Connecticut western news., 1892-10-27
ured or applauulng ne spoke as rouows;

Shauncey M. DepSw's Grafton.
 This day belonss not To America, but to the world The results of the event it commemo. rates are the heritage of the peoples of every race and cline. We celebrate the emancipation of man. Ancient history is dreary record of unstable civilizations. Each reached its zenith of material splendor and perishcd. The divine right of kings stamped out the saintest glimmer of revolt against tyranny; and the problems of science, whether of the skies or of the earth. whether astronomy or geography were solved or submerged by ecclesiastical degrees. The dungeon ready for the philo opher who proclaimed the truths of the solar system the navigator who would prove the sphericity of the earth.
 Fifty years before Columbus sailed from Pa. los Guttenberg and Faust had forged the ham mer which was to break the bonds of supersu. tion and open the prison doors of the mind. They had invented the printing press and nov. able types. The prior adoption of a cheap process for the manufacture of paper at once utilized the press. Its first service, like all ifs succeeding efforts, for the people. The frstborn of the marvellous creation of these primitive printers of Mayence was the printed Bible. The time had come for the emancips tion of the mind and soul of humanity. The factors wanting for Its fulhllment were the new world and its discoverer.
 God has always in training some command. ing genius for the control of great crises in tho affairs of nations and peoples The number of
 
 their lives are the history of human progress. Though Cmssr and Charlemagns and Hide brand and Luther and William the ConQueror and Oliver Cromwell and all the epoch makers prepared Europe for the event and contributed to the result the lights which nlumine our Armament today are Columbus the diseoverer, Washington the founder and Lincoln the savior.
 Neither realism nor romance furnishes . more striking and picturesque figure than that -A.s. his origin heightens the charm of his story. That he came from among the toilers of his time is in harmony with the struggles of our period. Forty-four authentic portraits of him have descended to us. and no two of them are the counterfeits of the same person.
 Each represents n character distinct as it's canvas. Strength and weakness, intellectu. aity and stupidity, high moral purpose and brutal ferocity. purity and hcentiousness, the dreamer and the miser the pirate and the puritan, are the types from which we may SC. lect our hero. We dismiss the painter, and piercing with the clarified vision of the dawn of the Twentieth century the veil of four hun dred years we construct our ColumbuA
 The perils of the in his youth upon the rich argosies of Genoa or in the service of the licensed rovers who made them thcir prey, had developed a skillful navigator and intrepid mariner They had given him glimpse Of the possibilities of the unknown. beyond the high. ways of travel, which reused an unquenchsblo thirst Tor adventure and research.
 The study of the narratives of previous ex. plorers, and diligent questionings of the dar- ing spirits who had ventured far toward the fabled west, gradually evolved a theory which became in his mind so fixed a fact that he could inspire others with his own passionate
 beliefs. The words 'thRt is a lie," written by him on the margin of nearly every page of a
 volume of the travels of Marco Polo, which is still to be found in Genoese library, illustrate the skepticism of his beginning, and the first
 vision of the New World the fulnllment of his
 faith.
 The Struggles of Columbus.
 To secure the means to test the truth of his speculations this poor and unknown dreamer must win the support of kings and overcome the hostility of tho church. He never doubted his ability to do both, though he knew of no man living who was great in power or lineage or learning that he could accomplish either Un aided and alone he succeeded in arousing the jealousios of sovereigns and dividing the coun cils of the ecclesiastics
 "I will command your fleet and discover foi you new realms, but only on condition that you | confer on me hereditary nobility, the admiralty | of the ocean and the vice royalty and one-tentl | the revenues of the Now World" were hi | naughty terms to King John of Portugal Aftoi ten years of disappointment and poverty, sub sisting most of the time upon the charity of tn, enlightened monk of the convent of Ribda, wh' | was his uufaltering friend, he stood before th' | throne of Ferdinand and Isabella, and rising ts imperial dignity in his rags embodied the sam' royal conditions in his petition.
 The capture of Granada, the expulsion o | Islam from Europe and the triumph of thu cross aroused the admiration and devotion o | Christendom But this proud beggar holdin, | in his grasp the potential promise and do | minion of Eldorado and Cathsy, divided witl | the Moslem surrender the attention of soy | ereigns and of bishops. France and EnglanC | indicated n desire to hear his theories and ses | his maps while he still supplisnt at tn. gates of the camp of Castile and Aragon, thu | sport of it's courtiers and the scon of its con | fessors His unshakable faith that Christopbei | Columbus was commissioned from heaven | both by his name and by divine command, t' carry "Christ across the sea" to new conti nents and pagan peoples, lifted him SO fa | above the discouragements of an empty purse I and a contemptuous court that he was proo | against the rebuffs of fortune or of friends. To conquer the prejudices of the clergy, C | win the approval and financial support of thu | state, to venture upon that unknown oceai | which, according to the beliefs of the age, wa | peopled with demons and savage beasts O | frightful shape, and from which there was n' possibility of return, required the zeal of Pete | the Hermit the chivalrfc courage Of the Cis Il and the imagination of Dante. Columbus be longed to that high order of cranks who con | hdently walk where angels fear to tread. and often become the benefactors of thei country or their kind.