Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-07-06

gun the day we took the JaVa-aSked
about dear old David Porter. as he
called him. Then he se"led down
more quietly, and very happily. 10 hear
me tell in an hour the history ct fifty
years.
How / wished il had been some
body who knew something, But |
did as well as | could. told him of
the English war. told him about Full
ton and the steamboat beginning. |
told him about old Scott and Jackson:
told him all ! could think about the
Mississippi. and New Orleans, and
Texas, and his own old kentucky.
And DO you know lie asked who was
in command of the Legion of the
WeStT | told him it was Il very gal
liant officer named Grant. and that 10y
our last news. he was about To cstab-
fish his headquarters at VickSburg.
Then. Where was Vick ShurgT
worked that out on the map; it was
about a hundred miles. more or less,
above his old Fort Adams; and !
thought Fort Adams must be ruin
now. 1t must be at old Nick'S plan
tation.' said he; well. tLat is
change"
Il tell you, Ingham. 1t was Il hard
thin" To condenSe the history of half
Il century into that talk with sick
man. And | do not know what | told
him-of emigration, and the means of
it-Of steamboats, and railroads and
telegraphs-of inventions and books
and literature-Of the colleges and
West Point and the Naval school
but with the queerest Interruptions
that ever you heard. You see it was
Robinson Crusoe asking all the accu-
muiated questions of tifty-siX years.
Il remember he asked, all of sud
den. who was president now; and
when | told him, he asked if Old Abe
was Gen. Benjamin Lincoln'S son. He
said he met old General Lincoln, when
he was quite a boy himself, at some
Indian treaty. | said no. that Old Abe
was a Kentuciian like himself. but |
could not tell him of what family: he
had worked up from the ranks. Good
for him. cried Nolan; 4 am glad of
that. As | have brooded and won
dered, l have thought our danger was
in keeping up those regular success
SionS in the first families Then |
got talking about my visit to Wash
ington. / told him of meeting the Ore
gOn congressman. Harding; | told him
about Smithsonian and the exploring
expedition; / told him about the CAPT
tOl-and the statues for the pediment
and Crawford's Liberty - and
Greenough's Washington: Ingham. |
told him everything | could think of
that would show the grandeur of his
country and its prosperity.
And he drank il in, and enjoyed it
as | cannot tell you. He grew more
and more silent, yet l never thought
he was tired or faint. | gave him a
glass of water. but he just wet his lips.
and told me not to go away. Then he
asked me to bring the Presbyterian
Book of Public Prayer which lay
there, and said, with a smile. that it
would open at the right place-and so
it did. There was his double red
mark down the page; l knelt down
and read. and he repeated with me,
For ourselves and our country, o gra-
ciOuS God, we thank thee, that, not
our manifold transgres-
siOns of thy holy laws, thou hast con-
tinued to us thy marvellous kindness
70 hn rl..t h., L.,
ing. Then he turned to the end of
the same book, and l read the words
more familiar to me: Most heartily
we beseech thee with thy favor TO be-
hold and bless thy servant, the preSi- I
dent of the United States, and all
others in authority'-and the rest of
the Episcopal collect. Danforth.'
said he. L have repeated those prayers
night and morning, ii is now fifty-five /.
years. And then he said he would /
go to sleep. He bent me down over
him and kissed me; and he said.
Look in my Bible, Danforth, when l
am gone And went away.
''But | had no thought it was the
end. l thought he was tired and
would sleep. | knew he was happy,
and | wanted him To be alone.
But in an hour, when the doctor
went in gently, he found Nolan had
breathed his life away with a smile.
He had something pressed close to
his lips. 1t was his fathers badge of
The Order of Cincinnati
I'VE looked in his Bible, and there
was slip of paper, ut the place
where he had marked the text
They desire country, even
wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God: for
ne hath prepared for them a city
"On this slip of paper he had writ
.en:
Bury me in the sea; ii has been
ny home. and / love it. But will not
someone set up stone for my mem
)ry at Fort Adams or at Orleans, that
ny disgrace may not be more than l
ought to bear? Say on it:
In Memory of
PHILIP NOLAN
Lieutenant
in the Army of
the United States.
He loved his country as no other
nan has loved her: but no man de-
served less at her hands,"