Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 34

Even Columbus may be regarded in the light of a martyr. He sacrificed his life to the discovery of a new world. The poor wool-carder's son of Genoa had long to struggle unsuccessfully with the petty conditions necessary for the realization of his idea. He dared to believe, on grounds sufficing to his reason, that which the world disbelieved, and scoffed and scorned at. He believed that the earth was round, while the world believed that it was flat as a plate. He believed that the whole circle of the earth, outside the known world, could not be wholly occupied by sea; but that the probability was that continents of land might be contained within it. It was certainly a Probability; But the n.o.blest Qualities of the Soul Are Often Brought Forth by the Strength of Probabilities That Appear Slight To Less Daring Spirits. In the Eyes of His Countrymen, Few Things Were More Improbable Than That Columbus Should Survive the Dangers of Unknown Seas, and Land On The Sh.o.r.es of a New Hemisphere.

DIFFICULTIES BY THE WAY.

ROYALL BASCOM SMITHEY, in an article. "The Voyage of Columbus," in _St. Nicholas_, July, 1892.

So the voyage progressed without further incident worthy of remark till the 13th of September, when the magnetic needle, which was then believed always to point to the pole-star, stood some five degrees to the northwest. At this the pilots lost courage. "How," they thought, "was navigation possible in seas where the compa.s.s, that unerring guide, had lost its virtue?" When they carried the matter to Columbus, he at once gave them an explanation which, though not the correct one, was yet very ingenious, and shows the philosophic turn of his mind. The needle, he said, pointed not to the north star, but to a fixed place in the heavens. The north star had a motion around the pole, and in following its course had moved from the point to which the needle was always directed.

Hardly had the alarm caused by the variation of the needle pa.s.sed away, when two days later, after nightfall, the darkness that hung over the water was lighted up by a great meteor, which shot down from the sky into the sea. Signs in the heavens have always been a source of terror to the uneducated; and this "flame of fire," as Columbus called it, rendered his men uneasy and apprehensive. Their vague fears were much increased when, on the 16th of September, they reached the Sarga.s.so Sea, in which floating weeds were so densely matted that they impeded the progress of the s.h.i.+ps. Whispered tales now pa.s.sed from one sailor to another of legends they had heard of seas full of shoals and treacherous quicksands upon which s.h.i.+ps had been found stranded with their sails flapping idly in the wind, and manned by skeleton crews. Columbus, ever cheerful and even-tempered, answered these idle tales by sounding the ocean and showing that no bottom could be reached.

DESIGN FOR THE SOUVENIR COINS.[57]

A decision has been reached by the World's Fair management in relation to the designs for the souvenir coins authorized by Congress at its last session, and a radical change has been determined upon regarding these coins. Several days ago Secretary Leach of the United States Mint sent to the Fair officials a copy of the medal struck recently at Madrid, Spain, in commemoration of Columbus' discovery of America. This medal was ill.u.s.trated in a Spanish-American paper of July, 1892, and showed a remarkably fine profile head of the great explorer. It was deemed superior to the Lotto portrait previously submitted for the obverse of the coin, and the Fair directors have concluded that the Madrid medal furnishes the best head obtainable, and have accordingly adopted it. For the reverse of the coin a change has also been decided upon by the subst.i.tution of a representation of the western continent instead of a fac-simile of the Government building at Jackson Park, as originally intended. It was suggested by experts, artists, and designers at the Philadelphia mint that the representation of a building would not make a very good showing on a coin, and in consequence of these expressions of opinion it was decided to make the change proposed. Now that the Director of the Mint knows what the Fair management wishes for a souvenir coin, he will inaugurate the preparations of the dies and plates as promptly as possible. Just as soon as the designs are finished, work will be begun on the coins, which can be struck at the rate of 60,000 daily, and it is quite likely that the deliveries of the souvenir coins will be completed early in the spring.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From Harper's Weekly.

Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.

