COLUMBUS.
INTERESTING NEW DOCUMENTS
RESPECTING HIS LIVE,
A Glance at the World as It Was Known
to the Ancients and the Contemporar-
fes of the Great Discoverer.
The discovery hy the Superintendent |
of the Military Archives at Madrid of
documents, probably setting at rest the
doubts that formerly existed as tothe
birthplace of Columbus, must have awak
ened new interest in the history of the
renowned discoverer of the past. Itis|
to be poted, however, that the documents |
only affirm tradition, for Genoa has al- |
ways been the Admiral's accredited |
birthplace. Bat if the discovery should
lead to nothing but a more careful inves
tigation of the records of his later history,
ft will have been of use, The character
of Columbus has been greatly misunder
stood, and his 600 biographers have in
turn invested him with the glory of the
relivions hero and the contumely of the
ill-tempered and crack-brained adven
turer. An impartial eritic must admit,
indeed, that he was something of both, |
though more of the hero than adventurer, |
and that his biog !
siderably in w
would call thei
aphers have erred con
Mr. R. L
“point of view.”
Educated, it supposed,
local schools of Genoa, and for a
period at the University of Pavis
youthfui Columbus must have
close contact with t
day. Naturally of
ment, the piety of
early impress him, and to this may possi
bly be attributed the feeling that he had
been divinely
with him until his death.
There is but little doubt that he began
his career as a the age of 14
with the sole object of plunder. The Indies
were the attraction for the
natives of Venice and Genoa; the Medi
tertancan and the Adriat¢ filled |
with treasure ships. In these circum
stances it is not to be wondered that the
fascination
Th
Of
Stevenson
in the
short
i, the
in
he scholars of the
reli tempera
would
as 18
come
ious
y
1 -y
learned
$
selected, which remained
1
sailor, at
constant
were
sea possessed wonderful
for the youth
opulence
Spain and Portug
attractedd to the
desire
LOVET §
those towns.
was constant nvy
Columbus was soon
country by
Henry
believe thi
be the
land
For ten vears |
time t
of
to
married, h
here his wife
was buried.
Toscanello at thi
theory that
Columbus
spondenc LA
was greatly impressed wi
the Florentine
sphericity of the
of the Asiatic regi
cepting
of losing his
in turn reje
tdependenci
though his |
land
procure
i
the
ith him on
these
AR Wrete
ready «
dang TO
character ; hr
who
been a man of ir
mility was another trait of
and in all his life it
he acted in any but an honest and
forward manner
It true, no doubt,
tion of slavery somewhat dims his repn
tation He sold many Indians as slaves,
but it shouid that slay
ery prevailed at the time, and it was only
on his second voyage, when hard pressed
for means to reimburse the Spanish treas
ury for the immense expense of the ex
sclition, that he resorted to the barter
fa human flesh, Indeed, his friendly re-
lations with the natives that as a
rile he must have treated them in the
kindly manner which characterized all
his actions.
Throughout the of
carcer, whether with
lauded as a benefactor of his country,
put in chains bry crafty fellow subjects, |
or defrauded by an unscrupulous prince
of the profit of his discoveries, he con-
tinued a man of an eminontly lovable
charactor, kind to his family, his ser. |
vants, and even his enemies. Americans
arc to do honor at the Columbian Exhi- |
bition to the name of him who, though
not the first white man to land on the
shores of the New World, was the first |
to colonize its fertile islands, Not only |
America, but the whole world, may emu- |
fate his virtues with advantage; for, even |
now, justice and mercy, courage and
meckness do not always abide together, |
sa. i
THE WORLD OF THE ANCIENTA,
him to have
Hu
yis character,
said that
traight
ced them, shows
rage
Heoctual eo
}
i
cannot Ix
toward his Wen
is cogni
be remembers d
show
reverses his long
received SHeers, |
which necessitate the assumption of its
sphericity, specifying the oe ercr of all
things to seek the center, the unvarying
circularity of the earth's shadow at
eclipses of the moon, and the proportion
ate changes in the altitude of sta“s result
ing from changes in ths observer's lati-
tude,
Aristotle made the doctrine orthodox;
his successors, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus,
and Ptolemy, constituted it an inalienable
of the race, Greece trans
Rome; Rome impressed it
upon barbaric Europe: taught by Pliny,
possession
whence,
re-inforced by Arabian lore, it has come
down to us.
