The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1918-02-22

DAILY PIONEER
at your mess more or less often at
dinner. His breakfast he ate In his
own stateroom. he always had 9 state
room. which was where q sentinel, OF
somebody on the watch, could see the
door. And whatever else he ate Sor
drank he ate or drank alone. Some
times. when the marines or sailors had
any special jollifi cat ton, they were per-
mitted to invite "Plain-B Buttons, " as
they called him. Then Nolan was sent
with some officer, and the men were
forbidden to speak of home while ne
was there. They called him plain.
Buttons" because, while he always
chose to wear regulation army uni'
form, he was not permitted to wear
the army button, for the reason that
lit bore either the initials or the In
sigma Of the country he had disowned.:
Il remember, soon after Joined the,
navy, Twas on shore with some Of the
older officers from our ship and from
the Brandywine, which we had met at
Alexandria. We had leave to make q
party and 60 up to Cairo and the Pyra-
smids. AS we logged along some OF
the gentlemen fell to talking about No.
Ian, and someone told the system
which was adopted from the nrst about
his books and other reading. Al ne
was almost never permitted to 60 on
shore, even though the vessel lay In port
for months, his time. at the best,
hung heavy; and everybody was per
mitted to lend him books. Il they were
not published In America and made no
sallusion to 1t. These were common
enough in the old days. when people
In the other hemisphere talked Of the
|; United States as little as we do OF
Paraguay. He had almost all the for
eign papers that came into the ship,
sooner or later; only somebody must
70 over them first, and cut out any
advertisement or stray paragraph that
alluded to America. Right IN the
midst Of one of Napoleon's battles, Or
I one of Canning's speeches, poor Nolan
would find great hole. because on the
back of the page Of that paper there
had been an advertiser ent Of q packet
4 for New York, or scrap from the
presidents message. I say this was
( the first time ever heard of this plan,
which afterwards Ishad enough, and
more than enough, to do with. ] re.
! member 1t, because poor Phillips, who
was Of the party, as soon as the allu.
sion to reading was made, told story
4 Of something which happened at the
Cape Of Good Hope on Nolan's first
Il voyage; and it is the only thing I ever
knew of that voyage. They had
4 touched at the Cape, and had done the
civil thing with the English admiral
and the fleet, and then, leaving Tor 9
long cruise up the Indian ocean, Phil
3 lips had borrowed lot Of English
), books from an officer, which, In those
days, as indeed In these, was quite q
windfall. Among them, as the Devil
would order, was the Lay of the Last
Il Minstrel" which they had all OF them
heard of, but which most of them had
I never seen. think 1t could not have
been published long. Well, nobody
thought there could be any risk Of any
thing national in that, though Phillips
j swore old Shaw had cut out the
.Tempest'' from Shak espeaf before
he let Nolan have nc, because he tsufd,
'sThe Bermudas ought to be ours and
/, BY Joye, should be one day So No
Ian was permitted to join the circle
one afternoon when a 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 great deal Of time so. Well,
{ so II happened that Ii his turn Nolan
took the book and read to the others
and he read very well, as I know. No
body in the circle knew 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 q min
ute and drank something, and then be
gan, without q thought Of what was
coming E.'2& "a .511s. I'll
Breathes there the man.. with soul 50
&< dead, * i,.. AZ
Who never to himself hath said
1t seems impossible to us that any
body ever heard this for the first time
but all these fe,,', Tvs did then, and
poor Nolan himself went on, still IN
consciously or mechanically
This II 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 IS. g + s
Whose heart hath ne'er within him
burned, 5
AZ home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on 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 a little, colored
ord U<a anarod m .F-rs.t-Iz