Our newest “look behind the curtain” subject is Le Marquis de Mores, a Frenchman who came to America, married well, moved West in the late 1800's and broke his teeth trying to compete with the meat packers by introducing ranching and meat packing at the source,
, and moved back to France. I will show you how we go from cattle ranching in the Badlands to the Dreyfus Affair in France. After all, that's why I initially found him interesting.
I also found this guy to be fascinating because, after doing a little research, it appears that his story has been sanitized in English sources, including on US Government websites. This is an example of historical revisionism at work where the unsavory bits of this guyÂ’s story have been swept under the rug so as not to scare the children or the animals. Seriously, this fellow may look normal enough for those times on the surface, but when you probe a little deeper, you find a real whack job, lacking only the certification from the professionals to be official and to compete for a world ranking. I elucidate below.
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1
Fascinating!
The guy sounds like an absolute looney to me!
And you're right, that is a funny thought.
Posted by: Mick at August 03, 2004 11:00 AM (VhRca)
2
Personally I think there should be more Frenchmen in ten gallon hats. Might be less prone to appease if they had manly gear on instead of those berets and striped shirts. ;-)
Revisionism is scary. Especially when it's done so selectively as it was in this case. It's difficult not to see shades of Stalinism there.
Posted by: Jim at August 03, 2004 01:48 PM (IOwam)
3
I wonder why the Park Service and the Medora Foundation sanitized this guy's biography? I wonder if a well-placed letter or email or two might fix that?
Fascinating history. Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: John Lanius at August 03, 2004 09:15 PM (gplif)
Posted by: stolypin at August 03, 2004 09:26 PM (RxOy+)
5
This is why if I could "do it all over again" I would have studied history. And not from textbooks. They condense everything too much and you don't get the layers.
And speaking of Frenchmen in 10-gallon hats, do you think he ordered his in metric?
Posted by: Pat at August 04, 2004 03:29 AM (pPBuO)
6
John, I'd have to do a lot more research than this to show the Park Service the error of their ways and I just don't have the time. I looked at the endnotes in McCullough's book and he has nothing listed as a source for his information on this, but I trust him as reputable.
I really hate revisionism.
Good point about metric, although I don't recall when they switched over to that system of measurement.
Posted by: rp at August 04, 2004 08:12 AM (LlPKh)
7
Thank you for this information, sir! For some years, I've been living near Paris, France, in a street called "Impasse du Marquis de Morès". Impasse - this means dead end. Up to now, I never knew who this man was and what he did. Now, I know that I've been living in a dead end named after someone who would have been a cruel enemy of mine if he had known me - even withour knowing me personally. Fortunately, he died as he deserved.
Best wishes, Robert Cohn
Posted by: Robert Cohn at December 19, 2004 10:05 AM (NGGCh)
8
Not far off the mark but just as extreme in one direction as the revisionist versions of history are in the other. As a native of North Dakota, I grew up being exposed to all sides of this "hero" - and we did not regard him as such - only another of those curious people that make up history and was a product of his upbringing and time.
Posted by: swill at June 09, 2005 03:07 PM (epK0Z)
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