Part 8 (1/2)

CAPTAIN PHILO NORTON McGIFFIN

IN the Chinese-japanese War the battle of the Yalu was the first battle fought betarshi+ps of modern make, and, except on paper, neither the ht theht not do For years every naval power had been building these new engines of war, and in the battle which was to test them the whole world was interested But in this battle Americans had a special interest, a human, family interest, for the reason that one of the Chinese squadron, which was ainst some of the same vessels of japan which lately swept those of Russia froraduate of the A man, who, at the time of the battle of the Yalu, was thirty-three years old, was Captain Philo Norton McGiffin So it appears that five years before our fleet sailed to victory in Manila Bay another graduate of Annapolis, and one twenty years younger than in 1898 was Admiral Dewey, had coe, in armament, and in the number of the shi+ps' company, far outclassed Dewey's _Olympia_

McGiffin, as born on Dece stock

Back in Scotland the faor and the Clan MacAlpine

”These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true, And, Saxon--I arandfather, born in Scotland, eton,” near Pittsburg, Pa In the Revolutionary War he was a soldier Other relatives fought in the War of 1812, one of the a commission as major McGiffin's own father was Colonel Norton McGiffin, who served in the Mexican War, and in the Civil War was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers So McGiffin inherited his love for arh school and at the Washi+ngton Jefferson College had passed through his freshht accrue to him if he continued to live on in the quiet and pretty old town of Washi+ngton did not teress hiressman liked the letter, and wrote Colonel McGiffin to ask if the application of his son had his approval Colonel McGiffin illing, and in 1877 his son received his commission as cadet midshi+pman I knew McGiffin only as a boy ho in the woods outside of Washi+ngton For his age he was a very tall boy, and in his midshi+pman undress uniform, to my youthful eyes, appeared a most bold and adventurous spirit

At Annapolis his record see to his classmates, with all of whoh in the practical studies, such as sea, but in all else he was near the foot of the class, and in whatever escapade was risky and reckless he was always one of the leaders To hi others, but when it applied to hi on which was his room there was a pyramid of cannon balls--relics of the War of 1812

They stood at the head of the stairs, and one warht, when he could not sleep, he decided that no one else should do so, and, one by one, rolled the cannon balls down the stairs They tore away the banisters and buh the wooden steps and leaped off into the lower halls

For any one whoto discover the erous But an officer approached McGiffin in the rear, and, having been caught in the act, he was sent to the prison shi+p There he ood friends with his jailer, an old man-of-warsman named ”Mike” He will be remembered by many naval officers who as midshi+pmen served on the _Santee_ McGiffin so won over Mike that when he left the shi+p he carried with hiuns captured in the Mexican War, which lay on the grass in the centre of the Acadeht on the eve of July 1st he fired a salute It aroused the entire garrison, and for a week the elaziers busy

About 1878 or 1879 there was a famine in Ireland The people of New York City contributed provisions for the sufferers, and to carry the supplies to Ireland the Government authorized the use of the old _Constellation_

At the tiin each cadet was instructed to consider hi been placed in command of the _Constellation_ and to write a report on the preparationsof the vessel, and on the distribution of the stores This exercise was intended for the instruction of the cadets; first in theofficial reports At that tiun out of the port of a vessel where the gun was on a covered deck To do this the necessary tackles had to be rigged from the yard-arm and the yard and mast properly braced and stayed, and then the lower block of the tackle carried in through the gun port, which, of course, gave the fall a very bad reeve The first part of McGiffin's report dealt with a new un ports, and so adenious, that it was used whenever it beca shi+ps Having, however, offered this piece of good work, McGiffin's report proceeded to tell of the division of the shi+p into compartments that were filled with a miscellaneous assortment of stores, which included the old ”fifteen puzzles,” at that particular time very popular The report terminated with a description of the joy of the famished Irish as they received the puzzle-boxes At another ti of the suppression of the insurrection on the Isthreat praise for the ements and disposition of his men, but, in the same report, he went on to describe how he arun known as Baines's Rhetoric and told of the havoc he wrought in the eneuns loaded with similes and metaphors and hyperboles

Of course, after each exhibition of this sort he was sent to the _Santee_ and given an opportunity to meditate

On another occasion, when one of the instructors lectured to the cadets, he required the all that they could recall of what had been said at the lecture One of the rules concerning this report provided that there should be no erasures or interlineations, but that when mistakes were made the objectionable or incorrect expressions should be included within parentheses; and that the matter so enclosed within parentheses would not be considered a part of the report McGiffin wrote an excellent _resuh it in parentheses such words as ”applause,”

”cheers,” ”cat-calls,” and ”groans,” and as these words were enclosed within parentheses he insisted that they did not count, and ht not to be punished for words which slipped in by mistake, and which he had officially obliterated by what he called oblivion marks

He was not always on mischief bent On one occasion, when the house of a professor caught fire, McGiffin ran into the flames and carried out two children, for which act he was commended by the Secretary of the Navy

It was an act of Congress that determined that the career of McGiffin should be that of a soldier of fortune This was a most unjust act, which provided that only as many midshi+pmen should receive commissions as on the warshi+ps there were actual vacancies In those days, in 1884, our navy was very s her full coet rid of those we have educated, but to get officers to educate To the many boys who, on the promise that they would be officers of the navy, had worked for four years at the Academy and served two years at sea, the act was most unfair Out of a class of about ninety, only the first twelve were given cohty turned adrift upon the uncertain seas of civil life As a sop, each was given one thousand dollars

McGiffin was not one of the chosen twelve In the final examinations on the list he ell toward the tail But without having studied reater part of theraduates from Annapolis, even last on the list; and with his one thousand dollars in cash, McGiffin had also this six years of education at as then the best naval college in the world This was his only asset--his education--and as in his own country it was impossible to dispose of it, for possible purchasers he looked abroad

At that ti as on between France and China, and he decided, before it grew rusty, to offer his knowledge to the followers of the Yellow Dragon In those days that was a hazard of new fortunes that meant much more than it does now To-day the East is as near as San Francisco; the japanese-Russian War, our occupation of the Philippines, the part played by our troops in the Boxer trouble, haveof every one Now, one can step into a brass bed at Forty-second Street and in four days at the Coast get into another brass bed, and in twelvedown the Bund of Yokohao to japan for the winter o to Cairo

But in 1885 it was no such light undertaking, certainly not for a young ht up in the quiet atenerations of his family and other families had lived and inters

With very few of his thousand dollars left him, McGiffin arrived in February, 1885, in San Francisco Froive one the picture of a healthy, warm-hearted youth, chiefly anxious lest his mother and sister should ”worry” In our country nearly every faedy when the son and heir ”breaks ho; and if all the world loves a lover, it at least sy for a job”

The boy who is looking for the job h the saood wishes McGiffin's letters at this period gain for hie to read the

They are filled with the sa over of his troubles, the sa ”bully,” and that it all will coht, that every boy, when he starts out in the world, sends back to his mother

”I am in first-rate health and spirits, so I don't want you to fuss aboutsomehow, and I will not starve”

To his mother he proudly sends his naht to write it by the Chinese Consul-General in San Francisco, and a pen-picture of two elephants ”I a you hoe and wonderful country to which he is going elephants are as infrequent as they are in Pittsburg

He reached China in April, and frohai the steaunboats But, apparently e of their guns Though he did not know it then, with the eneht this was his first and last hostile ; for already peace was in the air

Of that and of how, in spite of peace, he obtained the ”job” he wanted, he must tell you himself in a letter home:

TIEN-TSIN, CHINA, April 13, 1885