The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1853-10-05
APoCHRYrHAL nERoisM.

BY WM II. MERRITT.
WEDNESDAY MORNING., OCT. 5, 1853.
APOCHRYPHAL HEROiSM.
Every one no doub, at some 'riod ofhis l'fe,
has noticed the tendency Of people TO receive
as current truth, fables and myths, If they are
pleasing ones. They arc al first INDUCED, then
received, then pass into History. The result Of
il, a. traced in even the larger annals Of ma
ton, is that truth and fable are so woven and
pleaded together that no mortal hand can draw
the line between them. The wa.chwords on
the fields Of Waterloo aud Buena Vista, "ihe
Old Guard die, but they can not surrender,
and a little more grape, Captain Bragg" are
purely the inventions of letter.writers who
sought to give additional rim to their reports ~
Yet how many hundreds believe II all! 1t
Heaven lrngthens out our mortal span plus
twenty years, We expect to see the latter ex
clamation posted on the sober page of History,
switch lies like TRUTH and yet most traly lies ~
Yet these are only single examples Of host
behind. They may bear the motto. E ptaritas
anxm-each is indeed but one Of many
They are specimen bricks of the great House
which, Through ali ages, weak and warm hearted
enthusiasm has raised-mere castles in the air.
I" want hero,' said the most splendid poet OF
modern times, "an uncommon want, when
We sheer at the Englsh for their lionizing,
yet we ourselves have the same itch. How
many Of these pseudo lions can every one recol.
lect, some of whom have now passed away after
a temporary dedication How many noble
tales have we heard of Jenny Lind, Kossuth,
and a score Of others. What vast farrago Of
heroics has been wasted on Garbaldi, Rosas,
and many more! In our time we have lived to
see even the infamous DR.. Francia, the tyIant oi
Paraguay, exalted to the rank of a hero. In
some form or other, the game is continually
going on.
Something in thia same fashion is going
on now in Chicago, possessing people with a
sort Of enthusiasm which, outside Of that town,
looks very muchli like folly. We refer TO the
Knud lverscn matter-the little boy, who, as
their catch word has it, " would rather die than
steal" Money has been contributed TO erect q
monument to him, organizations have been
formed called g Iverson Monument Commit
tees" long letters with studied rhetoric have
been hawked about by news boys, "letter sheets
have been struck" and old men, women and
maidens generally, have been TUNED upside
down by the apothoesis Of this little boy "whc
would rather de- &c. And now what is it ali
about Simply and merely this. A boy, BY
the name Of Knud lverson, was ducked by
some young wretches, and unfortunately drown
ed in the operation. No. one knows, exactly
soky they "ducked' him, thought it is assumed
that il was because he would not 90 into ar
orchard and get some apples for them. Grant
ing that he refused, the reason of the refusa
does not and can not appear, for no one able Il
give an ineligible account of the matter wal
present lis not probable either that be sup
posed he was going to be drowned, or that the
other boys intended to drown him. If the re-
fusal did take place, it is not unlikely that the
boy preferred what he supposed would be
wetting, to the chance of being caught ant
whipped BY the owner Of the orchard, or bit By
enc Of his dogs. There is besides, the spirit il
almost any boy, the best or the worst, which
would impel him to choose souse in the water
rather than acknowledge himself servant t.
fetch and carry for his companions under com
pulsion. The superstition that death was sol
EMMY held up before him, and that calmly bal
ancing the temporal and eternal consequence,
Of I sudden and awful death Of violence, against
the sin Of getting apples from an orchard, j.
simply absurd. However al this may be, there
IL absolutely no evidence At ali on any point.
Some Of the Chicago papers nay that some
81 man was by" If such was the case, what
was he about that he did not arrest the mis-
chievous young williams, or At least, stop them
in their wanton injury Of : smaller boy p
Oilers reject the !" man by hypothesis,' . and
attach themselves with great earnestness to /" a
little German boy" who was somewhere in the
vicinity holding hats. So very little is known
Of The matter, that none Of the boys have ever
been arrested, identified Or guessed at Norhas
Inst SEEMED to be the intention Of our Chicago
brethren.
No one can look over the evidence and see
any cause for this extravagsnt laudation, excla-
nation and dedication. And We venture to
say, that the contributors after all 10 over, after
The monument is raised, and the buzz Of their
enthusiasm has passed, will find that they only
fdrnished msseriet for some ipsure town poet 10
amend the weai known lines Of Pope, on SINH
lar structure
Where LondOn's column, pointing to the SKIES
Like tall bully HIS its head and Hes :"
FRsMcHT CoUErY.--We learn from reliable
source that Messrs. Kanseler & Co., are build
ing : bridge across the Neshnabotney, near
Austin, in Fremont county. A custom Touring
and saw mill will be erected BY these gentlemen
during the fall and winter. Those toys Of
McKissack's Grove are hard 10 beat for enter
prise.
CouETY FIsAscEs.--We give to-day res
anne of The finances Of our county from Judge
Lowell. We have not had time 10 examine il
critically % yet, but think that it will be found