SHROUDS OF MYRTERY.
As geographical knowledge increased,
far
and of islands in their midst,
worlds or
and geographers, as-
and to
make use of the phrase of northere and
southern, eastern and hemi
spheres and myths and Tables began
multiply
The
some
tronomers geomet icians begns
western
expanding horizon of the Greeks
always hedged fable;
wrth was the realm of the happ
| 1 the blasts of Boreas:
the east, the wonderland of Ind
south, Panchea and the blamele 3
pians Nor did the
places for romance. Here was tue floati
of Xx
mysterious Ogyvgin, naval of the sea;
in the
Hyper-
in
in the
Ethio
lack lingering
with
wiNt
ny
1sle lug, brazen-walled ; here the
and
the
OX
on
Ely
empt
to
storms
the earth's extremest
sinn fields,
Verge we
the homes of aeroes
from death,
NO snow
rain, but
he breeze
1 on men,”
“where life is
man is there, ror vet great
nor Any
forth t
plways
of
ocean
the shrill
Across
the setting
sendeth
west to blow cox
Ocean river, in the
of the 11 was changed
the home i who
in darkness; of
phone and the dreary house of the
In the Hesiodic poems
are spoken of island
ter death,
immortal
regions of
sun,
dw elt
Perse
dead
Ids
of the nmeriens,
grove
sian fis
s 3
re transferred
blis
Them or
God »
The
perides
through
m in hy*uns t}
the biautiful,
ing navi
SAN ¢
by the wise,
: ‘Oh, that I like a
Adriati
i
if
Mr Im
ire over the
WAYS
in the crowned Hippolytu
he famed Hesperi
rude methods
were maintaic ed dur
snd remote from
the Greek iribes «
The sea
western coasts w
devoid of the
which the Greeks wer
when compared with
an ocean
current was adverse to
as it passed from west t
Tyrrhenian t
Sicilian, ‘ontrary
with and the winds which
there differed entirely from to
which the Hellenes were accustomed,
The skies appeared to then dark and in
secure, and as they watched them they
tae
ipeiago
i &
LO
numerous
the
semble d
he
VORROIS,
from the
0 east
sen afc 0
ross
currents were
prevailed
those
of the dead ‘‘densely shrouded in clouds
paths
of the Morea, and then after circumnavi
clung to the Hellenic coasts on its
to the Corinthian This was
sncient route of the Cretans by which
they formerly brought the worship of
Apollo to Delphi, and it was long be
fore the Greeks ventured to cross the
Sicilian sea.
The intercourse with the western main
land proceeded from the islands lying in
front of the outer gull of Corinth from
the coast ~islands such as Echenades
surrounding the mouth of the Achelous;
wav
sea,
The horizon of the Hellenes gradually
advanced westward and broadened, Ad.
venturous vovages of discovery led tothe
western and northern ocean, whore the
phenomenon of ebb and tide for the first
time engaged the intelligent considera
tion of the Groecks, The original hothe
of amber, tin and copper was sought out
and attempts were made to deal seienti-
fically with the large body of new geo-
graphical knowledge.
They followed in tracks of the
Phoenicians fa the Straits of
{ Gibraltar, in the vicinity of which they
{ founded the city of Munace. They ven
| tured bevond the gates of Hercules and
settled in the land at the mouth of the
| Guadalguivir, the ancient commen ind
{ omain of the Tyrians, whe traded with
{it on their vessels, and the Tarsis ships
| transported large numbers of adventur
ous population into the distant land,
the
is
as
THE WORLD'S EXD,
On a Tarsis ship the prophet Jonas,
centuries before Christ, attempted to es
| cape from the hands of the Lord: thus
was this colonial country thought Li
at the end of the world.
