The Kenna record. (Kenna, Roosevelt County, N.M.) 190?-1924, 1917-05-11

l suppose that very few casual
readers of the. New York Herald of
August 18th observed, in an obscure
corner among the Deaths" the an
nOuhcement;
"NOLAN. Died, OH board U. s. Cor
fhtte betant, bat. % liz g., Long. 1872
W. On the 1tth Of May, Philip Nolan"
l happened to observe II, betduse
I was stranded at the old Mission
house in Macliinac, waiting for a Lake
Superior steamer which did not choose
to come, and I was deyouring, to the
very stubble, all the current iit6rathre
l could get hold of, even down to the
deaths and marriages in the Herald"
My memory for names and people is
good, md the reader will see, as he
goes oil, that had teasoh enough to
remember Philip Nolan. tEhete are
hundreds of readers who would have
paused at that announcement, If the
officer of the Levant who reported it
had chosen to make it thus: "Died,
May 18th, The Man without a Coun-
Eryf." For it was as 1.-THE Nun with
6dt d Country" that poor Philip Nolan
had generally been kHoWf by the Off
GERS who had him in charge during
some fifty years, as, indeed, by all
the men who had sailed under them.
l dare say there is many a man who
has taken wine with him once a fort
night, In three years cruise, who
never knew that his name was "NO-
Ian" or whether the poor wretch had
ahf name i'll al,
There can now be no possible harm
In telling this poor creatures st0FS'
Reason enough there has been till
TOW, ever since Madlsons administra-
ton went out III 1S1T, for very strict
secrecy, the secrecy of honor Itself,
among the gentlemen of the navy who
have had Nolan in successive charge.
And certainly 1t speaks well for the es-
prit de corps of the profession and the
personal honor Of Its members, that to
the press this mans story has been
wholly Unknown, and, think, to the
country at large also.
l have rehson to think, from some
Investigations l made Ia the naval
archives when l was attached to the
bureau Of construction, that every Of
fetal report relating to him was burned
when Ross burned the public buildings
at Washington. One of the fuckers,
or possibly one of the Watsons, had
Nolan in charge at the end Of the war ;
and when, on returning from his cruise,
he reported at Washington to one Of
the CrOwnlnshields-whO was In the
navy department when lie came home
he found that the department ig-
nOred the whole business. Whether
they really knew nothing about 1t, or
whether 1t was a non mi rlcordO, de-
termined on as a piece of policy, l do
aot know. But this do know, that
since 1917, and possibly before, no
laval officer has mentioned Nolan In
ais report of cruise.
AS l say there is no need for Sc
crecy any longer. And now the poor
creature is dead, it seems to me worth
while to tell little of his story, by
way of showing young Americans of
today what it is to be
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
Philip Nolan was as fine a young
officer as there was in the Legion of
the West" as the western division of
our army was then called. When
Aaron Burr made his frst dashing ex-
pedltion down to New Orleans in 1905,
ut Fort Mussucs Of somewhere above
on the river, he lhet as the devil
woGld have 10 this gbs, doshlng, bright
-+r..s ~ y