Page Eight THE STATE
NORTH CAROLINA’S OUTSTANDING
June 23, 1934
SOLDIER
«ж
FORTUNE
HE now lives the quiet life of a country gentleman near Charlotte, but
his life has been one love affair and one fight after another. He has
travelled all over the world and has been in all kinds of scrapes, some
of which are recounted in this article.
By R. S. RAINEY
★
COMMANDER James E. Walker,
living the life of a quiet coun¬
try gentleman at his ancestral
home on Amity Road, near Charlotte
is a retired United States naval officer,
who has lived a life as romantic as
any ever spent on the seven sens. In
a voice strained and husky, the result
of being smashed in the chest with
portions of a twelve inch shell, he can
tell tales stranger than fiction and as
entrancing as the voyages of Ulysses
or Aeneas. He has made love to the
queen of Portugal, unwittingly become
engaged to the daughter of the presi¬
dent of Argentina, been in a love tangle
with the daughter of the king's high
physician in Christiana, and refused
the hand of a Sultan’s daughter. He
was knighted by King Alphonso of
Spain, has posed as an English duke
in Scotland, nnd bathed with Japanese
royalty in Kioga. He has hunted big
game in Borneo, fought the Moros in
Samar, and protected Chinese neutral¬
ity at Shanghai during the Russo-Jap¬
anese war. He has commanded bat¬
tleships. gunboat cruisers, and fought
on land against Laxamana Usap. He
has l>eon aide de camp to President
Theodore Roosevelt, attache to Amer¬
ican embassies here and there, and
host to Spanish infantry officers who
were aboard a ship which he sank.
Commander Walker was transferred
to the army soon after the outbreak
of the World War, and was in charge
of heavy artillery defenses in New
York harbor until his encounter with
the twelve inch shell forced him to
retire.
An Exciting Life
Many stories this old sea dog can
tell. He represents the l>eet traditions
of the American navy and he served
his country during a period when our
navy won its greatest fame.
Jim Walker, ns he is affectionately
known to his neighbors, finished at the
COMMANDER JAMES E. WALKER
- ★ -
United States Naval Academy in
1895, and an ensign’s commission soon
after set him on his romantic career.
Many of his yarns have to do with the
court which he paid to lovely Indies
in out-of-the-way places of the earth.
In fact these love-making stories are
the ones he loves to tell best. You
should hear the one he tells about the
duel he fought in the Argentine over
the hand of beautiful Spanish girl.
Lot him tell it:
“In 1897 I was temporary attache
to Ambassador Buchanan, American
minister to Argentina and Uruguay,
stutioned at Montevideo. I paid
court to a dark eyed beauty and was
more successful in the siege than my
rival who plotted my downfall. One
day, while seated in a club where I
was having a few drinks with Lieu¬
tenant Denbeigh, son of the English
Duke of Denbeigh, my rival came in
carrying a papier mache pig with an
American flag in its mouth. To arouse
me, ho dashed the pig to the floor and
trampled the flag. Angered by the in¬
sult. I knocked the man to the floor.
He immediately challenged me to a
duel. Despite the fact that dueling
and acting as a second is forbidden
in both the American and English
navies,
Г
accepted the challenge and
got my friend Denbeigh to be my sec¬
ond.
The Duel Over a Girl
“Sunrise the next morning found us
facing each other behind the club with
French rapiers as weapons. I knew
my rival to be a crack swordsman, but
having been on the fencing team at
Annapolis, this did not bother me.
That scar you see above my right fore¬
finger is where my opponent’s blade
slipped through the webbed guard of
my long sword. But that one thrust
proved my adversary’s undoing. His
blade became locked in the webbing
of my guard, and when he attempted
to withdraw, I allowed my sword arm
to follow his. Then a quick stab sent
ray rapier through his shoulder to end
the affair. But it did not end my
rival’s efforts at revenge. A few days
later the cruel stilettoes of his hired
ruffians pierced the body of my order¬
ly. He was wearing my English plaid
suit and they had mistaken him for
me.
“But it was another case of love’s
labor lost; for about this time the
newspapers announced my engagement
to the Argentine president’s daughter.
1 had the misfortune of having been
seen alone with this fat, swarthy, mus¬
tachioed lady, which in that country
was tantamount to the announcement
of an engagement. The fair maiden
for whom I had fought refused to see
me thereafter. There was nothing left
for me to do but ask for orders to
rejoin my ship. The orders were
granted.”
A Bride for
о
Present
Probably the worst love tangle — or
was it love? — was the time Walker
left Singapore on the excuse that the
town was too dirty for his men, and
traveled seven hundred or so miles to
attend a wedding festival of an old
Moro sultan on the island of Busuanga.
At that time he was in command of
the U. S. S. Quiros, doing service as
the protector of Philippine neutrality
{Continued on page eighteen)