The Greeks gave it th
tessus, and finally extended
velous activity from the Eg
shores of the Atl
{ All the nations in :
| with the mediterranean were
1 by Greek culture, a 3
nal habitation of the Hellene,
with its however
§
ta ie
Tar
mar
the
name of
their
an to
antic,
nny
affected
hue
islands and consts,
sion It may con
of thie Medi
Are hip Ago,
ruling sea among them all,
y of
her prime 1s Mt rpetuated
ad
ide
became toe
and insignificant
i s of the »
an, vet
walters
“Upronns Garcece
in
nls, which
’
3 thelr
The ¢
than pointed ou
the
tax
mixed a me
and to ru
snore |
by James
: Apostle
sometimes the bit
t sphor Tany
: from
mind, wi
t ise nol
amaasens
Ww he
eacher cried, with impassionats
fpestne es,
ng meant to say, “Bow not
n In the same wav, the
man with the correct Oxfo
it the hy
stuml
Bow not thine eve to a need
Hav:
% 4}
to an dol
clergy
;
mn
quering Kings," over
the
himself, was hurried over
and startled his
anncuncenygut, “The
will be ‘Kiaquering Congs,’
Cons.’
merely
first vowel: but be ing unable to save
the precipice,
congregation with the
concluding hymn
‘Kinquering
After that experience he
in a positicn to fully sympathize with his
brother clergzymén who, in place of say
ing “Behold the fig-tree how it withereth
'awsr.” asked his bewildered audience to
“Behold the whig-tree how it fithereth
away.”
In similar case did the preacher find
himself who, describing conscience, and
desirivg to get his listeners to recognize
the pr ym pings of its inward voice inthe
half-formed wishes of the mind, appealed
to then whether there one present
| who sone time or another “had not felt
within him the effect of a half warmed
fish.”
i —- -
Dlamond-proof Glass,
Was
was
——
| to produce glass which cannot be cut
when the discovery of this great conti |
nent so largely engages the attention of |
all peoples, to take a glance at
world as it was known to the ancients,
The cosmographical ideas of the an- |
cients were of the simplest character, |
and those which have been derived from |
the carliost Grecian literature regarded |
the earth as a plain stretching away from |
the Hgean sea until it ended in an horizon |
of pure ignomnce, guided by the deep- |
flowing current of the river Oceanus, |
islands farther in the sea Zacynthus,
Same, Ithaca, and Leucas—which stretch
front of the gulf and whose joint length
is about equal to that of Eubaa, These
are the islands called, according to an
ancient tradition, the lonian up to this
day.
COMMERCIAL CORFU,
The great const island of Coreyra, now
known as Corfu, at a very early period
There was the realm of dust and dark- |
ness, the home of the powerless spirits of
the dead, and there the hemisphere of
heaven joined its brother hemisphere of
Tarturus, As time passed the theory of |
sphericity or the sp
garth was advanced and experiments were
made to prove its correctness, .
The Pythagoreans advanced it as one of
thoir doctrines and Plato and Aristotle
adopted it as correct,
Aristotle, in hix tréatise “On the
Heaven,” after detailing the views of
those philosophers who regarded the
world as flat, drum-shaped or cylindrical,
itime commerce, and from there spread
along the west constto Italy. Gradually
the Greeks accustomed themselves to
long and distant voyages instead of the
and entered the great
visit those parts of the Adriatic, which
most abound in rocks and circumnavi-
gated the Tyrrhenian sca, but they ex-
plored the consts and bays of Campania
nd the mouths of the Tiber and Arnus;
past the A ran
oy nally reached Iberia, Pith ors
rich treasures of precious metals they
had first become acquainted on the coast
gives a formal summary of grounds
*
of Italy.
{ hand, Patents have just. been applied
| for in several European countries which
felt “vant has been supplied at last. It is
| best diamond will mark it, and that it is
frapossible to cut it without machinery
or Break it withont a hammer. The thin
whatever to the housebreaker, who can
cut it with a diamond and lift a piece
ott ‘without making any noise at all, If
the new glass ever comes into general
use the buarglar will have to commence
learning his business again from the very
rudiments of it,
CD WA SAAN
Tur whole amount of gold luced
in tae United States, from 1792 to the
end of 1890, ix given in as §1,871,708,.
769, ol a larger moun than the aggre
gate all forms of money, paper, gol
pa silver, now circulating the Caited
tes,
A “moth insurance company” ia the latest
thing in the summer storage business,
MAKING A BOOK.
MUSINGS OVER THE EVOLUTION
OF ACHILD OF THE BRAIN.
