The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-30
EDITORIAL NOTES

! The first voyage of an American ves--
sci around the world was made by
| the ship Columbia, which sailed from
Boston 126 years ago today. The route
was around Cape Horn and thence to
| the northwest coast of America, where
/ the Columbia took a cargo of furs
| and sailed from China From the, lat
/ ter country the ship returned by way
! of the Cape of Good Hope, reaching
Boston in 1890. The globe was. first
| circumnavfgated by Magellan, a Por-
tuguese in the service of Spain, who
set out in 1919. The voyage was COM
pleted in three years and TWEEN mine
days. Gr1Jalva, Spaniard, was the
next to perform the feat The first
English ctrcun1navigator was Sir Fran
| els Drake, whose vopage began in
| 1877. Cavendish, and LIE Marie. a.
Dutchnan, were the next to make the
grand tour The first French circum-
navigator was Bougainville, who had
been Montcalm's aide-de-camp in Can
ada
In the Christian calendar today is
dedicated to the worship of ST. Jer-
ONE, the revisor of the Latin Bible
and one of the most scholarly of early
Christians. The whole Christian world
honors the learned and eloquent hermit
whose luminous writings exerted SO
| profound an influence upon the faith,
| but it is among the rude and inlet
tered Indians of the Southwest anG
Mexico that the feast day Of the sa-
| want is most generally celebrated. For
some reason the aborigines of those
sections long ago adopted San Geron-
| irno as their patron saint. Even among
the Apaches, the ferocious Ismaelites
Of New Mexico and Arizona, the ven
GRAFTON of ST. Jerome has long been
| prevalent, and their murderous chief,
| Geronimo q
| arly saint.
For many years the feast of San
Geronimo has been celebrated on each
| thirtieth of September by a great gath
ering in Taos, New Mexico. Apaches,
Navajos and Utes, together with thous-
ands of Mexicans, make the annual
| pilgrimage to Taos. Some of them
travel hundreds of miles to take part
| in the sports, festivities and exercises
of the day. While the festival bears
the name Of a Christian saint the
ceremonies are largely pagan. After
brief religious devotions and ad-
| dress by a black-robed Indian, the
weird tribal dances begin, and con-
| tinue through the day, alternating with
races between feet-footed warriors and
other trials of strength and speed. The
great feature of the fetsa is the greas-
ed pole contest, and the victor becomes
the hero of the day.
The San Geronimo fiesta concludes
with a great feast and with offer
ings to the gods of the harvest. This
latter feature, as well the tribal
dances, prove that the worship of
San Geronimo is but an incident, and
that the celebration is in reality but
a continuation of the harvest festival
and fair that was held annually in
Mexico long before Cortes overthrow
| the great Aztoc Empire Harvest
fairs were held all over the empire,
but the principal one was in the city
of Mexico. The visitors there were
estimated at from 10000 to so, 600. The
city swarmed with a motley crowd of
strangers, the causeways were throng-
ed, and the lake was darkened by ca
noes filed with traders focking to the
great tianguez. The most perfect or
der reigned throughout the vast as
semblage. A court of twelve judges
sat in one part of the tianguez, cloth
ed with absolute power and melted
out summary punishment to all Of
tenders.
Although the fiesta of San Geroni-
mo and other Indian harvest festivals
are of pagan origin, they are at least
not tainted with greed and graft, as
is so often the case with the fairs
and festivals of their superior en-
lightened, cultured and Christian pale
faces. At the Indian feeds" all who
care to may share in the bounty of
the tribespeople. The Apache host
may entertain a secret strong desire to
"1ift'' his guests scalp, but he would
scorn to accept payment for his hos
pitality, unless he be utterly contamin-
ated by association with a superior
race. At the Indian festivals all may
see what there is to see, and eat what
there is to eat, without the expendi-
ture of a cent. There are no bally-
hoos to call attention to a congress
of oriental dancers or a fair snake
charmer, no raucous-voiced spielers
to describe the charms of a fat lady
| a dog-faced man. A few enterprising
redskins who have aSSirnilated the spir-
it of commercia1ism may be present
and seek to induce the paleface visitor
to invest in a Navajo blanket, a pair
of moccasins or a jug, but these trades
people are frowned upon by the major
ity of the Indians.
Field Marshal Sir Frederick Sleigh
Roberts, Baron Roberts, Viscount ST.
Pierre, first Earl of Kandahar, Petoria,
and Waterford, P. c., K. p, G. C. B.,
G. G. S. L, G. c. E. L, V. c., D. c. l.,
LID, and most of the other letters
of the alphabet, will reach today the
ripe old age of four score years and
one Kings, governments, parliaments,
municipalities and universities have
heaped titles, decorations, degrees and
honors of all sorts upon Britain's great
est warrior, yet the title of which he
has always been proudest is the affec-
tionate nickname of "Robs,'' conferred
upon him by the Tommies of India,
Egypt and South Africa. Rudyard
Kipling and other poets have sung his
praises and historians have placed him
on an equality with the greatest war
riors of history, but Lord "Bobs,'' in
his autobiography, ascribes his victor
les to the vaIor of Tommy Atkins.
Lord Roberts was born in Cawnpore,
India, eighty-one years ago today, the
son of General Sir Abraham Roberts.
He was educated at Elton, Sandhurst
and Addiscombe, and entered the SER
vice in 1851 as second lieutenant of
Bengal artillery. He served with dis
tinction in the Indian mutiny, taking
part in the siege and capture of Delhi,
and was severely wounded. Since his