Evening star., 1925-05-16

The NorWesians are celebrating in
BROOKLYN and New York today and
Monday TWO events in the history OF
America. Other Norwegians elsewhere
will Join in the celebration of the first
centennial of the coming of their coun-
trvmen to, the United States, May,
1925. What will they say about the
famous Northman blunder of finding
the Western Hemisphere in 9S6 AID.
and not knowing what to do with their
find? Mayor Hylan of New York will
dedicate today Left Ericsson Square.
This Summer Capt. Macmillan, the
Arctic explorer, will visit certain al.
legged ruins of Leif's houses in Bafhn
Land, which the EskimoS describe, but
which no white man has yet seen. Sim
liar ruins in Greenland are familiar,
but it Is argued that the ruins in Baf.
fin Land will prove that Left did not
settle alone in Greenland, but pushed
his way to the land which bore abun-
dance of fox grapes from which good
wine" could be made. AS no fox grapes
grow in Greenland, is that legend not
sufficient to prove that five centuries
before Columbus found America the
Morse had preceded him? The great
Italian based his voyage on an egg;
the Mortimer base proof of theirs on
grapes.
Like the War OF the Roses in Eng
land, there are today valiant knights
ready to take the lists under the SYM
boil Of egg or fox grape. What will 1t
gain to prove that Left Ericsson real
ly found the Western Continent If It
also be shown that he accomplished no
more with it than to spend a season in
hut, barter some milk for Indian
furs and then, after many of his men
an1 M To-
land, whence he had sailed2 When
Columbus found the new "Cathay"
permanent settlements followed, and
now great nations have spread over
North and South America, directly
traceable to that discovery.
The sages tell of Leif's trading milk
for furs, but John Fiske, the Harvard
historian, ignoring that legend, dis
proves the tale of Leif's ever having
made a settlement in this continent,
because, as Mr.. Fiske argues, no Nor
wegians would have ever come to a
new settlement without bringing cows;
vet the fauna of North America, up to
the arrival of Columbus, had no trace
of cattle, horses or pigs. Columbus
and the Puritans and Pilgrims all
brought Hive stock In their first ships
bearing settlers. If the Norwegians
in the tenth century did bring cattle.
ana Qlu Will
some of the cattle would have left
progeny which would exist to this day,
even if only in 'skeletef relics, ar
CUES Mr.. Fiske.
. In Siberia, not many years ago, the
frozen body of a huge prehistoric ami
mai was found in the ice of a great
glacier. Its meat was said to be still
edible, Ethnologists have filled our
museums with bones of animals and
even of men dating back more hun.
lreds of thousands of years than Leif's
supposed colony dates centuries. Why
no bones, then. of the Norwegian
cattle and pigs?
Nobody denies that Left may have
ca lied in a wild search for Greenland,
where his father, Eric the Red, had
lived. and that he was lost" on the
ocean, for. that was before the inven-
tion of the mariners compass. He
NAV have been storm-cast upon Baf-
fin Land and named 1t vinIand, and
then, without real settlement, pushed
off as soon as the season arrived when
further voyaging was possible.
But what If all that were true? AS
far before Leif's discovery as his
antedated that of Columbus was the
arrival In Alaska of Buddhist mission
aries, via the AIeution Islands. They
never heard of the AMERICAN lingo,
who cried "Fifty-four-forty or fight, y
and in the course of many years they
wandered through the fine climate OF