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The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, March 06, 1930, Home Edition, Image 4

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f€ft In Pl-HOH +* u
The Two Theories
There nre two theories of payment of
public officials, especially high officials who
stand out as the representatives of the gov
ernment.
One of these is that the heads of govern
ment should be pa’d on the same basis as
high executives, given large sums for what
in private life woulu be called “front, with
salaries that should remove them from any
temptation to privately profit from their
power. That theory suggests that the public
should pay more for honesty in office than
private interests would pay for privileges.
The other theory is that the government
be kept very close to the people and that
those who administer it have everything in
common with the average of the citizenship,
thereby having a deeper sympathy with
common problems and a greater understand
ing of the attitude ar.d desires and diffi
culties of those upon whom government is
most burdensome.
The lavish theory runs back to the tradi
tions of monarchy. The symbol of govern
ment, even when monarchs are stripped of
power through parliaments, is set up, as
•splendidly and gorgeously, to be worshiped,
aloof from sordid cares, unhampered by any
of the worries that come to the herd.
The theory pf plain living and high think
ing was born in the spirit of democracy. One
of the choice stories of history is that of Jef
ferson riding on his horse to the national
Capitol, hitching the animal to a post ana
calmly entering the building to take his oath
as ehief of the new nation.
in these days of difficulties and vexations,
the people might all ponder on the proper
course. The high cost of government re
sults in heavy taxations. There are neces
sary economies. Sometimes schools are
closed. The problem of unemployment fre
quently enters into the necessary discussions
of public problems.
We may have reached the stage where it
is necessary in order to have the proper re
spect for law and oui democratic institutions
to set apart the great and illustrious, sur
round them with luxuries denied to the ordi
nary citizen, remove them to a rarified at*
mosphere that symbolizes the goal rather
than the achievement of the vast majority.
This may breed respect for authority.
Or perhaps the experiment of having
those who lead and serve live under the same
conditions as do the citizens w ho want noth
ing from government but an unhampered op
portunity for the exercise of their own
talents might be tried with some hope of re
sults. That would he an experiment, at least
as noble as some others.
Anticipating Evil
The padlocking of ’estaurants and hotels serving
ginger ale, white rock, cracked ice, and other aids to
making our current hard liquor more palatable, or the
arrest and fine of the proprietors of such places, is
certainly one of the major atrocities of prohibition
jurisprudence.
The whole procedure rests upon the anticipation
of evil—upon the assumption that someone is going
to aid another to carry out an illegal act. The doctrine
is that of accessory to an anticipated crime.
Suppose we were to carry this out literally. In most
states it is illegal to drive a car sixty miles an hour.
Ih all states it is certainly illegal to drive one eighty
miles an hour. What shall we say of an automobile
company or dealer who sells a ear to a customer in
targe part because of its potential speed—say ninety or
a hundred miles an hour?
Should we arrest the manufacturer and dealer
for connivance to assist the purchaser in equipping
himself so that he might commit a crime? It will not
be long before we may be arresting ticket agents who
sell an interstate ticket to a man and a woman who
can not display a wedding certificate.
With the present grotesque failure to punish crimes
which actually have been committed, it would seem
that we might well lay off proceeding against those
who might commit a crime.
Mitchell’s Opportunity
Dispatches from New York relate that federal au
thorities will persist in their efforts to punish Mrs.
Mary Ware Dennett, author of the tract, "The Sex
Side of Life."
Mrs. Dennett, as told in these columns yesterday,
was convicted in federal district court, and fined S3OO.
out was exonerated when appeal was taken to circuit
court. Now the United States attorney in Brooklyn
has decided to ask the solicitor-general in Washington
to request the United States supreme court to enter
tain an appeal.
The whole prosecution of Mrs. Dennett has been
-tupid from the beginning. In addition the govern
ment proceeded on “framed" evidence. Her case has
been a flagrant example of government censorship a'
its worst.
Attorney-General Mitchell and his solicitor-general
will do well to call off their agents in New York. And
it would be helpful if they were to do it publicly, ex
plaining why. This would serve notice that tac .cs of
the sort employed in the Dennett case are to have no
place in federal law enforcement.
Farm Board Troubles
An inquiry into the policies of the federal farm
•joarti by the senate committee on agriculture, as pro
posed in a resolution by Senator Nye, should be useful
in clearing some of the confusion that has surrounded
the board s operations.
Whether rightfully or not, there has been much
d.satisfaction with what the board has done. Some
farm groups ha\e complained, on the one hand, that
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BOYD GORILY R°Y 'V HOWARD. PRANK G. MORRISON,
f-fjitor President Business Manager
PHONE— Riley SSSI THURSDAY, MARCH 8. 1930.
M- Tiber <*f i nit'-d pr.-s. Script -, Howard Newspaper Alliance, .Newspaper Enterprise Asso
ciation, N< wspap* r Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
“Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way*
the board has been doing too much and on the other
that it was doing too little.
Speculators and middlemen have asserted the board
; -njustly was invading the realm of private business.
Senators from wheat and cotton states have been
critical oecause of the low prices of those commod
ities.
Recent changes in policy with regard to wheat
have caused wide discussion. Last October the board
sought to "peg" the price of wheat by announcing it
would buy co-operative marketed grain at a fixed fig
ure through the Farmers’ National Grain Corporation.
It bought large quantities In this way. Terminal
congestion resulted. When the price of wheat fell be
w the fixed point the grain corporation continued to
buy at a figure well above the cash price. Recently
the grain corporation went into the speculative market
and purchased large blocks of futures to buoy up the
price, a proceeding not originally contemplated.
