half her total complement of men killed and wounded by a single
shell, but there was no faltering, and they all worked away as
coolly as if nothing were happening.

If one started to catalogue the instances of personal bravery that
the war brought out in its first few months, the list would be a
cumbersome one. It is enough here to say that there have been a
hundred times when personal courage was needed to be shown, and
never a moment's hesitancy on the part of any man to whom the call
came. Furthermore, in every case in which a particularly hazardous
undertaking was contemplated, and volunteers were called for, the
number offering has been in every instance far more than was
needed. This was eminently notable on the occasion of Hobson's
sinking of the Merrimac, when more than a thousand in the fleet
volunteered for a service requiring but six, and from which it
seemed impossible that any could come out alive.

The public must know all about the war, and the only avenue of
information is the press. Never before has any war been covered as
to its news features with the accuracy and energy which have
characterized this. American journalism has outstripped the world.
The expense of a news service for this war is something enormous,
with little return compensation. Yet the work is done,
metropolitan papers have from ten to twenty correspondents in the
field, and the public has the benefit. Dispatch boats follow the
fleets and are present at every battle. They must be near enough
to see, which means that they are in as much danger at times as
are the ships of the fighting squadron, far more if one remembers
that the former are in no way protected. Some of them are heavy
sea-going tugs and others are yachts. The expense of charter,