PERKINS. 161 



The prevailing trait of Perkins is absence of fear combined with adventure- 

 sameness and pertinacity. When about 5 years of age he set out to catch a colt 

 in a field. The colt eluded him and crossed a river to another part of the field; 

 the boy stripped, swam across, cornered the colt, fastened the bridle (which while 

 swimming he had carried about his own neck) and, mounting the colt, recrossed 

 the river, dressed, and rode home in triumph. At 6 years he was sent on a neces- 

 sary errand alone in the winter to Concord, New Hampshire, 10 miles away and, 

 tied in the sleigh, made the trip without mishap. At the Naval Academy he 

 constantly broke the rules, entertained friends late at night, boxed on the porch, 

 and got into numberless other scrapes. "Indeed, at times, he seemed almost 

 reckless and daredevilish." So in war, he was always first in danger and enjoyed 

 it. Of his walk to the city hall of New Orleans surrounded by a mob, George 

 W. Cable, an eye-witness, says: "It was one of the bravest deeds I ever saw done." 

 In the early hours of the battle of Mobile Bay, Perkins was seen on top of the turret 

 waving his hat and dancing about with delight and excitement. When the gun- 

 ners in the turret, struck with fear by the rapid sinking of the mined sister-monitor 

 Tecumseh, were about to rush from the turret, Perkins sprang in front of them and 

 threatened to shoot the first man who left his post, and thus ended the trouble. 

 When Perkins received the order to fight the Tennessee the messenger reported: 

 "Happy as Perkins habitually is, I thought he would turn a somersault over- 

 board with joy when I told him." Said Admiral Farragut of him in his report: 

 "No braver man ever trod a ship's deck." He was "as cool as Gushing; had as 

 little anxiety for personal safety as Nelson." Of Captain Perkins's father, Hamil- 

 ton Eliot Perkins, it is said he was "brave and plucky a positive man, from whom 

 George must have inherited much of his natural courage." Also, Captain Perkins's 

 mother had a brother, Captain Paul R. George, who was "remarkably efficient." 



Perkins was a hyperkinetic. His good humor was unfailing, his joviality con- 

 tagious, his flashing eye commanded attention. He would often say the opposite of 

 what he meant to enjoy the discomfiture or indignation of the reaction, but he was 

 never cruel in his fun. He was versatile and constantly in action, even from boyhood. 



Perkins had a great liking for animals and pets of all kinds, "a family trait, 

 come from the Georges." For horses he had a veritable passion. He early had 

 a pony of his own and rode with his father through the woods. After he returned 

 to the farm he purchased and drove race-horses; perhaps it was their action as 

 well as beauty of form that appealed to him. 



He was not scholarly. His teachers counted him dull, since he did not take to 

 books; so he was withdrawn from school and taught at home. At the Naval Acad- 

 emy he was at the bottom of his class and it was only through the intervention of 

 a teacher that he escaped dismissal. He lacked confidence in his mental ability. 

 He once rubbed out an exercise that he had put on the board correctly because, 

 on turning around, he happened to see a classmate laughing. Yet, in later life, 

 he came to appreciate books and enjoyed biography and history. However, he 

 had never scholarship enough to be a strategist but was eminently a fighting cap- 

 tain. He was trustful of others and employed on his farm a man who had been 

 convicted of forgery. He was devoted to his family; "has a quality that can not 

 fail to touch the heart." His father too, was genial, full of kindly humor. 



His love of the sea developed late. At 8 years of age he moved with his father 

 to Boston, where he saw much of the trading-ships in which his father was inter- 

 ested, but showed no longing to go on them and willingly returned to the country. 

 So in later life he seemed contented as a gentleman farmer. 



