The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1898-08-26
BLAMING 1T ON COLUMBUS.

The name of the culprlG is CnrIs-
topher Columbus. Under the royal
auspices of Spain he discovered
new continent and hoisted over 1t
the Spanish flag. That is believed
by the Madrid analyst to have been
the germ of Spain's future decline.
To be sure, the nation seemed to
reach its period of greater glory at
later date, but it is assumed to have
been but deceitful and dangerous
expansion. If Columbus, who was
an italian carpet-bagger, and one OF
those eloquent vlsionaries to whom 1t
is perilous to listen, had but kept
awav from the court of Ferdinand
and Isabella all would have been
we'll. Some other nation would
have discovered America and been
compelled to stand it. Spain's de
velopment would then, it is argued,
have been along the northern borders
of Africa, region with which it had
close relations, and with which 1t
fought as well as intermingled for
centuries. Therefore, it is contended
that the dust of the great but baleful
navigator should not be removed
from Havana to Spain. If sovereignty
must be relinqulshed, all the emblems
of bad luck ought TO go with it.
If Columbus were alive he might
have something to say in extenuaticn
of his voyage Of 1892 and of some of
its sequels personally unpleasant to
himself while he still remained in the
flesh. Fate was not particularly kind
in making him an explorer. 1t was
from no malicious premeditation
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 ard died the skipper Of
a fishing boat, equally obscure and
happy. But those ancient manu-
scripts, which were the chief part oi
his wife's Inheritance, fired the i'm
agination of Columbus. He tool
the superficial view that discovering
new world would not necessarily
ruin himself nor the country h'
represented. There was 70 way by
which he could foresee that an early
Spanish-American revolutionist in
colony founded by himself woulC
some day clap him in chains ant
send him back to Spain. Ferdinand
lived long enough to feel uneas.
when Columbus was around. Th
prophetic soul of the monarch ma.
have warned him that there are tw
sides to running a continent as
royal diversion.
Some balm for the Spanish min
Is found IN the thought that th
present embarrassments of Spain al
due to a geographical and quite &C
cidental cause over 400 years agt
The Norsemen discovered AmeriC
lcng before that, and were sma
enough to keep quiet about it. S
were the sailors now known to hay
visited the coast of Brazil befol
Columbus. The Asiatics who pre-
vIouslY entered America by crossir
Behring Strait also maintained
prudent reserve. But the Genoe
enthusiast treated the matter e
fusiYely, and poor Spain, overcon
by false sense of grandeur, weak
consented 10 take the continel
Worse than that, Magellan, delud
by the specious fame of Columbl
went roaming about the Pacific, a
in 1921 saddled Spain with
PHILIPPINES. If there had been
bright-eyed Lisbon girl with true
full of old maps there would ha
been historically no Columbus,
Cuban question, and presumably,
Dewey. The Madrid editor dc
not OO hack far enouoh There i