tbc Conservative
yards , nnd crosses made of the wood
were coiiiinonly worn.
Their spells were vain. The lings returned
To the ( ineen in sorrowful mood ,
Crying that witolies have no power
Wliere there is rowan tree wood.
( Tin1 / . .aiilli'n ] \ > < > /Ni > iu < llt'ttt > n / / ' / / / ( . )
MYKTLK. Some northern nations use
it instead of hops. The catkins , boiled
in water , throw up a waxy scum , of
which candles are made by Dutch boors.
Hottentots ( according to Thunberg )
make a cheese of it. Myrtle tan is good
for tanning calf-skins.
Laid under a bed , it keeps oil' fleas
and moths. _
The Spanish it
COMJMliUS AMI
. seems are anxious
I11S HONKS.
that the dust of
the Italian ( Jolon , whom we know best
by the Latini/ed form , Columbus , of his
name , should not pass with the rest of
the soil of Cuba into the hands of an
English-speaking race. They need not
be so particular ; when we get the Cu |
bans once to washing themselves ,
American fashion , we shall restore not
that quantity , but whole acres , of good
earth to legitimate agricultural uses ;
but are we especially interested in the
relics of that explorer ? He was not one of
our race ; an Italian is no more akin to
the Americans than a Turk or a Malay ;
he was not the first European to discover
America ; and he was not looking for
America when he did come lo it , but on
the contrary was trying to steer clear
of it.
The beginners of the America in
whose future we believe , were those
English men and women , who , after a
sojourn in Holland , brought the mixed
fruits of those coiintries across the
ocean in 1020 and the years following ;
but in the matter of discovery , those
same Scandinavians to whom so many
lines lead us back were before Colum
bus by 500 years. In the lake-front
park in Milwaukee stands a statue of a
Norse pirate ; he has his back to Lake
Michigan , as if , like a true Scandinavian ,
he suspected there was something more
to his taste than water in the neighbor
hood ; he is Leif , son of Eirik the Red ,
who in the year 1000 or 1001 sailed from
the Norwegian settlements in Greenland
to find a country his father's friends had
told him of , and built a camp , there is
hardly room to doubt , on the coast of
Massachusetts ; which camp was visited
occasionally for years thereafter by
Norwegian parties , and at least one
child was born there , from whom the
sculptor Thorvaldsen claimed descent.
Nothing came of this , for the reason
apparently that the Norwegians saw no
profit in sailing to such a place as New
England , where nothing but furs , tim
ber and wild fruits could bo got from
the natives , at a time when their kinfolk -
folk were talcing possession of rich coun
tries like Normandy and the British
Isles. But their knowledge was not hid
den under a bushel ; it was no doubt com
mon information to the seamen of the
day , though no written testimony to
that effect seems to remain ; and it is
reasonably certain that Columbus vis
ited Iceland in 1477 , when ho could
hardly have failed to learn what there
was to be learned on the subject.
When Columbus sailed from Cadiin
1492 , lie was simply in search of Japan ,
which an Italian scientist had convinced
him ho could reach , as appeal's by a map
still in existence ; the course he took was
intended to carry him well to the south
of the Mivage land the Northmen had
told him of ; and he would no doubt
have been greutly disappointed if he had
known that it was that same land that
he found lying across his path.
After him came the Spanish ; conti
nent , islands and ocean were all Spain's
for a time , and nothing more was heard
of the Norsemen until their English-
speaking descendants began their resist
less movement. If they had only smelt
out the rich lands that lay to the south
ward , they would not have stopped with
Massachusetts , and the face of the
world would be different today.
It is not generally known that the
I'oundness of the earth , with its consequences
quences , were matter of common rumor
among sea-faring men long before Col
umbus' day. A century and a half be
fore him , an English traveler , Sir John
Maundeville , set down in the book of
his adventures how , having been so far
north that the "Lode Sfarre" rose to
the altitude of 02 degrees , and so far
south that the "SterreAntartyk" was 88
degrees high , he argued that ho had
seen more than tlu-ee-quarters of the
firmament , which must therefore , with
the earth beneath it , be round ; and he
takes much pains to refute the natural
objection , that if this were so , men on
the under side would fall off.
He also tells the following most cur
ious story , which he says he had heard
when ho was young ; about the year
1800 , therefore ; and which we give ,
with few changesin his own 500-year old
English , which is by no means hard to
understand :
"A worth ! man departed somtyme
from oure Contrees , for to go serche the
"World. And so he passed Ynde ( India )
and the Yles beyonde Ynde , where ben
mo than 5000 Yles ; and so longe he
wente be See and Lend , and so envi-
round the World be many seysons , that
he found an Yle , where he herdo speke
his owne Langage , callynge on Oxen
in the Plowghe , suche Wordes as men
spoken to Bestes in his owue Contreo :
whereof he hadde gret Mervayle : for he
knewo not how it myghte be. But I
seye , that he had gen so longe , be Londo
and be See , that he had envy round allo
the Erthe , that he was comen ay en
goyngo aboute unto his owne Marches ,
yif ho wolde have passed forthe. But
ho turned ayen from thens , from whous
he was come fro ; and so he lost mocho
peynefulle labour , as him selfo seydo , a
gret while aftre that he was comen lioin.
For it befelle aftro , that ho wento in to
Norweyo ; and there Tempest of the See
toke him ; and ho arrived in an Yle ,
and when he was in that Yle , he knew
well , that it was the Yle , where he had
herdo speak his owne Langage before ,
and the oallyngo of the Oxen at the
Plowghe : and that was possible thinge. "
A French scientist has formulated a
plan for extending the American system
of "standard time" throughout the
world. The editor of the Literary Di
gest , commenting on this idea , says \ | ,
"our trial of the plan in this country has
relieved us of such a vast amount of
confusion that , so far as we know , it has
not a single opponent among us. "
Unless it has lately changed again ,
the state of Michigan is still in the en
joyment of multiple standards of time ,
each town going by that of its own mer
idian. The Michigan legislature made
"central standard" legal time when the
system was first generally adopted , about
1884 ; but after a trial of a year or two
it rescinded this action and went back
to first principles. It was a curious
thing to see. People thought it all right
for the railroads to use uniform time if
they chose , but could see no reason for
changing their own clocks to correspond ; " "
and many laboring-men believed it a
scheme to defraud them of a half hour's
labor. So that , while in other parts of
the country young people have already
grown up without knowing of any such
thing as difference in time , in Michigan
you must still change your watch a second
end for every three hundred yards you
go eastward or westward.
Our new city of Santiago is only one
of many Saiitiagos which the pious
Spanish adventurers of the sixteenth
centiiry left scattered over the map.
Saint Jago is no other than Saint James ,
whose name in the oldest writings ap
pears as lakobos , and the Spanish form
has held closer to it than the English.
There is nothing in the Bible to indicate
that he was other than a most peaceable
saint , but it appears that during the
middle ages he had quite a taste for the
slaughter of Americans. He is the pat
ron saint of Spain , and whenever the
conquistadores found themselves in a
tight place , in Mexico or Peru , all at
once they would see Saint James , in
Spanish armor , on a white horse , with a
big sword , killing natives to beat the
band. Then they would win a victory ,
and afterwards they would name a town
for the saint.
J. Sterling Morton's now paper THE
CONSERVATIVE , published at Nebraska
City , has made its appearance. It is for
sound money and also advances other
more or less sound ideas. Mr. Morton's
name as editor gives assurance that THE
CONSERVATIVE will bo worth reading.
It is an interesting publication. Dakota
County llecord.
