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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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Underwood & Underwood 



A PRECIOUS MOMENT SAVED : LAUNDRY WORK DONE WITHOUT WAITING 



Shore leave is universally desired whenever a ship arrives in port, and the launches ply 

 back and forth, from the great gray bulldogs of the sea to the landing places, pulling barges 

 behind them loaded to the gunwales with bluejackets on furlough. 



astronomical instruments in the United 

 States. 



In addition to his volumes telling of 

 his discovery of the land which now bears 

 his name, he wrote several works, among 

 them "Western America, Including Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon" and a work on 

 "Theory of the Winds/' In the war be- 

 tween the States, he commanded the San 

 Jacinto when Mason and Slidell, Con- 

 federate Commissioners to England, were 

 taken from the English mail steamer 

 Trent, for which he received the com- 

 mendation of his government ; and he 

 was later in command of the James River 

 Flotilla and the West India Squadron. 



I call him "a living light-fountain," not 

 only because of his discoveries, but be- 

 cause, imbued with the real American 

 spirit, he rendered his service for all man- 

 kind and never even suggested that the 

 lands discovered should be appropriated 

 by his government or that the value of 



his explorations should be monopolized 

 by the United States. The expedition 

 was undertaken for scientific and in- 

 dustrial reasons. Its results became the 

 property of the whole world. He neither 

 sought for himself nor for his country, 

 which paid the cost of the expedition, 

 anything that was not open to the fisher- 

 man and voyager of other nations. It is 

 because of this spirit that I commend 

 Charles Wilkes as a naval hero, the study 

 of whose life will help in the realization 

 of the golden age which lies before us. 



COMMODORE PERRY A BRIIJJANT DIPLOMAT 



The early services of Matthew Cal- 

 braith Perry foreshadowed his illustrious 

 career. He was entrusted with the del- 

 icate mission to Japan because he had 

 shown constructive statesmanship as a 

 naval officer. He was privileged to 

 choose the location for the first free black 

 settlement in Liberia. He is called "The 



