Why Farragut Was "lashed."

The press has frequently spoken of an incident in Admiral Farragut's life which in the popular mind adds to his wellearned reputation for gallantry. In a well-known painting the Admiral appears lashed to the mast of his ship in the midst of the Mobile bay fight. The question why the Admirnl took tluit unusual position has often been asked, but as far as I know the trae answer lias not yet been given. I have now read attentively a charming letter from Mrs. Bartlett, to a Portsmouth (N. H.) journal. Mrs. Bartlett, who met the Admiral at a ball given in his honor, availed herself, during a pleasant conversation, of an in;orval to inquire why he lashed himself -j +1'O moot TTia finonrim pa m'ir.m Iiim Kat lady, is incomplete. He waslasneït to the mast, as she relates, to protect iiim from beiug precipitated to the deck by casualty. He had another reasou for the lashing which she does not mention. He needed the free use of his hands, in one of which he held his speaking-trumpet. But the Admiral's object or reason 'or going aloft instead of remaining on ;he quarter-deck is still a mystery. And yet that reason, as he gave it to me, very much in the spirit of his conversation with Mrs. Bartlett, was a very simple and yet a very satisfactory one. [n his former battles below New Órleans and up the Mississippi riverhe had been seriously embarrassed, once by the condition oi' the atmosphere and again in the vicinity of bluffs, when the smoke of his guns, instead of rising and leaving his view unobstructed, formed and hung about the decks. The high bluffs in ;lie bay of Mobile, with a heavy atmosjJicre as he was about to commencc th! engagement, induced an apprehension ;hat his view might again be obstracted jy the smoke of his own guus. He went iloft, therefore, to get above the smoke xnd to obtain a clear view of the enenjy's )atteries and of the position and movements of his own ships. - Thurlow Weed, in the New York Tribune.