lilt, (in. "" III r..m Ifl 1 'Id mm all sin. All VOL 27. COLUMBUS DAT Last Friday was properly observed in tliis town as the 400th anniversiry of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. In the morning appropriate exercises were held in all the rooms at the public schools. At the High School there was an interesting program and a number of members of F.nt Post, G. A. R. were present. In the after noon a parade took place at 2 o'clock, which was participated in by Prof. Brook's band. Friendship Fire Com pany, pupils of the public schools and Normal School, members of town council, school directors and citizens generally. The procession formed on Market squire and went up to the Normal School, and countermarched, and then to the fair ground, where the program announced last week was carried out. All the students were decorated with the national colors, and many carried flags. Several thousand people attended, filling the grand stand, and the track near it. F. P. Drinker, President of Council made an opening address. He said: Ladies and Gentleman: We are here, as everyone knows, to do honor to the spirit and memory of Christopher Columbus. No need to rehearse the story of the superb old admiral every bright boy and girl in the land knows it yet we never tire of it. Foolish persons like Albion Tourjee have called him pirate, and other bad names, but they have only belittled themselves; he was all the same the greet and good man who "In 149a sailed far o'er the ocean blue and discovered America. Surmounting every difficulty, he sailed westward for many weeks over lonely, mysterious and unexplored water; his men grew rearyand frightened as their frail ship plunged on and on into the awful unknown, and at last they mutin ied outright, but his will and mind managed them, as one great will and mind always does manage the un thinking crowd. He kept them on their course till his weary and anxious spirit was cheered by the cry of Hand 1 land 1" He did not reach the main land on his first voyage. Amerigo Vespucci first reached that and wrote about it, and so it happens we now live in North America in stead of North Colombo. The brave Christoforo died 386 years ago, but we can and do still honor and venerate him in our hearts and lives as the goodly turnout of our splendid ly conducted schools, our fast thin ning G. A. R. rank?, Sons of Veterans handsomely uniformed orders , brave firemen and good citizen's show. His is still a nobler example for our boys to follow not to the North pole (unless in the interest of the Bloomsburg Ice Plant) but to brave lives and deeds. The grand old man of Genoa, as has been said, died near ly 400 years ago, but the phantoms of the Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta. and the spirit of their great com mander still move upon the face of the deep and there they will move so long as wind and water meet And so we meet to-day as is meet to honor him. Our Public and Normal schools to entertain you with pleasant singing and declamations, our eminent townsman, Col. John G. Freeze, to speak to you, and the band to play. The next thing on the pro gram is singing, which will be follow ed by prayer from Rev. P. A. Heil man. After singing and declamations, and prayer, Col. Freeze delivered an ad dress. We are permitted to produce it here in full. He spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman : So many things are becoming un settled in the light of late investiga tions, that even the clay upon which Columbus is supposed to have dis covered America, has come to be dis puted. We have been taught that it was October 12, 1492, but we are now assured that owing to the change in the Calendar it should be the 21st. It is even gravely disputed whether Col umbus discovered America at all ; and if he did, that he was not by any means the first navigator who set foot upon some part, portion or place of this great continent, or of its outlying islands. The approach of this anni versary has greatly awakened and stimulated a re-examination of these questions, and the dispute is too re cent, and the field of historical re search too vast and the results as yet too uncertain to allow us to state any conclusion upon the subject, or hazard a conjecture as to what may be the outcome of the great debate. The foremost and probably the best equip ped write upon the questions here mentioned is Mr. John Fiske, but a number of other historians, both na tive and foreign are engaged in eluci dating the early history of America. Whatever may hereafter be settled upon as the facts in the case, this is at any rate, for our purpose, 'Columbus Day, and we make this our basis for our observance and celebration of the great event. Hut who was Columbus ? There is as much difficulty about that as there is about the question "Who discovered America?'' It is said that he was boin in Genoa, and it is as strenuously denied, ard some twenty different places claim the honor of being the birth place of the "Admiral of the Seas." He himself claimed to be Genoese, and he ought to have known, but whether he did or not, it is im possible to tell. It is said he was born in 1446 or 1447, and it is also i.enied and contradicted, and it is asserted that he was bom at least ten years earlier. The only fact about his personal history that seems to be settled, is that he died in