The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-08-09

sleeves.
he had taught the men to cut for him,
and they We're beautifully illustrated.
He drew admirably. He had some Of
/ the funniest drawings there, and some
of the most pathetic, that I have ever
seen in my life. I wonder who will
have Nolan's scrapbooks.
Well, he said his reading and his
notes were his profession, and that
they took five hours and two hours
respectively of each day. Then"
/ said he, ''every man should have di-
version as well as profession. My
natural history is my diversion" That
took two hours day more. The men
used to bring him birds and fish, but
on long cruise he had to satisfy him
self with centipedes and cockroaches
and such small game. He was the only
naturalist l ever met who knew any
thing about the habits of the house fly
and the mosquito. All those people
can tell you whether they are Lepi-
doptera or Steptopotera but as for
telling how you can get rid of them,
or how they get away from you when
you strike them, why, Linnaeus knew
as little of that as John Fey, the idiot,
did. These nine hours made NOlan's
regular daily Occupation" The rest
Of the time he talked or walked. Till
he grew very old, he went aloft a great
deal. He always kept up his exercise
and never heard that he was i'll. If
any other man was i'll, he was the kind
est nurse in the world: and he knew
more than half the surgeons do. Then
if anybody was sick or died, or if the
captain wanted him to on any other
occasion, he was always ready to read
prayers. l have remarked that he
read beautifully.
Ny own acquaintance with Philip
Nolan began six or eight years after
the war, on my first voyage after I
was appointed a midshipman. 1t was
In the first days after ouI slave trade
treaty, while the reigning house,
which was still the house of Virginia,
had still a sort of sentimentaljsm
OF the middle passage, and something
was sometimes done that way. We
We're in the South Atlantic on that
business. From the time 7 joined, /
believe | thought Nolan was a sort Of
lay chaplain-a chaplain with blue
coat. ] never asked about him. Ey-
erything in the ship was strange to
me. knew it was green TO ask ques-
tons, and l suppose l thought there
was q "Plain-ButtOns" on every ship.
We had him TO dine in oar mess once
a week, and the caution was given that
on that day nothing was to be said
about home. But if they had, told us
not to say anything about the planet
Mars or the book of Deuteronomy, [
should not have asked why; there were
a great many things which seemed to
me to have as little reason. I first
came to understand anything about
''the man without a country one day
when we oyerhauled a dirty little
schooner which had slaves on board.
An officer was sent to take charge of 4,
ner, anu after lew HilEuleS u6 sent |
back his boat to ask that someone |
might be sent him who could speak |
Portuguese. We We're all looking over |
the rail when the message came, and |
we all wished we could interpret, when |
the captain asked who spoke Por-
tuguese. But none of the officers did |
and just as the captain was sending |
forward to ask if any of the people /
could, Nolan stepped out and said he
should be glad TO interpret, if the cap
tain wished, as he understood the Ian
ghase- The cart IN tt1adzed hin, 1T
TED out ano~hef :oat with him, and In
TINS boat Il va my luck to go.