The Banner-Democrat., 1892-12-03

NOssASS - VAA@tO ~ 0Ays hAtOA -" AAAAV
there comes q calm day, and the at
tempt is made to fathom the ocean, and
they can not touch bottom though the
line and lead run down two hundred
fathoms. More delightful sensations
for those who are not good sailors! A
fathom is six feet, and two hundred
fathoms one thousand two hundred
feet and below that it may be
many hundred feet deeper. To add
interest to the voyage, on the twen-
tieth day out, violent storm sweeps
the sea, and the Atlantic ocean tries
what it can do with the Santa Maria.
the Pinta and the Nina. Some of you
know something of what sea can do
with the Umbria, the Majestic, the
Teutonic and the City of Paris, and you
must imagine what the ocean could do
with those three small ships of olden
time. You may judge what the ocean
was then by what it is now; it has
never changed its habits. 1t can smile
like the morning, but often it is the
archangel of wrath, and its most roll
licking fun is a shipwreck. The mu-
tinous crew would have killed Column
bus had it not been for the general
opinion on shipboard that he was the
only ono that could take them back
home in safety. The promise of
silk waistcoat and forty dol
lars in money to the man who
should first discover land appeased
them somewhat, but tho indignation
and blasphemy and threats Of assassi-
nation must have been awful. Yet God
sustained the great sailor commanding
the Santa Maria. Every evening on
shipboard they had prayers and sung
and vesper hymn. But after all the
patience of those on board the ships
had been exhausted and the great cap
tain or admiral had been cursed by
every anathema that human lips could
frame, one night sailor saw light
moving along the shore, and then NOV
ing up and down, and then disappear
ing.
On Friday morning at o'clock, just
long enough after Thursday to make it
sure that it was Friday and to give an
other blow at the worlds idea of un-
lucky days-on Friday morning. Octo-
Der 1a, 1899, gun from the Pinta sig
nailed Land ahead" Then the ship
lay to, and the boats were lowered, and
Capt. Christopher Columbus first
stepped upon the shore, amid the song
of birds and the air surge of redo
lence, and 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 Co
lumbus but honors, rewards, rhapso-
dies. palaces and worldwide APP
plause. No, no! On his way back
to Spain the ship was so wrenched
by the tempest and SO threat
ened with destruction that he wrote
brief account of his discovery and
put it in cask, and threw it overheard,
that the world might not lose the ad-
vantage of his adventures. Honors
awaited him on the beach, but he un-
dertook a second voyage, and with it
came all malignant and persecution
and denunciation and poverty. He was
called land-grabber, q liar, a cheat, a
fraud. deceiver of nations. Specula-
tors robbed him of his good name, cour-
tiers deprecated his discoveries, and
there came to him ruined health and
imprisonment and chains, of which he
said while he ratified them of his
wrists: 81 will wear them as q me-
mento of the gratitude of princes. :"
Amid keen appreciation of the worlds
abuse and cruelty, and with body
writhing in the tortures of gout, he
groaned out his last words: I'm manus
tuas Domino commendo spiritum
meum: Into Thy hands, OLord, Il COM
mend my spirit
OF course he had regal obsequies
That is the way the world tried to atone
for its mean treatment of great bene-
factors. Many q man has had fine
ride to his grave who during this life
had walked all the way. A big funeral.
and instead of bread they gave him a
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 Sc
vile. Twenty-three years afterward
removed to San Domingo. Finally re-
moved to Cuba. Four post-mortem
journeys from sepulcher to sepulcher.
/ wish his bones might be moved just
once more, and now that they have
come 90 near to America as Cuba, they
might during the great Columbian
year be transported to our own shores,
where they belong, and that in the
fifth century after his decease the
American continent might build a
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 monument has been lifted in
his memory, and here and there city
called after him, the continent that he
was the means of founding was named
after another name, and no fitting COM
memoration of his work has been pro-
posed 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
Christian enough and magnificent
enouoh tn atone for the neglect Of cen.