The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-11

happens to do the same thing for the
same reason. this similarity in express
sion does not necessarily prove near re-
lationship between them, but that it is
natural for savage man to dance
and yell when oyerjoyed, Just as it is
natural for him to eat when hungry
The answer. of the school opposed to
this argument is: Well, how did the In
dian get here? He is not a spontaneous
product of the soil, and granting any
theory of evolution he must yet have
immigrated from Asia, which country
is generally conceded to be the cradle
OF the human race. IL climatic condi-
lions havo Influenced his color gradu-
ally, the process would naturally be
slow in coming about, and that in it
self would presuDDOse great antiquity
for the race. At least in the few hun
dred wears during which Europeans
have inhabited America there seems to
be 10 influence in the climate which
would give their fair skins the color of
copper.
But there is a decided and easily
traced similarity existing between the
Japanese and the American Indian.
There is the same suDerfciality in
many things, the same physiological
characteristics which in the case of the
Ainas, it may be fairly outlined. The
AinaS, it may be stated, are an ancient
dllQ race
who by the way, is taken by many to
be an ancient invader of the island he
now calls his native land. Whether this
aggression once led the Jap across the
seas or whether it drove the Ainu
across is a question, but there was and
is ample opportunity for inhabitants OF
the east crossing the Pacific ocean, by
accident if not by design. Spars of
vessels known to have been wrecked on
tan Ion sa-t
ing near the American shores. The
set OF certain currents trends in just
the manner needed to float a small boat
across the Pacific and the very name
of the ocean is sufficient to show cause
why that boat might survive the war
ring elements which are generally con-
spicuous by their absence.
DR.. Angelo He;lprin of the Philadel-
pllia academy of science, has this to
say regarding the Drecolumbian dis
covcry of America by Asiatics:
NO problem connected with Ameri-
can history is of deeper interest, or is
more difficult to approach, than that
which is associated with the origin CT
the true American people, the Indians,
and the ancient civilization which is
reflected in the stately monuments
which are so abundantly scattered
through parts of Mexico and the region
lying further to the south. The most
casual observer cannot fail to recognize
in these monuments design and meth
cd entirely foreign to the spirit and
capabilities of the Indian of today, or
of his predecessors of 400 years, and
with equal certainty would he point to
a registration in them of elements that
could not be seemingly otherwise than
borrowed from an Asiatic or Afro
Asiatic source. Alexander Won Hum
boldt already in the early part of the
century emphasized the existence of
Asiatic influence in the culture of an
cient America, and he did not hesitate
to express the conviction that in some
manner or other direct communication
had been maintained between the con-
tinents of the opposite sides of the Pa
cific ocean. The views of more modern
scholars, especially of the American
chronological school. have, however,
tended more and more from the conclu-
sions of Humboldt, and in the direc
ton of recognizing in the monumental
edifices and sculptural pieces of new
Spain merely the effort of an autoch-
tonous race, whose development was en-
tirely Independent of imported influ-
ence of any kind. 1t is only recently
that the question has again been put TO
the test of q. more direct or scientln
inquiry, and such facts as have already
been obtained make it appear by no
means unlikely that direct communica-
ton existed in precolumbian times be-
tween Asia and America. and that the
former country gave much to that civil
lization which is ordinarily considered
to be purely American; nor indeed does
it seem exactly impossible that one or
more tribes or races of so-called Amer