and
incidental deprivations, induced inevitably deterioration in matters
of dress. With it the sack-coat, or pilot-jacket, burrowed its way in,
the cut and insignia of these showing many variations. The
undergraduates at the Academy in my day had for all uses a
double-breasted jacket; but it was worn buttoned, or not, at choice.
On the rolling collar a gold foul anchor--an anchor with a rope cable
twined round it--was prescribed; but, while a standard embroidered
pattern was supplied at the Academy store, those who wished procured
for themselves metal anchors, and these not only were of many shapes
and sizes, but for symmetrical pinning in place demanded an accuracy
of eye and hand which not every one had. The result was variegated and
fanciful to a degree; but I doubt if any of the officers thought aught
amiss. So the regulation vest buttoned up to the chin, but very many
had theirs made with rolling collar, to show the shirt. I had a
handsome, very dandy, creole classmate, whom an admiring family kept
always well supplied with fancy shirts; and I am sure, if precisians
of the present day could have seen him starting out on a Saturday
afternoon to pay his visits, with everything just so--except in a
regulation sense--and not a back hair out of place, they must have
accepted the results as a testimony to the value of the personal
factor in uniform. Respect for individual tastes was rather a mark of
that time in the navy. Seamen handy with their needle were permitted,
if not encouraged, to embroider elaborate patterns, in divers colors,
on the fronts of their shirts, and turned many honest pennies by doing
the like for less skillful shipmates. Pride in personal appearance,
dandyism, is quite consonant with military feeling, as history has
abundantly shown; and it may be that something has been lost as well
as gained in the suppression of individual action, now when an
inspecting officer may almost be said to carry with him a yard-stick
and micrometer to detect deviations.

A very curious manifestation of this disposition to bedeck the body
was the prevalence of tattooing. If not universal, it was very nearly
so among seamen of that day. Elaborate designs covering the chest, or
back, or arms, were seen everywhere, when the men were stripped on
deck for washing. There was no possible inducement to this except a
crude love of ornament, or a mere imitation of a prevailing fashion,
which is another manifestation of the same