The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-24
JOHN PAUL JONES
 HONORED BY
 ALL AMERICANS
Captured Superior British Frigate in 1779-Made Fine Record As Com
 mander.

A great artist has caught it with his colors, and painted that deck on the night of the fight of the Bonhomme Richard, American frigate, when her captain John Paul Jones engaged and captured the greatly superior Brit ish frigate Serapis, Sept. 23, 1779. It was some" fight. Splendid gal lantry on both sides. And from John Paul Jones, certain words flung that were as good as broadsides, and have gone into the records of red say ings that give a man bigger corpus cles in his blood when he faces terri ble odds. To the shout of Captain Pearson of the Serapis, a gallant re- gret for the furnace of a deck of the BOnhOmme Richard the shattered cordage, the hurricane of blood and broken men, ''Surrender!" shouted Pearson. And John Paul Jones flung back at him Damn your soul, we've just begun to fight!" At that moment Jones had only two pieces of cannon on the quarterback remaining uusiI- enced, and his ship had been struck below the water level. As the bow spirit of the Serapis came athwart the poop of the Bonhomme Richard Jones with his own hands made the two vessels fast in that position. 4 dreadful scene at close quarters then ensued. Stripped to the waist men tore. each other not only with the raking fire of guns. Shot away, John Paul, is thy flagstaff! But thy soul is a bul1et-and does the work One of thy sailors. by thy commands, chambers to the extreme edge of the yard, and drops a grenade on a TOW of cartridges on the main deck of the Serapis. The roar of the explosion arose above the groans of dying men. Confusion, yelIs, and the Serapis hauls down her colors to the Bon homme Richard.
 And John Paul Jones' father was gardener in the quiet old Bonnie Scotlandi From what nature sources did John Paul Jones light the Roman candle in his makeup awaiting the great occasion to flare above the wave? Had he imbibed the stirring old stories of the Scottish border? At 12 years of age he became ship masters apprentice to a merchant of Whitehaven; in a few years was put on one of his masters vessels, sent to the West Indies; made several trips to America; became captain of a merchant vessel. Suddenly he threw
  lea to live in poverty and obscurity. until 1775. Did this young bit of tim ber of our old Ship of State feel the forces at work that culminated m the great explosion? And had Columbia whispered into his ear in night wis ions? Who knows! When war broke out, John Paul Jones was cOmmis- stoned first lieutenant in the young American navy, by the Continental Congress. After daring and successful cruises he sailed for France in HIT. with important dispatches. John Paul now had the rank of Commodore, and was given a squadron of ships. His flag ship (the "Duras'D he renamed the "Bonhomme Richard" after Ben iamin Franklin whose almanac Poor Richard'' was very popular in France. It was off FlamborOugh Head on the Yorkshire coast that the famous fight took place between the Sera- pis and the Bonhomme Richard. Roy al honors were heaped upon Jones. by Louis XVI, and the gratitude of the American Congress. After var led career under the Russian Gov ernment, he died in Paris. The strength of this fire-brand had burned out. In 1899, our American ambassador to France recovered the Ieaden coffin in the old cemetery in which rested the remains Of John PauI Jones. In 1905 a fleet of Amer ican vessels conveyed the body with naval honors to Annapolis where It rests in one of the buildings of the naval academy.