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COLUMBUS AND THE SCHOOL CHILDREN

By Sidney.

October, 1892, will long be remembered as the quadricentennial
anniversary of America. It has been a festival month, and hardly a town
or hamlet in this country but has celebrated, in some way, the landing
of Columbus. New York devoted almost an entire week to land and water
pageants, and Chicago, in formally dedicating the Columbian Exposition,
had three days of impressive ceremonies.

Two remarkable features are to be noted in connection with the October
celebrations. One is, that the United States, by common consent, have
monopolized the honors in connection with the discovery of this Western
Continent.

Of course, Columbus did not discover the United States any more than
Canada. Every one knows now that he never put foot on North America at
all, his nearest approach being the West India Islands, and that he did
discover South America.

Nevertheless it has always been recognized that here, if anywhere,
rested his claims as a discoverer, and here, therefore, it was fitting
that the quadricentennial should be celebrated.

The second feature was the zeal with which the school children entered
into the celebration. Schools, we may be assured, were little known in
the days of Columbus, when monarchs thought it no shame to be unable to
write their own names. Nor had Columbus any special desire to educate or
civilize the people whom he found in the new lands he annexed to the
Spanish crown.

Yet it may be said, without exaggeration, that of all the benefits
accruing to civilization that grew out of the discovery of America, not
one bears any comparison with the public school system of the United
States. Our forefathers were men who imbibed the love of liberty with
every breath, and they early realized that liberty without intelligence
was not possible, and that learning was a deadly foe to tyranny of any
kind--not the learning which is confined to the few, but the learning
which is free to all, without cost.

There are nations, even at the present day, which designedly keep the
people in ignorance,