The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-04-02
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
(Second Installment,)

The captain did mention him in the dispatches.
1t was always said he asked that he might be par
doned He wrote special letter to the secretary
of war: but nothing of it. As said
that was about the time when they began to ig-
more the whole transaction at Washington, and
when Nolans Imprisonment began to carry itself
on because there nobody to stop 1t without any
new orders from home.
! have heard 1t said that he was with Porter
when he took possession of the Nukahiva Islands
| Not this Porter. you know, but old Porter, his
father. Essex Porter that is, the old Essex Porter
| not this Essex AS artillery officer who had
| seen service in the west. Nolan knew more about
Notifications. embrasures. ravclne stockades. and
all that. than of them did: and he worked with
a right goodwill in fixing that battery all night.
have always thought it pity Porter did not
leave him in command there with Gamble That
would have settled all the question about his pun
ishment. We should have kept the islands, and at
this moment We should have station in the Pa
cifc ocean. Our French friends too would have
found 1t was pre-occupied. But Madison and the
Virginians, Of course flung all that away
All that was so years ago. If Nolan was
80 then, he must have been so when he died.
| He looked 60 when he was 40; but he never seemed
to me to change hair afterward As I ina CINE
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 formal way
more officers in our service than any living
knows. He told me once with grave smile that
no man in the world lived methodica life as
he. "You know the boys say am the Iron Mask,
| and you know how busy he was" He said it did
not do for any one to try to read all the time
than to do anything else all the time; hut that he
read just five hours a day "Then." he said, II
keep up my notebooks. writing in them at such
and such hours from what have been reading; and
| include in these my scrapbooks." These
very curious indeed. He had six or eight. of diff
| ferent subjects. There of history one of
natural science, which he called odds and
Ends But they were not merely books of ex-
tracts from newspapers. They had bits of plants
and ribbons shells tied on, and carved scraps of
bone and wood. which he had taught the to
cut for him: and they beautifully illustrated.
He drew admirably. He had some of the funniest
drawings there and of the most pathetic that
have in my life. wonder who will
have Noan's scrapbooks Well, he said his read
ing and his notes his profession and that they
took five hours and two hours respectively of each
day. Then" said he, every man should have
diversion as well as a profession. My natural his
tory is my diversion" That took two hours a day
more The men used to bring him birds and fish,
but long cruise he had to satisfy himself with
centpedes and cockroaches and such small game.
He was the only naturalist met who knew
anything about the habits of the house fly and the
mosquito All these people tell you whether
they are Lepidoptcra or Stepopotcra but for
!, telling how you can get rid of them. how they
get away from you when YOU strike at them, why
I.innaeus knew little of that John Foy the
idiot, did. These nine hours made Nolan's regu-
| lar daily Occupation The rest of the time he
talked or walked Till he grew very old he went
aloft great deal He always kept up his cxcr-
else; and never heard that he ill., If any
other man was i'll, he was the kndest nurse in the
world; and he knew more than half the surgeons
do. Then If anybody sick died, or if the
= captain wanted him to on any other occasion he
was always ready to read prayers l have said
that he read beautifully.
My own acquaintance with Philip Nolan began
six or eight years after the war. my first voy-
age after l appointed a mdshipman. It was
in the first days after Slave Trade treaty while
tho reigning house. which still the House of
Virginia. had still sort of scntmentalism about
the suppression of the horrors of the Middle Pas
n sage, and something was sometimes done that way
V We were in the South Atlantic that business
From the time joined, believe thought Nolan
was sort of lay chaplan-a chaplain with a blue
coat. never asked about him. Everything in
: the ship was strange to knew it was green
s to ask questions and suppose thought there was
a plain buttons every ship. We had him to
+ dine in our mess once week, and the caution was
given that on that day nothing to be said
t about home But if they had told not to say
. anything about the planet the Book of Dcucron
n omy. should not have asked why; there were a
great many things which seemed to have
u as little reason, l first to understand any
thing about the man without country" one day
u when we ovcrhauled dirty little schooner which
s. had slaves on board. An officer sent to take
= charge of her and after few minutes sent back
10 | his boat to ask that might be sent him
who could speak Portuguese. We were all looking
over the rail when the message came and we all
~ wished we could interpret when the captain asked
e who spoke Portuguese. But none of the Officers
did; and just as the captain sending forward
to ask if any of the people could Nolan stepped
out and said he should be glad to interpret if the
captain wished, he understood the language
The captain thanked him. fitted out another boa,
II with him, and in this boat it my luck to go
r. When We got there 1t was such a scene as you
. seldom see, and never want to. Nastiness beyond
- account and chaos loose in the midst of the
. nastlness. There were not great many of the