sickness, destitution and neglect, at Valladolid, May 20, 1506. He was buried there, but in 1513 his remains were removed to Seville, and thence to the Cathed ral at Santo Domingo in the Island of llayti. Some authorities say there was a further removal to Havanna; this is denied, and it is alleged that Mgr. Rocco-Cocchia, bishop of Orope and Vicar of San Domingo, in making some repairs to the cathedral, found on the 10th day of September 1877, a leaden chest containing the bones of Pietro Colombo, and to the right of it, in the hidden tomb, one containing the remains of the great admiral him self. A portion of the ashes contained therein was sent to Genoa, where he is supposed to have been born, and another portion to the University of Pavia, where he is thought to have been educated. Rocked upon the seas from his fourteenth year, neither in his life nor in his death has he found any rest surely, however, at this time, itt would be in order to say, "Peace to his Ashes 1" We may pass over, as a thrice told tale, the many weary years of waiting and importuning of one sovereign, then another, for consent and equipment to make this long considered and con templated voyage. Think of it eigh teen years patient soliciting, but they were not idle in one sense. He was not hanging about the king's ante chamberhe was sailing the seas he was making and studying maps he was fighting the Moors : He was acquiring, perhaps, the patience and self-discipline which enabled him, when the hour came, to manage, to subdue and control the mob of vagabonds who manned his ships: And indeed, con sider for a moment what these igno rant men thought and believed they were about to encounter and be sub jected to : Hardened as they were, jail birds, insolvent debtors, the very refuse of set coast cities, careless of life in broil or battle when the blood was hot and the plunder in sight, they had no stomach for that day by day waiting in expectation of the horrible and awful which they believed was in store for them, and an hourly possibility. They believed that the world was flat, and that at any moment they might sail over some dreadful declivity to cer tain and awful destruction, or if not that, that the declivity would be so steep that once sailing down it there could be no return. There were rum ors of "Happy Islands" it is true, but nobody had ever seen them or landed upon them ; and there were much more positive stories and tales of islands where the inhabitants were not only giants, but cannibals ; islands where the very dogs were man-eaters, upon some one of which they were sure to happen. Hence mutiny and murder were ever in the minds of commanders ami crews, and if the day was awful the uncertainty of darkness was horrible,- hence the curses and the groans which were constantly in his ears, until the great Admiral himself was almost in despair. With such a crew of ninety men in three small vessels, Columbus set sail from Palos on Friday, August 3, 1492 for Japan. He did not start to discover a new continent, to add Am erica to the habitable regions of tlu Faith ; but for commercial purposes, to find out a new way to India. The Mediterranean Sea was blocked up by the unspeakable Turk, there was no longer trade with India by the route which had been followed fur all pre vious generations. The jewels and gold, thespiceryand myrrh, tiie silks and purples and fine linen, all that made life gorgeous and pleasant and desir able were beyond their reach, anil a new way to India must be found. Hence, Columbus sailed for Japan and he would have found Japan too if America had not been in his way. It is not likely that he ever knew what he had discovered, and that he died un der the impression that the lands or islands he had reached and named were parts adjacent to India, the re gion for which he had sailed, and hence the inhabitants whom he found upon BLOOMSHUllG. PA.t FRIDAY, OCTOBKU 2S. 1S02. the islands were called Indiana. However, America was discovered, although for a long time it was not known whether it was an hitherto un known region, a terra incognita, a large collection of islands or a great continent. Do we say that progress was slow 400 years ago ? Perhaps it was, but how much do we know to day of the interior of Africa, a conti nent known to exist for 4000 years? It is but as yesterday since we knew any thing of our own great west ; and it is not long since that an eloquent nieinber of Congress from an adjoin ing county, speaking of Ohio, called it "the far, far west !" We smile now at the remark, but it was true then. It took Columbus from August 3rd to October 1 2th to come from Palos to the Bahamas 7 r days to make a trip now made in 7 : Hut notwithstand ing all that, we are yet sending expe ditions of discovery to Greenland and Labrador, and making great demons trations and receiving back the ex plorers as if from the dead I We do well to laugh at the fears and groans of the crews of Columbus, and to smile at the immense excitement with which he was received on his return to Palos, March 15, 1493. So too, as tf disputes on the voyages of Columbus were never to end, nei ther the place nor the island where he first set foot hai ever been certain ly fixed, and never will be. It is agreed that it was one of the Bahama Islands, but as there are nearly forty of them, the choice is quite wide. The