New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-10-16
TIE UORLUiS EiIR.

Tho annroaching dedication of the Void ;
Fair to the pacific ends OF industrial progress
marks a distinct advance upon the hoiiaa'
rovels Of the last week in the metropolis
Tho discoveries Of Columbus as geographical
nvorts ,vore not more remarkable than the
portuouese passage around Africa 70 the East
or the SIGHTING of the Pacific at Dai1en. or
the VOYAGES of Magellan and Cook; but III
,ho;r ro,.t;ors to modern civilization they were
far more important The resources ana potch-
tialities of the New World have maze MS
achievement one of the turning points OF MS
tory while rival nayigators OF MS century dfo
now remembered only as heroes OF tne sea anu
nioneers of maritime adventure. AT the Worlu
Fair are TO be celebrated four centuries or IN
dustrial progress. during which continents nave
exchanged their products, and the workihe
,o,,or NJ tho hest races of Europe has been
marvellously developed in America. ii our'hs
tbc last week Columbus has been invested WIN
norsonali1y as the noblest ideallst ana the
brayest man of action of his time, during the
months of the Exposition he will drop Out OF
s;obt or be remembered as in an abstract sense
an humble instrument employed in provldenuai
orranoements for promoting the welfare vi the
race
Columbus passed his last years in misfortune
,d nooIoct bocausc there was so little in the
now lands which was Immediately available as
source of wealth. lie was LOOKING ior inc
gold. silver. Jewels and spices OF the orient
NJ Marco Polo and Sir John Mandevllle but III
tbe course of his four voyages he ONLY 1ound Il
Tow, ncarls off the Venezuelan coast and little
olso ina. was valuable. The Spanish Court was
interested in seeing his Indian curiositles. but
,boro was nothing in these to excite the cuDldlty
Sc ,,ortime EurOpc He found so little that
he was compelled to suggest slave traihc as Il
lucrative business Vasco da Cana. by samDlng
tho merchandise of Calcutta, took back with
him IN Lisbon more wealth than Columbus col
,ected from all his wanderngs in the West In
d;os Yet the New World was rich in its store
of GOLD and silver which he sought. In single
generation following his death Cortes and n
zarro riaed the treasures OF Mexico and Peru
and satisfied the Spanish lust for wealth and
as time has passed the New World, with its
californian gold fields, its silver mines In our
own Far West, in Mexico, and the Andean
range. lis copper deposits around Lake Superior
and in Chill, and its iron and coal beos through
ont North America has surpassed the dreams
Of the most imaginative OF the pioneers OF
colonization.
II was by the exchange and transplanting Of
continental products that the world was to be
largely benefited by the discoveries of Column
bus America had Indian maize, potatoes to-
hacco. cacao, dye-woods and many medicinal
harl,s and herbs to introduce into Europe but
tbc chief resources of its present agricultural
wealth were not indigenous, but were accli-
matized from European stock. In 1892 coffee
had barely reached Constantinople from Arabia,
whence it had been introduced from Abyssinia
but it was unknown as n beverage in Vienna,
Paris Madrid and London. Its cultivation is
now the chief industry of the IIispanola of CO.
lumbus, of Venezuela and Central America
first sighted by HIM and of Cabral's Brazil