Tracing the Development of a Book
From the Birth of the Thought in the
Author's Mind Until it Reaches the
Reader,
I have mnewhere read a bachelor's
ol while he
watched the amber stream filling up the
ip ten
china ; its aroma volatilized his
nebulous st of
and sent his
ing in thankful recognition of all
into a grateful
thouchts wander
who had
enjoyment, His
the mer
acknowl dyements
the cook. the store
rn received
labor, organization, and capit
employed, in harboring and distributin
He the
Goenn 1s th of
n traced it aoros
the Heathen
5 indeltednes tO
{ hinee, wn
marvellou machinery
1 y : 2
un i ’ ned si1is fi
in Pl in hip {
merchant
Hieans
Lie
gering gratitude on vell
dwells with
ww fing
the Ch
and dried the CRY for him
tender shoots §
1a ating
1 tis
HACE
at
iRDOY
i
and
tea, and
as the
ungratein
thoughts
W hike
elded int
passed
were mate i for public u
the the
he rence
00
author, my
fancy its far distant
of ra
places where bales
z torn to shreds and pulped
for the where metal is being lifted
be fashioned
ugre restless machine
is waiting 1 Dngers can arrange
the fonts so ith giant force it mas
crush the th ts indelibly into paper. |
I recognize the multitude of agents and |
circumstances that before the
author can speak me from his book, |
and 1 blush to be like the rest of men-
indifferent, forgetful, ungrateful
Ere the author can commence bis book |
he must have acquired the capacity which
1s
ra
® primos
from it
into type,
intervene
tO
friend estimates that not one
in a thousand is competent to write a
book, and of these only one in a hun
dred could write what is worth reading.
It may be over or understated, but it il
A cynical
are
for
book
prepared
literary
commenced
when
to pro
enjoyment,
in the
he grew into
my
veloped with his opening mind when h:
WAN use his mental implements,
it was modified by the numberless men
try
It gathered strength from his experience,
his storage of facts, his feelings and con-
victions, and through long years the book
was suspended nebulously in his brain
waiting for some motive, some induce.
ment to precipitate it on paper. 1 shall
never discover how muck I am in.
debted to the ideas, the reading, the circum-
stances, the persons that have combined
to collect in the brain of the author the
thoughts that are the mainsprings of his
book, When the ideas were clothed with
words to what do I owe the author's
graceful diction! Those happy images
and pregnant phrases did not come by
inspiration, no one is born with a silver
pen in his hand, but they imply assidu-
ous study and practice, failure and re-
newed attempts,
Granting the capacity, what induced
the author to commit himself to a book!
It o ay have been sordid luere for which
the creatures of his brain have been
sold, perhaps the means of livelihood,
the res a od
history of Rasscelas by the corpse of his
mother in order to obtain money to bury
her, The y \
the pleasure of
nicating ideas, may have
sheer vanity or of renown
have been the itching of the fi
keeps the pen constantly in motion, a
literary st. Vitus’ or the
may have had ao to deliver
the race
grows up into a
Whatever the
indifferent, 1 acknowledge
tions the per
that have pr rsunded the
book to lift up the
his mind to the
The determination once mad
into print is the commencement of
the of th The
raw material has to In pieced together,
motive have been
writing and
it
love
Corina
been
it may
gers that
author
t¢
VOeurs,
dance,
esse
which, germinating for
book of the
inducement, good, bad
century
Or
my obliga
or circumst
! author
lay
to SONS
f urta i and
world
to launch
but
aetund
maxing book,
and ornamented I
for
and supplemented
am indebted to the author
ity to his pur for hi
and ease, for
pose
ils
helped
ins i
res
that have him
ied Hs for
WOrds
Worry
Defence of the Peacock.
inting this
the male bird a
ourself
beauty? You « that
his feet are decid , well shaped
and rather smal
$44
roportion to his siz
iy
iy bigger than those
The same can be said of the hen bird, un
attractive though the latter is as to other
Wherever in the feathered king
dom the cock bird the handsomer he
wiinis
is
case where the female is
more gorgeous she it is that takes the
initiative in the lovemaking
“ft is a curioas thing to observe that
the male peace k in courting his chosen
mate approaches her not with the bright
ly colored face of his feathery fan toward
her, but backward Then, on coming
close, he wheels suddenly about, with
and dazzles her all at once with his beau
ty. As for the popular misconception
respecting his feet, there can be no doubt
as to how it originated. When the pea
cock is pointed at, being maturally a wild
bird, he is apt to drop his fan and scut
tie away hus the impression was con-
veyed to the igorant that he imagined
his feet to be objects of attention, and
accordingly sought to hide them.
oourse, nothing could be more absusd,”
| Washington Star,
nt
Dally Life of France's President.
