Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — HIS HEART BROKE. [ARTICLE]

HIS HEART BROKE.

Sad story of tha Man Who Lashed Farragut to tha Mast. The recent announcement of the death of John H. Knowles at Annapolis the other day covered a story of more than usual Interest. Knowles was an old sailor who had been in the navy forty-five years. He served as signal quartermaster for Admiral Farragut, stood with him in the eagle’s nest on the Hartford at the battle of Mobile, and gave the order of his commander to the rest of the fleet by “wigwagging” flags from the masthead. It was he who lashed Farragut to the mast during that engagement, passing a rope twice around him and making it fast to the rigging, so that if his narrow foothold should be shot away, or if he should himself be wounded, he would not break his bones or dash his brains out by falling to the deck below. Knowles’ term of enlistment expired a few weeks ago. while he was serving as chief quartermaster upon one of the old, dismantled men of war that lie along the docks at Annapolis. This is the highest rank an ordinary Beaman can roach, except as gunner, and it was the highest reward that Knowles could receive from the government except by an act of Congress. But when he came to re-enllst Commander Seabury told him he would have to go back as a third rate quartermaster, four grades below his former rank, at a compensation of S2O a month less than he had been receiving. A chief quartermaster gets SSO a month, a first rate quartermaster S4O, a second rate SBS and a third rate SBO. The pride of the old man would not permit him to re-enter the navy at this reduction, although he was assured that ho probably might be restored to his old grade in time. He came to Washington and saw the Secretary of the Navy, who sent him to Admiral Ramsay, who sent him to the bureau of recruiting and equipment, which sent him to the judge advocate general, who sent him to somebody else; but the only satisfaction he got was a look at a law which prohibits' the enlistment of quartermasters at a higher grade than third rate, and an explanation from Admiral Ramsay and other bureau officers that men of his age are not qualified for active duty and ought to go to the Sailors’ Heme They agreed to assist him In gottlng a pension, to which he was clearly entitled, but they told him that only so many men were allowed in the service and that they could not afford to fill a single place even with a decrepit and disabled old hero, because none of tho new ships were fully manned and some of them had only half a quota. They explained to him that the Boldiers’ Home was an honorable asylum for disabled veterans, that hp would have three good meals a day, plenty of tobacoo and society and a good bed, but after he had listened to them respectfully the old sailor shook his head, went back to his bunk at Annapolis, and in a few days wiT imported dead “of a complication of diseases," but really of a broken heart.