New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-11-24
Accidents OF History.

cons6eld' father was the author of a
learned essay on history which might
have been enacted. An equally curious
volume might be penned on the tribes
which have determined great events.
1t was but trifle which gave Spain for
SO many generations the lordship of the
New World and enabled her by the
wealth which she derived from that
source to become the most powerful
nation in Europe. 1t is we'll known
that Columbus, dispirited with the re-
fusals which he met at 80 many courts,
dispatched his brother Bartolomeo to
ask aid from Henry VII. of England.
But on the way the messenger fell in
the hands of pirates and by tho time he
reached London was so destitute that
he had to try and earn the money to
clothe himself in proper style before he
could be presented at court. But by
that time it was too late. Even the
fact that Ferdinand and Isabella sup
piled the funds to equip the exhibition
was mainly due to the accident that
Juan Perez de Marchena, the Queens
confessor, happened to be passing at
the moment when the weary mariner
was knocking at the door of La Rabida
monastery to beg a little bread and
water for his boy Diego and was struck
with the noble face Of the pedestrian.
Had Bartolomeo Colon reached London
in time, had Christoval been by any
chance a little later or little earlier at
the monastery door, the fate of Europe
might have been changed, and the des-
tiny of the Anglo-Saxon race altered.
Three centuries later it was again near
;ly revolutionized, for in 1906 the En-
glish held Buenos Ayres, and it is no
secret that Napoleon was almost per-
suaded to abandon Europe as field
for his ambition and try what he could
accomplish in the way of carving out
an empire among the dissatisfied prov
inces of South America. When Citizen
Bonaparte seemed little likely to sit on
the throne of Louis Caput he was on
the point of Offering his sword to the
Sultan as at later period Won Moltke
actually did. 1t is curious now to spec
ulate what would have been the present
state of the Eastern question had Ma
poleon carried his intentions into effect;
or, supposing that Moltke had remained
in the Turkish service, whether the
Danish war would have been fought, or
Prussia's supremacy established at
Sadowa or Sedan.
The cropping of Louis Wis chin
brought on three centuries of blood
shed, and sarcastic remark of Freder-
lex the Great on Elizabeth Petrovna of
Russia, reused that virtuous Empress to
take such vigorous part in the Seven
Years. war that at one time Prussia
seemed well nigh stricken unto death.
Even Catherine u.-profoundly suspi-
eious of Potsdam after tho ''scandal
about Queen Elizabeth ''-carefully ex-
amined her husbands correspondence
before she concluded an alliance with
the royal letter writer. It is hardly
forty years since Louis Philippe threat
ened war against the Texan republic
because an irate citizen had shot the
trespassing pigs of the French ambas-
sador. As it was he prevented the
Lone Star sovereignty from floating
their European loan, and thus, the King
and the pigs combined, fastened the
annexation of Texas to the United
States. The Dutch are said to have
"jockeyed" US out of Malacca in ex-
change for Java by representing on the
map, which our simple-minded ENJOYS
took for granted, the one territory as
large and the other as small; and among
the most firmly rooted traditions Of
American diplomacy is one which repre-
SCENTS the English commissioner as agree
ing to the surrender of Oregon "be-
cause q country in which salmon does
not rise to the fly cannot be worth
much.' Laws have been altered
through accidents before the Queens
printers boy forgot to deliver Lord
Beaconsfeld's amendment to bill.
But, if tri6es have determined the
fate of laws and nations, accidents
equally small have caused men to fol-
low pursuits the results of which have
been not much less momentous to cult
ure and civilization. Father Male
branche devoted himself to philosophy
after reading Descartes' al Hommel;"
Cowley became poet owing to his
perusal Of Spencer's ''Fairy Queen"
and Sir Joshua Reynolds had never
thought of painting until Richard
sons !" Treatise" fell into his hands.
Shakespeare might have ended his
life as prosperous w00l-comber had he