Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-07-15
PORTER ON PAUL JONES
Identification of Hero's Body as
 Told by Ex-Ambassador.
SEARCH OF SIX YEARS REWARDED

of Science In Paris Positive That No
 Mistake Has Been Made Jones as
 England Saw Him.
 General Horace Porter, retiring am. bassador to France, who was success. full in finding the body of John Paul Jones, the famous American naval fighter, arrived at New Fork recently on the Deutschland. The subject up- permost in the mind of the former anl- bassador was the bringing home of tho body of John Paul Jones by the Amer ican fleet, and General Porter talked freely of the absolute Identification of the body, found after a search of six years, says the New York Herald.
 At last the excavations brought to light five leaden coffins," said General Porter. -Four had plates identifying the bodies within, and the fifth, of far better construction, had none. By the process of elimination we decided it must contain the body of the dis tinguished naval hero. When in the presence of anthropologists and sur, geons of note the coffin was opened, words cannot express our surprise at the remarkable state of preservation the body was found in.
 Clothed in winding sheet of linen the arrangement of the coffin tallied ex actly with the historical documents that told of the careful. preparation to ship the body to the United States as was the first idea. There was tin. foil over the hands and face, and the interior of the coffin was filled with hay and straw so that the body coulC not roll in the long and necessarily rough voyage at that time in a sailing vessel. Together with the documents we had the Houdon bust with which to compare the head, and so carefully was this done by the examining sa- wants that a mole on the left ear was discovered by one. and immediately upon examining the bust the same physical mark was found. The face was counterpart of the Houdon bust. The hair on the head was a dark DloWH, biiCuhVu "lih "hith Aoh pares exactly with the descriptions of Jones given of him just previous to his death.
 "In all the measurements there was not variance of two millimeters-that is. seventy eight thousandths of an inch. If all of this is remarkable the autopsy by the eminent Dr. Capitan of Paris is more so. Think of an autopsy being performed on the body of man who died 113 years before! We know , that John Paul Jones had an attack of , bronchial pneumonia in Russia year before he died in France. The autopsy showed the presence of the disease in , the left lung which the French physi- clans long before had recorded as out of service. The autopsy further show ed, as history stated, that John Paul Jones died of chronic nephritis and plainly showed the dropsical condition of the patient before his death.
 "The naval hero was somewhat of a , dandy. you know, and on the body was fine linen shirt. the bosom of which , was laid with ruffies and plaits. His clothing bore the initial J.'
 "I have left France with the most pleasing thoughts of the manner in which the French people honored the body. The immense parade of infantry and cavalry was imposing and the sa- lute to his honor as the soldiers passed the purple velvet catafalque erected fin the Place de Invalides was extremely touching It was with pride that saw the passing of the 800 sailors that had come from the American fleet, whose sturdy swing awakened the enthusi- asm of the Parisians."
 In the reception room of the secre- tary of the navy at Washington there has been placed on exhibition a col lection of steel engravings of Commo- dore John Paul Jones. says Wash ington dispatch to the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Most of them are more than a hundred years old. and ma- jority are caricatures. Many of them were made in England. and a large number seem to have been executed at the time when Paul Jones' raids on the English coast had created SO much fear and anger.
 Generally he is represented as a pirate. Tn one he Is the typical bucca- neer of the Spanish main. He carries a cutlass in one hand and big pisto in the other. with several pistols in his belt. He Is surrounded by small can non belcbing fire and smoke. and wears a leather apron. on which is the skull and erossbones.
 The British idea of our first great naval commander remarked naval officer. 'fs not very different today from what it was then. I was looking over Rudyard Kipling's poems the other day. and I ran across one en- titled The Rhyme of the Three Cap tains.~ which was prefaced by the fol lowing note:
 "'This ballad appears to refer to one Of the exploits of the notorious Paul Jones. the American pirate. It is founded on fact
 ! hnI n NaiAauA- NAt AAfFN hFA@ NA+i knows his America. still takes the eighteenth century view of Jones. IL Is evident that our British brethren must he a good deal bevildered when they read of Frame and the United States paying high honors to the body of this s1-called pirate
 Some of the euersvings are not O, this class One is portrait of Jones in the uniform of a Russian admiral