BAS-RELIEF--THE SIGHTING OF THE NEW WORLD. From the Columbus Monument in New York City. (See page 244.)]

The announcement that the Director of the Mint has decided upon the Madrid portrait of Columbus for the obverse side of the souvenir coin, with this hemisphere on the reverse, was a surprise to many interested in the designs. When the design was first presented, C. F. Gunther's portrait, by Moro, and James W. Ellsworth's, by Lotto, were also presented. Then a controversy opened between the owners of the two last-named portraits, and, rather than extend this, Mr. Ellsworth withdrew his portrait, with the suggestion that whatever design was decided upon should first be submitted to the artists at the World's Fair grounds. This was done, and they severely criticised the Madrid picture. Notwithstanding this, the design was approved and sent to Was.h.i.+ngton to be engraved. While Mr. Ellsworth, who is a director of the Fair, will not push his portrait to the front in this matter, he regrets that the Madrid portrait was selected. He said, "I think that the opinion of the World's Fair artists should have had some weight in this matter and that a portrait of authenticity should have been selected."

THE DARKNESS BEFORE DISCOVERY.

CHARLES SUMNER, an American lawyer and senator. Born in Boston, Ma.s.s., January 6, 1811; died, March 11, 1874. From his "Prophetic Voices Concerning America." By permission of Messrs. Lee & Shepard, Publishers, Boston.

Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, nothing of America was really known. Scanty sc.r.a.ps from antiquity, vague rumors from the resounding ocean, and the hesitating speculations of science were all that the inspired navigator found to guide him.

GREATEST EVENT.

The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the greatest event of secular history. Besides the potato, the turkey, and maize, which it introduced at once for the nourishment and comfort of the Old World, and also tobacco--which only blind pa.s.sion for the weed could place in the beneficent group--this discovery opened the door to influences infinite in extent and beneficence. Measure them, describe them, picture them, you can not. While yet unknown, imagination invested this continent with proverbial magnificence. It was the Orient, and the land of Cathay.

When, afterward, it took a place in geography, imagination found another field in trying to portray its future history. If the golden age is before, and not behind, as is now happily the prevailing faith, then indeed must America share, at least, if it does not monopolize, the promised good.--_Ibid._

THE DOUBTS OF COLUMBUS.

Prof. DAVID SWING, a celebrated American preacher. Born in Cincinnati in 1830; graduated at Miami University in 1852; was for twelve years Professor of Languages at this university. In 1866 he became pastor of a Presbyterian church in Chicago. He was tried for heresy in 1874, was acquitted, and then withdrew from the Presbyterian church, being now independent of denominational relations.

Columbus was not a little troubled all through his early life lest there might be over the sea some land greater than Spain, a land unused; a garden where flowers came and went unseen for ages, and where gold sparkled in the sand.

THE ERROR OF COLUMBUS.

From a sermon by Prof. SWING, printed in Chicago _Inter Ocean_,1892.

The present rejoices in the remembrance that Columbus was a student, a thinker; that he loved maps and charts; that he was a dreamer about new continents; but after enumerating all these attractive forms of mental activity, it comes with pain upon the thought that he was also a kind of modified pirate. His thoughts and feelings went away from his charts and compa.s.ses and touched upon vice and crime. Immorality ruins man's thought. Let the name be Columbus, or Aaron Burr, or Byron, a touch of immorality is the death of thought. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are beautiful, whatsoever things are of good report,"

these seek, say, and do, but when the man who would discover a continent robs a merchant s.h.i.+p or steals a cargo of slaves, or when a poet teaches gross vulgarity, then the thinker is hemmed and degraded by criminality.

It is the glory of our age that it is was.h.i.+ng white much of old thought.

What is the emanc.i.p.ation of woman but the filtration of old thought? Did not Columbus study and read and think, and then go out and load his s.h.i.+p with slaves? Did not the entire man--man the thinker, the philosopher, the theologian--cover himself with intellectual glory and then load his s.h.i.+p with enslaved womanhood? Was not the scholar Columbus part pirate?

