Republican farmer., 1919-09-26
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 Geck on the
 night of the fight of the Bonhomme
 Richard, American frigate, when her captain John Paul Jones engag aged and
 captured the greatly superior Brit tsh frigate Serapis. Sept. g. 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 lngs 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. ''SurrenderI' 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 cann-a on the quarterback remaining uusil- enced, and his ship had been struck below the water level As the bow spirit of the Serapis came athwart the poop of Inc BonhOmme Richard, Jones with his own hands made the
 DOSlIlOn- A 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 bUller-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 row of cartridges on the main deck of the Serapis. The roar of the explosion arose above the groans of dying men. Confusion, yells, and the Serapis hauls down her cOlors to the Bon homme Richard.
 And John Paul Jones father was gardener in the quiet old Bonnie Scotland, 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 up his commando and went to Amer ica to live in poverty and obscurity until 1775. Did this young bit of tim ber of our old snip of State feel the forces at work that culminaued 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 with important dispatches. John Paul now had the rank of Commodore, and was given a squadron of ships. His flag ship Cthe "Duras') he renamed the "Bonhomme Richard,' after Ben tamin Franklin whose almanac Poor Richard was very popular in France. It was off FIamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast that the famous fight took place between the Sera- bis and the Bonhomme Richard. Roy al honors were heaped upon Jones. by Louis XVI, and the gratitude of the American Congress. After a var jed career under the Russian Gov ernment, he died in Paris. The strength of this fire-brand had burned out. In 1899, our American ambassa dor to France recovered the leaden coffin in the old cemetery in which rested the remains of John Paul Jones. In 1905 a fleet of Amer ican vessels conveyed the body with naval honors to Annapolis where it 1 rests in one of the buildings of the naval academy.