natives called the island Qua nahani and Columbus called it "San Salvador." His log book describes it as "very large and very level, and has very green trees and abundance of water and a very large lagoon in the middle, without any mountain, and all is covered with verdure most pleasing to the eye" he says further that a reef of rocks entirely surrounds it, "although there is within it depth enough and ample harbor for all the vessels of Christendom, but the en trance is very narrow." The choice had settled down to one of five of the Bahama group-to wit : Cat, the San Salvador of our geographies, Watling, Grand Turk, Mariguana and Samana Cay. In June i8ot the Chicago Herald sent an expedition, which taking the log-book of Columbus and sailing by that, endeavored to definitely fix and locate the point and island first made by him. Without following the expedition with any particularity. I may say that the result reached by it was, that "Watling" island is the Guanahani of the natives, the San Salvador of Col umbus The ixact spot of landing cannot be ascertained, but the Herald expedition fixed it for good reasons, off the Eastern shore. They raised a monument at the spot, a rectangular structure, flanked at the corners by eight buttresses, faced with an appro priate tablet of marble with the ins cription : "On this spot Christopher Columbus first set foot upon the soil of the new world. Erected by the Chicago Herald,' June 15, 1891." The monument is about 20 feet in height. Equally by an untoward accident, the discoverer of America did not give his name to the continent, and we turn now for a moment to glance at the voyages of the man, Amerigo Ves pucci, who gave a name to the new world, which, in the form Americans has been specifically and exclusively appropriated by us, citizens of the United States of America. We say Canadians, Mexicans, Brazillians, Col umbians, Chillians, &c, but we are known to ourselves and to all the world as "Americans." Amerigo Vespucci was born at Florence, March 9, 1451 and died at Seville, February 12 or 22 1512. So you see that these two great naviga tors, adventurers and discoverers were contemporary. They were born five years apart and died six years apart. Amerigo never proposed giving his name to this continent. This was done by a young professor of geogra phy at the College of Saint Die in Lorraine. His name was Martin Waldscemuller, and it is proposed by him in a small work on cosmography, published in 1507, to designate this Fourth Part of the World ' ljuarta Or bis Pars" America, after its discoverer, Americus Vespucius. He was almost constantly on the ocean, had nothing to do with naming the New World, and possibly never heard of it. The name will remain. But after all, to Christopher Columbus will be long and with him will remain the honor of a clearly djfined purpose, of limitless patience, of indomitable per severance and of a success in his en terprise though it was not what he sought which aroused the Old World to such a pitch of enthusiasm in trade and commerce and adventure and discovery, as has not yet, not only not subsided, but seems to be increasing in volume if not in importance. From 1492, westward the course of empire took its way ; and so also, did the course of trade and commerce. It would be a mere rehearsal of dry statistics to state to you the number of square miles of arable and habita ble land the discoveries of Columbus opened up to the use of the human race to estimate the value of gold and silver and of the baser metals, and of the precious jewels and stones which have been yielded to the uses, arts and luxuries of mankind. Of some of these things the Old World had a supply sufficient for its needs, though not perhaps for its wants, and the abundance made things easier for peasant and prince. Let us consider what America gave to the older continents, which they did not have : In point of variety and of number we got more than we gave, but notwithstanding that, the Old World is our debtor in many ways and with a large balance in our favor. Let us begin with a bird, hundreds of thousands of which will be slaugh tered within the next 90 days a bird beautiful and brave, and affording for the table two kinds of delicious meats : The suculent, the glorious, indispen sable Thanksgiving Turkey : No where on the globe is there any thing to match him. And on account of his being native here he was named by Dr. Franklin as the emblem on our national flag, instead of the eagle, which was then and had been in such use among the Romans and other nations ancient and modern. We gave to the Old World, Tobacco: good or bad it is our contribution. Is woman the last best gift to man ? It may be so but surely tobacco comes next. A woman may be an irritant, but tobacco is a sedative. The Prince and the Peasant, the Scholar and the Student, the Philoso pher and the Soldier, the Editor and the News Boy all worship at the shrine of "Our Lady Nicotine." It seems to have created its own want ; but never theless, although an acquired taste, the use of it, in one form or another, now seems indispensable to the human family. It is charged with all the vices and credited with all the virtues that flesh is heir to. "No contribution, says a learned writer and observer, from newly discovered land has ever been so welcomed as this so-called noxious