Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-18
PAUL JONES' GRAVE
Long Search Made by AM
bassador Horace Porter.
WHO KNOWS COL. SW AN
ANOTHER EVOLUTIONARY HERO
WHO FILLS AN UNKNOWN TOMB.
uunneling Under Paris in Search OF
Honored Dust Which Should
Rest in America.
WHO KNOWS COL. SW AN
lpecIal Correspondence of The Evening Star.

bpecial Correspondence OF The Evening Star.
PARIS March s, 1905
Ambassador Porter has been doing some
extensive tunneling in Paris.
Under a great courtyard in the north
east part of Paris and under the houses
surrounding 1t he has maintained force
of laborers and experts for two months
digging underground galleries, piercing old
walls. drilling old foundations. cropping SUD-
TREMENDOUSLY, seeking, searching for body
buried no one knows just where a hundred
and twelve years ago.
Ambassador Porter is seeking the body
OF a revolutionary hero. the hero of Feni-
more Cooper's THE Pilot and Alexandra
Dumas lie Capitaine Paur'-tEe body OF
Admiral Paul Jones, he who uttered the
eublime phrase, I'VE have just begun hight
ing That he has laid so long in an I'M
known grave in Paris is the fault, not of
our fathers. but of the Americans of his
own epoch, who not only neglected to bring
the body home. but also forgot where 1t
was buried. The destruction of Paris rec
ords in wars, commune and the mere pass
ing of time has done the rest. during the
past five years. therefore, in which the
Americans who live in Paris have been In
terested in the patriotic subject the great
difficulty has been still to ind the spot
In spite of certain clues.
The courtyard in which our AMBASSADOR
has been tunneling covers part of what
was at the date of Paul Jones death the
official DUTCH Protestant cemetery Tor
foreigners opened such a the request
of the Dutch amba ssador in 171I, and in
1857 extended to French Protestants. NOW
an extant report to the national assembly
mentions that Paul Jones died in the SEN
timents of the Protestant religion.
This day July 20, 1892, the year Nv OF
liberty (the year 1 of equality. at pm.
conformably with the decree of the national
assembly. in presence of its deputation'
which included a Catholic bishop and a
vicar-E Episcopal land deputation Of
Protestants of Paris :. was inhumed
Uohn Paul Jones, native of England and
citizen of the United states, hrst naval
officer in the service of said states. aged
40 years, deceased the 18th of this month,
at his residence, No. AZ Rue de Tournon
of a dropsy of the chest :
Wrapt in Mystery.
This act, curiously, does not state that
Paul Jones was inferred in this or that
cemetery-or, for that matter, in any GEM
etery. The late Augustus Buel of Phila-
delphia, who a few years ago published
O two-volume life of Jones, seems to have
gone a certain way into independent re-
search. He seems to have discovered some
where reference to record stating that
the body was actually kept for two months
at the Invalides-the Soldiers Home of
Louis XIV and a center of military glory
and piety-probably awaiting orders for its
transference to America. This would eX-
plain why 1t was put in lead coffin when
the other funeral appointments according
to a letter written by the American min
lister. (Morris), were extremely modest.
Why, then, do we go tunnefing in the
northeast part of Paris? In the first place,
If you are going to tunnel you have got to
tunnel somewhere, and five years ago (as
wrote in this paper at the time) the whole
American colony of Paris was making pill
grimages to the spot at the corner of the
Rue Grange-auX-Belle and the Rue des
Ecluses-St. Martin. This was because 1t
had been discovered that in 1889 certain
NJ. Charles Read-a Frenchman in spite of
his English name-wrote that he had come
on the burial entry of Paul Jones in GER
tain old register, No. 50, making part of
series relating to the civil status of Prot
estants. Charles Read took this register
No 50 as referring exclusively to this old
Dutch) Foreign Protestant cemetery in the
northeast part of Paris. and Charles Reads
name carries weight. He historian