The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-10-08
How to Celebrate 1t.

HOW 10 OeIeDrHue III.
While we are talking about the APP
preaching quadri-centennial celebration
of the visit of Columbus to the island
of San Salvador, which is popularity
called the discovery of America, we are
apt to forget that people on the other
side of the Atlantic also have lively in
terest in the matter. Spain in plrticu-
lar is a good deal interested. 1t is GER
tanly to be hoped that in the exhibit
ton at Chicago the land of Ferdinand
and Isabella will contribute literally in
every line of her national activity, past
or present. The invitation to her TO
do this should be cordial and urgent.
Apropos of the subject of an exhibition,
a writer-F. Hardt, by name-in the
ReviSta Contemporanea, published at
Madrid, makes some suggestions that
contain beneath their fun several grains
of sense. The writer says:
cone act of JUSTICE however, should be
side of the ocean, in honor of the discovery
of America, by exhibiting in a section by
itself the various portraits of him, by which
his aspect has been more or less disfigured.
Besides reproducing works of art like the
fdcddeS of Gisbert. Puebla, Balaca, Munoz,
the sculptures of Valmijana, the relieUoS of
Melida there should be shown the flight of
the imagination in those innumerable draw
ings which portray the admiral in sty les to
suit all tastes, with a beard and without
one, with whiskers, with a lock of hair fall
ing over his forehead, tonsured like monk,
with wig, with his hair standing up like
brush in armor; with the sandals, rope
and petticoats of Franciscan friar; in an
arrogant attitude answering the professors
of Salamanca; in a humble attitude before
the housekeeper of Prince Juan; riding be-
tween dukes, doing penance or selling eggs
With these portraits should be exhibited
photos of the houses in which Columbus
was born in Genoa, in Saona, in Quinto, in
Nervi in Cugureo, in Placentia, in Cuccaro,
in Calvi; of the house in which he died in
Valladolid, marked by an inscription put up
by the civil council of that other house in
Valladolid belonging to the mariner Gil
Garcia, in which Columbus died, according
to legal declaration handed down to us by
Senior Barrasa, and of the dungeon in which
Columbus also died, after six years of in
generation, according to the version of
Gregorio Lott"
The extravagant riot in which the
imagination has run regarding Colum-
bus is very well illustrated by this deli
cate irony, but in sober truth nothing
could be more interesting and apprO-
pirate than such an exhibition. All
the ideas regarding the discoverer that
have been put into any form of art
should be present, that the people of
to-day may know as much as possible
of the hero whom they honor. But
this is by the way. The real substance
of the exhibition, if it is to be a success,
must be the specimens of the number
less forms of wealth that the industrial
and artistic genius of modern civiliza-
ton has produced. Agriculture, manu-
featuring and the fine arts must be rep
resented by their best. Especially
should this be true of the contributions
of our own country. From the cotton
mills of New England and the cotton
fields of the South, the foundries and
machine shops of Pennsylvania, the
grain farms of the Central States, the
mines of the Rocky Mountains and the
sunny vine-clad slopes of California
from the cities, with their artists and
artisans, and the towns and villages,
with their wonderful variety of agri-
cultural products-from all these sources
must come the best or nothing. But
the United States should make up its
mind to have great exhibition whether
Europe sends anything or not. 1t
ing on in this country to-day. Chicago
is on the right track in this matter, if
one of the papers of that city expresses
popular sentiment 1t had been pro.
posed to spend some 100000 for the
collection of archaeological and eth.
| biological material to be placed in a
museum at the exhibition. The paper
says: " So far as Chicago is concerned
| it should be understood that it has moi
the slightest interest in the tertiary OF
quaternary period or in skulls of the
Neanderthal sort. 1t proposes to have
a live, wide-awake, nineteenth century
fair and to glorify Christopher Colum
bus for his great discovery. 1t hat
millions for the construction of exhibit
ing buildings, but no money to waste
searching for arrow heads or the skull'
of the stone age" Archaeology anC
ethnology have no place in temporar,
exhibition. The closer the fair keep
to the present, the greater it will be,
A New Jersey Experiment.