The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-09-11
The Story of William Tell.

The new United States Minister to
Switzerland having been requested by
the government to make inquiries
as to the authenticity of the story Of
William Tell, the following, from
"Myths and Dreams" by Edward
Clodd, may prove interesting:
Everybodyhas heard how in they year
1907 Tor, as some say, 1886 Gessler,
Vogt Tor Governor) of the Emperor
Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a
pole as a symbol of the Imperial pow
er, and ordered every one who passed
by to do obeisance to it; and how a
mountameer named Wilhelm Tell, who
hated Gessler and the tyranny which
the symbol expressed, passed by with
out saluting the hat, and was at once
seized and brought before Gessler, who
ordered that as a punishment Tell
should shoot an apple off the head of
his own sol As resistance was vain,
the apple was placed on the boys
head, when Tell bent his bow, and the
arrow, piercing the apple, fell With it to
the ground. Gessle saw that Tell, be-
fore shooting, had stuck G second ar
row in his belt, and, asking the reason,
received this for answer-"It was for
you; had | shot my child, know that
this would have pierced your heart"
Now this story first occurs in the
chronicle of Melchior Russ, who wrote
at the end of the fifteenth century,.
e., about ITO years after it's reputed
occurrence. The absence of any ref
erence to 1t IN contemporary records
calr1ed doubt to be thrown upon it
three centuries ago. Guillimann, the
author of a work on Swiss antiquities,
published in 1898, calls it a fable, but
~subscribes to the current belief in it
because the tale is so popular! The
a to which he belonged is not vet
extinct. A century and a half later
a more fearless sceptic, who said that
the story was of Danish origin, vas
condemned by the Canton of Uri to be
burnt alive, and in the well-timed abb
sence OF the offender his book was or
dered to be burned by the common
hangman- But the truth is great, and
prevails. G. Won Wyss, the Swiss his
torian, has pointed out that the name
OF Wilhelm Tell does not occur even
once in the history OF the three can
tons, neither is there any trace that q
VOgt named Gessler ever served the
house OF Hapsburg there. Moreover,
the legend does not correspond to any
fact of a period of expressions of the
Swiss at the hands of their Austrian
rulers.
There exist in contemporary rec
ords no instances of wanton courage
and insolence on the Hapsburg side.
1t was the object of that power to OBJ
tain political ascendancyr mot to In
dulge its representatives I'm lust ard
wanton insult" and, where records OF
disputes between particularpersons oc-
cur, 1.-THE symptoms OF violence, as.
natural enough appear rather on the,
side OF the Swiss than on that of the.
aggrandising Imperial house.
Candour, however, requires that the.
ssevidence" in support of the legend
should be stated. There is the fourf-
tain on the supposed site Of the lime
tree IN the rparket-plaee at Altdcrf by
which young Tell stood, as week as the
colossal plaster statue Of the hero
himself which confronts us as w .snter
the quaint village. But more. than
this, the veritable cross-bow itself is
preserved in the arsenal at zlrichi
However, although the lutte Tells
enapsa, as restored, was opened with
q national fete, in the presence Of two
members Of the Federal Council, "a
.ltIne, 1883. the Swiss NOW admit n
their school teoching that their story
is legendary.