The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-01-11
MISTAKES OF HISTORY.

4 creep Into the Popular nAin"
Errors ! ma Are Hard to Eradicate
l. history but universally ac-
cepted laot II quote the great
sonlah For example, consider Fly
Napoleo onck In the town of Plymouth
So r r1c Of local fetish. On Foretather 5
sso, eyerv year exercises are neao 't 4hat
day eve, grating the alleged fact that
con a;s rock the pilgrims landed; AS
on ulls "a fact. there is no evidence
A.. ma's snch was the fact. Prof, onan-
:aa' she historical expert of Harvard
nins' .snsd the story back, and believes
mas t hare been started by an old man
W. ad Faunce, who many years ago
n hunted out the rock to some chlloren'
p sring: "Here they landed"
'' History states that the pilgrims ar
"a on sunday, but RETAINED from
rlss ain ~ until Monday lest they should
h ,sa the Sabbath. That is Pure nom
u,es As a matter of fact, the women
Ss VA children stayed on the ship all
any nv because it was more comfort
able. sh;ah o;v;,;za-
.;on Of the ancient Mexicans at the
.ime Of the Spanish conquest have been
manentlv embalmed in history.
The whole story is misrepresenta-
. linn Cortez naturally wished TO give
~. t,u IMPRESSION at home that he had
conquered great and rich nation. IN
.sol;tv It was only halt-civilized and
.ntntored people. The mode OF living
was natriarchal, whole families OF one
hundred or more persons living in one
house The communal dwelling was
If one story and necessarily OF large
s;ze These structures were described
bv the Spaniards as palaces Inc
neople ate only one cooked meal each
aar for the rest of their food depend
inc on a grub diet picked up anyhow.
The dinners partaken of by SO many
individuals are reported in history as
'banquets.
"The schoolboy learns that Columbus
was the man who first conceived the
idea that the world was round. Moth
inc could be more nonsensical. The
truth is, that he merely accepted a no.
ton on this subject which had been
handed down from classic times by
scholarly men. Strabo, the Latin
author, was one of these. The concep-
ton was for many centuries as a faint
light glimering in darkness.
"Let me call your attention to an IN
stance of the making of fictitious his
tory. There are excellent reasons for
believing that the Norsemen reached
the shores of North America before Co
lumbus. The records of their sagas,
however, give no notion of the locality
where they landed. Only few such
non-descriptive facts are stated as that
they found grapes growing. Yet an
enthusiast named Horsford, trustee
Of Harvard, few years ago built on
the Charles river tower between
Waltham and Newton to COM
memorate the landing of the Morse
voyagers at that point. The
sagas tell of going up a river
and Horsford chose to assume that the
Charles river was the river referred to.
Very likely the notion thus recorded
by monument will gain general
credit some day, though there is no
more reason to suppose that the river
was the Charles than that it was the
Delaware or Hudson, or any one of
dozens of other rivers.
"lquoted Napoleon a moment ago.
You probably know that no battle was
ever fought at Waterloo. Waterloo
was post dispatch station some miles
distant. Dispatches were sent thence |
to England, and hence the name given
to the battle.
"Sheridan's ride to Winchester was
not twenty miles-not over ten miles,
think. There never was any founda-
ton in fact for the story of Barbara
trietehie. The same is true of the
yarns about Pocahontas and John
emlth. "-Washinrton Star.