The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-03-28
NoRSEMEN IN AMERICA.

The iconoclastS are smashing tradi-
tions now in the Boston neighborhood
The historic value of the Old North
church has been questioned, but that
is not the most revolutionary exhibit
tion of skepticsm. A bold professor
says that the daring Morse navigator
Left Ericsson, never came south of
Labador and that the statue on Com
monwealth avenue, Boston, COM
memorating his supposed venture in
to New England waters rightly belong
to some little inlet in Labrador.
hTere has always been some ques-
tlon about the Old North church. s.
connection with Paul Revere's signal
lights, and also about the visit of
the Norsemen to New England, but
1t remained for Prof. NJ. l.. Fernald
Harvard botanist, to drive the
Ericsson legend from Massachusetts,
bay. He does this through study Of
the flora mentioned In the sagas and
by pointing out that wnen the Morse
men came to Vineland they named it
so because of the wineberry and not
the grape.
Those wineberries are common, it
seems, on the shore of Labrador, but
no farther south. Prof Fernald points
out other collateral evidences of Leif's
visit to Labador. These researches al
so eliminate the old mill at Newport
from the list of Morse relics in Ameri-
ca. And that is the point that will
interest the largest number of Ameri-
cans in Prof. Fernald's conclusions.
Ever since its original publication In
1S41 Longfellow's poem, "The Skele-
ton in Armor," has been a great source
of pleasure to an immense circle of
readers. 1t is one of the most striking
of his ballads and did more than all
the surmises of the historians to
spread the belief that the Norsemen
landed on the soil of what Is now the
United States long before Columbus
visited the West Indian islands The
historic groundwork upon which Long
fellow built his legend is in two parts
the Newport tower and the Fall River
skeleton. A portion of the story the
Viking told to the poet refers to the
tower in the following lines:
Three weeks We westward bore,
And when the storm was DER,
Cloud-like we saw the shore
to leeward;
There for my lady's lower,
Built L the lofty tower,
Which, to this very hour,
Stands looking seaward.
There lived We many years;
Time dried the maiden's tears:
She had forgot her fears,
She was a mother;
Death closed her mild blue eyes,
Under that tower she lies;
N'er shall the sun rise
on such another!
'Still grew my bosom then,
still as stagnant fen!
Hateful to me were men,
The sunlight hateful;
In the vast forest here,
clad in my warlike gear
Fell / upon my spear
On, death was grateful!'
The Newport tower was converted
into the substructure of a windmill
ana later, into a hay magazine. DIR
faiirey, in his history of New Eng
'ahd presented cogent reasons for he
Ileving the tower to have been con-
structed by Governor Arnold. but
there were others who still maintain
that 1t had a Morse origin.
The Fall River skeleton, discovered |
propabiy In 1885, was burned before il |
could be examined by experts. The
more generally received opinion
archaeologists :, that the skeleton was
that OF an Indian. On the breast was
a plate of brass, thirteen inches long,
SIX broad at the upper end, and five
~ The lower Where did the Indian get
brass armor?
1t Is quite probable that Prof Fer
nald VIII have trouble with the de-
'cendants of the Norsemen in the
United States. They will not give
up their claim on this country without
struggle. For our part we will stick
% Longfellow and his stirring ballad.