ow New Orleans, the capture of the city, and the
opening of the Mississippi River through its entire length was one of
difficulty unprecedented in the history of naval warfare."

Danger or death had no terror for the brave sailor. Before setting out
on his hazardous enterprise, he said: "If I die in the attempt, it will
only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his duty
to his country, and at peace with his God, has played the drama of life
to the best advantage."

The hero did not die. He fought and won the great battle, and thus
executed the command laid upon him,--"the certain capture of the city
of New Orleans." The victory was accomplished with the loss of but one
ship, and 184 men killed and wounded,--"a feat in naval warfare," says
his son and biographer, "which has no precedent, and which is still
without a parallel, except the one furnished by Farragut himself, two
years later, at Mobile."

HE AIMED HIGH AND HIT THE MARK

"Without vision the people perish"

Without a high ideal an individual never climbs. Keep your eyes on the
mountain top, and, though you may stumble and fall many times in the
ascent, though great bowlders, dense forests, and roaring torrents may
often bar the way, look right on, never losing sight of the light which
shines away up in the clear atmosphere of the mountain peak, and you
will ultimately reach your goal.

When the late Horace Maynard, LL.D., entered Amherst College, he
exposed himself to the ridicule and jibing questions of his
fellow-students by placing over the door of his room a large square of
white cardboard on which was inscribed in bold outlines the single
letter "V." Disregarding comment and question, the young man applied
himself to his work, ever keeping in mind the height to which he wished
to climb, the first step toward which was signified by the mysterious
"V."

Four years later, after receiving the compliments of professors and
students on the way he had acquitted himself as valedictorian of his
class, young Maynard called the attention of his fellow-graduates to
the letter over his door. Then a light broke in upon them, and they
cried out, "Is it possible that you had the valedictory in mind when
you put that 'V' over your door?"

"Assuredly I had," was the emphatic reply.

On he climbed, from height to height, becoming successively professor
of mathematics in the University of Tennessee, lawyer, member of
Congress, attorney