The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-08-27
.izming on Go,uan bus.

One of the Madrid papers ha, Iurat-
ed the source of SpainS troubles. The
name Eof the culprit i. Christopher
Columbus. Under the royal aU>pict.s
nent and hoisted over it The Spanish
flag. That is believed by the Madrid
analyS: To have been the germ of
SpainS fIture decline. To BE SIRE. the.
nation seemed to reach IL period of
greatest glory al later date. but it Is
a~>, ..ru Ia have been but a deceitful
and dangerous expansion. If Colum-
bus. who was an Italian carpet-bag-
yer. .II.u sSEc of ;hu~s. eloquent vision
aries To X!Inm it l. pcrilOuS to listen,
n;:. i,"l E,-4t AWAY from the court of
c,-,...rhIia and I>a bella all w0uld have
been well. Some other nation wuuld
have discovered America and been
compelled To stand it Spain devel-
opnrut would then. II l. argued. have
hr,,n along the northern borders of
Africa il region with which 1t had
clos relations. and with which i.
!.ru- 1T as well as intcrmin%led for ren-
turieS Therefore. it is contended that
the Dust OF tine great but balefuI naVi-
gator should not be removed from Ha
vauA 10 Spain. If sovereignty must
b,. Tr-.luquis aed. all the emblcms OF
bad .uck ought To 20 with it.
If Columbus were alive he might
hav,. something to say in cXtcnuatiOn
of h. .uya"" Of l492 and of .soIur of
H. =, !u.ie personally unpleasant TO
himself whiIt. he still remained in the
flesh. Fate was not particularly kind
in making him an explorer. II was
from. 40 malicious generalization that
h,. Nh; into the Eew continent bu>i-
ness. If ne mad never met and mar
ried Il pretty Portuguese girl whose
fath,i. was an old sea do" with chests
full of charts Columbus might have
IivrG and died the skipper of Il fishing
boat. equally obscure and happy. But
the chief part of his wife ; inheritance,
fired the imagination of Columbus.
He took the superficial view that dis
covering Il new world would not nee
essarily ruin himself nor the country
he represented. There was no way by
which he could foresee that an early
Spanish-American reyolutionist in a
colony founded by himself would some
day clap him in chains and send him
back to Spain. Ferdinand lived long
enough to feel uneasy when Columbus
was around. The prophetic soul of
the monarch may have warned him
that there are two sides to running a
continent "a Il royal diversion.
Some balm for the Spanish mind Is
found in the thought that the present
embarrassments of Spain are due To Il
geographical and quite accidental
cauS. over 100 years ago. The NOr~r-
meu discovered America long before |
that. and were smart enough to keep |
quiet about il. So were ,the sailors /!
now known to have visited the coast of !
Brazil before Columbus. The A~iat- |
les who previously entered America by |
crossing Bchring Strait also main
tanned prudent reserve. But the |
Genuese enthusiast treated the matter
ctfusivrIy. and poor Spain. overcome
by a false sense of grandeur. weakly |
consented to take the continent.
Worse than that. Magellan. deiuded
by the specious fame of Columbus,
went roaming about the Pacific, and
in l52l saddled Spain with the Philip
pines. If there had been no bright
eyed Lisbon girl with trunkful of
old maps there would have been his
torically no Columbus, no Cuban
question, and, presumably, no Dewey.
The Madrid editor does not go back
far enough. There is a woman in the
case, as usual.-Globe-Demo