, 1898-08-24
BLAMING 1T ON COLUMBUS.

One Of the Madrid papers has located
the source of SPANS troubles. TIL"
name of the culprit is Christopher Co
lumbus. Under tine roya! auspices Of
Spain he discovered a new continent
INK hoisted over 1t the Spanish flag.
That is believed by the Madrid analyst
to have been the germ of SPANS future
decline. To be sure, the nation seemed
to reach it's period of greatest glory at
q later date, but it is assumed to have
been burt a deceitful and dangerous eX-
pansion. II Columbus. who was an Ital-
ian ca~rpet-bagger, n one Of those elO-
quent Missionaries to whom it is perilous
to listen. had but kept away from the
court Of Ferdinand and Isabella all
would have been well. Some other ma
ton would have discovered America
and been compelled to stand it. Spain's
development would then, it is argued.
have been along the northern borders
Of Africa, a region with which it had
close relations. and with which it
kou&yiS 10 '"SAi no " NSh"
turtles. Therefore. it is contended that
the dust Of the great but baleful navi-
gator should not be removed from Ia
vana to Spain. II sovereignty must be
relinquished, all the emblems of bad
luck ought to go with it.
II Columbus were alive he might have
something to say in ~eXieHuation of his
voyage Of 1892 and of some of it's Sc
while he still remained in the flesh.
Fate was not particularly kind in max
ing him an explorer. 1t was from no
malicious generalization that he went
into the new continent business. If he
had never met and married a pretty
Portuguese girl whose father was an
old sea dog with chests full of charts
Columbus might have lived and died
the skipper of a fishing boat, equally
obscure and happy But those ancient
manuscripts, which were the chief part
OF his wife's inheritance. fired the imagi-
nation OF Columbus He took the super
VIC view" thal uiS>oF IL I 1
would not necessarily ruin himself MOI
the country he represented. There was
no way by which he could foresee that
an early Sranish-American revolutions
list 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. t. prophetic
soul Of the monarch may have warned
him that there are two sides to running
a continent as a royal diversion.
Some blame for the Spanish mind is
found in the thought that the present
embarrassments OF Spain are due to a
geographical and quite accidental cause
over 400 years ago. The Norsemen dis
covered America long before that, and
were smart enough to keep quiet about
it So were the sailors now known to
have visited the coast Of Brazil before
Columbus. The Asiatics who previous
ly entered America by crossing Behring
strait also maintained a prudent re-
serve. But the Genoese enthusiast
treated the matter effusively. and Door
Spain, overcome by a false sense Of
grandeur, weakly consented to take the
continent. Worse than that. Magellan.
deluded by the specious fame OF Column
bus. went roaming about the Pacific,
and in 1921 saddied Spain with the Phil
ippines. II there had been no bright
eyed Lisbon girl with a trunkful Of old
maps there would have been histori-
cally no Columbus. no Cuban question,
and. presumably. no Dewey. The Mad
rid editor does not go back far enough.
There is a woman in the case, al usual.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.