The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-01-06
TOPIC OF THE WEEK.
The Compass, and How 1t Pointed the Way
to Better Things.

The Compass, and How 1t Pointed the Way
to Better Things.
Civilization is plant of slow growth. It
is nurtured by invention-a handmade coy
and uncertain. 1t was 200 years after Marco
Polo carried the compass from Catbay to
Venice that Columbus discovered America.
The compass had not been hidden away all
that time, for minor navigators seem to have
been using it on the Mediterranean Sea years
before. Besides that, some stray mariner or
some band of hardy pioneers, with the cry of
Westward no." had carried it to Norway
and France century or two before that time
There is trace of it in Norway as early as
1866, and in France as far back as 1850,
nearly hundred years before Marco Polo re-
turned from the Kingdom of Kublai Kahn
with the wedding party that carried the
great sovereign s daughter to the Court Of the
King of Persia.
The Chinese seem to have discovered almost
everything under the sun, but their inven-
tions have been held the property of the
great court fiatterers, never having been used
for the general good, but kept as pretty
toys, for the amusement of royalty.
Feudalism, with its lords and ladies in the
castles and its dependencies and serfS outside,
brought with it such social order as the sword
and donjon can enforce. A beautiful spirit
OF chivalry lent its aid for time to social
uplifting, but the entire system carried its
own degeneracy with'it for it was not long
till lord and castle, squire and serf, were
under perverted religious denomination,
which throttled originality, and philosophy
made of religion q superstition, and taught
the fatal doctrine of abject obedience of body
and ssul to an established order.
Then the compass revealed its hidden
powers, and adventures and discoveries went
forth. Lay society breaking away from its
environments, led the advance aud began to
discover, or rebabilitate industries and arts,
and science, which had been looked on as a
black art in the han isor the astroisger, took
ON new courage. cad the whole world was
awakened. sf
Columbus discovered the West Indies, the
portico Of the new world, and the Cabots,
seeking a short cut to China and Japan, sailed
up and down the North American coast.
marveling that they had found an island SO
big that they could not get around it.
Amerigo Vespueci, who gave his name to the
Western continent, was fitting out the cara
vels of the Medici family to add to their vast
riches.
SuliSLidu GtIttfClSul LAUGH away UtlOI0 INC
revelation of lost thought that the Kingdom
OF Heaven Is begun in the hearts and lives
of men.
Men began to improve their habitations, but
the process was slow, and every step towards
greater ease and refinement in life was Knocked
as efeminate. Forks and knives and spoons
came slowly into use, and men were slow to
cease rending their meat with their fingers
cr RI hr..a thair broad fro,,, no xuif n
their brawny grips.
handkerchief were sneered at by even
Kings and Queens and Lords and Ladies. As
late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, past the
middle of the 10th century, the introduction
of carriage into the streets of London ex-
cited as much superstition among the people
as did the first steamboat on the Mississippi
River in the minds OF the American Indians.
Both devices were considered the work OF the
devil, though some of the more imaginary
Britishers insisted that the carriage was 50 a
great sea-shell brought from China" The
man who first carried an umbrella on the
streets of London was mobbed. Printing was
known as the black art, and the first books
printed in Paris were burned as the works of
the evil one.
1t was in the reign of Henry VII, 1856
1909, that the British merchants fitted out
an expedition to the new world, which they
intrusted to Sebastian Cabot. of Bristol, son
of Venetian pilot whom they sent out to
bring home some of the treasures and slaves
with which Christopher Columbus had en-
rched Spain.
Cabot's voyage was successful, and it was
then that England began her prestige as a
great maritime power; prestige followed
up, until she had supplanted the Dutch,
French and Spanish i'll America, and made
herself mistress of the soil of the new world,
until her colonies, in turn, assumed suprem-
acy, and slipped her ships from the moorings
on United States soil.
Henry VIII at the beginning Of his reign
had but one ship.of war; while Elizabetb, 40
years later, sent out $50 against the Spanish
Armada. 1t was not until 1894 that the city
of London had a paved street. AS an old
record tells Us. the streets were very noxous
and foul, and in, many places thereof very
jeopardous to all eeople passing and repass-
ing, as well On higsesack as on foot" On
the commons the young men used to meet to
fight and daily resort to bear-b batting and
cock-fghting. sfn
An account given zby Harrison shows from
what wretched hovcit the people had emerged.
He is delighted with the wooden houses,
covered with plaster ,as the dcectable white
ness of the stufle 'isselfe is laied on 30 even
and smoothlie," "a .
The impetus of the compass has never come
to a halt Commerce was first to feel the
impulse, and the woSlen trsie in England
ma e such an ensiflhous advance that corn
fields were changed INTO pasture lands. Agri-
culture was quickened TO such an extent that
in half a century the produce per acreage was
doubled.
Art and literature took on new life, and
bl0Ssomed to the harvest.
AN OUTLOOK.