Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS

EVENTS THAT OCCURRED DyRING HIS YOUTH. * Famous Monuments that Were Begun In His Youth—The Ruees War and the Turks —Siege o!' Constan;iuopie—Building of the Bastile. Childhood of Old Chris. To realize how great have been the changes since the toypo.od o: the discoverer of the new world i 6 a matter of no little difficulty to people of the present time. Columbus was loin in 1445, four and a half centuries ago, but sin ?e that time the world has moved so fast and gone so far that, in po at of progress, the time of Pericles is not further removed from our own. The boyhood of the great navigator is, therefore, of interest to us, since the scenes he daily beheld, the topics he fc«ard lonstantly discussed, the events of his period, the customs of his contemporaries, are as

diverse as possible from those with which we are familiar, and, by comparison, the world of his youth is a world with which the general reaier is as little acquainted as he is with the pres-

ent state of learning in Timbuctoo. Yet thrilling history was being made while Columbus was a child at his mother’s knee, and as the boy grew older, fond „of bopks and immersed in study as he was, he could not fail to hear something of the great events which were thon, in default

of newspapers, passed from mouth to mouth, along the quays and through the streets of the bustling city of Genoa. In those days the fleets of Genoa covered the Mediterranean, and daily arrivals brought intelligence from all quarters of the known world. News spread with wonderful rapidity, considering the fact that newspapers, telegraphs, postoffices, were all lacking; news of the battle t)f Agincourt, fought thirty years before. Columbus was born, was told in Borne, over a tnousanc. miles away, before the end of a week; the results of Creasy, a hundred years earlier, were known all over Europe within a fortnight. Sometimes, .of course, exaggerated, the accuracy of this hastily transmitted intelligence was wonderful. A gentleman in England, whose brother was kilted and whose two : sons were wounded when Joan raised the siege of Orleans in 1429, learned the fact' in six days, and started to the relief of his boys on the seventh. vVhen intelligence spread like this, a great center of busin*fi- population such as Genoa was aisd have been a center of news, aid Columbus, when a lad of 6, may have heard the news of the final expulsion of the English from France in 1451, and when a lttcle older he must have heard news of the war begun in 1453 in England between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, in which roses were the embleme and the kingdom the prize. No doubt, among his comrades hp had heard tales of the terrible Turks apd, of the. still-more terrible Tamerlane, who, forty-three years before the, birth of Columbus, had defeated and captured the Sultan Bajazet, and imprisoned him in aatiroa cage for the amusement of the savage troopers who ', composed the conqueror’s army. ,Tples like this fascinate the boys of every century, and Columbus was probably no exception to the rule that boys delight In stories of adventure.' <- - ■ ■’ The year before Cohimbus was born Ladislas of Hungary was defeated and slain at Varna by the Turks, and the memory of this great national disaster was doubtless revived by the terrible defeat of the Turkish cavalry by Hunniad.es when Columbus was 5 years old. When he was 8 the city of Genoa was stirred to its depths by intelligence that alarmed the world. Constantinople, in spite of the heroic resistance that for months had excited the admiration of Europe, had fallen before the victorious arms of Amuratt, and swift ships flying before the southeastern gales had brosjjht the dismal news to Venice and Genoa. The capital _of the East was the tfadihjg post for Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, and thousands of merchants la Genoa, Venice and other ports of the klediteranean saw their business swept baa stroke. Ebr a long time there had been talk of sending aid to the beleagnred Constantine Palteologus, sad the last vessel that escaped from

Constantinople boro an urgent appeal for help. “ Coip6<qpiekly,' or we are Lost, ” said the letter dispatched from tb* unfortunate monarch. in Geh.oa and Venice fleets were preparing 10 put to

