The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-12
OLIVER oRoMwELL,s HEAD.

The note, published in the Eagles
foreign dispatches recently regarding
the head of Cromwell perforated with
pike preserved in alcohol and placed
on exhibition, is interesting in two
ways. In the first place it suggests
! that in all likelihood conservative old
England is beingg iven a lively touch
of ''fakeism," such as P. T. Barnuln
used to give this country in the way
of impossible animals. The amusing
feature of this art of taking is that it
excites public curiosity without for an
instance winning public credulity, for
the beauty in a fake lies not in the
power to deceive, but in its power of
fattering everybody that he cannot be
deceived.
1t is not likely at all that the hideous
head now on exhibitionin London is
that Of Oliver Cromwell, and it is still
less likely that anyone believes it TO be.
But the item is interesting in another
way, and that is in reminding Ameri-
cans that they cannot understand Eng
lishmen, although we are supposed to
be their brothers racially
Least of all Englishmen can the aver
age American understand Cromwell,
who refused to give democracy to Eng
land, or TO accept the crown himself
when parliament offered it to him.
At the time of Cromwell'S ascend
ancy in England after the execution of
Charles l., there was strong Republi-
can feeling, backed up by an active
party representing that idea. Crom-
well, although against the king, and
one of the judges who passed sentence
upon him, did not share this idea, al
thoughit was in his power at that time
to frame the government at his will
At the same time he refused the crown
his friends.
When he was made protector, with
the right of succession resting in his
son, he was statesman enough to know
that his son could not hold the power.
What the American spirit would have
done in Cromwell's place. that is what
the spirit of Jefferson and Washington
would have done, would have been TO
have effected at once, a Republic for
the idea of freedom and equality was
as dominant then as it was at the time
of our revolution. But Cromwell was
not ready to listen to a popular gov |
for no othar ,.aacop r,arborc
than the one that he was English and |
possessed the Englishman's deep rev.
erence for the ancient and indissoluble |
right Of kings. That that system and /
the kings under it did not reciprocate /
any like feeling for him or any ap-
probation for his splendid reign, under
which the present vigorous protection
to BritOns in foreign lands was inaug-
urated, is shown by the circumstances
which now make it possible to put up
his head as a museum exhibit, or an
other head to represent it When
oliver Cromwelfs son Richard was sue
,eeded by the second King Charles,
he men who had conscientiously SEN
'enced Charles 1. We're tried as regi-
:ides and many killed and quartered
and on Jan. 80, 1861, the body of
Cromwell along with the of Lawyer
the judge, who condemned
Charles l., was dragged out of its tomb
n Westminster among the kings, to
ryburn, and hanged on the gallows
here from 8 in the morning till six at
light and then buried in a pit, thou
ands who had seen him all-powerful
n life witnessing the dishonorable
Gene, ordered unanimously by parlia-
nent Even loyal old Pepys in his
larry says this: 'Methinks, do trouble
ne that man of so great courage as
e was should have that dishonor."
tut no king ever regretted the revolt
lg spectacle.