The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-04-03
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY


(Third Installment)
l was frightened death by his calm. hard pas
sion: but ! Numbered out what would. by all that
holy. and that had never thought of doing
anything else. He hardly seemed to hear me: but
ne did almost in whisper say: ooh, if anybody
had said to when was of your age!"-
think it was this half confidence of his. which
never abusedfor never told this story till now
which afterwards made great friends, He was
very kind to me- Often he sat up, even got UP,
at night. to walk the deck with me- when it was my
watch. He explained to a great deal of my
mathematics, and to him my taste for mathc
MATES. lie lent books and helped me about
my reading. He alluded directly to his
story again; but from and another officer I
have learned in 80 years. what am telling. When
we parted from him in st. Thomas Harbor, at the
end of cruise. sorry than can tell,
! was very glad to meet him again in 1880: and
later in life. when though l had some influence
in Washington, | moved heaven and earth to have
him discharged. But 1t like getting ghost
out of prison. They pretended there such
man, and never such man. They will asy
so at the department now. Perhaps they do not
know 1t will not be the first thing in the service
which the department appears to know nothing.
There is story that Nolan met Burr once on one
OF our vessels. when party of Americans came on
board in the Mediterranean. But this | believe to
be "A lie; or. rather it is myth, bon trovato, in
volving a tremendous blowing up with which he
sunk Burrasking him how he liked to be without
a country But it is clear from Burr's life that
nothing of the sort could have happcncd; and I
mention this only illustration of the stories
which get a going where there the lest mystery
at bottom.
SO poor Philip Nolan had his wish fulfilled.
know but fate dreadful; it is the fate re-
served for those men who shall have one day to
exile themselves from their country because they
have attempted her ruin, and shall have at the sam"
time to the prosperity and honor to which she
rises when she has rid herself of them and their
| iniuuites The wish Of poor Nolan. We all
learned to call him. not because his punishment
| too great, but because his repentance so
clear, was precisely the wish of every Bragg and
BcaurcGard who broke soldiers oath two years
ago, and Of every Maury and Barron who broke a
| sailors. ! do not know how often they have re-
| pointed. l do know that they have done all that in
they lay that they might have country-that all
| the honors. associat ions memories, and hopes
| which belong to country" might be broken up into
| little shrcds and distributed to the winds. ! know
too that their punishment, they vcgctate through
what is left of life to them in wrcchccd Boulogncs
| and Leicester Squares. where they destined &c
upbraid each other till they die, will have all the
agony of Nolan's. with the added rang that every
| who them will them to dispise and to
cxccrate them. They will have their wish, nl>,
| him.
For him. poor fellow, he rcrcntcd of his folly and
! then, like man. submitted to the fate he had asked
for He never Intentionally added to the difficulty
| or dccacy of the charge of those who had him IN
| hold. Accidents would happen. but they never
happened iron, his fault. Lieutenant TruXton told
me that when Texas annexed there Il care.
! full discussion among the officers whether they
| should get hold Of Noan's handsome set of maps
and cut Texas out of it-from the map Of the world
and the map of Mexico The United States ha,
been cut out when the atlas bought for him
But it voted rightly enough that to do this
| would be virtually to reveal to him what had hap.
pcncd, or. Harry Cole said, to make him think
old Burr had succeeded. SO it was from no fault
of Nvl;ns that II great botch happened at my owr
table. when for Il short time, | in command OF
the George Washington corvette, the Soutl
American Station. We were lying in the La Plata
and some of the officers, who had been shore
and had just joined again, were entertaining us
with accounts of their misadventurcs in riding tho
wild horses of Bucnos Aires. Nolan at the
table and in an unusually bright and talkativt
mood. Some story of tumble reminded him of AZ
adventure of his own when he catching wilt
horses in Texas with his adventurous cousin at &
time when he must have been quite boy. He toll,
| the story with good deal of spirit--so much SO
that the silence which often folows-a good stor!
hung over the table Tor instant to be broken by
! Nolan himself. For he asked perfectly uncon.
| sciously:
| Pray. what has become of Texas? After tn,
- province Of Texas would come forward very fast