sea; mercenaries, hired in Italy, Switzerland. on the t anks of the lihine, gathered from the strolling bands of , freelances, recruited even in far-away England and Scotland, were gathering in both cities, ready to embark with the first favorable wind; but before the wind came the news arrived that the Turkish cannon,novel and much-dreaded weapons, had made a breach in the walls; that Constantine, sword in hand, had fallen among his troops, and that Ihe crescent had replaced the cross on the giant dome of St. Sophia. When the future discoverer was 11 he no doubt witnessed the illuminations that were ordered in every city in Europe in honor of the brilliant victory of the Hungarians over the Turks before the walls of Helgrade, and, possibly, a few years later, may have stood among the crowds that gathered before the posted proclamations of the reigning pontiff, i ailing the world to arms against the cruel infidels. Those were stirring times, for what with the wars of Christendom against the Turks in the East, the Moors in Spain, the continual warfare that was going on by sea and land against the merciless corsairs of Morocco and Barbary, the wars of Christian kings against each other and against their own subjects, the never-ceasing contests between rival noblemen, the private feuds of free cities, the ravages of the plundering companies of knights

and retainers who hired their swords to whomsoever could pay, and were ready, at the promise of higher pay, to turn their lances io-day against the employers cf yesterday, and the universal desolation wrought by famine and the Black Death, Europe had plenty of subtalk about and gossip was "plentiful. “ t The boyhood of Columbus antedated even many of those monuments which we are accustomed to as mementos of a hoary antiquity, says the Globe-Democrat. When Columbus was 5 years old, Pope Nicholas, after long pondering the subject and gravely considering the cost, determined on tho construction of a grand church at Home, a church which should as much surpass all the others of i hrlstendorn as Home* in sanctity surpassed other cities. He began'by tearing away the ruins of the basilica of Constantine, but got ,out of funds when the ground was ready for the foundation, the work stopped, and in the boyhood of Columbus the site of St. Peter’s was a large excavation in the center of Home. Thus it remained during the whole life of the discoverer, and not until 1506, the year of his death, was the work resumed by the laying of the first stone by Julius 11, St. Paul’s, in London, was a homely

building, whose aisles were used as the most convenient passageway across a public square, and whose walls resounded to the voices of the buyer and seller, while the greater of Paris was contained in the limits of the island where "'no# stands the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The grand Cathedral of St.

Albans, England, whose gates'andjdoors have forages been the admiration of, architects- and builders, was not then in' existence. A roomy atjd well-filled monastery stood hard by, -the rich and comfdrtable abbot of which had more than once received a sharp remonstrance from the King for not erecting a church proportioned to the wealth of the community. At last, unable to resist longer the King's wishes, he, with

,much reluctance *nd some grumbling at the oOst, laid the foundations when Columbus was 0 years old, and then the gates were built round which, when Columbus was 10. the Yorkists and

Lancastrians fought the first battle of the Hoses war. When the explorer was 12 he, no doubt, saw many of the Cologne Jews who at that time were expelled from the German capital, and as we know little of his early travels he may even have been at Cologne, and there have seen the foundations of the Cathedr .1 which is now one of the wonders of the Christian world. Its first stones

were laid 200 years before he was born, but the work went on slowly, and in his youth the walls were scarcely ten feet high, while a small roofed inclosure In one corner served to shield worshipers from the weather. Three years after his death the work ceased altogether, and was not resumed until 1842, nor was it until 1880 that the grand pile was finished, over 600 years from the commencement of the enterprise, which thus covered in its construction nearly half Middle Ages and the whole of modern times. In the,travels of his early days it Is not impossible that Columbus may have visited Antwerp and there have beheld in their prime the fortresses which, now in decay, were then just finished and the prido of the stout Dutch city that hoped by means of them long to preserve its independence. The Antwerp forts, however, dwindled into insignificance in comparison with another fortress which Columbus may have seen, and which had then just been completed, the famous Bastile of Paris. .Erected as the cltatel of Paris, it was the principal defense of the city, and was then dei mod one of the strongest fortresses in the world, rivuling even the giant structures that the barons of William the Conqueror had erected In England, ts> hold in awe the vanquished Saxons. Nearly 100 years after the death of Columbus Henry IV. and his veterans assailed it in vain, Its thick walls and lofty battlements defying every attaok. Jn Columbus' boyhood it was fcpowp only as a castle, not having then been pul to the vile uses of tyranny that afterward made it infamous, in the eyes of the French nation and brought about its demolition at the hands of the infuriated rabble. But Columbus did not need to travel to Paris to see a model prison,