weed. No new faith has ever travell ed so fast and far among men as the habit of smoking. In scarce a century from the first introduction of the plant in Europe, its use had spread to nearly half the people in the Old World." We furnished Maize, or Indian corn to the people of Europe, Asia and Africa : Hundreds of millions of bushels are grown annually. Its range is almost universal. It produces more food for the care, labor and time ex pended than any other food product whatever. It is sweet, nutritious, de licious. Whether in the milk or in the ripened grain it is an article of food and commerce, and ninety days after it is put into the ground it is available. It is easily harvested and easily kept, and if there is any more beautiful sight than a hundred acres of growing corn with Its golden tassel and rich silk and green leaves and sturdy stalks loaded with swelling ears, it has never been my lot to meet it. And not only the grain but the leaf and the stalk properly cut and cured are second to no other winter food for cattle, whether for milk or for beef. It is grown more successfully hero than elsewhere, but its introduction into the agriculture and food products of the world is of an importance to the domestic animals, horses, cattle and sheep, beyond estimate. The world is indebted to America for tl.e Potato : In what region is it not cultivated, and in what one is it not held to be an indispensable article of food. Millions of lives have been saved by ii. Its varieties are almost infinite, and like Indian corn in two or three months from the planting it is on the table at nearly every meal. Roasted, or boiled with various veg tables or with sundry meats, it is al ways welcome. To man and beast this underground product is a chosen article of diet. Its cousin and con gener. t!r- Tomato, is also the gift of America to the world. Almost as largely used as the other, but of less value as a food product, it enters into a variety of dishes, soups and relishes that are increasing in their number year by year. To our credit also are to be placed all the varieties of cocoa and chocolate, vanilla and pine ap ples. Think what the world would be now if at one fell swoop we were to be de prived of all these articles, not to speak of many more which might be included in the list. Perhaps we should add one more to the now indispensable articles in favor of human life. The Cinchona tree. It is native to Peru, and while its basic principle was early discovered, anil the article was used and known as "Peruvian bark" and "Jesuits bark" etc., it required scientific knowledge to develop all its qualities and to distinguish between the different members of the family, the true and the false. The trees are an ever green often of great magnitude, the flowers are white, rose-colored or purplish and very fragrant. The trees in their native habitat are becoming scarce, but extensive plantations are now cultivated by the Dutch in Java, by the British in India and Ceylon. There are large plantations at Trinidad, Manritius and St Helena. Agues, neuralgia and all sorts of intermittent fevers and of nervous troubles yield to Quinine: No eulogy need be pro nounced on that, but that America gave to the world this grand specific against so many diseases that op press the race should be a source of thankfulness and gratulation. But besides all these things, we have given to the people of the "Old World an example ot a goverment of the people, for the people, by the people" which has arroused their enthusiasm and emulation and raised for all time the plane of human exist ance and happiness. We have shown what their own citizens arc capable of, having taken them in the mass and educated, them in the proper duties of citizenship and manhood. We have shown them what individ ual energy can accomplish when not over weighted and not hampered by conditions. In a hundred years the blessings and advantages of a free government raised our population from three millions to sixty millions and from a small belt of land along the Atlantic we spread from Ocean to Ocean, from the lakes to the gulf, still one and indivisible, and stronger and greater for the more perfect knowledge which our different conditions of intercourse have given to us. We have giver, to the subjects of the government of the Old World an other example of our greatness as a nation and as individuals. Not on ly have we produced and sold to those countries hundreds of millions of bushels of root and grain foods: but when the cry of starvation came from Ireland years ago and within the last year fiom Russia; when there was nothing to eat and no money to buy, ship load after ship load of food were given to the starving men, women and children, when there was no other possible source of supply. The three little ships of Columbus, empty of every thing, have grown into immense vessels, and not only once or twice but year after year bear back to the sick the means of health, and to the hungry the corn and the wine which gladden the heart of man. The selection of the fair ground proved an unfortunate one. It was cold and the wind blew and nobody could hear the speeches or any thing else. The Opera House would have bean much better. NOT SO EAST. People are beginning to understand that the new ballot law is an intricate piece of machinery, and that a good many mistakes