Show D da vj evils evil done the dead by half cocked writers writer of history Hi tory WHEN wall HE N napoleon remarked all history is a lie lie he launched a mouthful the little corporal must have sensed what lie was to suffer stiffer at the hands of his biographers those ink stained harpies who marked time against the hour his star fell at st ll helena eleria where on a frail army cot surrounded by a handful of the faithful lie he writhed into the everlasting shadows addressing jahe the mirage of its ills army this man ann pt destiny ended his earthly career in a welter of fat his ankles bulging over patent leather shoes like something spilling into space the jowls of him fell into a soiled collar open at the throat disclosing the lie ivory pulp of a flabby breast housing a heart that for twenty years had set the tempo tor for victorious cannonading canno under the banners of france twenty thousand volumes written in every living tongue flowed for more than a bunkered hundred years from froin the impetuous pens of biographers self con S crated to lay bare tile the life of the corsican born adventurer who alio lived to shake the prom from the confusion wrought it of countless counties pens the fearsome bonaparte Kona parte now stalks half monster half god an execrated and a deified delfied personality with the accumulating years and nil all alint abat is germane to its his influence upon tile the nineteenth century Is swept into his disorder biography written by ear unfortunate indeed that history Is not clarified by time once an am error creeps into the lie record it remains there forever modified at intervals but never wholly corrected for the enlightenment of posterity it Is quite the ogue with modern biographers to take one characteristic of the deceased and upon that rebuild tile the personality sona lity to suit themselves memoirs are equally noxious no sious not for what they present but for what they withhold most biography is written in the measure of one grand sweet song whistled by an idiot who has no ear for music recently in washington a conscientious attempt was made by a congressman nod find an artist to contrive a mural decoration that would show just how our colonial statesmen looked when properly garbed to in the style of that period nothing built along quantity plo production lines or shot with shoddy but b ut the crackerjack handmade breeches buskin and waistcoat of the james madison adison SI ben franklin and aaron burr school showing george washington in profile and alexander hamilton from froia the front elevation fair enough and a knockout so I 1 understood cut but has anything been done to cle clear ar up some of the exaggerations ge rations inaccuracies anti and dirty cracks brachs taken at george and alex by the gentry aho vho ho adulterate adult erale biography ith fiction not long ago I 1 picked up a book that dealt in part with that chapter in tho the life of bonnie irence charlie Cli mho was rescued from arit ish pursuers in the isle of skye by the heroine flora macdonald after the battle of culloden which rang down the curtain of charlies kingly ambitions to quote story of royal romance it seems to have haie been his charlies thou thought bt that it if she flora cared for him that the to might well love and lie he gave her every chance to show him favor the youth of twenty five and the girl of M twenty enty four roamed together in the long tufted grass or lay ily in the sunshine suns lilno and looked out over the sea but to the last ho be was either too high or too low for her according to her own modest thought well there it is offered as 11 history last bear ear I 1 spent a month in the isle of ake snooping into that affair variously distorted by writers totally ignorant of 0 the truth the facts are these rol following lowIng culloden bonnie charlie took it on the run with a f fw 01 OUO reward on his curly bea head d loyal highlanders High landers it n mere handful escorted him bita through the rain swept sept barren hills keeping him concealed under cover of night flora true blue unimpeachable pea chable liable and courageous was selected by charlies escort to get the fillice out of his she agreed to take the risk and set about her arrangements to get him to a point ot of safety disguised as her m maid a I 1 d myth Is De bunked after ten days of breathtaking breath taking ad venture flora bossing the entire job succeeded in her mission and on the night of july 1 in the presence of 0 highland gentlemen one of them a relative of flora the connie bonnie prince bade her a respectable unemotional goodby good by in room 5 of royal hotel at artree portroe Por Pr tree climbed out of the window and escaped in the boat that her efforts had provided the actual time consumed in the plot tor for his flight was ten days during five of which flora never set eyes upon the prince during the live remaining days she saw him three times always in iii the coln company of his highland hene honchman baton iraln and cold weather prevailed not ot once was the rescuer of the hapless nalle wan alone in ills his society to bk be perfectly frank charlie on tin the occa lon don of his last ten days in sye skye was ragged cold hungry aind loisy akif |