The Republican journal., 1902-07-31

IlSSONSlys
The sluggish liver is made active BY
the use OF DR.. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets.
/ samuel. Wien the latter uuWiSely al
! lowed the Dons t. take away every
! thing of value including the precious
! box of bones. which they carried back
/ to their own country. The straugeSt
| thing about it is that there are grave
/ doubts in the minds of many a. to
! whether the diScoverers remains were
ever disturbed after their burial III
>anto Domingo. nearly five centuries
/ ago. Those who have given the matter
most careful attention believe that a
! mistake was made at the second re-
moval. and that it was the bones of his
son, Diego. which We're carried to Cuba
and have ever since been so extrodi-
narily honored. Diego Columbus was
not son to be a altogether proud of: vet
he seems to have played a conspicuous
part i'll the early history of >anto
| Domingo, and to have represented his
!
I occasions, as we'll as in the coffin He
came out from spain with retinue of
! followers i'll 1903 to rule the island
which his father had found He built
magnificent palace. as palaces went
in those days near the city gate. and
crowded it with gay young courtiers:
and on the hill above it he erected its
antlpodes- monastery for Frances
cans, ii rigorous order that had always
defended the Columbus family. and
! filled it with gray cowled monks. 50
rapidly did the city grow III wealth and
consequence that even in that early
day it was nearly as large and much
more alive than the sleepy Old town OF
today with its present population Of
thirty thousands or thereabouts.
Generally the first thing traveller
does on landing at Santo Domingo is to
visit the Columbus cathedral, where
possibly the dust Of Americas discov-
/ erer still reposes. 1t occupies one side
of the main plaZa-and a picturesque
pile it is. with its d0meS and beIfries.
and grand hail arched and groined. and
numerous little chapelS to all the saints
! i'll the calendar. The rusty bells, as old
as the church ITSELF are rung by ropes
| that hang down on the outside of the
building. Their discordant clamor on
the sleepy summer air brings to mind
visions of long lines of black-robed
| priests under shovel hats, and sandalled
monks in cowls and hempen girdles,
shutting down through the centuries to
/ the matin and vesper call of the bells.
There is an Old, old cross in the cathe-
! dral, so gnaWed by ''the insidious tooth
of time that it looks like bone-said to
be the identical one which the first
monks of the order of san Francisco
: de Assis set up over the chapel built at
the rivers mouth in 1892. The original
cross was lent to the Columbian cen
! tennial in Spain and safely returned to
its rightful place; but when it was again
requested for the Columbus exhibit at
| n
accurate copy was made and sent in
stead-the treasured bit of wood being
too sacred to trust to the hands of a
| hereto nation. Scores of fine old paint
ings, the work of famous masters, line
the moldy walls, and all the dim alcoves
and chapels are fairly packed with the
bones of mobiles, knights, courtiers and
soldiers, who came over from Old Cas-
tile in the fifteenth century to help set
the new world going.
Until about twenty years ago nobody
doubted that the remains of Christopher
! Columbus were taken from this cathe-
dral and sent to Havana In making
! repairs here, close beside the vault that
had been vacated, a second little vault
was discovered containing time-stain-
ed leaden casket, precisely like that
which had been taken from it's side,
three quarters of a century before.
| When the mold had been rubbed out of
the inscriptions, that on the outside
read: Cd. de la S. Per- Ato;' and on
the inside, 'Illtre Y Es do Baron de
Christoval Colon" which, freely trans
lated means, ''To the illustrious and es-
teemed Baron Don Christopher Colum-
bus" Astonished at this wonderful
discovery, the catholic fathers immedi-
ately informed the island authorities,
who hastily called together the repre-
sentatives of foreign countries in Santo
Domingo. The combined body of church
and state, after making a careful ex-
animation, took an oath that to the
best of their knowledge and belief, these
were the remains of the great discover
er himself, and that the Spaniards of
1895 had by mistake removed to Havana