The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-21
CURIOUS MISTAKES ABOUT OUR HISTORY Many Popular Stories Known
 to Be Untrue WASHINGTON AND RATCHET Story Is Purest Myth and Yet It Is Still Taught to School Children.
 Other Strange Errors.
 Lees Sword.
WASHINGTON AND HATCHET
BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERIC j. HASKlN.
 For four centuries the little island of San Salvador enjoyed the distinction of beg that bit of land which Columbus found in October, 14a2. when he opened q new world to Chrstendom. Then San Sanyador had to give way to another It, tie island even more insignificant be- cause it was demonstrated that Columbus could not have landed on San Salvador. Perhaps it doesn't make much difference, but 1t illustrates the uncertainty of the facts which children are taught in school histories, for the school books will still have San Salvador. Many of the doubtful stories told in the school histories are harmless myths, some of them are so con troYerted that 1t Is almost impossible to get at the truth, and other are wrong in that they give the children positively mistaken ideas of the national history.
 All New England celebrates December %, as Forefather's day, the supposed an- niversary of the landing if the Pilgrims at Plymouth. As a matter of fact there is no record of what the Mayflower's s people were doing on December 22, 162J. The true anniversary is December T, or December Il, old style, the error hav- ing crept in transposing the date to new style. Tho famous and almost sacred Ply mouth Rock has little warrant in history for the belief that it received the foot of the first Pilgrim to land ii New Eng land. Not only was the first landing in ProVincetown harhor in November, but the rock was not given public notice for over a century. In TAI, when new wharf was being built, Elder Faunce, over nine ty years old, protested against distribut- ing the rock, because he had been told in his youth by old settlers that 1t was the very landing place But as the Pil- grims did land there, the dispute Is mere ly one of sentiment and it makes no particular difference which rock is can- onzed
 School histories, aided and abetted by Longfellow's "Skeleton in Armor' have pointed to the old stone tower at New port. Rhode Island as the one tangible proof that the Norsemen not only dis covered America, but had settled Vinland. four centuries before Columbus It has made a good story, and the boys and girls in school were always sorry there was not more to tell about it. Now 1t Is declared on the best authority that the tower Is not of Morse origin at all, but was built by Benedict Arnold, first gover- nor of the united colonies of Rhode ls- land and Providence Plantations, and grandfather of Benedict Arnold, the trait or of the war of independence. Governor Arnold mentions the "stone-bullt wind mil'' In his will and 1t was not very old at the time of Arnold s death in 167S.
 While much Is made of the treason of Benedict Arnold, and every school child has hated and reviled him, while sympa- thizing with poor Major Andre, little is said in the ordinary school histories of the treason of Gen. Charles Lee, who was once second In command to Wash in-ton and who had a following in the struggling colonies that greatly embar- rassed the chief. Arnold s treason was found out at once but 1t wa seighty years before 1t became known that General Lee, as a prisoner of war In New York, was giving Sir William Howe and his brother plans of American defenses, and advising the expedition to Chesapeake Bay which ended, fortunate ly in the utter defeat of the British This Charles Lee was an Englishman whose career in the English army had not been as glorious as he thought 1t ought to be- He was not a relative of the Lee family of Virginia.
 When one hears of the "blue laws" of tue Olu NeW GlnBldnu colonies, Ln6 nfSI thing to pop into the mind is the solemn 'No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath or fasting day." Such an ab- surd statute was not to be found in the minds of even the sternest Puritan. The quotation Is from '"rhe General History of Connecticut." published in 17S1 by the Rev. Samuel Peters. Mir. Peters n- vented code of blue laws for the graphic illustration of the laws which really had been in existence. and the one forbidding a mother to kiss her child Is a selection from the Peters code It Is an exaggeration In absurdity only, how ever, and not in severity, for the real law prescribed exile on pain of death for persons holding to the faith of Qua kers, while In Virginia man who neg lected to attend church three successive times was liable to death.
 There Is delightful story that Fred erick the Great of Prussia sent a hand some sword to General Washington with the message, from the oldest general in Europe to the greatest general in the world" Washington made no mention of this sword, and nothing escaped his diary He did receive sword from Theophilus Ate. a German, In 1795. which was be- queathed in his will. Only once does Fred erick, who was a voluminous writer, mention the name of Washington. and that Is mere passing reference ot the early campaign around Boston. If he thought him the greatest general In the world" he might have said something more. Nevertheless, the story made good reading when the statue of Frederick was presented to the United States by Elm peror William II.
 The bravery of Barbara Freltchie in waving the Union flag in the face of the Confederate trops, and Gen. Stonewall Jackson's maganimous tribute to her by alty, has been the theme for poets and dramatists, and Is seriously recorded in school histories Some there be who main tain the truth of the story in detail but members of the Freitche family declare that the flag was waved out of the win dow to the Federal troops, and not in tho faces of the Confederates.
 The story. that General Lee gave his sword to General Grant at Appomattix and that Grant returned 1t with a pretty speech worthy of Sir Walter Scott. has been dsproved on every authority, but 1t still persists and is often taught to school children as an authentic story of the end of the civil war. As matter of fact, Lee went to meet Grant dressed in new uniform and wearing a handsome sword, prepared doubtless to offer his sword if the Federal commander showed any taste for heroics But Grant was in a plain service uniform, the discussion was along common-sense grounds, and when the two men talked of the "spring blowing" they forgot some old world military customs.
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