Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-28
cH1vA1RY GONE TO SEED.

AASS yNsAAo oAOp ~
Cervantes Saavedra drew his absurd pen
portrait of Don Quixote de la Mancha,
the knight of the Rueful Countenance,
mounted upon his starved Rosinante,
followed BY his henchman, Sancho Panza,
bestriding jackass, and doing battle
against sheep and wind-mills, in the name
of an old prostitute. Even at that remote
day, the extrqvagancies and absurdities OF
"chivalry " had fallen into disrepute, and
the merclless ridieule of Cervantes render
ed it the laughing stock of the civilized
world. "Chivalry" died out in Europe,
to be resuscitated among the descendants
of the paupers and convic,s of the Virginia
Plantations. The Don Quixotes of the
South have, for century past, been riding
over the land armed cap-G-pie in a piano.
ply Of impudence and Ignorance, with
whip for sword and branding-iron for
spear; bawling the braggadocia of a past
age. and doing battle in the name OF
Slavery instead of the prostitute Dulcinea
del Tobosa. So long as their insanity
was harmless, the people Of the North
suffered them to give full vent to their
ridiculous boastings about 1.-THE Mediter-
ranean races" the " Latins," their d" blue
blood" ard their superiority over the
mud-sills of the North" When, how
ever, they began TO carry their nonsense
too far, and to change the broad farce into
a tragedy, it became necessary for sensible
men and patriots to take the lunatics in
hand and coerce them into reason. Even
as poor old Don Quixote was knocked
endwise by the windmill, and horribly
cudgelled by the shepherds, so has it be-
come necessary for the quiet and peacable
people of the nation to administer sound
drubbing to these gasconading knights of
the cotton-6eld and tobacco-patch. Rea-
son dawned upon Don Quixote in his old
age, and he saw with shame and NORTH
cation the absurdities of his bogus-chiv-
airy. He died sane, and in the odor Of
sanctity. There is hope for the addle-
pated F. F. VS.. The comparison of this
modern chivalry with Don Quixote, is not
aattering to the crazy knight of La Man
cha. He at least was honest in soul, and
made his crusade in defense of religion
and humanity. His cause was holy and
just. 1t was only the absurd vagaries of
his crazed brain, leading him to wild ex-
travagancies, that rendered him ridiculous.
The modern chivalry have been utterly
destitute of those high and noble attributes
which once shea lustre upon the name,
and which the crazy Spaniard endeayored
to initiate. With the ancient knights
woman was holy name, and high or
low, rich or poor, princess or peasant, she
was a sacred being, to be defended to the
last drop of chivalric blood. Among this
Cis-Atlantic chivalry woman was "Yan-
kee school-marm to be tarred and feath-
cred; or "tory" to be hung; or a
"chattel" to be bought, sold, debauched,
whipped, and burnt with branding-iron.
With the ancient knight, honor" was
the rule Of life, and the passport to Para
disc; with the modern cavalier, it is a file
to cut hand-cuf, a key for traitors to
unlock minis and arsenals wlthal, a
parole to be broken. The ancient knight
was courage personi6ed. He never struck
an unarmed foe; he fought only his equal
upon equal terms. The modern cavalier
sweeps the seas with his armed cruisers,
sinking, burning and destroying helpless
traders, and flying like frightened wolf
from every armed foe, and seeking asylf
from Just vengeance in neutral ports and
under false flags. The knight of old dias
played as his trophies of victory, the
broken arms and tattered ensigns of his
enemies; the latter day chivalry display
the chronometers of merchant-ships, the
cattle of farmers, and the pocket-books Of
railway travellers. The ancient crusaders
relied on their strength of arm; the
knight of Niggerdom relies on his length
of leg. The old paladin held his prisoner
as his guest until ransomed; the modern
Latin " starves his prisoner to death, and
mocks at his gaunt and hungry agony.
The modern chivalry, in addition to the
high-hown vocabulary of the medieval
age, added many high-sounding phrases
of later invention. They talked loudly
and bravely of the last man and the last
ditch" There were to be no retreats, no
surrender, no flags Of truce. The "last
man" was understood to mean the last
survivor of his heroic race, and the last
ditch the place where, amid the blood and
hair and entrails of his slaughtered breth-
rem, the last of the Huguenots should lay
him down and give up his chivalric ghost.
1t dow seems that the "last man" means
the slowest of foot, and when he comes to
the "last ditch he scrambles hastily
through it, and with hair on end and hori-
zontal coat-tail, pursues the cloud of dust
kicked up by the heels of his flying COM
rades. Those who have visited the battle
fields of America during the past twelve
months, have always seen that "last man"
following the cloud of dust just out Of
range of the Yankee rifles. The Northern
skirmishers of Sherman's army can see
him now, and at the rate he is going he
will soon be in sight of the spires of Rich
mond. We have drawn, with hasty
pencil, the outlines Of difference between
q rhivalry as IL was " and 0chiyalry as II