President Carnot leads a very busy
life, and his long day, from 9 till 1 A.
M.. is crowded with work, Immediately
after rising he takes a cup of tes, after
which he receives his ministers, reads
his dispatches antl sees visitors; he then
breakfasts. The afternoon is taken up
with various duties and such exercise as
he can find time to take. At 5 he again
receives visitors and examines and signs
decrees. He dines with his wife and
son at 7 o'clock, which is the only part
of the day which he feels at liberty to
devote to his family. At 9 o'clock he
goes to his study, where he reads or
writes till 1. He is fond of both the
opera and the drama, and is a fair
nter, delighting to go down to the
rest of Fontainebleau and sketch for
an hour or a. Jo son have been
brought up to ca which they can
A ct nS" he dislikes cats,
dog, and birds.~SPublic
POISON OF REPTILES,
How the Venom of Snakes Affects the
i Person who is Bitten,
iifg is an old on wid Buperin
| tendent Brown of the Philadelphia Zoo
to a correspondent, “that the bite of a
deadly when it is
| shedding its skin than at any other time
i It
mysterious connection
i and the
secret 14 th
tion,’
{ snake is much more
WH that there was some
between this pro-
irulence of the poison
iu snake is shed
supposed
{4 8K
The
ling it is blind or three days,
the
forward over th
ty
owing to
it cannot Ke
foes, noi, #5 A
erotic
base of its fang
atta) i
result, there greater se
t} wm glands at
the ¥
venom in the pois
and
fae fone tha
i JArger ose inan
the
the
proabily
ictim of
other time
BILAL
fancy
Phrings
ninbhes
aft ow
ow i
ka Fs
in carrving
ating and ex
of rem
oh CIMereDE
| emergenci
tert
odermid
down the
mouth
eed 3 wiison fangs lie up against
upper By a wonderfully
cate hit of nature's mechanism, when
the mouth is the fangs are
forced down into an erect position, the
same time contracting the
poison glands and {
instant the reptile strikes
3 10 run
a rattler's
awbhong
opened
action at the
orcing the secretions
to flow the
at his prey
“A pee uliarity about venomous snakes, ™
said the keeper, “‘is their manner of, tak-
ng food: a rattlesnake or a copperhead
will strike its prey, then coil up and
wait it to die. Before commencing
to swallow it they will watch it intently
for the slightest movement Thay
swallow it head first, and if there is the
slightest muscular movement observable
they will disgorge at once. It is different
with the moccasin, It will strike and
hold onto its prey until it is dead.”
“What is considered the most veno-
mous snake known to zoologists!™
“ft is difficult to say. There is a specs
ies of === serpents found in the Straits of
Malacea which is considered to be, 1 be.
lieve. the most deadly in existence. They
are known as hydrophide, and vary from
cight to twelve feet in length. The
cobra di capello of India is an exceeding:
Iv venomous snake, but I do not think
that its bite i+ more deadly than that of
our rattlesnake or copperhead. One rea
won why there are so many deaths in In.
dia from the bite of the cobra is beeause
the natives are not only reckless, going
about with bare feet and legs in the
haunts of the reptile, and when once ate
tacked very little if any treatment is
given to counteract the cffects of the
soison. The whole question, however,
i a relative one and depends upon the
condition of the snake when it made the
attack, where the victim was strock, and
the subsequent treatment. If the poison
fangs penetrate through a boot-leg or»
portion of the clothing, some of the
venom will be removed. If the fangs
strike a portion of the body near whick
the circulation is active the result is us
ually a fatal termination. The bite of »
large rattlesnake or copperhead is mitch
more to be dreaded than that of a small
one, for the r the snake the large
the secretion of 0,"
A fever 500 miles
ting, separating the
South Wales and
the of
for
of wire net
jes of New