The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-22
DARN TIT UNITED 5T1TTS!
lWSH | HAY NEVER HEAR.
OF TIT UNITED STALLS AGAIN


is my desire that he order that no one
mentions the name of the United States
to the prisoner. This is the last time he
shall ever hear the name of his native
| country. You will receive written order
upon your arrival at New Orleans"
Colonel Morgan himself took the pro-
ceedings of the court to Washington and
explained them to Mr.. Jefferson, then
President The Secretary of the Navy
it may have been the first Crowninshield
was requested to put Nolan on some
man-of-war bound on a long cruise. 1t
was ordered that he should only be so
far confined there as to make it certain
that he never saw or heard of his coun-
try.
The commander to whom Nolan first
was intrusted regulated the etiquette and
precautions of the affair, and according
| to the plan first devised they were car
ried out unchanged until Nolan died.
| There was generally a sentry before No
| lan's stateroom, but he was allowed the
| run of the ship provided some officer ac-
| companied him to see that he did not
| get into conversation with the men and
| hear some word of the land he had dis
owned His breakfast he ate alone in his
| stateroom and each mess Of the ship used
| to Invite him by turns to dinner; though
| he was scarcely a welcome guest, as his
presence cut off all talk of that about
| which seamen like most to talk-home.
| The men called Nolan plain Buttons
because, although he wore the uniform
| of an army officer, the regulation but
| tons had been cut from it and replaced by
plain ones. The regulation buttons had
the eagle and "U. s." on them.
When a ship in which Nolan was a
passenger was ordered home some other
ship first met her and the man without
a country was transferred to the ship
which was not homeward bound. At first
Nolan was scornful and laughed at hh
punishment, but gradually the full horror
of it began to creep into his soul. He
was allowed to read books and papers,
but first some officer went over the read
ing matter and cut out everything relat-
ing to the United States. When the sail
ors or the marines had special jollihca-
tions they invited plain Buttons" out of
sympathy for his lonely lot, and he was
allowed to accept-but an officer was
always by his side to see that no word
of the forbidden topic reached his ears.
So in more than half the ships of the
navy did Philip Nolan live until his death
and he must have been near 50 when
he died.
Almost all the foreign papers which
came on board were given to Nolan
after they had been censored. 1t was
little cruel at times that in the midst of
an account of one of Napoleon's battles
or one of Canning's speeches there was a
place cut out because on the back of it
was an advertisement of a packet about
to sail for New York or a scrap from a
presidential message Once when Nolan
was on the frigate Brandywine and the
ship had stopped at the Cape of Good
Hope and done the civil thing with the
British admiral, copy of Sir Walter
SCOTS new poem, 1.-The Lady of the Last
Minstrel" was loaned to an officer by one
of the Britishers. Nobody thought there
would be any risk in letting Nolan read
1t. In those days officers used to sit to-
gether under an awning on deck and
read to each other-a practice which has.
unfortunately, now fallen into desuetude.
After one officer had read a while the
copy Of the poem was handed to Nolan.
He had a good voice for reading-it was
always a delight to hear him. Poor
Nolan read steadily through the fifth
canto. stopped minute and drank some