“Finally, he considered all preliminary difficulties overcome, and began a siege of Cramps’ shipyard by regular approaches. Finding it impregnable to front attack, he resolved to flank it. This he accomplished by taking possession of an adjoining lumber yard in the night-time. Early in the morning he entered the fortress by its sally-port. Success was in his grasp,—almost. It glittered, then it glimmered, then it fizzled out. There was one peculiarity he couldn’t overcome. That was his remarkable resemblance in form and figure to ‘Punch’s’ standard cartoon of ‘John Bull.’ He could smoke a short, black pipe with the bowl turned down equal to the most Corkonian Irishman in Fishtown. He could also fairly imitate that peculiar accent produced by filtering conversation through the teeth, commonly known as the brogue, particularly when the conversation was diluted with a mouthful of Irish whiskey. But he couldn’t escape his shape. One of the Russian officers on duty at Cramps’, with that keenness characteristic of Napoleon’s ‘scratched Tartar,’ penetrated all his disguises. Then he was ignominiously ejected by one of those decrepit men who, when they get too old to build ships, are usually employed by Cramps’ as watchmen. _Sic transit gloria mundi._ Exit Gore-Jones. But he will remain with us. He will hold his job. He deserves to. He has done what no American has ever been able to do since the collapse of the Rebellion. He has discovered a navy—an actual, real, live navy—in the United States. The fact that it is a Russian navy and not an American one, humiliating as it may be to us, is a huge feather in the cap to him. We hasten to doff our editorial chapeau to Gore-Jones. We are confident he will get his star. We fervently hope he may get also the garter.” At this point Mr. Cramp’s own narrative of the subsequent proceedings will be more graphic and interesting than any other form of description could be: “Great activity marked the progress of alterations and fitting out of the vessels. The yard was filled with men, some working night and day, and the vessels were all fitted out at a very early date, considering what had to be done. They were more than rebuilt. Each ship was fitted out for an admiral and the accommodations for officers and men were ample. They were full sparred and square-rigged.