The Dolores star., 1917-06-01
90 Ma, Without
@ County, q
So Edword Everett Hale
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n had only preserved the whole
of tAis paper, there would b. no break
In the beginning OF my sketch Of this
story. For Captain shaw, II It was he,
handed II to his successor In the
charge, and he 10 his.s
The rule adopted on board the ships
On which I have met '-The Man without
q Country" was. I think, transmitted
from the beginning. No mess liked to
have him permanently. because his
presence cut on all talk Of home or Of
the prospect Of return. Of politics or
letters, of peace or Of war-cut on
more than half the talk men like to
have ut sea. But 1t was always
thought too hard that he should never
meet the rest Of us, except to touch
hats, and we finally sank into one sys-
tenn. He was not permitted to talk
with the men unless nm officer was by.
With officers he had unrestrained in
tercourse, as far as they and he chose.
But he grew shy. though he had favor
ties: was one. Then the captain
always asked him to dinner on Mon
day. Every mess In succession took
up the invitation in its turn. Accord
ing to the size Of the ship. you had him
ut your mess more or less often at
dinner. His breakfast he ate in his
own stateroom. he always had state
room, which was where a sentinel, or
somebody on the watch, could see the
Ax,nO AvA vr,hA ~ r. uAA -
drank he ate or drank alone. Some
times. when the marines or sailors had
any special jolliflcntion, they were per-
mitted to invite "Plain- Buttons" as
they called him. Then Nolan was sent
with some officer, and the men were
forbidden to speak of home while he
was there. They called him "Plain-
Buttons" because, while he always
chose to wear regulation army uni
form, he was not permitted to wear
the army button, for the reason that
It bore either the initials or the in
sigma Of the country he had dIsowned.
I remember, soon after Joined the
navy, j was ON shore with some Of the
older officers from our ship and from
the Brandywine, which we had met at
Alexandria. We had leave to make a
party and 60 up to Cairo and the Pyra-
mids. Az we logged along some Of
the gentlemen fell to talking about Mo-
Ian, and someone told the system
which was adopted from the first about
his books and other reading. As he
was almost never permitted to 60 on
ah0re, even though the vessel lay in port
for months. his time, at the best,
hung heavy; and everybody was per-
mitted to lend him books, II they were
not published In America and made no
allusion to II. These were common
enough in the old days, when people
In the other hemisphere talked Of the
United States as little as we do Of
Paraguay. He had almost all the for
eign papers that came into the ship,
sooner or later: only somebody must
20 over them first, and cut out any
advertisement or stray paragraph that
alluded to America. Right in the
midst Of one Of Napoleon's battles, or
one Of Canning's speeches, poor Nolan
would fnd great hole, because on the
back Of the page Of that paper there
had been an advertisement Of packet
for New York, or q scrap from the
presidents message. I say this was
the FIRST time / ever heard Of this plan,
which afterwards had enough, and
more than enough. to do with. re-
member it. because poor Phillips, who
was OF the party, as soon as the allu-
sion to reading was made, told story
Of something which happened at the
Cape OF Good Hope on Nolan's first
voyage: and 1t Is the only thing I ever
knew Of that voyage. They had
touched at the Cape. and had done the
civil thing with the English admiral
and the feet, and then. leaving for
long cruise up the Indian ocean, Phil
lips had borrowed lot of English
d ks from an officer. which. in those
days. as indeed in these, was quite a
windfall. Among them, as the Devil
would order, was the Lay Of the Last
Minstrel" which they had all Of them
heard Of. but which most Of them had
been published long. Well, nobody
thought there could be any risk Of any
thing national in that, though Phillips
swore old Shaw had cut out the
/ Tempest" from Shakespeare before
he let Nolan have 1t, because he said.
'-The Bermudas ought to be ours and,
by Jove. should be one day." So No
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when a lot of them sat
on deck smoking and reading aloud.
People do not do such things so often
now, but when I was young we got
rid Of q great deal Of time so. Well,
% 1t happened that in his turn Nolan
took the book and read to the others
and he read very well, as know. No
body In the circle knew a line Of the
poem, only It was all magic and bor-
der chivalry, and was ten thousand
years ago. Poor Nolan read steadily
through the nth canto. stopped min
HrfA and drank something, and then be-