St. Paul daily globe., 1891-04-17
FRIEuDOF The INDIAN,
Prof. Fiske's Lecture Upon
the Life and Work of
Las Casas.
Arrangements and Sentences
III the District Court Made
Yesterday.
Consolidation Of the Small
Mills Under One Manage
ment Is Assured.
A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl
Elopes With Her Lover Who
Was Barred Out"

IOA. JOllH lSht lecture al the FlrSt
Unitarian church last evening was well
attended, though not to the degree it
would have been. doubtless, had the
lecture been devoted TO a different sub
Ject. Any subject handled by Prof.
flske is bound 10 become interesting.
Las Casas, the Friend of the Indian, .
MS lecture of last evening, is full of in
terest to the student of history, the
Scanner of motives, the man who de-
lights in tracing the growth and deyel-
opment of an idea through years and
hundreds of years; but such men are few.
Las CaSaS was man grown when
America was discovered. Minneapolis
people are not particularly interested
III MIN. They would have been better
pleased, no doubt, had Prof. Fiske
CHOSEN theme in the DEVELOPMENT OF
winch he would have expressed some of
MS IDEAS relating to governmental prob
IemS, with which he so often deals. Yet
MS lecture on Las CasaS was not dull.
dis style is especially pleasing. His
d!ctlon. though not ornate, is classic;
his voice is pleasant and eXpressive:
his manner quiet and soOth-
ing beyond most lecturers. There
IS no "bookishness' about him.
Then his lecture was devoid of the
dry, hard, uncompromising style pc
cullar 10 most profound thinkers. Prof.
tlSke injected into his account Of the
doiugs of the early Spaniards in Amer
lea. quiet comments of his own not de-
void of the ridiculous. Some passages,
too, were clothed i'll language that the
possession by Prof. Fiske of much wit
and not little humor.
He said that he had chosen to speak
of Las CaSaS because he believed that
mans life to be a subject full of human
interest and capital Illustrative of the
triumph of good over evil; also because
II shows the enSlaVement Of the Ameri-
can red man, and later the African
negro, to be closely linked. He began
with sketch Of the founding of slavery
In Spain III 1912, quoting from Spanish
historian an account of the distribu-
ton OF the first lot of ne
gro slaves ever sold in bondage.
The scenes attending that transaction
were not materially different from
those witnessed in the Southern scenes
forty or fifty years ago. He spoke of
Columbus capturing Caribbean canni-
balls as slaves, and Christopher solilO-
QulZed thus on that subject, as a balm
10 his conscience:
''It will be Kindness" said Colum-
bus, Ito carry these savageS to Spain
and convert them to Christianity"
And" continued the speaker, "at the
same time, Columbus thought that
these Indians could be exchanged in
Spain for cargo. Thus did the an
clients, as do their more modern proto-
types. reconcile religion and COM
merce"
Then followed history of the life
and deeds of Bartholomew Los Casas.
who was born in 1474, and was the first
clergyman ordained In the new world.
He would have been a great man in
any age. Prof. Fiske said. While not
doubling Las CasaS' veracity. the
lecturer intimated slyly that the ac-
counts of early historians of the number
of Indians killed in America are to be
trusted only when one or two ciphers
have been knocked off. The revolving
atrocities perpetrated upon Indians by
the sWarmS of adventurers who sought
gold in the new world were touched
upon.
'Bnt," said Prof. Fiske, sit is no.
right to set down ali these wrongs
against the Spaniard. We should re-
member that if the rulians were Span
lards, 50 was Las CaSaS 4 Spaniard.I
The audience was told that the Span
iardS considered an Indians life of no
value. 1t was thought cheapest to work
him TO death and tnen get another In
dian. The first battle against slavery
in the new world was begun by Domin-
lean monks in 1910. Las Casas Joined
with them. He did not then see the
evil of keeping slaves if they were well
treated. But while preparing a sermon
for PentecOst in 1914, Las Casas was
struck by the thought that it was wrong
to hold slaves. He freed his own, and
from that day worked increasingly
against the practice.
All this, however. referred to the en-
slavement of the red man. Turning a
moment to negro bondage, Prof. Fiske
corrected a historical error. Las Casas
is credited with first suggesting the en-
Slavement of the black man. This is
not so. While working for the freedom
of Indians 1t was suggested to Las Casas
that the Indians could be freed if the
black man could be secured to take his
place. Las Casas. grasping at even a
faint hope of doing something for his
beloved red charges. said that he sup
posed the enslavement of the black man
would be the less Of two evils. Only
that far did he sanction it. So great
was Las Casas' work for the Indians
that he received the official title from
the king of Spain of Protector of In
dianS."