Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-11-25
RELICS.

work Of the confessing criminal. IL
these documents, endorsed aud placed
in that sacred room by sagacious anti
quaries, are proved to be false, and all
the wondering curiosity with which
they have been examined is shown to
have been wasted, in what can We place
confidence? We receive this forgsr's
explanation with such sorrowful indig-
nation as might have been experienced
by devout Neapolitans when they
learned that st. Gennaro's bottled blood
is merely soft soap and logwood or
with that rsgrstful disappointment
which was felt by the man who, having
cherished for years what he thought
wal the skull Of ST. Peter when ne was
. child, one morning was undscsi'sd
BY ,ome practical person who showed
him the impossibility OF such q thing
We begin now to doubt the genuine
| character Of all the revolutionary relics
in aud out Of Independence Hall. VINO
can prove that Washington ever sat In
that fragment OF a pew? The pattern
of his trousers is not indelibly impressed
upon the varpish I; and in removing 1t
from the church the ruthless sexton
may have made q mistake and got hold
of the slip in which some plebsisu Chris
,isn slept on Sundays. Indeed, We do
not know that this ever was q pew At
all. It may be a white pine fslsshood-
q lie embodied in boards and red paint.
That dinner plate, too, upon which III"
illu,trious chieftaiu carved his beef,
and mingled the snowy potato With the
essential gravy, who can tell whether
its stony floor really grated beneath the
| Generals i~ucisivs knife, or whether its
c.r.lean edge, beautiful with Celestial
scenery, ever sustained his butter pat,
or whether the plate itself was over up
lifted in those giant fingers with a de-
uand for "mors?" 1t may be but the
pis-pla,s of a degraded baker, or a soul
lions vessel devoted to feeding some
uuheroic cat. Shall We place greater
faith in the portraits of this man? We
have daily proofs OF the unrsli"bility Of
such things. We see how the papers
keep on hand = single gloomy wood cut,
aud whenever a great man dies or is
elected or is hung, plunge it into the
forms and call it Probst, or Andrew
johnson, or Heenan, or Prince Arthur,
or Franklin Pierce, or Byron at sins-
teen, or Anna Dickinson, until the SUBJ
scribsrs know every line in that old
wood cut BY heart, and wonder in their
souls how it happens that so many diff
fsrent people have such a strong family
likeness. Why may not the popularidea
Of Washington havo sprung from some
such practice? or why may not aome
artist have drawn q fancy sketch and
called it Washington, and passed it on
to posterity as genuine? We expect
now to have a discovery made Of writ
ten confession by Stuart that no never
saw the Father Of his Country, but
painted his portrait from his ideal.
Who SHALL swear to tho breeehes in the
Patent office, and prove that they were
not worn by some impecunious private
soldier in the Revolutionary army, and
by him hypothetical for a consideration
in beer; or what guarantee have We
that the green-hilted sword, alleged to
be washington's, did not dangle by the
side of some quartermastsr, and serve
as a divider of Pork and q slicer up OF
brown bread? We are beginning to
doubt the genuineuess Of all these
things, and we want some fresh proof
OF their asserted character before We
will admire, and ven0rate, and become
enthusiastic over them. We doubt the
very bell itself, for we know its history
to have been clouded with fable by at
Ieas. one man who profssssd to be a
historian; We question the cannon balls,
we suspect tha. original copy Of tho
Declaration Of independence; We think
i. likely that tho fragment OF Charter
| Oak may be a mere back log from o
New Jersey wood.pile; We regard Roger
Sherman's letter with iucrsdulity; We
have only partial confidence in John
Haucock's chair; we are even weak OF
faith about tho Hall itself, when We
find that whole generations Of patriotic
people can be imposed upon by a akill-
full psnmau aud induced to worship
manuscript scranled out by him in a
garrett, in tho very middle of the nine
teeuth century. We are sorry this
wre,ehsd villain turned up. We enjoyed
tho fraud and believed in it; why could
he not permit US to remain in ignorance
and maintain an mistaken faith in all
these things? We found no fault when
William Tell was proved to be a myth;
we gave up our belief in the Seven
Sleepers without q sigh; we heard with
GU, q paug that Saint George was
merely a fraudulent army contractor,
who sold spoiled hams to the troops at
Cons,autinople; We gave up the story
of st. Patrick's anti-rsptile operations
with little regret; We even parted
willingly with our faith in John Smith
aud P~ocahoutss, and accepted the state:
men, that the Indian princess used to
throw ha~udsprings around the James
town fort; bat We did think the legends
Of Independence Hall authentic and in
vulnerable, and tho relics preserved
therein genuine. Now, even this faith
is broken, aud by q miserable wretch
who admits his fitness for the State
prison. Is it any wonder that the ago
grows skeptical? After a while we will
begin to question the reality of the
events of our own lives, aud to doubt
the fac: Of our own existence.