, and was written by a junior officer - behind whom, however, he never attempted to shelter himself later. As for the endorsement, it ought not to have been given to the public: it was written solely for the information of the Secretary of the Navy, and not couched in terms especially agreeable to a public easily swayed by a fancied reflection upon the social equality of American citizens. The Admiral was unquestionably thinking of the possible opening of the Navy to political appointments; and he was certainly prompted by nothing but an earnest desire for the good of the Navy.

As a young man Sampson was in appearance alert, soldierly, of an unusually fine complexion, with brown eyes and regular features, and a pointed beard. Though responsibility sat easily on him, and his anxiety to do his duty did not overrun the bounds of reasonable precaution, his devotion to his work tired him to such a degree that even at the outbreak of the Spanish War he was barely fit physically for the task. Early in 1899 Charles Eliot Norton, who had been lunching with him, described him as follows. "The Admiral is a very quiet, silent gentleman, quite simple and pleasant but entirely lacking in social animation. He has a very fine forehead, a dark brow and deep-set, dark almost black eyes.... His nose is small and refined, the nose of an artist, not Dante's nasó maschio; the mouth and chin are hidden by a wellkept, well-trimmed beard, under which one can make out that the chin is not broad and solid enough to be in fine proportion with the forehead. The poor man looks thoroughly tired out, and his blown up within twenty miles of Santiago; the Furor and Pluton were destroyed within four miles of the port. Loss, one killed and two wounded. Enemy's loss probably several hundred from gun-fire, explosions, and drowning. About one thousand three hundred prisoners, including Admiral Cervera. The man killed was George H. Ellis, chief yeoman of the Brooklyn.

'SAMPSON'

It will be remembered that when the Spanish fleet ran out of the harbor Sampson had gone to the eastward in his ship for a conference with Shafter, who was ill, and returned when the engagement was almost over, firing his guns most of the way. The telegram was immediately followed by a detailed report of the facts, in which the Admiral's modesty was conspicuous.

eyes have a pathetic look of weariness amounting almost to sorrow. His bearing is eminently that of a gentleman who means to do his part well, but has no zest in doing it.''

If Sampson longed only for repose at the end, he had lived under the guidance of duty, and his memory is safe from wrong.

Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, II, 281.