for in his native city there was an establishment of this kind which, in his day, rivaled the later reputation of the Bastile. The men of the fifteenth century had littlo of comfort in their dally lives, and, not knowing what it was, never missed it. Even the palaces of those times were built without the

slightest care for what the moderns consider comfort; and in the royal residence less regard was shown for the convenience of its occupants than is now displayed in the cottage of the laborer. Even In the Tuileries, begun oyer 100 years after the birth of Columbus, ,no systems of sewerage or drainage.jwjas provided, and ihe slops of every description were thrown fnto the court yar<E, through which the palace attendants constantly passed and repassed. When royal dwellings were of this description little regard would naturally be shown for the comfort of prisoners, 'and no more cheerless place of abode can -be imagined than the huge State Prison of Genoa. Its forbidding exterior was indicative of the internal arrangements. No provision was made either for heat, light or ventilation, and many of the cdHs were so Jar undergrtemd that no ray of daylight ever illuminat'ed'theit interior. Bfit thpse.were merciless days, and the prisoner was fortunate if he escaped withoniy a term of imprisonment, for in TiheiriSwer tiers were torture chamber where evidence was extracted from luwless wretches by savage torture. Executions Were then public, and one of the worst features were the insults heaped on the condemned by the rabble that always attended an execution. These outrages were not only not discouraged by the authorities, but on oo-

casions when It was anticipated that public sympathy would be extended to the condemned, bands of ruffians were hired to attend the execution and curse and maltreat the unfortunate victim. Hanging, burning, drawing and quartering were then accepted modes of execution, and on more than one occasion the young Christopher no doubt saw in the street before the great Genoa prison the carts containing the mangled remains of 6tate prisoners, while before the ghastly tokens walked the masked executioner t, bearing on poles the heads of the : ondemned. The days of Columbus’ youth were days when the highest ladies of the land rode in rude carts drawn by two horses, as shown in the Illustration, a conveyance then considered the height of respectability; indeed, so select was it that ere his boyhood ended royal edicts in France and Spain forbade the use of su h vehicles to any but members of the royal family and of the highest ranks of nobility. They were days when ladies who from fatigue or overexertion fainted were bled at once until they fainted again, and were then sent home on a cot placed on a big horse and a little horse side by side, so that the improvised bed was in a reclining position. ’They were days when kings wore their crowns all day long and every day, when the most gorgeous costumes, made in the most extravagant styles, and of the most glaring colors were worn. They were days when the entrails of serpents wore considered an infallible cure for alimentary diseases, and when the hair and hide of a iox, burnt under the nose of a patient, was regarded as an excellent specific for rheumatism, because the fox was fleet, and burning his hair in the presence of the slow-paced rheumatic was conjectured to quicken hl3 steps. They were days when feuds were settled by private battle, and when the adjudication of a lawsuit was determined by single combat, under the idea that providence would surely fight for the right. They were days when Europe was ruled by a horde of petty despots, each in his own little castle oppressing the poor and robbing the stranger They were days when no property was secure if either the ndbld or the king wanted it for his service—when the king owned the property of the nation ana disposed of it as though it were his own. They were days when science was not yet born and when ecclesiastics solemnly confuted the statement that the earth was round with the assertion that it must be square, for the Bible spoke of the four corners of the earth. With the story how the boy outgrew the Ideas and prejudices of his youth—ideas and prejudices which were the common property of his time—and by the sheer force of reason solved the problem of a new route to the east by the way of the west, the pages of history are filled. But the old na’rrative gives us little idea of the struggle that he must have undergone before ho finally succeeded in bringing others to a belief in his own sentiments, nor does It picture for us the curious evolution of the man from the unfavorable circumstances which surrounded his boyhood.

AN ANTWERP HOUSE—TIME OE COLUMBUS.

A ROYAL GROUP OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

SALLY-PORT OF ANTWERP POUT.

THE BASTILE.

THE GATE OF ST. ALBANS.

THIS GENOA PRISON.

A QUEEN'S CARRIAGE.

A SPANISH GALLEY.