The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-06-23

Nolan thought he mad got MS chapce.
He had known her at Philadelphia,
and at other places had met her, and
this was a godsend. You could not
talk In contredances, as you do In
cotillions, or ever In the pauses Of
waltzing; but there were chances for
tongues and sounds, as well as for
eyes and bushes. He began with her
travels, and Europe, and Vesuvius, and
the French; and then, when they had
worked down, and had that long talk
ing time at the bottom of the set, he
said boldly, a little pale, she said, as
she told me the story, years after:
"And what do you hear from home,
Mrs. Graff?'
And that splendid creature looked
through him. .Jove! how she must
have looked through him "Homell
Mr.. Nolan! =! l thought you were the
man who never wanted to hear Of
home again!" III she walked directly
up the deck to her husband, and left
poor Nolan alone, as he always was.
He did not dance again.
I cannot give any history of him in
order; nobody can now; and, indeed,
l am not trying to. These are the ira
d%itions, which l sort out, as I believe
them, from the myths which have been
told about this man for forty years.
The fellows used to say he was the
Iron Mask ;" and poor George Pons
went to his grave In the belief that
this was the author of "Junius,' who
Wac hnin0 nnnichn6 For hic ca1ahrofad
libel on Thomas Jefferson. Pons was
not very strong In the historical line.
A happier story han either of these II
have told is of the war. That came
along soon after. I have heard this
affair told in three or four ways, and,
indeed, it may nave happened more
than once. But which ship it was on
I cannot tell. However, in one, at
least, of the great frigate duels with
the English, in which the navy was
really baptized, it happened that a
round shot from the enemy entered
n of our ports square, and took right
down the officer of the gun himself,
and almost every man of the guns
crew. Now you may say what you
choose about courage, but that is not
a nice thing to see. But as the men
who were not killed picked themselves
up, and the surgeons people were ear
rying off the bodies, there appeared
Nolan, in his shirt sleeves, with the
hammer in his hand, and, just as if he
had been the officer, told them off with
authority, who should go to the cock
pit with the wounded e who should
stay with him, perfectly CHEEKY, and
with that way which makes men feel
sure all is right and is going to be
right. And he finished loading the
gun with his own hands, aimed it, and
babe the men fire. And there he
stayed, captain of that gun, keeping
those fellows in spirits, till the enemy
struck, sitting on the carriage while
the gun was cooling, though he was
exposed all the time, showing them
easier ways to handle heavy shot, max
ing the raw hands laugh at their own
blunders, and when the gun cooled
again, getting it loaded and fired twice
as often as any other gun on the ship.
The captain walked forward, by way
CT encouraging the men, and Nolan
touched his hat and said:
81 am showing them how we do this
in the artillery, sir"
And this is a part of the story where
all the legends agree; that the commo-
dore said: :,
81 see you do, and I thank you, sir,
and l 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 it to
Nolan, and made him put it n. The
man told me this who saw it. Nolan
cried like a baby, and we'll 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. HeN
wrote a special letter to the secretary
of war. But nothing ever came of it.
AS I said, hat 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
stop it without any new orders from
home.
nave heard it said that he was with
Porter when he took possession of, the
Nukahiwa islands. Not this Porter,
you know, but old Porter, his father,