The morning call., 1892-10-21
WHAT THE DAY rIEANS
A Lesson of Value to All Young
Americans.

! VIVA HE LAY IlEAlSo
A Lesson of Value to All Young
Americans.
| The celebration of the four hundredth an
! niyersary of the discovery of America
/ brings 10 the mind of youth with special
force the fact that this country has not
| always been the home of civilized man.
Realizing this fact as he never did before,
| he begins to question everything that can
satisfy his curiosity.
He wonders what manner of country it
was in past ages; what was its history;
I what manner of beings inhabited it. and
| from wondering he proceeds to investigate,
| to read to study, and new world is opened
| to him.
He may have read something about the
matter before and learned to say in an
! Indifferent way, columbus discovered
| America in 1892" but as rule that is all
Greek to him as far as any definite idea ac
companies the words.
But now he begins to comprehend that it
is his own country that Columbus dis
| covered, and that he himself is but recent
emigrant. for it dawns upon him that the
! figures 1892 mean 400 years ago-the lifetime
| OIL IOuE iucu WIZ udFo lNcQ CSAtui5 OdOi-'
| And further that so short time ago his
native land was little better than wilder
| ness.
| He will now become Interested In Wash
ington Irving, Prescott, Fenimore Cooper
and other writer's. and to meet his craving
[for more information about his native land
great impetus will be given to juvenile
| literature having for Its theme America
| oil that narfainc it's history and
| traditions.
With desire to know why the civilized
| world had been asleep so many thousand
years, he will naturally turn to the land
whence the discoverer came. We now
sail around the world and know almost
every island on its surface, and we are
| longing to explore Mars. Is 1t not there
fore. passing strange that so many centu-
| ries have come and gone, during which
navigators had not dared to venture out OF
| sight of land?
| What kind of people were our ancestors?
| This question will naturally arise in his
mind. and in his researches he will discover
| the strangely benighted condition of their
| minds in regard to astronomy and geography.
| According to their scientific ideas the sun,
| moon and stars rose out OF the ocean or the
| mysterious east beyond, clrcled over their
| heads and sank into the mysterious sea in
| the west. The earth was fiat and fioated in
the sea. The heavens above were the abodes
| OF the gods, and under the world, or in the
| interior. Satan and the evil spirits dwelt.
The gates to these internal regions were on
the borders Of the western sea, and around
these gates lowered troop of woes and
dreadful terrors. Hideous monsters guarded
those western waters and perpetual storms
| dashed them to fury No man ever dared
venture into those awful realms.
| Young America has now discovered why
| the western world remained so long un-
known to civilization. He is gaining an in
sight into the religious and scientific ideas
| OF the past.
| lie will learn from this celebration TO
respect and admire a man who could de-
family sail into the jaws Of all those terrors
with the hope of finding India on the other
side of fiat world. Or If Columbus could
conceive that the earth was round, contrary
to the generally accepted theory, and India
Just op the other side, while re0ple's heads
pointed the other way, and maintain this
belief against the jeers and rdicule aimed
! at him wherever he went. he will not fall
| In the estimation or admiration of the young
student.
The youthful searcher after truth will be
! led on to study of the habits and customs
! and history OF the times. Thus this cele-
bration must inevitably be instrumental In
educating not only the young. but older
| people also, in scientific, geographical re-
ligious and historical questions.
Again, the study of daring and self-sacri-
ice OF Columbus must reach tho student
and nerve him on to higher resolves and
more Independence of thought and action.
| From the benighted condition OF Europe
in those days Of four centuries ago he will
| turn 10 the contemplation of his own be-
loved America, with her grand institutions.
her freedom. her enlightenment her arts
and sciences, her wonderful progress and
| future prospects.
| He will discover that I'VE live in deeds,
not years." and conclude that our four
| hundred years of existence will outspsn all
| the ages since human life began on this
| earth.
| VIII not this contemplation have a won
| derful influence for good upon the youthful
| mind? Will it not make patriot of even
| the dullest clayp Surely such questions
| can only be answered in the affirmative.
He who can set Europe and Asia with
| their six thousand years of time against
America with her four hundred years-three
hundred of those being devoted to struggle
| In feeble infancy against the tyrant in
| Europe and the savage in the wilderness
aud not lift his hat to the stars and stripes,
wherever and whenever he meets them,
should creep back to Europe and fawn at
the doors of arstocrats, those tombs of the
great in past ages"
No sincere man or woman. boy or girl,
can make this study without thanking all
the powers that be that his or her home is
under the star-spangled banner.
ELISHA Brooks