“The real Wild West had faded into memory and history books by the start of the twentieth century, but it lived on in the minds of many Americans thanks to the embellished stories produced in dime novels, pulp westerns, traveling wild west shows, and early Hollywood motion pictures. These things made men like Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Gen. George Custer and others bigger than life. They became legendary figures, and helped to make the settlement of the American West romantic and colorful. It was then that many old-timers began setting down on paper what they remembered, or thought they remembered, about helping to settle the West. They wanted their share of the glory. Many books of old-timer tales were published even though many of the works were poorly written and garbled. Many people, even a few scholars, believed the accounts. After all, the writer said he had been there. What other proof was needed? Why should they not accept what a man had to say about his own life and times and believe the stories about what he did and the people he said he knew. Some suspected the accounts were not true but refused to correct them and repeated them because they had been accepted as authentic by the masses for many years.
By the middle twentieth century a new generation of scholars were becoming interested in the history of the West. They began to check the old-timers’ accounts and it soon became evident that many such accounts were not accurate, that the writers’ minds were hazy. They had not checked the facts, and their fading memories remembered only rumors or conjecture and not the truth. Scholars began to write books containing the truth. When the real lives of many legendary characters were compared to the true facts, their real lives were hardly recognizable.
While scholars excused the errors made by old-timers because of their ages and a lack of scholarly training, they were more critical of another type of old-timer who told outright lies in writing about the old west. This type of old-timer deliberately made up stories apparently to elevate their stature in history. Many such men had really led dull lives which they regretted in old age. Certainly it is not uncommon for people who have led dull lives to dream of being associated with prominent persons and events. There is nothing wrong with such dreaming, but when one put his dreams into words on paper and publishes them as the truth, it is wrong. Claiming to have been associated with well-known historic or notorious persons and events is simply fraud. Such people apparently counted upon the reader’s ignorance to believe instead of challenging what is written…”
Reference: Hopkins, F. (with Dary, D.). (2003). Hidalgo. Glasgow, KY: The Long Riders’ Guild Press.
There are a lot of different observations that can be made about the points in this quotation, but I want to focus in on the fact that the author speaks of real people, real places, and false "facts." The stories that Dary (2003) discusses were often created in order to elevate the author to prominence (in other words, they had something to gain by lying). Because of such lies when the testimonies were examined, the truth was exposed. Additionally, each of these stories contradicted one another, which is why they can be dismissed.
When it comes to the Bible, some claim that it is merely an invention of men...men who had something to gain from it...men who would gain prominence from it. When we examine the testimonies in the Bible, however, do they fall under the same category as those "testimonies" described in the quotation above? While the "old-timers'" discussed in the quotation were contradictory to one another, the testimonies within the Scriptures are not. Note how many different witnesses the Apostle Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, and yet they all testified with unity. When a lie is told in order to gain prominence, the liar does not welcome an investigation into their testimony. The Bible openly encourages an investigation of the evidence included because God wants His children to be convinced based on that evidence (reference Acts 17:10-12; Acts 17:2, 17, 18:4, 1 John 4:1, etc.). Likewise, John leveraged evidence in 1 John 1 to show that multiple people were witnesses to what has been presented in the Bible and that they were all in 100% agreement (see 1 John 1:1-4).
By the middle twentieth century a new generation of scholars were becoming interested in the history of the West. They began to check the old-timers’ accounts and it soon became evident that many such accounts were not accurate, that the writers’ minds were hazy. They had not checked the facts, and their fading memories remembered only rumors or conjecture and not the truth. Scholars began to write books containing the truth. When the real lives of many legendary characters were compared to the true facts, their real lives were hardly recognizable.
While scholars excused the errors made by old-timers because of their ages and a lack of scholarly training, they were more critical of another type of old-timer who told outright lies in writing about the old west. This type of old-timer deliberately made up stories apparently to elevate their stature in history. Many such men had really led dull lives which they regretted in old age. Certainly it is not uncommon for people who have led dull lives to dream of being associated with prominent persons and events. There is nothing wrong with such dreaming, but when one put his dreams into words on paper and publishes them as the truth, it is wrong. Claiming to have been associated with well-known historic or notorious persons and events is simply fraud. Such people apparently counted upon the reader’s ignorance to believe instead of challenging what is written…”
Reference: Hopkins, F. (with Dary, D.). (2003). Hidalgo. Glasgow, KY: The Long Riders’ Guild Press.
There are a lot of different observations that can be made about the points in this quotation, but I want to focus in on the fact that the author speaks of real people, real places, and false "facts." The stories that Dary (2003) discusses were often created in order to elevate the author to prominence (in other words, they had something to gain by lying). Because of such lies when the testimonies were examined, the truth was exposed. Additionally, each of these stories contradicted one another, which is why they can be dismissed.
When it comes to the Bible, some claim that it is merely an invention of men...men who had something to gain from it...men who would gain prominence from it. When we examine the testimonies in the Bible, however, do they fall under the same category as those "testimonies" described in the quotation above? While the "old-timers'" discussed in the quotation were contradictory to one another, the testimonies within the Scriptures are not. Note how many different witnesses the Apostle Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, and yet they all testified with unity. When a lie is told in order to gain prominence, the liar does not welcome an investigation into their testimony. The Bible openly encourages an investigation of the evidence included because God wants His children to be convinced based on that evidence (reference Acts 17:10-12; Acts 17:2, 17, 18:4, 1 John 4:1, etc.). Likewise, John leveraged evidence in 1 John 1 to show that multiple people were witnesses to what has been presented in the Bible and that they were all in 100% agreement (see 1 John 1:1-4).
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