The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-01
QUEER BULLS IN GEOGRAPHY.


II Is surprising how many people who
are informed about other things are fg.
norant OF geography. Their ideas of the
location of cities, towns countries isl
ahds, continents and seas are so vague
tnat one wonders in what SORT of ma
terlal world they think to live The
name OF country brings to their minds
no picture of.its environments. no sense
OF Its direction from the place in Which
they are at the time. Every day in
newspapers and magazines occur the
most surprising evidences of geographical
Ignorance. Even statesmen. soldiers
and scholars seem, many of them. TO
nave a knowledge of geography about
who, when poor Katnka asked where
Spain was, replied:
Spain's an island near
Morocco, between Egypt and Tangier
Geographical ignorance probably is
more Widespread among more different
classes of people than any other sort
of ignorance. The trip of the Duke
and Duchess of Cornwall to the British
colonies has been the cause of more
geographical blunders in the public press
than any other recent event.
When Marshal MacMahon was presi-
dent of France it was reported to him
that certa political prisoner had
escaped to New Guinea
This is serious, replied the presi-
dent. We must make representations to
the government of the United States
about it..
A few years ago resolution was intro
duced in the United States congress to
consolidate the missions to Venezuela
and Guatemala, the authors and sponsors
of the resolution labering under the i'm
preston that the two countries were
adjacent to each other. In the course
of the debate a member from a Western
district rose in his place and seriously
demanded to know, Where is Venezuela,
anyhow
A professional watchdog of the treas
ury'' once advocated the consolidation
of the missions to Peru, Ecuador and
Venezuela, as they lay so handy to each
other. This might have done for Peru
and Ecuador, but it would have been
into the combination
The late Bishop Whipple, the apostle
to the Indians once was introduced to
an English audience as the Bishop OF
Minnesota Afterward an English So
ciety woman was heard to ask another
who the bishop was. Why was the
reply, He is the Bishop of Mimosa; he
comes from South Africa, you know. =
Some years ago. when st. Louis was
devastated by a great cyclone. the Lon
don illustrated papers had many pic
lures representing the calamity, labeled
1.-The terrible cyclone in Massachusetts.
The British admiralty once ordered
men-of-war to proceed to Bolivia and
demand satisfaction for an insult to the
British minister. 1t was only when
someone happened to look at the map
and saw that to obey orders the men
of-war would have to cross the crests
of the Andes that the project was
abandoned The Chinese minister to
the United States Is also accredited to
Peru and Spain, the Chinese geograph-
ers having declared once that these
countries were continuous. and refus-
ing to chrnge their opinion, in spite
of the sta ments of the geographers OF
the 'sbarbarians.'
The writer can vouch for the follow,
ing incident: A physician living in a
New England city was on his way home
from Europe, where he had been taken
i'll. His son was at school in Detroit,
The doctors wife was debating the ad
visibility of telegraphing the son to come
home to meet his father, when friend
of the family, man Of intelligence and
property, remarked: "oh, I would not
worry; probably the doctor will stop at
Detroit on his way home. Now this
man was not Joking; he was in dead earn
est He had received a common school
education and had accumulated consider
able property, held town office, had
been to one of the great expeditions
and talked intelligently of what he had