The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-06-02
CHAPTER XI.

SONALITY OF PAUL JONEo-
PROBABLE FRENCH ADMIRAL-SUS
CESSFUL AS COURTIER-Hls
uBERALITY TOWARD THE GOVERN
MENT AND IT'S LACK OF APPRECIA-
TION.
When men share the dangers and glories
of such events in history as this their sub
seouent destinieS are always OF interest
Many of the officers and crew OF the Bon
Holr1nle Richard afterwards distinguished
themselves elsewhere.
Paul Jones. himself as is well known.
entered the Russian Navy and became
Vice Admiral. Richard Dale was appointed
CAPTAIN in our Regular Navy on its organl-
eaton in 1897. He commanded the hrst
SQUADRON fitted out to chastise the 1ripol-
tan pirates in 1900, 1901, and at the time OF
his retirement was Senior captain, WIFI
the then honorary rank of Commodore.
Midshipmen Mayrant, flaming and
Linthwaite, after their volunteering IN the
privateer French service until the close
of our Revolutionary War, became prosper
Gus merchants and ShlpownerS-ta aiming IN
Boston and Mayrant and Llnthwate IN
Charleston and Savannah. Alldsmpnlan
Tom Potter became a Master in the Regular
Navy about 1891.
John Downes. who was rated as APP
prentice in the Bon Homme Richard, was
made Lieutenant in the Regular Navy IN
1897. where his career indicated that ne
had been apprentlced TO a goou master anu
learned his trade well.
Gunner Henry Grafton Gardner served
In privateering Dung the REMAINDER OF the
war and after the peace resumed ms oc-
cupation of the whale-fiShery; Tor many
wears commanding Nantucket and New
Bedford whale ships, and surviving until
1853. when he died in his seth year.
OF the French contingent little can be
ascertained as to their deStinleS. Pierre
Gerard rose during the French Revolution,
Consulate and Empire, through all naval
grades from Lieutenant TO Rear-Admlral,
and died (retired) in 1926.
Denis Bouchinet, who was First Sergeant
of Marines in the Richard, became Colonel
of Marines in Napoleon's time, and lost his
life in lie Clercq's ill-fated expedition to
Hayti.
Leonard la Roche Jacquelin became a
Captain de fregate in the French Navy,
and was killed on board the Guerriere, of
which he was Executive Officer, at the
battle of the Nile. A curious coincidence
was that he fell from a bToadside fired by
the English 74-gun ship Jealous, COM
manded by Sir Samuel Hood, who had been
a Midshipman in the Scraps when Jacque-
lin was Quarter Gunner in the Richard, In
the great battle off Flamboro Head.
Though one of the most interesting, most
talked about and most written about per-
sonages developed by our Revolutionary
War, Paul Jones has always been in our
history the least known and worst mis-
understood of all as to his individual char
acter and his personal traits.
This is no doubt partly due to the OBJ
security of his origin as compared with that
of men like Washington, Jefferson, Frank
lin, Morris, Lafayette and others who were
his leading friends and associates; partly
to the fact that his career was so largely
OH rxr11a flaar in arxrtan nr
otherwise, and partly to his untimely death
in foreign land, leaving behind him no
posterity TO cherish the memory of his
deeds or to preserve the records OF his life.
In fact, he was, always has been, and
still is, better known, more app ciated
and admired, and such relics of him as
portraits, journals and rewards better pre-
served, in either France or Russia than in
this country. A great Russian writer has
described him as the Suvaroff of the seal
His portrait and bust occupy conspicuous
places in the Empress Catharine's Gallery
OF Heroes in ST. Petersburg. His ashes,
buried with all the honors that the Con-
stituent Assembly of France could heap
upon his memory, and with all the eulogy
that the eloquence Of Bertrand, BareTe and
OF Marion could pronounce, repose with
those of the wariike demigods of France in
what is now the Cemetery of the Invalides.
But, TO paraphrase beautiful verse:
"Of him here no token fingers,
Save requiem soft and low
With CLEAN Of deathless faces,
From a battle long ago"
Napoleon, musing over the suicide oil
villeneuve one evening shortly after Ira
falgar, suddenly asked Berthier: How old
was Paul Jones, when he died in 1792?''
Berthier answered that he did not know
exactly, but thought that he could not
have been older than As or az years.
Then" said Napoleon, "his death was a
misfortune to France. He did not fulfill his
destiny. Had he lived a few years Longer
France might have had an Admiralp'
Ii is interesting 10 reflect that if Nelson
whose fame rests as much on the inca
pacity or mediocrity of his adversaries
Frueys and tilleneuve, as on his owl
genius, had found Paul Jones in his path
even with French fleets and French sea
Daen-naval history might have been differ
ent.
HIS Personal APPEARANCE.
In person, Paul Jones was five fee,
seven and one-half inches in hight, slight
but symmetrical in build, never WEIGHING
more than las TO 14S pounds, but sinewy
and possessed Of physical strength far be
yond his stature CT weight.
His features were clean-cut, almost deli
cate; his eyes large and very dark-gray
turning black at times under excitement
his high-arched eyebrows and his thick
his time he was always smooth-shaven,
30 that, in the portraits OF him that are
extant and in Houdon's st, there is
nothing to hide the contour of his co,,nte-
nance. His complexion, naturally dark. had
been tanned by almost constant sea Iife
since he was a lad Of 10, until he became
as his French biographer. Capelle, saws
"Swarthy as Moorw
His voice, like most seafarinp men anf
particularly men habituated TO sea com
mand, was deep and strong, though must
Cal and pleasing whenever force anf
volume were not needed.
In dress he was fastidious even 10 ex
fravagance, and in the fashion of tbos,
days, when the garments OF men were orna
mented almost II not quite as much a.
those of women, he never failed 10 exhaus
his means in rich and elegant attire.
HIS manners were polished and COURT,
20 the last degree, as might be inferred
from ms success as d gay cavalier, first il
the Colonial society Of Tidewater, Va: next
IN the select circles of PhiladeIphia who,
il was the Continental CAPITAL. and last
and most conspicuous of all, in the cour
encourage OF Paris when Marie Antoinett
was Queen, and Marie d'Orleans Duchess
de Charities, leader Of the haut ton.
The stately social literature OF France il
tnat tlme-memous, souvenirs, correspond
ence and chronicles of the last day
oi The ancient regime-when he wa
lionized IN Paris and even at Yer
saliles-teems with anecdotes OF hi
eplomb, his address and his wit
Yet tins was the destiny of bow born i
the hut OF a Scotch gardener, educated a
child IN the primitive lore of a lowlan
parish school, and cast adrift on the ocea
when only - years old
Notwithstanding such an unr,romisin