New-York tribune., 1922-03-05
Amerigo kneaU the UaIue of iiiusfro-
tions; svitness this Voodcut he had
made Of himself, writing his brochure
about Nuevo Mundo
MERICUS vESPUCIUS was the
worlds first publicity expert. He
: was also an honest-to- goodness cap

L
- was also honest-to goodness cap
tain Of industry before the term was
invented. He made it possible for Woodrow
Wilson and George M. Cohan to draw down
royalties by the frequent repetition of his
modified cognomen in historical free pose and
muscle-bound rhyme. But the zeal of Yes
pucius in boosting the Western Hemisphere
resulted only in winning for himself the repu-
tation Of medieval DR.. Cook in ruff and
trunk hose. He has been a target for
irritable historians for four and half CEN
turies, the goat Of thousand astgmatic
schoolbook makers, the most persistently
slammed explorer that ever weighed anchor or
cooked discerning eye at the North Star He
was fourpy efficient in a two-ply era, and
his vision was keener than Columbus's own:
he accomplished many things impossible to the
Genoese.
| think it is high time we took stock of the
man who gave his name to America and his
energies to it's exploitation. Main Street would
be but lonely place to-day and PENNSYLVANIA
Avenue difficult for our Ford mobiles to leap
frog in if the Florentine bucko, who was
so genuinely fond of US, had neglected his
press stuff. Columbus has provided US with
a legal holiday in thirty-fo four states; the ami
versary of Vespucius's birth on March 8
will pass in silence, except for this solitary
tribute, though every true Americustodian of
life, liberty and the pursuit of snappiness
should shut up shop on that date and acclaim
1t as one OF the most significant miIestones
IN our hike toward national supremacv II
we cannot do this, then let US stop kicking on
the grand old guy who first made US known
TO the world and gave to mankind the earliest
wr1te-up Of Columbus from the latters first
departure until his arrival at Cadiz in chains.
Nespucius was not the nautical footpad so
many people declare him: he did not lie in
wait at the end of a dark alieyway there bean
ing Columbus and making off with the atter's
good name. Nor did he attempt to affix his
own John Hancock to the new world
Right here let me keep my finger on the
bvzzer Of depression long enough to saw that
back IN his home town OF Florence they never
would think of calling him other than Amerigo
Vespucci. And they ought to know 7 think
we even can go them better and bring it
down to simple Amerieo. Amerigo it is, then
1t IS always safe to slander a dead man; not
only can he tell no tales, but he cannot deny
those told about him. Amerigo has been long
time dead, but not so long that some of the
nice. new things I've found out about him
can't be told without an apologize ballyhoo
Id like to clear away the popular tarrididdle
that he low-down who staggered into
Valhala with the glittering laurels of Column
bus dropping over his evil right eve. The
truth is Amerigo has remained through the
centuries personally unknown because the busy
little delivers into the shady pasts of the
great have accepted without investigation the
original charge of fraud entered against him
by Jealousy on the police blotter of his period
He has been arraigned on evidence that would
have been thrown out of French court of law
during the Terror. undertaking academicians
and strabismic savants have hurled their hand
me-down facts at him until people generally
have accepted Amerigo as synonym for wit
less skullduggery.