Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-05-13

invitation in its turn. According to the
size of the ship. you had him at your
mess more or less often at dinner His
breakfast he ate in his own stateroom
he always had stateroom-which
was where q sentinel or somebody on
the watch could see the door. And
whatever else he ate or drank, he ate
or drank alone. Sometimes, when the
marines or sailors had any special
5ollification, they were permitted to in
vite 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 !
believe the theory was that the sight
OF his punishment did them good.
They called him PLAIN Buttons" be-
cause while he always chose to wear
a regulation army uniform. he was not
permitted to wear the army button,
for the reason that it bore either the
initials or the insignia of the country
he had disowned.
| remember. soon after | Joined the
navy. ! was on shore with some of the
older officers from our ship and from
the BrandyW inc. which we had met at
Alexandria. We had leave to make a
party and go UP to Cairo and the pvra-
nids- AS we logged along you went
on donkeys them. some of the gentle
men 1--WE boys called them "dons." but
the phrase was long since changedl
fell to talking about Nolan and som .
from the first about his books and
other reading. AS he was almost never
permitted TO go on shore. even though
the vessel lay in port for months his
tune at the best hung heavy: and
everybody was permitted to lend him
books, il they We're not published in
America and made no aliusion to it,
These were common enough in the old
days. when people in the other hemi-
sphere talked Of the United states as
little as We do of Paraguay He had
almost all the foreign papers that
came into the ship. sooner or later
only somebody must go over them first
and cut out any advertisement or
stray paragraph that alluded to Amer
lea. This was a little cruel sometimes
when the back of what was cut out
l8hf be as innocent as Hcsiod Right
IN the midst Of one of Napoleon's bat
Ties. or one of Canning's speeches. poor
Nolan would fnd a great hole hecans.
on the back of the page of that pancr
there had been an advertisement Of
packet for New York. or a seran from,
the Presidents message | sav tbis
was the first time | ever heard of this
plan, which afterward I had enoueh
and more than enough to do with
remember i. because poor phfIJins
VINO was OF the party. as soon as the
ailusion to reading was made totd :,
story OF something which hapnened q,
the Cape of Good Hope on Nolan's f;rst
voyage. and IT is the only thing ever
knew of that voyage
They had touched at the cane ,ra
had done the civil thing with the En-.
iish admiral and the feet. and IT,
leaving for a long cruise up the InFia".
ocean. Phillips had borrowed a To- ~
English hooks from an office 49,
IN those days. as indeed in these. wa~n
"uitc a windfall. Among them nc m.
devii would order. was the Lay of ti.
go, 80 hlhstici which they had An %
ihein heard of. but which most of ~ ,,,,
mad never seen. think 1t couls nor
nave been published long. We'll mo-
oody thought there could be any risk
81 q,h,i ninything national in that. though
the .rempest'' from Shakespeare ba.
forr he let Nolan have it. because he
said. The Bermudas ought to be ours