Show 11 FORGOTTEN e HEROES eimo elmo scott watson A jolly old tar and brave bray A remember stephen decatur ai as a brIl brilliant Ilant amerl can caval officer and as i the man who offered the famous toast our country in her intercourse with foreign nations oat lons may she be always be in the right but right or wrong our country I 1 dut but if it bad not been for a bravo american seaman do batur might never bate ba 0 uttered those patriotic words it happened during the war with the barbary pirates decatur at the bead of his men had overhauled ard boarded a ship the captain of which bad had treacherously murdered Decatu es broth brother r after surrendering to the young aner amer lean in the desperate bandeo hand to hand fighting which followed stephen decatur singled out this captain for bis his decatur lunged at him alth ft ith a boarding pike but the barbarian parried the blow caught the weapon and wrenching it t away lunged at the american decatur bad drawn his sword ind and as be he parried the blow now his weapon broke off at the hlll hill the struck again and aou wound ud cd ed the american in the chest and arm and a moment later the two were clapped in a life and struggle at this moment another came caine up from behind and raised his long curving moslem blade tou tow decatur on the bead it was apparently P patently ly all over with the american commander fur there was none ot of his crew within reach except one man a seaman named reuben james james had been in the thick of the fight and both bis his arms were ere disabled but when he saw the predicament of the officer james did not hesitate for a moment lie he leaped in and with bis his bead head caught the blow aimed at decatur out but troubles were far from being over the two men locked in to each others arms fell to the deck Wr wrenching encking one arm free the drew a long keen knife hut but in the flash of a second before he could plunge it into the body of the fast weakening amerl can decatur managed to draw a small pocket pistol und and shot the barbarian through the heart bo terrible was the wound velch brave reuben james suffered final mm the blow which be bad taken to save bis his commanders life that bis his comrades felt sure he would die happily however he recovered and lived to serve his cation nation in the navy tor for more 11 ore than 40 jears ears brav e in A lost grave in poland SOME 20 years ago there was in U trod reduced into congress a bill appropriating the sum of or such part thereof as shall be necessary to bring back hum frum its burial place in poland the body of joel barlow despite a favorable committee report on that bill it was allowed to die and so a last chance was lost to play tardy honor to a patriot who was joel barlow he was a native of connecticut a graduate from yale in the class hleb in eluded noah webster Neb ster oliver wol cott and other future notables notable a chaplain during the revolution and editor of the american mercury hartford Uart tord conn and the author of a famous national patriotic epic poem the Co lumblad A friend of washington ton jefferson and madison barlow was sent by president madison in 1812 as an envoy to france to warn napoleon of the gravity of the situation created by french delpreda eions upon american shipping and to demand that they cease after waiting wafting in paris for several weeks without seeing the emperor barlow was finally told that napoleon w wished ish ed the conference transferred to kitna poland where the emperor was directing the march of his legions into russia so to alina the american envoy went a trip of more than miles much of it over a bleak country of bad roads and few inhabitants and it took him three weeks to make it oe ile was accompanied by his secretary and nephew thomas barlow and scarcely bad had they arrived in ellna than they found that napo apo leon eon bad had passed them on the road tn in the night and that their trip was wits in vain there was una nothing for them to do but to take their weary way back to paris but on the way back the elder barlow exhausted by the cold most of the time it TBS tas 14 below zero and the hardships of the trip fell III and died on decem ber her 21 at near cra LIM cow his nephew planned to bring bis hie bady back to america but pate fate intervened napoleon was retreat ing from loussia and the cossacks were following fast in to his wake so they buried joel barlow tn in polish soil soll and the younger man barely escaped from the cossacks and finally reached paris had congress acted on the bit bill in produced trod troit iced in to the fifty first congles con u gres joel barlow would not now dow bo be a forgotten hero bero but the ravages of the world war erased every trace of his crave grave and americas debt to him Is still unpaid ca till 1931 western newspaper union i AW t i aft |