are going to be made unless voters will take pains to learn beforehand. The Columbian has printed a sample ballot, and given re peated instructions about the manner of marking the ballot. This issue con tains a form of ballot with all the offices to be voted 'or in this county, but with fictitious names. Study it carefully, and if you do not under stand it, ask some one to show you how to mark it. At the Bloomsburg fair the votes cast at the booths erected there, sho.v the necessity for instruction in this matter. There were 85 7 ballots marked. Of these 212 were marked wrong, being a little over 25 per cent, were wrong, while of the republican votes there 32 per cent, wrong. Study up the ballot law. The following letters are held at the Bloomsourg, Pa., post office and will be sent to the dead letter office Nov ember S, 1892. Mr. Frank Aymar Mr. J. C. Bonine Mr. Mat Campbell Mr. C. R. Culbertson Mrs. Mary K. Daniels Mrs. Martha Jones Win Littery Mrs. A. W. Long Mr. D. McGary Mrs. Matzdortl O. H. Ostrander Mr. Martin Rhoades Mr. Wes San Mr. John A. Sandherr Miss Daisy Womelsdorf. Persons calling for these letters will please say they were advertised Oct ober 25, 1892. One cent will be charged on each letter advertised. A. B. Cathcart, P. M. NO. 44 PERS01TAL. Julius Lindegren, the piano tuner, will be in Bloomsburg next month. Reserve your order for him. Mr. Levi Beishline of Van Camp, one of our oldest subscribers, and a staunch Democrat, was in town on Tuesday. Miss Annie Bidleman of School craft, Michigan, is visiting her relat ives In Bloomsburg. She is at present with Mr. and Mrs. Pierce Foulk. She is a daughter of Ellis Bidleman. Chandlee Eves left Millville on Tuesday evening to attend the autumn meeting of the Pennsylvania Board of agricu'ture held in Indiana Pa. this week. Mr. Eves was elect ed member of this Board by the Columbia County agricultural society at its annual meeting in May 1878 and by re-elections has held the office continually since that time. He is now the Republican candidate for Congress in this district. The Presbyterians are expecting a feast of good things next week. The Decennial Meetingof the Home Mis sionary Society of the Northumber land Presbytery (it includes eight counties) will be held in their church. The 1 st session will be Wednesday even ing and there will be three sessions on Thursday, the last in the evening when Dr. McMillan of New York, a Secre tary of the Board of Home Missions will make an address. Mrs. Dr. Vose a Missionary Teacher from Alaska will be present during all the meetings. Every one is cordially invited to be present. Resolutions of the W. H. A. P. Sooiety of St- Matthew's Lutheran Church of Bloomsburg, on the Death of Mrs. W. . Tubbs- Whereas, it has pleased our Heav enly Father in His allwise dealings, to remove from our Society, after a ling ering and painful illness, a faithful and honored "member", Mrs. W. R. Tubbs, to the rest prepared for those who love Him. Jlesolved : That whilst we submis sively bow to the decree of Almighty God, we sincerely mourn the loss of a loved Sister ; a loss which can only be compensated for by the assurance that it is her everlasting gain. Jlesolved: That we extend to the bereaved husband and friends our sympathies and commend them to the mercy of our kind Heavenly Father, who doth not willingly afflict. Resolved: That a copy of these resolutions be placed upon our records, a copy sent to the bereaved family and published in our Town papers. Mrs. A. J. Williams,) Mary M. Unangst, V Com. Mrs. G. P. Frymire, 1 A New Book- We received a copy of a book, en titled, "Hold the Fort," from the pub lisher, Daniel Miller, of Reading, of which Rev. A. Houtz is the author. It is a neat little volume, in size 16 mo. and contains 165 pages. It can be obtained by sending the price, which is 50 cents to Rev. A. Houtz, Orangeville, Pa. The title is sugges tive of waiefare and will naturally en list the youthful mind to a careful pe rusal. The parallel between the natural and spiritual is so distinctly and vividly drawn in the ''evening talks" by "Grand pa and the child ren," on every topic that the reader cannot than otherwise conclude that the natural is but the shadow of the spiritual, and only a likeness of the reality. It is rich with introductory matter, every instance of which the author skillfully illustrates every point in question by comparison between . the temporal and eternal. Its moral worth cannot be measured with gold, and the book ought to be in every home. It is highly entertaining to the young. It would be a valuable addition to every Sunday School li brary. John C. Wf.nxek. The Columuiax has the contract for printing the ballots for this county. U'e are miming day and night to com plete the work in time. The oificinl certificate was not received from llar risburg by the Commissioners until Monday night, which delayed the' printing several da)s. The new fountain has too little action for its size. At the top there is nothing but an invisible spray, and the streams flowing from the basins are too sluggish, there is not a jet of water that goes up in the air about the entire structure. Tke moit expensive legislature in the world is that of France, which costs annually $3,600,000,000. The Italian parliament costs $410 000 a yar.
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