The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1917-05-31
SECOND lNsTALLMENT,


of this paper, there would be no break
In the beginning Of my sketch OF this
story. For Captain Shaw, if it was he
handed ii to his successor In the
charge, and he to his
The rule adopted on board the ships
an which have met THE Man without
a Country" was. | 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 OIL
more than half the talk: men like to
" have at sea. But it was always
thought too hard that he should never
meet the rest of U.s., 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 nnrestrained in.
tercourse, as far as they and he chose.
But he grew shy, though he had favor
ties: l was one. Then the captain
always asked him to dinner on Mon
day. Every mess in succession took
lid the invitation in it's turn. Accord
ing to the size of the ship. you had nm
at your mess more or less often at
dinner. His breakfast he ate in his
own stateroom, he always had q state
room, which was where Il 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-
mitted 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 ne
was there. They called him "Plaln-
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
It bore -either the Initials or the IN
sigma of the country he had disoWned.
remember, soon after l Joined the
navy, 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 go 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 ne
was almost never permitted to go on
shore, even though the vessel lay III port
. for months, his time, at the Dest'
hung heavy; and everybody was per-
mitted TO lend him books, if they were
not nublished in America and made no
allusiOn to it. These were common
enough in the old days, when people
in the other hemisphere talked or the
United States as little as we DO OF
Paraguay. He had almost all the Tor
eign papers that came into the SNIP
sooner or later; only somebody must
90 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
enc of Cannings speeches, poor Nolan
would find a great hole, because on the
hack of the page of that paper there
had been an advertisement of packet
for New York, or q scrap from the
presidents message. l say this was
the first time l ever heard of this plan.
which afterwards l 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 anu
sion TO reading was made, told story
of something which happened at the
Cane of Good Hope on NOlans hrst
yoyage; and it 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
and the fleet, and then, leaving for
long cruise up the Indian ocean, Phil
Inns had borrowed a lot of English
hooks from an officer, which, In those
DAVIS. rs indeed ia these, was quite a
windfall. Among them, as the Devii
,youId order. was the Lay of the Last
AunstreI" which they had all of them
teoni of but which most of them had
,oyar seen. l think Ii could not nave
been published long. Well, nobody
Thought there could be any risk OF any
thing national in that, though Philips
syrore old Shaw had cut out the
.sTpmpest" from Shakespeare before
no LOT Nolan have it. because he sald'
.sTbe Bermudas ought to be ours anu
bv Joye. should be one day" SO NO
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when a lot of them SAT
on deck smoking and reading aloud
-.ah fNfnuc en- often