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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 fête!

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 prevision. Christopher Columbus was not so named after his achievements, like Scipio Africanus. The name was his from infancy, though human ingenuity could not have conceived one more wonderfully suggestive of his after career.

Columba means a dove. Was there anything dove-like about Columbus? Perhaps not, originally, but his many years of disappointment and humiliation, of poverty and contempt, of failure and hopelessness, were the best school in which to learn patience and sweetness under the guiding hand of such teachers as faith and piety. Was anything wanting to perfect him in the unresisting gentleness of the dove? If so, his guardian angel saw to it when he sent him back in chains from the scenes of his triumph. He then and there, by his meekness, established his indefeasible right to the name Columbus-the right of conquest.

And Christopher — Christum-ferens-the Christ-bearer? A saint of old was so called because one day he carried the child Christ on his shoulders across a dangerous ford. People called him Christo-pher. But what shall we say of the man who carried Christ across the stormy terrors of the

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THE WEST INDIES, REDUCTION OF THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY MAP. (See pages 22 and 222.)

unknown sea? Wherever the modern Christopher landed, there he planted the cross; his first act was always one of devout worship. And now that cross and that worship are triumphant from end to end, and from border to border, of that New World. The very fairest flower of untrammeled freedom in the diadem of the Christian church is today blooming within the mighty domain which this instrument of Providence wrested from the malign sway of error. Shall not that New World greet him as the Christ-bearer? Indeed, there must have been more than an accidental coincidence when, half a century in advance of events, the priest, in pouring the sacred waters of baptism, proclaimed the presence of one who was to be truly a Christopherone who should carry Christ on the wings of a dove.

CIRCULAR LETTER OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF NEW ORLEANS ON THE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS CELEBRATION.

From the Morning Star and Catholic Messenger, New Orleans, August 13, 1892.

Reverend anD DEAR FATHER: The fourth centenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is at hand. It is an event of the greatest importance. It added a new continent to the world for civilization and Christianity; it gave our citizens a home of liberty and freedom, a country of plenty and prosperity, a fatherland which has a right to our deepest and best feelings of attachment and affection. Christopher Columbus was a sincere and devout Catholic; his remarkable voyage was made possible by the intercession of a holy monk; and by the patronage and liberality of the pious Queen Isabella, the cross of Christ, the emblem of our holy religion, was planted on America's virgin soil, and the Te Deum and the holy mass were the first religious services held on the same; it is therefore just and proper that this

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