Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1917-05-09
THE MAN WITHOUT
A COUNTRY
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Continued from Page p
days, as indeed In these, was quite a
: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. think it 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 it, because he said,
1.-THE Bermudas ought to be ours and,
by Jove, should be one day." So No
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when lot Of them sat
on deck smoking and reading aloud.
People do not do such things so often
now, but when / was young we got
rid Of a great deal Of time so. Well,
so 1t happened that in his turn Nolan
took the book and read to the others !;
and he read very well, as know. No
body in the circle knew q line Of the
poem, only 1t was all magic and Dor
der chivalry, and was ten thousand
years ago. Poor Nolan read steadily
through the fifth canto, stopped a min
ute and drank something, and then be-
gan, without q thought Of what WAS
coming
Breathes there the man. with soul 20
dead,
Who never to himself hath said
1t seems impossible to us that any
body ever heard this for the first time;
but all these fellows did then, and
Door Nolan himself went on, still un-
consciously or mechanically
This is my own. my native land!
Then they all saw something was
to pay; but he expected to get through,
suppose, turned little pale, but
plunged on
Whose heart hath ne'er within him
burned.
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?--
II such there breathe. go, mark him well.
By this time the men were all be-
side themselves, wishing there was any
way to make him turn over two pages
but he had not quite presence Of mind
for that; he gagged little, colored
crimson, and staggered on:
For him no minstrel raptures swell:
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite these titles. power and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self
and here the poor fellow choked, could
not 60 on, but started up, swung the
book into the sea, vanished into his
stateroom, land by Jove," said Phil
lips, tive did not see him for two
months again. And had to make up
some beggarly story to that English
surgeon why 1 did not return his Wal.
ter Scott to him."
That story shows about the time
when N'olan's braggadOciO must have
broken down. At first, they said, he
took very high tone, considered his
Imprisonment mere farce, affected
to enjoy the voyage, and all that; but
Phillips said that after he came out Of
his staterOOm he never was the same
man again. He never read aloud again,
unless it was the Bible or Shakespeare,
or something else he was sure of. But
1t was not that merely. He never en-.
tered in with the other young men ex-
actly as companion again. He was
always shy afterward, when l knew
him, very seldom spoke, unless ne
was spoken to, except to very few
friends. He lighted up occasionally,
i remember late in his life hearing
him fairly eloquent on something
which had been suggested to him by
one Of Flechier's sermons, but gener-
ally he had the nervous, tired look Of
a heartwOunded man.
When Captain Shaw was coming
home-if, as say, 1t was Shaw-rath-
er to the surprise Of everybody they
made one of the Windward islands,
and lay off and on for nearly a week.
The boys said the officers were sick
OF salt junk, and meant to have tur-
tie soup before they came home. But
after several days the Warren came to
the same rendezvous; they exchanged
signals; she sent to Phillips and these
homeward-bound men letters and pa
pers, and told them she was outward
bound, perhaps to the Mediterranean,
and took poor Nolan and his traps on
the boat back to try his second cruise.
He looked very blank when he was told
to get ready to Join her. He had
known enough Of the signs Of the sky
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