Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1876-03-14

picturesque, said Orestes. Il am from
New England myself, as Artemus Ward
sed to say, and l still look down on the
Dutch
well, we must skip the Puritan land
ing that know ad nduSedm, feel like
the Fourth OF July orator, who, having
attempted to write an oraton, and hav.
ing sickened of the whole subject said
Ladies and gentlemen. lwish the May
flower on her first voyage had gone down
in mid.ocean !" and then sat down. You
see that the subject has been done 10
death by inferior pens. 1t is cold, harsh
and forbidding; it is at the same time
enormously romantic, heroic and grand.
Miles Slandish bringing in the head ofan
Indian chief on long pole to Plymouth,
while Rose Standsh, his wife. with red
lips was waiting to greet him, is picture
out of the dark ages Yet know OF no
one who has done it justice. All that
Indian warfare, that early religious tylan-
! ny-how painful it all is | DO not love
the Puritans."
mo, unworthy daughter of a noble
stock, know you do not suppose you
like better that pretty, romantic story OF
Lord Baltimore and his agreeing to pay
the king yearly rent of two arrows and
one fifth of whatever gold and silver he
should find; that pleases you. because it
is ieudal aud fine You women are all
aristocrats and love baubles and titles
and such gauds; that is the reason you do
not like American history"
Il grant YOU there is g great deal in
that. want my two roses, my York and
Lancaster; want my Eleanor and lair
Ro.amond; | want my Henry of Navarro
aud his white plume. know my weak
ness. desire, with all 4 woman'5 love
of color and luxury, the Field of the Cloth
OF Gold Life is TOO hard, too sell sacri,
iicing. too full oil tears and self renupci.
alton, to be always reading of such a
story as that of the Puritans believe
in the iron clad virtues, but do ask for
a velvet mantle TO throw over the hard
points il is human nature. Yet see VIVA.
magician can DO! can read of William
OF Orange, as hard. and silent and cold a
creature as ever breathed, if Motley tells
the story. can read OF hunger. cold,
starvation, aud cruelty, it, Macaulay
holds the pen. |: is the historian that is
wanting. think"
"Well, il it is, what are you going 10
do about il'2 Are you going to invoke a
Carlyle, q Macaulsy, Motley ?"
"Yes. think l shall; | DO wish Mr.,
Bancroft had begun just where he is eay'
ing of What a story he could have
made if he had written all his history in
the tone with which he describes the bat
lie Of Lexington, which Emerson says be
never can read without tears! !"
Bancroft has written an erudite histo-
ry tor scholars and thinkers; all Ameri-
can history has been done in that style.
There are some admirable small com
pendiums. no doubt; but they are dry.
And that reminds me-you have been en-
gagged in teaching the young idea how to
shoot lately-how much history is taught
in the common schools; how much: in
the colleges ~
American history None at all The
pupils of the public schools are compelled
to learn q little, but they hate it; while
al the private schools there is no neces.
sary course OF American history. At
! Harvard college and at Yale the subject
is not approached at all until the junior
year, when the student is taught the
principles of the constitution oil the Uni.
ted States. He may graduate with the
/ highest honors from either institution, and
know nothing of that struggle, or OF
those well-iought battle-fields TO whose
baptism OF blood he owes his very birth
right
"All wrong, all wrong" said Orestes.
"Yet | do not know how you are to make
the bill OF rights interesting. Our polit-
ical history, important. grand and peculiar
as it is, is very doll reading to the young
no doubt"
"How would it DO to take up tho story
OF The governors. beginning with that
violent old Berkeley of Virginia, who 10
1876 fined, coni:cated and hanged all the
poor rebel Virgiuians That old fool,
said the king, when Berkley returned
home, 'has taken away more lives in that
naked country than Iior the murder OF my
falherr Royal and dissolute Charles he
had not hard heart, if he did lead rather
an unkingly and uuc1ristian life. | always
admire Berkeley old Virginian hospitality
to Diummond, republican. You are
welcome. said the old tyrant; j am more
glad 10 see you than any man in Virginia
you shall be hanged in half au hour
"Yes, that was epigrammatic. certainly
and it put the old fellow ont of any
danger of catching cold or suffering IRON
dyspepsia. Then you could have your
beloved, long haired Cavalier Governors
of Maryland, and your crop-eared Puri
taus in New England" said Orestes. 81
see what your idea is; you want tc
administer a pill of history in large
marmalade of story; that is natural