New-York tribune., 1922-02-21
4. :. Discovered
BY Irish i'm SIS,
"Davc'' Is Told
ST. Patrick Had Hunch, SO
He Sent Out St. Brandon,
to Land Near Atlantic
City; Lived There Z Years
Manhattan Pioneer Found
He Was Ncrrazano, and Isle
Has Not Changed, Cham
picn Informs Hirsh field

David IIirshficld, Commissioner OF
Accounts, got pages and pages of notes
for his forthcoming historical work
yesterday at hearing in his investi-
CATION of the works of rival authors
now IN use in the public schools.
"Dlscvocry Of America by the Irish
A. d. 5a5. Credit st. Patrick" is n
memorandum Of such Importance that
the Commissioner, who sends his shirts
to an impersonal laundry. put it down
carefully in his book instead Of scrib-
bling it on his cuff Up to the time
that Abram Wakcman had stood up for
st. Patrick and tho Irish explorers
even Commissioner Hirshfeld had sup
posed that the Irish hadn't discovered
America until much later.
Ncrrazano Also Championcd
Mr.. Wakeman, who is secretary Of
the Lower Wall Street Business Mems
Association, came to the hearing to say
a good word for St. 7atrick and also
for Giovanni Vcrazzano. The Lower
Wall Street Business Men feel that
Nerrazano, who gave ndubitable proof
OF his discovery of the Hudson River.
has been sadly slighted in history.
Ihe discovery of America, however,
was what Mr.. Wakeman took up first.
Ihere was man named Columbus he
explained, who had got millions of dol
lars worth of publicity out of the ex
plolt that ~ ~~Patrick suggested and st.
Brandon carried out 947 years before
the Genoese navigator laid eyes on any
part of America
He hoped to sec credit given st.
Patrick and st. Brandon in the IIirsh
tleld history, he said The idea oc-
CURED 20 st. Patrick one day when he
had climbed a bit of hill in Kerry
TO see what he could sec. He saw
the sea and remarked at once: "a
man of renown should arise in these
lands and should go upon the sea and
find a promised land"
st. Brandon heard about what st.
Patrick mad said and declared at once
that he was that man. He set out at
once with sixty sea-going monks and
they landed somewhere around Atlantic
City. There were no hotels there then
and st. Brandon and his sixty monks
were able to stay for seven years, when
they returned to Ireland and gave a
true account of their voyage and dis
covcries.
Even moro convincing than the mar
ration OF the veracious St Brandon
was that of Nerrazano, said Mr. Wake
man, who discovered the river which
now bears Henry Hudson's name in
1924 or thereabouts. What makes it
particularly convincing is the Floren-
tine voyager's description of Manhat-
tan and its inhabitants.
He found that there was no respect
for the law in Manhattan, a state OF
affairs which worried him little; that
affairs were ruled from wigwam ir
the vicinity of Fourteenth Street; that
the women wore shockingly short
skirts and painted their faces
Washington's Birthday Wrong
One other thing occurred to Mr.
Wakeman. All the school histories give
February % as the date of George
Washington's birth, although the ac-
tual date WAS February Ii. Tammany
was responsible for the alteration in
histories, said Mr.. Wakeman, having
moved the date along when some sa-
chem recollected that they changed the
calendar during Washington lifetime
and estimated that February % would
be about right according to the new
reckoning.
Commissioner Hirshfield thanked Mr.
Wakeman and then listened to Judge
Wallace McCamant of Portland Ore,
president general of the Sons of the
American Revolution. Judge Mccain
ant thought there wasn't enough color
in school histories and hoped Mr.
Hirshfeld would put some in and make
it extremely plain which side in the
Revolution had the patriots.
Commissioner Hirshfeld said he
would and then listened to w NJ. Van
Der Wevdc, president of the Thomas
Paine National Historical Association.