Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-06-08
THIRD INsTALLMENT.

Il see you do, and thank you, sir
and | shall never forget this day, sir,
and you never shall, sir"
And after the whole thing was over,
and he had the Englishman's sword,
in the midst of the state and ceremony
of the quarterback. he said:
"Where is Mr.. Nolan? Ask Mr.. No
Ian to come here"
And when Nolan came, the captain
said:
"Mr. Nolan, we are all very grateful
to you today; you are one of US today !;
you will be named in the dispatches"
And then the old man took off his
own sword of ceremony, and gave 1t to
Nolan, and made him put it on. The
man told me this who saw it. Nolan
cried like a baby, and well he might
He had not worn a sword since that
Internal day at Fort Adams. But al
ways afterward, on occasions of cere-
mony, he wore that quaint old French
sword Of the commodore's.
The captain did mention him in the
dispatches. 1t was always said he
asked that he might be pardoned. He
wrote a special letter to the secretary
of war. But nothing ever came Of it.
AS I said, that was about the time
when they began to ignore the whole
transaction at Washington, and when
Nolan's Imprisonment began to carry
itself on because there was nobody to
Oh rrrffh nrdQrc FROM,
home.
I have heard 1t said that he was with
Porter when he took possession of the
Nukahiwa islands. Not this Porter,
you know, but old Porter, his father,
Essex Porter, that is, the old Essex
Porter, not this Essex. AS an artil-
lery officer, who had seen service in
the West, Nolan knew more about for
tifications, embrasures, ravelines,
stockades, and all that, than any of
them did; and he worked with a right
good will in fixing that battery all
right. / have always thought it was
a pity Porter did not leave him in
command there with Gamble. That
would have settled all the question
about his punishment. We should
have kept the islands, and at this mo-
ment we should have one station in
the Pacific ocean. Our French friends,
too, when they wanted this little wa
tering place, would have found it was
But Madison and the
of course. flung all that |
away.
All that was near fifty years ago. |
If Nolan was thirty then, he must |
have been near eighty when he died.
He looked sixty when he was forty.
But he never seemed to me to change |
a hair afterward. AS l imagine his |
life, from what have seen and heard |
Of it, he must have been in every sea,
and yet almost never on land. He
must have known in a formal way,
more officers in our service than any
man living knows. He told me once,
with grave smile, that no man in the
world lived so methodical life as he.
you know the boys say 1 am the
iron Mask, and you know how busy
ne was" He said it did not do for
lnyone to try to read all the time, more
han to do anything else all the time;
)ut that he read just five hours day.
Then" he said, Il keep up my note
books, writing in them at such and
,uch hours from what 1 have been
and I include in them my
crapbooks." These were very curious
indeed. He had six or eight, of differ
of his
DRY, one of natural science, one which
lie called "Odds and Ends" But they
we're not merely books Of extracts
rom newspapers. They had bits of
lants and ribbons, shells tied on. and
arved scraps of bone and wood, which
e had taught the men to cut for him,
nd they were beautifully illustrated.
lie drew admirably. He had some of
be funniest drawings there, and some
f the most pathetic, that have ever
cen in my life. I wonder who will
ave Nolan's scrnpDooks.
Well, he said his reading and his
otes were his profession, and that
hey took five hours and two hours
of each day. 'Then."
aid he, "every man should have d.
ersion as well as profession. My
atural history is my diversion" That
,ok two hours a day more The men ,
sed to bring him birds and fish. but /,
q long cruise he had to satisfy him !,
slf with centipedes and cockroaches
nd such small game. He was the only ;
aturalist I ever met who knew any, :
ling about the habits of the house fly
nd the mosquito. All those people
IN tell you whether they are Lepi-
,ptera or Steptopotera; but as for I
fling how you can get rid of them, !.
. how they get away from you when !
~ strike them, why, Linnaeus knew
, little of that as John Foy, the idiot,
d. These nine hours made Nolan's
guiar daily Occupation" The rest r
the time he talked or walked Till v
. grew very old. he went aloft great
al He always kept up his exercise G
ID never heard that he was i'll. If S
~ Othet man wnS i'll he was the kind n