The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1865-11-01

The MAN WITHOUT a COUNTRY. The
following delightful humorous note has
lately been published by the author of
this remarkable fiction: .. .......
at is wholly a fiction, ''founded on
fact The facts on which it is founded
are these-that Aaron Burr sailed down
the Mississippi river in 1905, again in
1906, and was tried for treason in 1907.
1t was my intention that the story should
have been published with no authors
name, other than that Of Capt, Fedsric
1ngham, United States navy Whether
writing under his name or my own. |
have taken no liberties with history other
than such as every writer of fiction is
privileged to take,-indeed, must take, if
fiction is to be written at all
The story having been once published,
it passed out Of my hands. From that
moment it has gradually acquired differ
cnt nccessdHes, for which am not re-
sponsible. Thus | have heard it said,
that at one bureau of the navy depart
ment they say that Nolan WAS pardoned,
in fact, and returned home to die. At
another bureau, ! am told, the answer to
questions is, that, though it is true that
IN officer was kept aboard all his life, his
name was Nolan. A venerable friend of
niue in Boston, who discredits all trad-
ton, still recollects this ..'Nolan court
martial" One Of the most accurate of
my younger friends had noticed Nolans
death in the newspaper, but recolected
''that it was in September, and not in
August" A lady in Baltimore writes
me, l believe in good faith. that Nolan
has two widowed sisters residing in that
neighborhood. A correspondent of the
Philadel phis Despatch believed ''the nr-
ticle untrue, AS the United States corvette
Levant was lost at sea nearly three years
since, between San Francisco and San
Juan / may remark that this uncer-
tainity az to the place of her Loss rather
adds TO the probability of her turning up
after three years in latitude two degrees
III minutes south, longitude l3l degrees
htSls ~ hlllct III luC kNtW OTltdtS
Picayune, in careful historical paper,
explained at length that | had been mis-
taken all through that Philip Nolan
never went to sea, but TO Texas that
there he was shot in battle March q,
1901, and by orders from Spain every
fifth man of his party was to be shot, had
they not died in prison. fortunately,
however, he left his papers and maps,
which fell into the hands of friend of
the Picayune's correspondent. The
friend proposes to publish them, and
the public will then have, it is to be
hoped, the true history Of Philip Nolan,
the man without country.
With all these combinations, howeve,
l have nothing TO do. l can only repeat
that my Philip Nolan is pure fiction.
cannot send his scrapbook to my friend
who asks for it, because ! have il not to
send. In the saEe connection must add
that Mr., p. Nolan, teamster in Boston,
whose Nurse and cart venture to recon.
mend to an indulgent public, is no rela-
ton Of the hero of this tale. In reply
to "a kind adviser in Connecticut. who
told me that the story must be apologised
for, because it was doing great injury to
the national cause by asserting such con-
tinued cruelty OF ihe' federal government
through a half-cenmrys must be permit
ted 10 say that the public, like the su-
prcme court OF tho United States, may
be upposed "to know something"