The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-03-27
RANK VANDALISM.

When the iconoclastic searchers af-
ter "the truth of history" had batter
ed George Washington's little Ratchet
out of shape with their hammers. it
was reasonable to suppose that they
done their. worst and would be con-
tent to leave us some of the others of
our dearly loved heroes and historical
narratives untouched. But the suppose
ton, the hope, has proved TO be in
vain Nothing, indeed, seems sacred
to the men with the hammers. Wher-
ever they find a beautiful ideal, set up
and believed in implicitly by less eX-
acting students of history, they pro-
coed forthwith to begin pounding it.
One of the most charming incidents
of our country's history, that is ia
miliar to every school child, is the story
of Capt. John Smith and the Indian
princess, Pocahontas, the beautiful
daughter of Powhattan. Capt Smith,
as everybody knows, was on the point
of being knocked on the head by the
Indian braves when the dusky and
star-eyed native goddess knelt by his
side, shielded his head with her arms
and begged for his life so eloquently
that old Powhattan's heart was soft
ened. There seemed to have been no
reason for doubling the absolute cor
rectness of the story. Capt. John Smith
himself told it; and was he not in
position to know all about 1t? But
along comes an iconoclast. connected
with a North Carolina college, and
asserts that the whole thing, in all
human probability, was a Pigment of
Capt. Smiths active and fertile imagi-
nation; that 1t never occurred; that
Smith told it just as some other men
tell. fish stories. And Virginians are
naturally, and excusably, indignant.
Capt. John Smith, however, is not
the only mariner and explorer promi-
by the knockers of drawing the long
bow. No less a parsonage than Chris
topher Columbus is being held as
monstrous prevaricator and braggart.
Henry Vignaud, secretary of the
American embassy in Paris, has been
iildhiIlB IL Sluuy VI NOluiHDuS anu Ills
voyages. He finds that the records
show not the slightest Indication that
Columbus hoped to discover a new
passage to the Indies by sailing west;
nor is there anything of record to
show that Columbus had conceived the
idea that the world was round, not
fiat, before he set sail from Palos.
There are in existence numerous docu-
ments relating to the agreement be-
tween Columbus and his outfitters. The
omission of the very important mat
ters referred to, M. Vignaud is con-
WINGED, means nothing more nor less
than that Columbus never thought
of them until he had returned home
that they We're after thoughts, thrown
in for effect, and to increase the i'm
portance of the discoverer in the royal
and popular eyes. Furthermore, NJ.
Vlsnaud asserts that most of the
stories told by Christopher upon his
return were made out of the whole
cloth; that he was a teller of "whop-
pers" who could scarcely be believed.
But, assuming that their stories were
not strictly accurate in all particulars.
may not Capt. Smith and Mr. Column
bus have been justified in drawing
upon their imagindtions for details?
Sailors and soldiers, like marines and
poets, are usually permitted some liz
cense. If they were all held down to
hard-pan truth our history and our
literature would be lacking of many of
their lights.