Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-10-28
days price vas $3.50, 900, and to these
terms they finally were compelled to
accede.
WHERE DIED.
The House s,,l,l stands. A,thou,
Crumbling Into Decay.

h House still Stands. Although
Crumbltng Into Decay.
On the Gale de Colon, a dinqy.
narrow old street in Valladolid,
about 200 yards long, stands the
house in which Columbus died,
although fast crumbling into decay.
The fact that it does stand is not
due to any effort taken for its
preservation, but rather to the solid
ity Of it's construction. 1t is of con-
siderable size, and was, no doubt,
originally constructed for some per-
son OF rank and position. The en-
trance is through a great Norman
archway of stone, and the entrance
hall Is spacious, while the staircase
is broad and its incline so gentle,
that n might almost drive up it.
The basement of the building is of
stone, though the upper stage is of
brick, covered with stucco-or as
much stucco as has survived the
ravages of time. The outer walls
are massive, and their interior is, no
doubt, composed of a species of con-
crete. Or mixture of mortar, pebbles
and fragments of stone, which figures
strongly in all old Spanish struct.
ures
No nation in the world, perhaps,
has less respect or appreciation for
the antique and ~time-honored than
have the Spaniards. The house
where Columbus died is now used as
IL constable. Above the stone arch
way is a time-stained medallion,
bearing a mans head, standing out
in bold relief on the stucco. I'm
derneath is the engraven inscription
"Aqui murio Colon-Ano 1906"
(Hcre died Columbus, year 1506.)
Close to this hangs a small sign
board, with the following inscrip-
tion: New milk sold here; you may
see 1T MIXED" An old woman liv-
ing there gives tourists some infor-
nation.
Upon entering the ancient struct-
IRE one steps into the spacious en-
trance hall, which is pitched with
small pebbles. On either side is a
large doorway, but the doors have
been removed, and through the OPEN
fngS one a see the cows standing i'm
rows. Twenty COWS are stabbed in
the lower part of the house. The
cowman and his family live up
stairs. One is quickly led into a
large room overlooking the street
the oom where Columbus died. The
windows are furnished with massive
iron gratings, as, indeed, are all the
windows in the house. A thin par
tition, running half way across the
room, forms Il small recess or alcoba,
in which is an old wooden bedstead.
with Il wretched straw pallet and a
scanty covering of old clothes. On
such a bed, probably. died the great
discoverer in poverty and desolation.
In the middle Of the partition is a
little square window, through which
anyone sleeping in the alcoba might
see IL any n entered the room.
The walls, bare and discolored with
age, look as If they had not been
whitewashed for at least a century.
The floor is of square earthen ties.
the same on which Columbus trod
four centuries ago. In this room he
was for a long time a prisoner. In
that alcoba, where the cowman and
his wife sleep every night, the great
discovercr died. Near the head of
the bed the form of a cross has
been scratched with some sharp in
strument deep in the plaster of the
wall. Tradition says that Columbus
made the cross.