The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-06-28


gun the day we took the Java-asked
about dear old David Porter, as he
called him. Then be settled down
more quietly, and very happily. to hear
me tell In an hour the history of fifty
years.
How / wished 1t had been
body who knew somethingl But l
did as well as / could. l told him Of
the English war. / told him about Full
ton and the steamboat beginning. l
told him about old Scott and Jackson;
told him all l could think about the
Mississippi, and New Orleans, and
Texas, and his OWE old Kentucky.
And do you know he asked who was
In command of the Legion of the
West?' / told him 1t was a very gal
liant officer named Grant, and that by
our last news, he was about to estab-
fish his headquarters at Vicksburg.
Then, Where was VicksburgY' L
worked that out on the map; it was
about a hundred miles, more or less,
above his old Fort Adams; and l
thought Fort Adams must be a ruin
now. 1T must be at old Vick's plan
%tation,' said he; well, that is a
changer
81 tell you, Ingham, it al a hard
thing to condense the history of half
a century into that talk with a sick
man. And l 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-
INFLATED questions of ffty-six years.
81 remember he asked, all of a sud-
den, who was president now; and
when l 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 Kentuckian like himself, but l
| could not tell him of what family he
had worked up from the ranks. Good
for him 7 cried Nolan; I am glad of
that. AS l have brooded and won
dered, / 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; l 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 ne drank it in, and enjoyed it
as | cannot tell you. He grew more
and more silent, yet l never thought
he was tired or faint. l 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 II
would open at the right place-and so
1t 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
w~ithstanding our manifold ~transgres-
sions of thy holy laws, thou hast con-
tinued to us thy marvellous kindness
and so TO the end of that thanksgiv-
ing. Then he turned to the end Of
the same book. and I read the words
more familiar to me-: Most heartily
we beseech thee with thy favor to be-
hold and bless thy servant. the presi-
dent of the United States. and all
others In authority'-and the rest of
the Episcopal collect. Danforth.
said he. I have repeated those prayers
night and morning, 1t is now ffty-ive
years And Their he said he would
20 to sleep. He bent me down over
him and kissed me: and he said,
| Look in my Bible. Danforth. when