The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-08-17

evanescent fiirtatiOns." There is more
camping out than usual in the Adiron
dacks, and the flies are more numerOu:
and active, too.--M y. Slm.
Mythical Towns.
The unthinking majority of the pub
lie, OF course, believe that Oshkosh ha'
aH actual existence, and bona fide inhab
itants.. There are those, however, who
not only look upon Oshkosh as intrinsically
improbable, but who insist that altogether
too many things happen in that alleged
town. It is true that map makers per
sistently locate Oshkosh upon the map oi
Wisconsin, but 10 one who has ever
studied African geography has any
faith in the map-makers. Who has ever
vet seen a man or woman who pre-
tended to live in Oshkosh? ? Such per-
son is vet to be discovered, aud when
found will be regarded as a unique and
priceless curiosity. Wisconsin people
when asked questions concerning Osh-
kosh always turned the conversation into
other channels, and persist in declining
to discuss that hypothetical and suspi-
cious town. No eastern man has ever
visited Oshkosh and returned again to
civilization. When a man asked a
Chicago hotel clerk for any information
as to Oshkosh, he is uniformly
understood to be asking for "hOt-
scotch" which seductive fluid is
promptly brought to him, and the price
thereof entered in his bill, even if he
happens to be a Methodist bishop
actively engaged in preventing the
appointment of intemperate per
sons in connection with the
Deadwood postal service. Some years
since a determined Massachusetts man
set out upon a journey in search of
Oshkosh. He fully believed in its ex-
istence, and was confident that he would
return a successful and famous man.
He penetrated as far as Waukegan with
out much difficulty, and his last letter,
dated from that place, announced that
he believed himself to be within ten
days' march of his mysterious goal.
ThereupOn he vanished into the wilder
ness. and not a word was heard from him
during the next three years. At the
end of that time he re-aPpeared at his
Massachusetts, home, so haggard and
worn that he had hardly strength
enough to tell his wife's new
husband that he had better sort out his
private children and remove to some
other State. From that day to this the
traveller has never mentioned the name
of Oshkosh. The curiosity of an entire
New England village has never been
BILE to drag from him one word of infOr-
nation as to the alleged Wisconsin
town. Whether he actually reached
Oshkosh, and was imprisoned by the in
habitants until lie took a solemn oath
never to reveal their names, or whether
he found that there was no such town,
and lacked the courage to confess that he
had been foolishly crcdulsus in searching
for it, we shall probably never know.
Now, when we consider these signifi-
cant facts-that no avowed native of
Oshkosh has ever been seen that no tray
elcr has ever reached and described
that town, and that its name is so inn
as TO invite our disbelief, IL is
not strange that our best critical minds
refuse to believe in it. The very fact
that a vast quantity of extraordinary
things are constantly said by unscrupu-
Ious papers to have happened at Oshkosh
is extremely suspicious. Why should
that unseen Wisconsin town have almost
a monopoly Of remarkable events? If
Mr.. Stanley had asserted that he had
found DR.. Livingstone at Oshkosh, no
one would have believed him and yet
the people believe in Oshkosh, although
scores of far more incredible things con-
stantly occur in that absurd place.
As to Sheboygan, on the other hand,
there is positive evidence of its exist
ence, however doubtful the town may
seem to those who hear its name for the
first time. There was man aC the Phil
adelphia centennial exhibition who adj
mitted that he came from ShebOygan,
and was constantly asked to dinner and
otherwise lionized by every map-maker
who visited the exhibition, Then there
is the authentic anecdote of the devout
Roman Catholic Irishman who died At
Sheboygan, and, of course, mentioned
that town to st. Peter as his last place of
residence. "Sheboygan !" remarked the
saint, with an incredulous aud injured
air: " Oh, no, you mustn't talk in that
way. You came from Chicago or st.
Louis, or some such place, and naturally
want to conceal the fact but you really
70 too far when you try to palm off any
such preposterous place as Sheboygan
IN me-" But the worthy Irishman per
listed, and finally produced a letter OF
from his conlessor da'ed
It Shebeygan. Whereupon the saint ad-
nitted him without even reading the let
,er, remarking, as he did so, "lts no
natter, my dear son, what you may or
nay not have done. A man who has
ived at Sheboygan, and been known TO
lis fellow-men as a Sheboygannian, has
armed a full exemption from purgatOry."
This veracious anec1ote is alone sufficient
.vidence of the existence OF ShebOygan,
md our faith in that fact need not be
haken by the suspicious way in which
shebOygan and Oshkosh are often classed
ogether.
It is probable that the myth of Osh-
,osh originated in the effort OF some
Wild western humOTist to surpass the
worst. efforts of aboriginal nOmen-
,lature. After WaukegGn became an
.ctual town, certain Wisconsin settlers
# more than usual effrontery attempted
o make their village even more notorious
han Waukegan by calling it ShebOygan.
n order to ridicule these objectionable
lames, some Western editor invented an
imaginary town and conferred upon it /
he unspeakable name of Oshkosh. BY /
leQrees the name became 80 well known |
hat the map. makers felt compelled to /
,ut 1t on their maps, ana lhenceloICn ~
vas generally accepted as geographical
act. In much the same way the /
lame of the Bogardus kicker, purely |
machine, became 30 familiar
O the readers OF western newspapers that /
thousands of people have now ss firm /
,elief in the existence of the Bogardus
ticker as they have in the existence of the
team engine; and one of the first things |
which every French journalist who
,isited the Philadelphia exhibition de-
ired to zee was " that machine the most
wonderful devised by Sir Bogardus." So |
,ersistent is the hold OF popular tradi
ion upon the masses that in all prOGa- |
ility Oshkosh will appear upon the map |
f Wisconsin for fifty years to come, and |
hree-fourths of the Wisconsin people |
7ill believe that it is as real as Boston or
Jew York. No earnest man can be sat
fled with this stale of things, and an
fort must sooner or later be made t.
isabuse the popular mind.-M T.
Tines.