The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-12
COLUMBUS Day"
Anniversary of Discovery of
America Celebrated Today.
Festivities Abandoned on Ac.
count of Epidemic.
BANKS STAY OPEN TODAY
Keep Doors Swinging in Order
To Sell Loan Bonds.
Day of Special Meaning to For
eign Born American.

Kansas is one of the state of the
Union that sets apart day to keep in
memory the origin of all things we
know as American-the discovery of
the western world by Christopher Co.
lumbus. In Topeka Columbus day is
being celebrated in conjunction with
Liberty day. Plans for an appropri-
ate observance of the festival were
made. but were given up on account
of the influenza quarantine. How
ever, the day is a legal holiday, but
the banks of this city are keeping it,
not by a vacation and feasting, but by
keeping open their doors that the citi-
zens may come and subscribe to the
liberty loan.
President Wilson, in his Columbus
day proclamation, emphasizes the Pc
culiar significance of the anniversary
at the present time. He said:
I'VE know more certainly than ever
before why free men brought the great
nation and government we know into
existence, because it grows clearer and
clearer why supreme service it is to be
Americas opportunity to render to the
world. The anniversary of the discov-
cry must have for us in this fateful
year a peculiar significance. We would
make it a day of ardent rededication
to the ideals upon which our govern
ment is founded and by which our
present heroic tasks are inspired"
Debt of Gratitude,
The keeping of Columbus day is
only small installment on the debt
of gratitude that America owes to the
man who carried the banner of civili-
zation to the western hemisphere, and
a part of the repayment that the
world should give to the memory of
the man who was allowed to die in
penury and disgrace, after he had add
ed to the nations a new world.
In 1925 there was discovered in
Spain the manuscript supposed to be
an Arrangement of Columbus's journal
of his first voyage to America, and
which contains some details of the
actual circumstances surrounding the
discovery. The journal describes a
heavy sea, the finding of pieces of
carved wood, fragments of land plants,
and a stalk loaded with roseberries.
The precise words of the admiral,
after entering his account of the land
ing, concerned the people he found.
He wrote:
las 1 saw that there (the natives)
were very friendly to us and perceived
taht they could much more easily be
won to our holy faith by gentle means
than by force, I presented them with
some red caps and strings of beads to
wear upon the neck, and many other
trifles of small value, wherewith they
were much delighted and became won
derfully attached to u.s." q
Columbus declared the people to be
very poor because they went about
unclothed. He noted that all those
he saw were young and of fine ply
sique. He believed that they were
from the continent and would make
fine Christians, inasmuch as they ap-
peared to have no religion at all.
The day is especially full of mean
ing for the foreign born American,
because he, in his own life has had
something of the adventure of Column
bus. They have discovered America
for themselves
The foreigner coming to America,
seeks a new land, advantage and op-
portunity, and he finds a home. a ma
ton and a flag, something to care for
and to guard from harm.