What was in that atmosphere of the fifteenth century which could have given peculiar thoughts to Columbus alone? Was he alone in his piracy?

It is much more certain that the chains that held the negro held also all womanhood. All old thought thus awaited the electric process that should weed ideas from crime. Our later years are active in disentangling thought from injustice and vulgarity.

THE TRIBUTE OF Ta.s.sO.

TORQUATO Ta.s.sO, a celebrated Italian epic poet. Born at Sorrento March 11, 1544; died in Rome, April, 1595.

Tu spiegherai, Colombo, a un novo polo Lontane s le fortunate antenne, Ch'a pena seguira con gli occhi il volo La Fama ch' ha mille occhi e mille penne Canti ella Alcide, e Bacco, e di te solo Basti a i posteri tuoi ch' alquanto accenne; Che quel poco dara, lunga memoria Di poema degnissima e d'istoria.[58]

--Gerusalemme Liberata, canto XV

KNOWLEDGE OF ICELANDIC VOYAGES.

BAYARD TAYLOR, a distinguished American traveler, writer, and poet.

Born in Chester County, Pa., in 1825; died at Berlin, December 19, 1878. From a description of Iceland.

It is impossible that the knowledge of these voyages should not have been current in Iceland in 1477, when Columbus, sailing in a s.h.i.+p from Bristol, England, visited the island. As he was able to converse with the priests and learned men in Latin, he undoubtedly learned of the existence of another continent to the west and south; and this knowledge, not the mere fanaticism of a vague belief, supported him during many years of disappointment.

GLORY TO G.o.d.

The Rev. GEORGE L. TAYLOR, an American clergyman of the present century. From "The Atlantic Telegraph."

Glory to G.o.d above, The Lord of life and love!

Who makes His curtains clouds and waters dark; Who spreads His chambers on the deep, While all its armies silence keep; Whose hand of old, world-rescuing, steered the ark; Who led Troy's bands exiled, And Genoa's G.o.d-like child, And Mayflower, grandly wild, And _now_ has guided safe a grander bark; Who, from her iron loins, Has spun the thread that joins Two yearning worlds made one with lightning spark.

TENNYSON'S TRIBUTE.

ALFRED TENNYSON, Baron Tennyson D'Eyncourt of Aldworth, the poet laureate of England. Born, 1809, at Somerby, Lincolns.h.i.+re; raised to the peerage in 1883.[59] From his poem, "Columbus."

There was a glimmering of G.o.d's hand. And G.o.d Hath more than glimmer'd on me. O my lord, I swear to you I heard his voice between The thunders in the black Veragua nights, "O soul of little faith, slow to believe, Have I not been about thee from thy birth?

Given thee the keys of the great ocean-sea?

Set thee in light till time shall be no more?

Is it I who have deceived thee or the world?

Endure! Thou hast done so well for men, that men Cry out against thee; was it otherwise With mine own son?"

And more than once in days Of doubt and cloud and storm, when drowning hope Sank all but out of sight, I heard his voice, "Be not cast down. I lead thee by the hand, Fear not." And I shall hear his voice again-- I know that he has led me all my life, I am not yet too old to work His will-- His voice again.

Sir, in that flight of ages which are G.o.d's Own voice to justify the dead--perchance Spain, once the most chivalric race on earth, Spain, then the mightiest, wealthiest realm on earth, So made by me, may seek to unbury me, To lay me in some shrine of this old Spain, Or in that vaster Spain I leave to Spain.

Then some one standing by my grave will say, "Behold the bones of Christopher Coln, "Ay, but the chains, what do _they_ mean--the chains?"

I sorrow for that kindly child of Spain Who then will have to answer, "These same chains Bound these same bones back thro' the Atlantic sea, Which he unchain'd for all the world to come."

The golden guess is morning star to the full round of truth.--_Ibid._

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