The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-07-19
HISTORICAL ILLUSIONS.

Lille Is made up OF false pretenses and
history of illusions. We are now told
that it was William Shakespeare who muir
dered the two Princes in the Tower and
not Richard the Third, and that Rich
ard of III wasn't an unsightly hunch-
back, but half made up, at whom un-
mannery dogs barked, but rather of a
graceful parsonage, who might reasona-
bly, win the kind regards and fayors of
gentle danes.
1t was Thomas Paine who wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and not
Thomas Jefferson. There were no cot
ton bales worth mentioning used at the
battle of New Orleans, where the recent
A. Jackson, of Tennessee, took such a
conspicuous part, and that gentleman S
very signal success on the Sth of Janu-
ary, 1915, was largely owing to the fact
that the party to the controversy on the
other side-General Packenham and his
staff and his troops-had kept up their
potations so vigorously the night before
that while the officers didn't
know on the morning Of the Sth
how to handle their troops, the troops
didn't know how to handle their arms,
and put the cartridges in bullet-end
down. This mistake very much lessened
their efficiency, and the heroes of New
Orleans earned fame at small risk.
AT an historical anniversary last April
in Connecticut, the fact of General Israel
Putnam getting away from British bull
lets by riding down very steep decliy-
ity-a story that has been chieieat among
juvenile delights in our Revolutionary
history-like the capture of Ticonderoga
by Ethan Allen, was sharply denied.
Two reasons were given for exploding
this long-acccpted story; first, that there
wasn't any very steep hill around there
for him to ride down, and second, that
cod Put" as his genial old tavern
friends were wont to call him, was not
the kind of American eagle that would
fly away from the British lion-not
much.
1t is very much the same about his 60
ing into the VOLTS den. Here the illu-
sions of history are being rudely wiped
out as with a sponge. The VOLTS den,
into which school-book history says he
crawled with a flaming torch, and, after
shooting, dragged out the wolf by the
ears, was nothing but an old pig-sty, and
the wolf was only a tame coon who had
attempted to escape from Connecticut
civilization and blue laws.
The merciless strangers of historical
illusions have relocated the patriotic
story Of William Tell to the same sad
fate that has bcfallen the romanccs Of
Lochinbar, or Joan of Arc, or Casabi-
anca, or Jonah, or the marvellous cures
wrought by DR.. Pardy's Liver Pills
There is really nothing substantial in
history Or biography--nothing a man cal
anchor his faith to as TO a rock.
1t is now an accepted fact that the late
G. Washington, who was conspicuous
man in America at one time, and was
known as the "Father of His Country
in a double sense somewhat like the
good King of Yvetot, whose "young sub
jccts called him sire, as well indeed
they might"-caught a very bad cold
while paying clandestine visit to the
wife of one of his overseers on a raw De
ccmber day, and the whole worlC
moumcd when George W. died.
A thousand cases might be cited to il
lustratc this fact that, notwithstanding
the romance Of history or the truth o.
history, it is safe to say that the world O
to-day is no worse than the world of any
previous day, but the people of to-day who
would like to be enrolled amongst tho
good and brave are discouraged by hav
ing the ding-dong dinned in their ear
of the great goodness of past generations
1t is well to reflect that while there
are as good fish in the Sea as were evel
caught, there are as good men and wo
men living to-day as on any day since
the world was made or since history ant
poetry commenced lying about things.
A modern newspaper reporter, will
the stub end of a lead pencil and bracec
up by the stub end of a free lunch, vii
occasionally ferret out of some garret o.
cellar cases of courage, fortitude, long
suffering, self-sacriiicc and resistance t
temptation to do wrong that have NJ
parallel in ancient history.
TEE HEATED TEpM