The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1918-01-03
THIRD lNSTALlMENT.

II am showing them how we do thi
In the artillery SIR"
And this Is a part Of the story wher,
all the legends agree; that the commo
dore said:
~, see you do, and thank you, sir
and I shall never forget this day, sir
and you never shall, SIR"
/And after the whole thing was over
land he had the Englishman's sword
In the midst of the state and ceremony
Of the quarterback. he said:
"where is Mr.. Nolan2 Ask Mr.. No
Ian to come here"
And when Nolan came, the captain
said:
"Mr. Nolan, we are all very grateful
to you today; you are one Of us today
/ you will be named In the dispatches. u
And then the old man took off his
own sword of ceremony, and gave 1t to
Nolan, and made him put 1t on. The
man told me this who saw II. Nolan
cried like q baby, and well he might.
He had not worn sword since that
internal day at Fort Adams. But al
ways afterward, on occasions Of cere-
mony, he wore that quaint old French
sword of the commodore's.
The captain did mention him in the
dispatches. 1t was always said he
asked that he might be pardoned. He
wrote q special letter to the secretary
of war. But nothing ever came of 1t.
As / said, that was about the time
when they began to ignore the whole
transaction at Washington, and when
Nolan's Imprisonment began to carry
n'tself on because there was nobody to
stop 1t without any new orders from
home.
have heard II said that he was with
Porter when he took possession of the
Nukahlwa islands. Not this Porter
you know, but old Porter, his father
Essex Porter, that Is, the old Essex
Porter, not this Essex. AS an artil-
lery officer, who had seen service In
the West, Nolan kne'- more about for
,feeScatsions, embrasures, ravelines,
stockades, and all that, than any Of
them did; and he worked with right
good will In fixing that battery all
right. / have always thought 1t was
n pity Porter did not leave him In
command there with Gamble. That
would have settled all the question
about his punishment. We should
have kept the islands, and at this mo-
ment we should have one station In
the Pacific ocean. Our French friends,
too, when they wanted this little wa
tering place, would have found II was
pre-occupied. But Madison and the
virginians, of course, flung all that
away.
All that was near fifty years ago.
II Nolan was thirty then, he must
have been near eighty when he died.
He looked sixty when he was forty.
But he never seemed to me to change
hair afterward. AS imagine his
life, from what have seen and heard
Of 1t, he must have been In every sea,
and yet aini0st never on land. He
must have known In q formal way,
more officers In our service than any
man living knows. He told me once, |
with grave smile, that no man in the
world lived so methodical life as he.
You know the boys say l am the
Iron Mask, and you know how busy
he was" He said 1t did not do for
anyone to try to read all the time, more
than to do anything else all the time
but that he read just five hours day.
"Then," he said, ~ keep up my note
books, writing in them at such and
such hours from what l have been
reading: and l include In them my
scrapbooks." These were very curious
Indeed. He had six or eight, of differ
ent subjects. There was one of his |
tory, one of natural science, one which |
he called "Odds and Ends" But they |
were not merely books Of extracts
from newspapers. They had bits of
plants and ribbons, shells tied on, and |
carved scraps Of bone and wood, which
he had taught the men to cut for him,
and they were beautifully illustrated.
He drew admirably. He had some of
the funniest drawings there, and some
Of the most pathetic, that have ever
seen In my life. / wonder who will
have Nolans scrapbooks.
Well, he said his reading and his
notes were his profession, and that
they took five hours and two hours
Of each day. "Then,"
said he, every man should have dl-
version as well as profession. My
natural history Is my diversion" That
took two hours day more. The men
used to bring him birds and fish, but
On long cruise he had to satisfy him
self with centipedes and coclSroaches
and such small game. He was the only
| ever met who knew any
thing about the habits of the house fly
and the mosquito. All those people
can tell you whether they are Lepl-
doptera or Steptopotera but as for
telling how you can get rid of them,
Or how they get away from you when
you strike them,' why, Linnaeus knew
rs little of that as John Foy, the idiot
AID. These nine hours made Nolan's
regular daily Occupation" The rest
Df the time he talked or walked Till
ne grew very old he went aloft great
leal. He always kept up his exercise
md never heard that he was i'll. If
my other man was Ill, he was the kind
,st nurse in the world; and he knew
more than half the surgeons do. Then
I anybody was sick or died, or If the
.aptaln wanted him to on any other
,onnaior, ha ,une nl,un ue ronhr 10 rond