Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05
ONE OF THREE WOMEN
Question as to Which Should Share
Columbus Honors at Chicago.
ISABELLA GAVE UP her JEWELS
While His First and Second Wives Had
Many Sacrifices to Make.
NO ROOM FOR THE QUEEN AT THE FAIR
WRITTEN FOR THE p1spArc1J

1t seems there is to be no room for Queer
Isabella at the Columbian Exposition; that
sacrificing her jewels to detray exploring
expenses is nothing out of the ordinary,
and not more than any woman would have
done under the same circumstances. Perhaps
such sacrifice was never made; perhap.
there was no Columbus; and perhaps after
all it was a woman-a Chicago woman-who
discovered America, as has been humorously
stated by the witty President of the Chicago
! Woman's Club.
! AT any rate the Queen Isabella Associa-
tion has been ruled out of jackson Park on
account of lack of space. The privilege of
erecting the beautiful pavilion, designed by
Minerva /. Parker, now Mrs Nichols of
Philadelphia has been denied them, though
! this organization claims to have been first
in the field with the idea of Woman 8
Building and the first to award the design,
| having had the money all pledged for its
construction as we'll as for the splendid
statue of Isabella, which was intended to
grace the first entrance of the building. The
work on this statue has been done BY that
world-famous sculptor, Harriet Hosmer, and
is now completed
Tho Women VIII Not Submit
1t is rumored the Worlds Fair manage
ment now wants to purchase the statue tor
the Woman's Building, but the Isabellas
declare their building shall 60 up, even
though outside of Jackson Park, as q re-
proach to the management, AID that the
magnificent statue shall be placed exactly
he ~ iOip 11xyI
So, you see, as usual there is fly in the
ointment.
Like myself, you may find it hard to un-
derstand how the hero is to be onored in
this great demonstration and the heroine
left out; how Columbus and Isabella are to
be separated. To throw out the idea of one
would be to throw out the other To leave
Columbus out of Columbian Exposition
would be like the play of "Hamlet" with
HInalet let out, if you will pardon such an
overworked illustration, and would cer-
tainly necessitate new name for the great
show. 1t is conceded by all that there must
be heroine for the Exposition in which
women are to plav so large and important q
part; and it has been suggested that "Mrs
Columbus" be substituted for Queen Isa-
bella; that the real sacrifice was on her part
in the loss of her husbands companionship
during his long voyages
A New Character Brought Out,
1t certainly does seem as if it would only
be simple justice to give some such tardy
acknowledgement of the poor obscure little
women who had the fortune, or misfortune
to be the wife of this great man. If ever
that dreary line in Charles sKingsley's"Three
Fishers" beginning. 'for men must work
and women must weep" applied to any one
the weeping half OF it must have been
doubly applicable to the wife of Christopher
Columbus.
However, there has a risen out of serious
Investigation trifing difficulty in the way
of honoring Dona Columbo; Of enthroning
her beside her famous spouse as q sharer in
public hero-worship. In the first place
there were two of her, and in the second
place very little is definitely known of her.
Columbu had weightier business on hand
than prasing of his domestic affairs at this
time, and so his biographers to whom We
turn for information have very little to say.
But from these historians we gather that
Columbus was the wooed and not the wooer;
that one Dona Felipa, daughter of Bar
tolomo Perestrello noticed Columbus in
church, and in what would now be consid-
cred quite bold and 'firty'' way laid
siege to his heart.
Columbus Was wooed in a Leap Year.
We can only infer in Justification of such
conduct that the year 1873 was
leap year. This happened in Portugal after
Columbus had escaped from a burning ship |
in naval battle near Lisbon, by swimming |
to land with the aid of an oar. At least |
this is tie account the chronicler gives us,
and you will agree it is too prettily ro-
mantle to be allowed to die; but from any
thing the still tongue, which doubtless gave
the diseoverer his wise head, has said, we
except that in his will he desired masses to
be said for the repose of her soul She
was then for long time dead, and, accord
ing to the evidence of her son, Diego, she
had been bnried at Lisbon.
1t is said by some biographers to have
been the death of his wife that drove Co.
umbus from Portugal to Spain. Others
charge him with having deserte d her. This
charge has not good foundation, however,
since the opening scene of his career in
Spain is the touching and picturesque incl
lent OF his appearance before the Convent
'f Ribida, ragged, forlorn, footsore trav-
.ler, leading his little bow for whom he
begged bread and water. This child was
Diego, and it is at least more charitable to
believe the mother Of the child dead.
Wife No. May Have Inspired Him.
So much for wife No. 1. The grounds
lpon which the assumption of her claims to
share of the present day honors is based,
s the fact, according to the historians, that
t was among the papers of his dead father
n-law that Columbus found documents and
maps which prompted the conception of
,assage to Asia. Women will of course enjoy
he belief that thus indirectly Mrs. Colum-
'us was the inspiration of that fateful voy-
ge which led to the discovery of our great
country, but we must not loose sight of the
act that it took money to carry out the
Inspiration and that to Queen Isabelle alone,
o nearly as know. We are indebted for
his substantial aid to the discovery.
But about wife No. 2. Cordova is the
Gene of the second attachment about which
s little is known as of the first Columbus
as certainly put himself upon record for
acred science in affairs of the heart. As
the man vino never told" he is greater
han the man who discovered America aud
new fund should be started by the women
o erect q monument to the memory of the
nan who was as honorable as he was brave.
his, as an object lesson to blatant men
Tho, having no greater achievements to
oast of, try to outbrag each other in re-
ard to conquests of the heart
Commended His Widow to His Son.
Beatrice Enriques, of noble birth, for
hose sweat Sak q he uilIinolv linparad in !