The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-08-22
ramperIns Win mistory.

Popular taste would have military
heroes imposing in presence as well
as doughty in deed-a relic OF i'm
preston by interitlace from what was
anciently true. that prGsess 10 bat
lie required mea uf brsxB fasacr than
brain. After its long experiences If
the outgoing of spears and brel-..
plates aud the inc jming oi steam ,.,
gunpowder, the popular miud -iT
does not quite rcalizs that s,aiAast
Marshal SAKE, shJ tSis h,s.r-
she like wi>p of straw in III.
fingers, is less fornidahl. thaa a..
Mollke, aud tha, battles are plaaned
in the closet and fought 5y telegraph.
The popular conception of e greas
general Is illustrated in the colored
prints OF the BJwery show windows
lie bestrides coal black charger.
from whose glisteaing eyes aud dis
tended nostrils red flames are shoot
ing be waves on high sword I'll
tor Goliath bombs burst idly in
thick profIslon about the charmed
hero, though dead soldiers are piled
three or four deep around his hlrse's
hoofs steed aud cavalier are Ut
Bro6dignagian mould. and the total
is labelled "Major General Saerin an
at Resaca,' ~ Sheridan az Five
Forks" as the case may be. ie. We
know that if Hancock, and Fcauklia,
and Thomas were mighty Ia stature
and mssslyein Ltew aud limb. tae re-
verse is true of Sheridan, and Grant,
and Mcclellan. the popular idea Of
an infantry charge appears, also, in
The old fashioned pictures, where IA
straight line drawn from the bayOset
Zip On The extreme right of the charg-
ing regiment 10 the zip oil the bIyo-
net ou The extreme left, would Just
Craze every intermediate weapon.
The painter, whether with pen or
brush, has not always skill or candor
enough to present his nero in his
faults of body and soul besides, the
hero himself has rarely so little yaai-
~ as to expose his own defects and
deformities. II an occasional Crom-
well stoutly demands to be painted
with his wart, illustrious men are not
equally eager to set forth their moral
biemishes and mental blunders. bat
suifer their reports and their official
chroniclers to excuse or deity dis
guise them.
National pride and various kinds
Of partisanship also resent the rough
handling of historic heroes. The
portrait Of William Penn which Ma
caulay drew reused the indignation
of many Quakers, in whose minds
Penn had come 10 be figure quite
free from the human frailties which
the historian aseribes to him. When
Thackeray, in the ''Virginians, :"
sketched Washington as an ardinary
mortal falling in love and quarreling
in q very ordinary way, the picture
shocked many Americans, for Wash
ington is our patron saint. We
bad preferred to divest him of the
frivolous gallantries in which youth
commonly indulge, and to think of
him as "loving but once" when he
led the widow Gusts TO the altar.
Bishop Meade, however, tells US in
his "Old Churches and Families of
Virginia." that Miss Cary had pre-
viously captivated the affections of
young Washington, and rejected the
offer of his hand I; and there are ru-
mors of other like experiences in
Was shington's life.
A rare, perhaps solitary lapse into
profanity, under sudden irritation, is
hardly q matter to be concealed in
WashiDgton's life, ,si.ce it really serves
to bring into the light of positive yir-
tues his habi,ual self-restraint and de-
corum yet some eulogists would
gloss even that speck on the sun.
Such eulogists think it wise to figure
our first President as a recognized
demigod among his contemporaries,
ignoring the fact that hostile news
papers called him a traitor, an ally
of Britain, "a stupendous monument
of peridy, ingratiIude and degenera-
cy,p and that his impeachment was
called for. While the treaty with
England, which be favored, was un.
der discussion "his merits" says
Young, "as q soldier and statesman,
were disparaged. His private char
acter did not escape detraction He
was accused CT having overdrawn
the amount of his salary end appro-
appropriated the money ID his private
use" Washington himself, in regard
to the attacks Of The press upon him
for bis treaty policy, wrote that be
could not have believed that every
act of his naturalization would be
tortured. aud the grossest misrepre-
sentaticns Of them made, 'and hat.
too, in such exaggerated and indecent
terms as could scarcely be Ipplied TO
Nero, a notorious deiaulter, or even
to a common piekpoeket"- he Gal
ART