Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-10-27
ARP STAYED AT HOMB.
WHY HE DID NOT SIZE THB GREAT COLUM-
BAN EXPOSITION.
Ills Bank Account Was Small and Il Cost Too Much
to Take Himself and Wib-Columbus Vas Ne
Great Shakes, lHyway.
Aaanta csns,ituiion

60 and see it, but d,dsnt 90. tried
20 get IN on the ground floor for myself
and my wife, but 1 cOuldent, and as
dident have money enough for two l
concluded 20 stav at home. That's 10y
alty-conjugal loyalty. There was an
other reason. I heard a man talking
about another mas, and be said: Eyes,
dOzOn him, be can go 20 Chicago aud
take his wife, but be can't pay me that
grocery bill he's been owing me for six
months I owe q few Of these darn lit
lie Just debts myself, and 1 dident want
20 be talked about, so it's all right. It's
an awful time 70 be sending the money
out OF the country, anyhow, and get
ting nothing hack but DleaSure. It's
well enough 70 celebrate Columbus and
make q great display, but the times are
unfortunate and the great United
States won't do anything but
draw their gay, and everything is de-
mOralized. I wish now VIC had let Mr..
Columbus alone. Lead US not into
temptation, is a good prayer. If there
bad been no fair nobody would have
wanted to go and our money would
have been kept at home. Columbus
wasent such q wonderful man no how.
be didn't mean 70 discover America,
and be didn't know he had discovered
new continent when be landed. he
was on the make. He stole Indians aud
carried them away and sole them. His
tory does not make him a great man
nor q good man, but be was an enter
prising navigator and was a success,
that's all. I would rather have been
Calico than Columbus. he discovered
q FAR bigger thing aud did il Oh purpose.
IL was not an accident. He discovered
the universe, the solar system md de-
clared 10 % mankind. My admiration
for him is profound, and / wish the
schoolOoYs aud girls 70 read about
him aud think about him. IL was
Just 800 years ago this month that he
convinced himself that the sun did not
20 around the earth, but the earth went
around the sun. What a stupendous as
SertiCn for any man 70 make. Just
think Of 10, For thousands Of years
everybody had seen the sun TO rise and
set and rise again every twanty-fOur
hours, and nobody doubted or suspected
but what IL went around the earth and
that the earth w0s stationary. IL does
look that way, doesn't To-? No wonder
everybody believed il. Joshua believed
&c when be commanded the sun 20 stand
still on Gideon. Solomon believed it
and so did all tho astronomers OF Egypt
and Of Greece and OF Rome. So did
Shakespeare and Bacon and the wise
men Of England. How could any man
dare 70 say that the earth went around
the sun, making a circuit OF 300
900, 600 miles iu year and get
back TO the same Identical spot from
whence 10 started? Columbus didn't
do anything or know anything TO be
compared to 10. Calico upset and de-
stroyed the theory Of ages, aud he chal-
leuged the astronomers and the mathe-
maticiaus Of the world 20 listen 10 him
aud 70 come aad examine his proofs.
That was only 800 years ago. Just
think how long the world had slept In
utter ignorance OF the grandest thing
the human mind can cOntemplate-the
solar system. We ought 20 have cele-
brated Calico in some way this very
year. Columbus discovered a continent,
but didn't know IL. Calico discovered
q universe and did know IT, COperniCuS
had in q timid way declared the same
solar system some 6fty years before, but
he died without converts. and his theory
died with him. Even Calico KEEP. it
secret for seven years. lie was afraid
OF the pope, aud after he did announce
10 be was PVT In prison and kept in
dungeon until his health broke down
and his wife did like Jobs wife.
She begged him u recant and say
he had lied and be did It. IL
was a memorable sight, the scene
of that recantation. The great
philosopher down on his knees before
the Pope and ia the presence Of Cardi-
mails and priests and learned men,
swearing with uplifted hands that the
earth did not go around the sun, but
the sun went around the earth every
day. But as be rose up and retired
from the POpe's presence he whispered
TO o friend, II have recantei aud alb
jured only 10 save my life. The earth
does revolYe on its axis and around che
sun" Then for seven wears be had 70
go before the priest three times a week
and recite the seven penitcntial psalms
as an atOuement for his hereSy. The
Pope aud the priesthood declared his
new theory 70 be heresy because il con-
tradicted the Bible. Calico had made
him q telescope, the first one ever made.
he made the tube out OF an old
organ pipe and got a spectacle maker
20 grind him conCaye glass
for one end and o convex glass
for the other, aud then 10 his surprise
and delight be saw stars, more stars,
new stars. he improved the telescope
until it magnifed thirty times AID he
saw the moons OF Jupiter. When be
announced his discoveries, the wise men
SAID be was crank, q fanatic, a fool.
They said that any star or planet that
could not be seen with the naked eye
was not intended 20 be seen and IL was
sacrelige 20 pry into the mysteries Of
God. They said there couldn't be but
seven planets for there were but seven
DAYS 10 the week and seven metals and
seven holes In mans head. They
kept that poor man under watch and
prosecuted him to such an extent that
he lost his sight and when John Milton
came 20 visit him there were two blind
men tOgethin cOnvesring earnestly
and secretly about the universe,
the solar system and the wonderful
works OF the creator There was
scene for a painter-MiltOn aud Calico
each soaring 10 realms OF thought far
above the conceptions OF mankind and
comforting each other in their aflc-
lions. But IN his last days Calico
triumphed over al his enemies aud es-
tablished his wonderful discoveries. Ho
lived TO reap some rewards and a.
though blind and deaf, ne was visited
by the most men Of the civilized world.
Just think what martyrdom the truth
has 20 suffer before IL is established.