Middletown transcript., 1917-05-26
SECOND lNSTALLMENT.

WV
of this paper, there would be no break
In the beginning Of my sketch Of this
story. For Captain Shaw, If 1t was he,
handed 1t to his successor in the
charge, and he to his.
The rule adopted on board the ships
on which I have met "The Man without
a Country" was, I think. transmitted
from the beginning. No mess liked to
have him permanently, because his
presence cut off all talk of home or of
the prospect Of return, Of politics or
letters, Of peace or Of war-cut off
more than half the talk men like to
have at sea. But 1t was always
thought too hard that he should never
meet the rest Of us, except to touch
hats, and we finally sank into one sys-
TEN. He was not permitted to talk
with the men unless an officer was by.
With officers he had unrestrained in
tercourse, as far as they and he chose.
But he grew shy, though he had favor
ties: was one. Then the captain
always asked him to dinner on Mon
day. Every mess in succession took
up the invitation In its turn. Accord
ing 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 state
room, which was where a sentinel, or
somebody on the watch, could see the
door. And whatever else he ate or
drank he ate or drank alone. Some
times. when the marines or sailors had
any special jollification, they were per-
mittcd to invite "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. They called him "Plain-
Buttons" because, while he always
chose to wear a regulation army uni
form, he was not permitted to wear
the army button, for the reason that
1t bore either the initials or the in
sigma of the country he had disowned.
I remember, soon after joined the
navy, l was on shore with some Of the
older officers from our ship and from
the Brandywine, which we had met at
Alexandria. We had leave to make
party and 60 up to Cairo and the Pyra-
mids. AS we logged along some Of
the gentlemen fell to talking about No
Ian, and someone told the system
which was adopted from the first about
his books and other reading. AS he
was almost never permitted to 60 on
shore, even though the vessel lay In port
for months, his time, at the best,
hung heavy; and everybody was per-
mitted to lend him books, If they were
not published in America and made no
allusion to it. These were common
enough in the old days, when people
in the other hemisphere talked Of the
United States as little as we do OF
Paraguay He had almost all the for
elgn papers that came into the ship,
sooner or later; only somebody must
20 over them first, and cut out any
advertisement or stray paragraph that
alluded to America. Right In the
midst of one of Napoleon's battles, or
one Of Canning's speeches, poor Nolan
would find great hole, because on the
back Of the page Of that paper there
had been an advertisement of packet
for New York, or scrap from the
presidents message. / say this was
the first time ever heard Of this plan,
which afterwards 1 had enough, and
more than enough, to do with. L re-
member it, because poor Phillips, VINO
was Of the party, as soon as the allu-
sion to reading was made, told story
of something which happened at the
Cane Of Good Hope on Nolan's nrst
voyage; and 1t Is the only thing l ever
knew of that voyage. They had
touched at the Cape, and had done the
civil thing with the English admiral
md the fleet, and then, leaving for a
long cruise up the Indian ocean, Phil
lips had borrowed q lot Of English
books from an officer, which, in those
DAYS. as indeed in these, was quite q
windfall. Among them, as the Devil
would order, was the Lay Of the Last
Minstrel" which they had all of them
heard of, but which most Of them had
never seen. l think 1t could not have
been published long. Well, nobody
thought there could be any risk Of any
thing national in that, though Phillips
swore old Shaw had cut out the
"Tempest" from Shakespeare before
he let Nolan have 1t, because he said
"The Bermudas ought to be ours ana
by Jove, should be one day." SO NO
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when a lot Of them sa
on deck smoking and reading aloud
People do not do such things so Otter
now, but when / was young we 60
rid Of q great deal of time so. wen
SO It happened that in his turn Nolal
took the book and read to the others
and he read very well, as know. No
body in the circle knew line of tn
poem, only 1t was all magic and Dor
der chivalry, and was ten thousan'
years ago. Poor Nolan read steadil
through the fifth canto, stopped min
ute and drank something, and then be
gan. without a thought Of what wa
coming
Breathes there the man. with soul g
dead,
Who never to himself hath said
It seems impossible to us that any
body ever heard this for the first time
but all these fellows did then, an
Door Nolan himself went on, still un
consciously or mechanically
This is my own. my native landi
Then they all saw something wa