The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-05-08

Doubtless if some of my readers
could go to sleep, and awake in the
year 1895. they might see an article
like the following in the London
Historical Review :"
"wAsBISGToN A MYTH"
A volume bearing the above title
has been recently published. 1t is
written by that learned historian, DR..
J.. B. St. John, whose eminent
abilities as an author are familiar to
our readers. The book is written in
the Doctors pleasant style, and is
replete with most interesting histori.
cal information. While we are not
fully convinced that Washington was
a myth, still we must confess that
some of the Doctors theories are
plausible. According to his idea
there are only two reasons why we
have been induced to believe that
Washington lived at all. First, be-
cause history tells IS so, and second-
~, because there is a great city in
North America that is said to have
been named for him.
But DR.. St. John meets with the
following theory the several facts
which history has advanced. Many
centuries ago numerous companies
of emigrants from Europe went to
America and settled there. A large
portion of the settled land belonged
to England, but the settlers became
weary CT our rule and rebelled. A
little fighting ensued, and England
soon gave the Colonies their freedom,
for she cared but little for a wild
country, far across the sea These
colonies then grew into a mighty
republic, which is said to have .ex-
tended from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. Finally anarchy prevailed,
and the Republic was split into many
countries. Washington City had
been the capital of the old republic
and when that was broken up, it be-
came the capital of the Vanasgo Re-
public. 1t is claimed that Washing
ton was the leader of the people
when they fought for England, and
that after the war was over he es.
tablished the mighty republic. DR..
St. John says the truth probably is
that the scattered and half savage
settlers really had a number of
leaders, and the republic just
gradually grew of itself, and vas
not formed by any man or special
set of men. 1t is simply ridiculous
to suppose that any one man could
be the leader of scattered settlers,
who lived on a sea coast extending
many hundred miles. This mai
Washington is represented as having
been almost an angel. 1t is said
that he was so truthful that he could
not tell a lie. He was a farmer, we
are informed, who had nc military
training, yet no sooner did he enter
into the army than he proved him
self one of the most wonderful mill
tary commanders of whom history
makes mention. He vas so superior
to other men that he never laughed,
but had the dignity of a tabled God.
His life was a charmed q no
matter in what battle he went, no
matter how many were killed and
wounded, he was never injured by a
bullet. He possessed such power
over other men that the people al
most worshipped him. Could such a
nan as this live in our world: No.
yet according to history ne did live.
DR. St. John then pleasantly relates
numerous examples of historical in
accuracies, &c show with how little
safety history can be depended upon.
: Next our author gives a grapic
account of the half savage age in
which Washington is said to have
lived. Rail trains and the tele.
graphic were without a doubt, un-
known to the simple people of that
age, and it is certain that telephones
and many other things Of the sort
were never heard of until .ears
afterwards. The people of that age
we're bigoted, to a wonderful degree.
Such was the age Of Washington
an age in which there was little
machinery, nothing scarcely worth
bearing the name Of medicine, no
inventions, the people bigoted and
wrapped in dense ignorance. Is it
any wonder that myths should grow
in an age like this, and among such a
people
How did the myth a. It George
Washington really Originate? DR..
St. John accounts for it in this way.
In those ancient times there was a
collection of houses on the Potomac
River which were inhabited by peo-