JOHN S. KENNEDY, an American author.

The near approach of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America
has revived in all parts of the civilized world great interest in
everything concerning that memorable event and the perilous voyage of
the great navigator whom it has immortalized.

THE MECCA OF THE NATION.

MOSES KING, an American geographer of the nineteenth century.

I have read somewhere that in the northeastern part of Havana stands,
facing an open square, a brown stone church, blackened by age, and
dignified by the name of "cathedral." It is visited by every American,
because within its walls lies buried all that remains of the great
discoverer, Columbus.

THE CAUSE OF THE DISCOVERY.

Was it by the coarse law of demand and supply that a Columbus was
haunted by the ghost of a round planet at the time when the New World
was needed for the interests of civilization?--_Ibid._

MAGNANIMITY.

ARTHUR G. KNIGHT, in his "Life of Columbus."

Through all the slow martyrdom of long delays and bitter
disappointments, he never faltered in his lofty purpose; in the hour of
triumph he was self-possessed and unassuming; under cruel persecution he
was patient and forgiving. For almost unexampled services he certainly
received a poor reward on earth.

THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENTS.

LUCIUS LACTANTIUS, an eminent Christian author, 260-325 A. D.

Is there any one so foolish as to believe that there are antipodes with
their feet opposite to ours; that there is a part of the world in which
all things are topsy-turvy, where the trees grow with their branches
downward, and where it rains, hails, and snows upward?

THE LAKE FRONT PARK STATUE OF COLUMBUS.

The World's Fair city is a close competitor with the historic cities of
the Old World for the grandest monument to Columbus and the fittest
location for it. At Barcelona, on the Paseo Colon, seaward, a snowy
marble Admiral looks toward the Shadowy Sea. At Genoa, 'mid the palms of
the Piazza Acquaverde, a noble representation of the noblest Genoese
faces the fitful gusts of the Mediterranean and fondly guards an Indian
maid. A lofty but rude cairn marks the Admiral's first footprints on the
shores of the wreck-strewn Bahamas, and many a monument or encomiastic
inscription denotes spots sacred to the history of his indomitable
resolve. These all commemorate, as it were, but the inception of the
great discovery. It remains for Chicago to pe