The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-02-16
BILL AND CHRIsToPHER-NYE
GIVES SOME NEW R0INTS
ON COLUMBUS.
Old Man Chris was Out for the Dust.--He
Was Not the Pioneer in the Theory
~of the Earth's Sphericity.
William Doesn't Want to Kick o. Mon
When He Is Still Talked of in

~~@> - SSAAOL@A =
horseman might have been seen riding
between his own home and the reign
ing works of King Ferdinand, wrapped
In thought, Four hundred years have
sped away and q mighty nation, proud
and arrogant, has arrisen to do honor
to that heroism and the courageou.
blunder which added a new world tt
civilization.
Reading carefully the biography Of
Columbus we find that no n in his
age or generation could have been
better fitted for the mighty job OF
opening up and booming a western
world than Christopher Columbus, fol-
he is said to have been one of the
brightest young liars of his time.
Columbus took prevarication in its
infancy, it is said, and put it on it's
feet and made an industry of it. HE
had a talent of deceit" says his bio
grapher, land sometimes boosted of
it, or at least counted it a merit"
And this is the gentleman whose
name we give to the worlds great
exposition 400 years after he found us
while looking for some one elsel ]
hate to pessimistic or speak
lightly of a great man. 1 believe that
l should speak of Columbus with re-
spect, as I would have wished him to
refer to me if our places had been
reversed; but oh, how sad it is TO
know that the land of Washington
George Washington, the man who
would not lie even about his circula-
tion-that such a land, I say, should
have been discovered by a liar who
represented the pauper labor of Europe!
This, 1 say, pains and grieves me.
The biographer of Columbus also
produces good evidence to show that
Chris was not by a long, long distance
the pioneer in the theory of the earth's
sphericity. It was an idea taught by
the Pythagoreans in the sixth century
before Christ, which was, as the ready
mathematician will see at once, about
2 1000 years before Christopher Column
bus got his lunch put up for his great
journey west. Two hundred years
before Christ, Crates is said to have
constructed a globe map owe ten feet
in diameterand offered it rs a premium
his paper, SO that even in the
Of nur SaViav@khar cahN~ia;t--~f
the earth was not a new thing, Re
ligious matters of course engrOssed the
attention at that time so much that
geography was yet in it's infancy, but
it was ommon talk in Jerusalem,
especially on the west side, that the
earth was round like a ball and com
posed of land and water.
Toscanelli had muchtO do with firing
up Columbus to make the voyage Of
discovery. We hear very little of
Toscanelli, and yet he taught Column
bus that the earth was round like a
ball and fattened at the poles. Tos-
canelli had figured out by Q of
Iogarythms and a piece of chalk that
the circumference of the earth was
10, 900 miles. This slight error of 1000
miles, considering what disadvantages
he had to deal with and also that one
astronomer as late as the sixteenth
century made an error of 3,oO0, 900
miles in figuring out the distance of
the earth from the sun, not even dis
covering the mistake till years after
ward, when he accidentally paced off
the distance out of curiosity say an
error of 1000 miles, at a time when
there were 80 few barns upon which to
make geometrical calculations, is not
surprising.
Let us now pass on rapidly to speak
of King Ferdinand and queen Isabella,
viewed in the light Of moro careful re-
search by the ~biographer OF Columbus.
Is it not too bad to learn, after years
of faith and trust in Isabella, that she
was really one of our coarsest and
jayest of queens3
Oh, what can be sadder than to catch
a crowned head in a mean actl What
can be more depressing than to know
that your favorite monarch is a chump
or a jayl Oh, it is terrible! I never
had but n such experience myself.
Our house used to be quite a rem
devious for people of title when I was
a child. Wealthy MOBILES used to come
to our house and bring their dinners
with them. We were very popular
with that set. When they came
slept with my parents. So did the
other boys. I held these titled people
in great esteem, and gave them my
pie. But one day a duke who was at
our place shooting grouse, prairie
chickens and cows, sat at the table
and combed his red, red whiskers with