Story Of Barbara Frietchie

lnat modem tendency to iconoclasia, which hns already destroyed the story of William Teil and the apple, and has vulgarized so many touching and pathetic legends of our childhood's days, is disposed to lay violent hands on Whittier's heroin, Barbara Frietchie, and to question not only the reality of the incident upon which the poem is founded, but the very existence of such a person as Barbara Frietchie. Protesting that a poet is not bound by the same rules of veracity which circumscribe a historian, and that it would have been entirely legitímate for Whittier to have invented both his incident and his heroine, had he seen fit, it must be conceded that the weight of evidence is still in favor of the story as the poet told it. Last June The Chronicle contained a letter in refereuce to the matter, and a portrait of the genuine Barbara Frietchie. but the authorof that letter was skeptical on the subject of the flag incident, for the reason that the old woman lived two or three blocks away f rom the mam street of Frederick, and out of the direct line of march of Juckson's army. Our correspondent at that time gave some incidents in the life of Barbara Frietchie, which showed that the waving of an American flag in the faces of Stonewall Jackson and his troops might well have been expected from her, and that the only apparent difficulty was her not residing on the main street of Frederick. But now comes Judge Jordán of apoüs, and says that Barbara Frietchie did live on the main street in Frederick, the street through which Gen. Jackson must have passed with his army; and further, that he had been told that a rebel soldier who now lives in Maryland had said that the incident mane memorable by the poem did occur, and that he was a witness to it. I( it were worth while, there could doubtless be found many of Jackson's men who were on the march through Frederick, and who could verify Whittier's account in the main. Such an incident would nofc be easily or quickly forgotten, and is certainly susceptible of venncation, even at this late day.- San Francisco Chronicle.