EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON. A poem in _St. Nicholas_, July, 1892,
founded upon the incident of Columbus' finding a red thorn bush
floating in the water a few days before sighting Watling's Island.

When the feast is spread in our country's name,
When the nations are gathered from far and near,
When East and West send up the same
Glad shout, and call to the lands, "Good cheer!"
When North and South shall give their bloom,
The fairest and best of the century born.
Oh, then for the king of the feast make room!
Make room, we pray, for the scarlet thorn!

Not the golden-rod from the hillsides blest,
Not the pale arbutus from pastures rare,
Nor the waving wheat from the mighty West,
Nor the proud magnolia, tall and fair,
Shall Columbia unto the banquet bring.
They, willing of heart, shall stand and wait,
For the thorn, with his scarlet crown, is king.
Make room for him at the splendid fete!

Do we not remember the olden tale?
And that terrible day of dark despair,
When Columbus, under the lowering sail,
Sent out to the hidden lands his prayer?
And was it not he of the scarlet bough
Who first went forth from the shore to greet
That lone grand soul at the vessel's prow,
Defying fate with his tiny fleet?

Grim treachery threatened, above, below,
And death stood close at the captain's side,
When he saw--Oh, joy!--in the sunset glow,
The thorn-tree's branch o'er the waters glide.
"Land! Land ahead!" was the joyful shout;
The vesper hymn o'er the ocean swept;
The mutinous sailors faced about;
Together they fell on their knees and wept.

At dawn they landed with pennons white;
They kissed the sod of San Salvador;
But dearer than gems on his doublet bright
Were the scarlet berries their leader bore;
Thorny and sharp, like his future crown,
Blood-red, like the wounds in his great heart made,
Yet an emblem true of his proud renown
Whose glorious colors shall never fade.

COLUMBA CHRISTUM-FERENS--WHAT'S IN A NAME?

New Orleans _Morning Star and Catholic Messenger_, August 13, 1892.

The poet says that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but
there is no doubt that certain names are invested with a peculiar
significance. It would appear also that this significance is not always
a mere chance coincidence, but is intended, sometimes, to carry the
evidence of an overruling