Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-10-10


ships of o'den time. You may judge
what the ocean Was then by what 1t IS
now: II has never changed its habits
1t can smile like the morning, but often
Il Is the Archangel Of Wrath and JUS
most rollicking fun is shipwreck. Inc
mutinous crew would have killed Co.
lumbrs had Ii not been for the general
oplnion on shipboard that he was the
only that could take them back nome
10 safety. The promise OF SIX waist
coat and $40 in money to the man VINO
should first discover land appeased them
somewhat, but the
INDIGNATION AND BLAsPHEMY,
and threats Of assassination must have
been awful Yet, God sustained the
great sailor commanding the santa
Maria. Every evening on shipboard
they had prayers and sung a veSper
hymn. But, after all the patience OF
those in board the ships had been ,ex-
hausted, aud the great Captain or Ad-
miral had been cursed by every ana
thema that human lips could frame, one
night sailor saw light moving along
the shore, and then moving no and
down, and then disappearing. On Fri
day morning at two o'clock, just long
enough after Thursday to make 1t sure
that it was Friday aud so give another
blow at the worlds idea Of unlucky
days-on Friday morning, October IL,
1892, q gun from the Pinta signalled
"Land Ahead" Then the ships lay
to, and the boats were lowered, and
CAPTAIN Christopher Columbus first
stepped upon the shore, amid the
song of birds and the air a surge OF
redolence, aud took possession In the
name of the father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost So the voyage that began
with the sacrament ended with Gloria
in ExcelSiS Dec. From that day onward
you say there can be nothing for Column
bus but hOnors, rewards, rhapSodies,
palaces and worldwide applause. No,
no! On his way back TO Spain the ship
was so wrenched by the tempest and so
threatened with destruction that he
wrote a brief account OF his discovery
and put it in cask and threw it over
board that the world might not lose the
advantage OF his adventures. Honors
awaited him on the beach, but he un-
dertoOk a second voyage and with 1t
came all maligning and persecution and
denunciatlou and poverty. He was
called
A LAND-GRABBER,
a liar, cheat, fraud, deceiver of ma
tious. Spectators robbed him Of his
good name, courtiers deprecated his
discoveries, and there came to him
ruined health and Imprisonment and
chains, OF which he said while he
ratified them on his wrists: II will
wear them as b memento OF the graf
ltude Of princes" Amid keen appre-
citation of the worlds abuse and cruelty,
and with body writhing in the tortureS
OF govt, he groaned out his last words:
"In manus tuas Domino cOmpendo
spiritum meum:" ''Into thy hands, On,
Lord, l commend my spirit"
OF course ne had regal obsequIes.
That is the way the world tries TO atone
for its mean treatment OF great benefac-
tors. Many q man has had fine ride
to his grave who during his life had to
walk all the way. A big funeral, and
instead Of bread they give him stone,
that is a tombstone. But death that
brings quiet TO the body OF others did
not bring quiet to his. First buried in
the church OF Santa Maria. Seven years
afterward removed TO Seville. Twenty
three years afterward removed to San
Domingo. finally removed TO Cuba.
Four pOSt-mortem Journeys from seDul-
chre to sepulchre. l wish his bones
might be moved just once more, and
now that they have come so near to
America as Cuba, they might during the
great Columbian year be transported to
our own shores where they belong, aud
that In the fifth century after his de-
cease the American continent might
build q mausOleum worthy Of him who
picked this jewel Of hemisphere out of
the sea and set it in the crown Of the
worlds geography.
BUT THE BRIGHT MONDAY sun
Of that old sailors prosperity went
down In thickest night, and though here
and there 3 monument has been l.ited
in his memory, aud here and there
city called after him, the continent that
he was the means Of founding was
named after another name and no fit
ing commemOratIon of his work has
been proposed until nearly four hundred
years after his body turned to dust.
May the imposing demonstration now
being made in his honor on the Atlantic
coast, and to be made next year in his
honor mid-cOntinent, be brilliant enough
and far-resounding enough and Chris
tian enough and magnificent enough TO
atone for the neglect OF centuries. May
the good Lord allow that most illustrlouS
sailor of all TO look over the amethYs-
tine battements long enough to see
some OF the garlands wreathed around
his name and hear something OF the
hemisphere shout that shall greet his
memory.
That great italian navigator mpresses
me with the Idea that when one does
good thing, he cannot appreciate It's
qualifications. To the moment of his
death, Columbus never knew that he
had discovered America, but thought
that Cuba was a part Of Asia. He
thought the island Hispaniola was the
ODhir OF Solomon. He thought be had
only opened a new way TO old Asia.
Had he known what North and South
America were and are, and that he had
found a country three thousand miles
wide, ten thousand miles long, Of sew
enteen million square miles, and four
times as large as Europe, the happi-
ness would have been TOO much for NOR
tai man TO endure.
And, now, while I am thinking Of
this illuStriOus
SHIP CAPTAIN OF GENOA,
let me bespeak higher appreciation for
the ship captains now in service, many
Of them this moment on the sea, the
ives OF tens of thousands OF passengers