Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1918-02-22

dance was forming.
Nolan thought ne had got his chance.
BE had known her ut Philadelphia,
and ut other places had met her, and
this was 4 godsend. You could not
talk in contredances, as you do "
cOtilhons, or even in the pauses q
Waiting; but there were chances fc !
tongues and sounds, ~ wel aE &c |
eyes and bushes. He began with he
travels and Europe, and Vesuvius, an
the French; and then, when they ha{
worked down, and had that long talk |
ing time at the bottom Of the set, he |
said boldly, little pale, she said, as |
she told me the story, years after:
"And what do yo1 hear from home,
Mrs. CRAFTY" -
And that splendid creature looked
through him Jove! how she must
have looked through him! 'Home!I
Mr.. Nolan!!! thought you were the
man who never wanted to hear OF
home again ~ and she walked directly
up the deck to her husband, and left
poor Nolan alone, al he always was.
He did not dance again.
cannot give any history Of him IT.
order; nobody can now; and, indeed,
! am not trying to. These are the tra-
! ditions, which I sort out, as believe
them, from the myths which have been
told about this man for forty years.
The fellows used to say he was thu
''ron Mask" and poor George Pons
| went to his grave in the belief that
this was the author Of "Junius," who
was being punished for his celebrated
| libel on Thomas Jefferson. Pons waa
not very strong in the historical Nn6s
A happier story than either of these
have told Is Of the war. That came
along soon after. I have heard this
affair told in three or four ways, and,
| indeed, it may have happened more
than once. But which ship it was on
I cannot tell However, in one, at
least, of tho great frigate duels with
the English, in which the navy was
really baptized, it happened that a
! round shot from the enemy entered
| one of our ports square, and took right
/ down the officer Of the gun himself,
and almost every man of the guns
| crew. Now you may say what you
| choose about courage, but that is not
| nice thing to see. But as the men
| who were not killed picked themselves
up, and the surgeons people were car
rying off the bodies, there appeared
| Nolan, in his shirt sleeves, with the
| hammer in his hand, and, just as if he
! had been the officer, told them off with
! authority, who should 60 to the cock
pit with the wounded men, who should
stay with him, perfectly CHEEKY, and
with that way which makes men feel
sure all is right and is going to be
! right And he finished loading the
! gun with his own hands, aimed it, and
! babe the men fire. And there b.
stayed, captain of that gun, keepinl
; those fellows in spirits, till the enem.
struck, sitting on the carriage whil'
| the gun was cooling, though he was
exposed al the time, showing then
easier ways to handle heavy shot max,
ing the raw hands laugh ut their own
blunders, and when the gun cooled
again, getting it loaded and fred twice
! as often as any other gun On the ship.
The captain walked forward, by way
of encoura ging the men, and Nolan
touched his hat and said:
II am showing them how we do this
! in the artillery, sir"
And this is q part of the story where
all the legends agree; that the commo-
| dore said:
II 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.
and he had the Englishman's sword.
! in the midst Of the state and ceremony
of the quarterback. he said:
"Where is Mr.. Nolan? 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"
And then the old man took or hin
own sword Of ceremony, and gave it to
Nolan, and made him put it on. The
man told me this who saw it. Nolan
cried like baby, and well he might
He had not worn q sword since that
Internal day at Fort Adams. But all
ways afterward, on occasions Of cerG1
mony, he wore that quaint old French
sword of the commodore's.
u The captain did mention him in thu
dispatches. It was always said ho
asked that he might be pardoned- He
wrote a special letter to the secretary
of war. But nothing ever came Of it
As I said, that was about the time
when they began to ignore the whole
transaction at Washington, and when
Nolan's Imprisonment began to carry
itself on because there was nobody to
stop it without any new orders from
home.
I have heard 1t said that he was with
Porter when he took possession Of the
Nukahiwa islands. Not this Porter,
you know, but old Porter, his father,
Essex Porter, that is, the old Essex