The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-05-30


T / suppose that very few casual
readers of the New York Herald of
August 18th observed, in an obscure
corner, among the Deaths" the an
nouncement:
NOLAN. Died, on board q. S. Cor
vette Levant, Lat. % IL" S., Long. 1917
w., on the 18th of May, Philip Nolan"
l Happened to observe it, because
u was stranded at the old Mission
house in Mackinac, waiting for Lake
Superior steamer which did not choose
to come, and 1 was devouring, to the
very stubble, all the current literature
= could get hold of, even down to the
deaths and marriages in the Herald"
My memory for names and people is
good, and the reader will see, as he
goes on, that / had reason enough to
remember Philip Nolan. There are
Hundreds of readers who would have
paused at that announcement, If the
officer Of the Levant who reported it
had chosen to make it thus: "Died,
May 18th. The Man without a Coun-
try" For it was as 1.-THE Man with
out Country" that poor Philip Nolan
had generally been known by the Off
GERS who had him in charge during
some fifty years, as, indeed, by all
the men who had sailed under them.
j dare say there is many a man who
has taken wine with him once a fort
might, in a three years cruise, who
never knew that his name was mo
any name at all.
There can now be no possible harm
In telling this poor creatures story
Reason enough there has been till
now, ever since Madison's administra-
ton went out in 1917, for very strict
secrecy, the secrecy of honor itself,
among the gentlemen of the navy who
have had Nolan in successive charge.
And certainly it speaks well for the es-
prit de corps of the profession and the
personal honor of its members, that to
the press this mans story has been |
wholly unknown, and, I think, to the |
country at large also.
l have reason to think, from some |
1 made in the naval |
when l was attached to the
bureau of construction, that every Of
fetal report relating to him was burned
when Ross burned the public buildings
at Washington. One of the fuckers,
Or possibly one of the WatSons, had
Nolan in charge at the end of the war;
md when, on returning from his cruise,
he reported at Washington to one of
he Crowninshields-w was in the
navy department when he came home
he found that the department ig-
lOred the whole business. Whether
hey really knew nothing about it, or
whether it was a non mi ricordo, de-
ermined on as piece of policy, / do
lot know. But this / do know, that
ince 1917, and possibly before, no
avail officer has mentioned Nolan in
Is report Of a cruise.
AS / say, there is no need for Sc
recy any longer. And now the poor
reature is dead, it seems to me worth
7hile to tell a little of his story, by
7ay of showing young Americans of
oday what it is to be
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
Philip Nolan was as fine a young |
Mcer as there was in the Legion of
ne West" as the western division of
ur army was then called. When
.aron Burr made his first dashing ex- .
edition down to New Orleans in 1905,
t Fort Massac, or somewhere above
q the river, he met, as the devil b
ould have it, this gay, dashing, bright r
Dung fellow, at some dinner party. e
think. Burr marked him, talked to h
i'm, walked with him, took him a day 0
: two's voyage in his fatboat, and, :
short, fascinated him. For the next S
ear barrack life was very tame to "
,or Nolan. He occasionally awaited n
the permission the great man had "
ven him to write to him. Long, high II
orded, stilted letters the poor boy n
rote and re-wrote and copied. But II
,ver line did he have in reply from b
g gay deceiver. The other boys In L
e garrison sneered at him, because t.
sacrificed in this unrequited affec- II
IN for a politician the time which n
ey devoted to Monongahela, sledge,
ID high-low-jack. Bourbon, euchre al
ID poker were still unknown. But b.
e day Nolan had his revenge. This | l.