The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1879-09-14
GEN.
An Eloquent Plea for Trufh-Strippins
o1fthe Gliding Of Fiction.

From the Washington Republic.
Clusters monument at West Point
was unveiled a week ago with appro-
pirate speeches and ceremonies. Com
menting upon this interesting and al
together appropriate event, some of my
contemporaries have extolled the gal
liant cavalryman with such ardor and
enthusiasm that 1 fear they aseribe to
him much that is untrue. In fact,
many of these panegyrics embellish his
character with attributes which he pos
sibly might, could, would OF should
have possessed, but did not. Some 60
ing so far as to say that he possessed
all the virtues and none of the vices in
cident to other men. NowI have no
de. ire to pluck a single leaf from the
wreath that appropriately rests upon
the brow Of the image these writers
have created or Macdonald has carved,
but whensI was a good boy-"many
years ago." alasl-and attended Sun
day school, my teachers were forever
thrusting into my face the example Of
G. Washington, the model boy who
never, no, not even when he got to be a
man, swore, drank. smoke, played cards
or practiced any sort Of deception. In
fact, they represented him as a boy
wholly faultless. OF course as boys
grow older and read for themselves they
have not learned exactly the true bio
graphy of the father of his country. On
the contrary they find out that he did
emphasize sometimes, played brag &C.
~casionally, drank, and employed STRAIT
egg in various civil as well as military
affairs. II out of respect for the dead a
becoming silence is necessary SO be it.
But as for promulgating 6ctions to be
unlearned let us rather keep silent.
Custer wa a gallant officer, but he was
endowed with a fair share of the fol-
bles, not to say more, of his fellow men.
Possessed of a vaulting ambition, that
took little thought of others, when he
rode up to the brow Of the hill over
looking the Little Big Horn, and saw
the Sioux village, his Judgment was
dazzled, 80 to speak, by the gllttering
star that he believed hung over it. In
trying to pluck this star from a soldiers
visible heaven-promotion-he pierced
the invisible and saw instead a soldiers
grave. That he was q brave mar is
not doubted, but to the statement that
he possessed all the virtues and none of
the vices of his fellow men 1 must be
permitted to protest. What he may be
now if quite another thing, and altogeth-
er beyond my ken; but 1 am. sure that
while he was on this planet he was not,
nor, would he himself claim to- have
been, angel. In truth, / don't believe
anyone ever saw an angel in a military
uniform, whether it belonged 70 a
Prince Imperial or a Custer, and it is
the sheerest nonsense in the world to
write them up as such. Great King
Arthur's queen said to Lancelot:
II is all fault who hath no fault at ali:
For who loves me must have a touch OF
earth"
Believing that she was correct in her
estimate of man that is of woman born,
and with a remembrance that on the
banks of the lonely Little Big Horn,
under the shadow Of the snow-capped
sentinels of the universe, sleep to-day
more than two hundred brave hearts
who died executing his orders, let us
p1oca our nraofbac IF ;nao,o.tau,a ,no,