Now the board has abandoned its policy of paying
an arbitrary price for grain, although it stands ready
o go into the market and buy any and all wheat
whenever the price situation makes this seem neces
ary. Also, loans will be made to co-operatives on the
present crop unitl July 1. This new policy has caused
both criticism and praise.
With large supplies of grain at the terminals, a
crop coming on. a slack European (lemand and a
c. k mat bet. tne boards problems become more com
plicated. A thorough public discussion by the various
’roups interested should aid in clearing the situation.
Southern sery-tors properly requested inclusion of
cotton in the inquiry.
Bitter Sugar
The senate has joined the house In boosting the
tariff on sugar. The high protectionists from the beet
states are happy. It is heralded as a victory.
But not all political victories are alike. Some are
short lived. Occasionally the people at the polls over
turn not only the work of the politicians, but also
upset the politicians themselves. Precisely that has
happened more than once in our history, when the
voters have revolted against high tariff laws.
Asa rule, the people are not very much interested
in technical legislative questions—and what is drier
'han a tariff debate? Nevertheless, the most indif
ferent voter is interested in the price of his daily food.
There is something about sugar which makes peo
ple mad when they have to go without, or have to
pay more to get it.
So we are not at all sure that the voters out
through the country will let the politicians get away
with this latest scheme for gouging the consumer. Es
pecially as there are some three to six million unem
ployed in the country and other millions on part time
work and wages, who simply can not stand such a
jump in the cost of living.
To reverse the senate vote of last summer to re
tain the present duty,, the beet sugar people entered
a three-cornered legislative deal with the oil and
lumber Interests. Such is the brazen log-rolling by
which the senate has shot up the sugar tariff from
51.76 to $2.
That is slick work, all right—slick enough to
furnish skids for several senators, perhaps.
According to anew rule at Harvard, students who
have not learned to swim by the time they are ready
to be graduated, will be refused a degree by the uni
versity. The idea is to teach young men to keep
their heads above water.
A Philadelphia judge released a man caught rob
bing poor boxes in the churches on condition thar
he join the army, navy or marines. The idea prob
ably being to build up the military morale.
Dr. Fosdick says nothing beautiful came into hu
man experience until people began to play. If the
doctor is talking about certain musical instruments,
we think he has gone too far.
Clarence Darrovv says you can t get w isdom simply
by growing old. But at least, Mr. Darrow. you begin
finding out things you c?an not eat.
If the Mississippi woman who wrote a rhymed
confession of the murder of her husband was a spring
poet, she has won success. Her poem v;as printed.
‘‘Peace societies,” says Rear Admiral Plunkett, "are
fakes.” Yet peace societies can say some pretty
harsh things about naval parleys.
REASON By F land?s CK
IF Russia has made war upon religion it will be the
rock upon which the Bolshevik bark shall break, for
no law of man can repeal the hope of immortality.
Persecution makes martyrs, not infidels; and his
tory of all religions proves it.
Young Russians, half a century from the cemetery,
may shake their fists at the sky, but as years pass
and, one by one. they bury those they love, they will
change their minds.
** * i
It is almost unbelievable that men presumed to
know enough to pilot Russia's political experiment
should think it possible to prohibit a world-old yearn
ing to live again, when they found it impossible to
prohibit a yearning to drink vodka.
a a a
SUPERSTITION was the tool of Russia tyrants for
centuries, but the shrewd statesman knows and
respects man's inborn need of religion and around it
weaves a faith in harmony with the government he
to perpetuate.
nun
These Russians should have taken the Bible, per
veried by their czars, and by its pages proved those
tzars to hate been impostors.
Te.ey should have repealed the Christ as the friend
of the poor and the oppressed and made the hope they
can not kill their ally, rather than their foe.
a a a
''INHERE is no finer apostrophe to this hope than
A that offered by Ir.gersoll. the American agnostic,
\)ver the coffin of his brother.
“Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren
peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look
beyond the heights. We f'ry aloud and the only answer
s the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips
of the unreplying dead there comes no word but in
he night of death Hope sees a star and listening Love
can hear the rustle of a wing.’’
nun
It were grotesque stupidity to seek to close a legal
.oor against the sky and hang upon that door the
Tope of annihilation.
For testimony, we need go only to the French ag
nostic. Voltaire, who said: “If there were no God, it
would be necessary to invent one.”
Aillj ii.NAbin.XNXI.A i.J.Aii.J-,0
M. E. Tracy
SAYS:
When It Comes to Prohibition
and Other Perplexing Prob
lems, Most of Us Are Little
Better Than Grown-Up
Children, Crying Out on
Impulse.
A BIGGER, busier country be
cause of prohibition, to let the
drys tell it, with fifteen billion dol
lars spent for something better than
hooch during the last ten years.
Whatever you may think of the
change, it represents a curious twist.
Ten years ago it was the dry who
moralized, while the wets talked
about loss of revenue.
Now it is the wets who moralize,
while the drys talk about prosperity.
an n
Among others coming to the de
fense of pi'ohibition are Henry Ford
and Thomas A. Edison.
‘‘The greatest experiment yet
made for the benefit of man,” ac
cording to the latter, while the for
mer believes that ‘‘the sane people
of this country never will see the
eighteenth amendment repealed, or
dangerous modification effected.”
Set this against the views recently
expressed by Du Pont, Atterbury,
et al. and what have you?
n tt k
It's Matter of Opinion
WHEN it comes to prohibition,
and most other perplexing
problems, the best of us are little
better than grown up children,
crying out on impulse, consulting
personal likes and dislikes, and
peddling cure-alls on sheer faith.
Prohibition appeals to Mr. Ford
because he has little taste for
liquor, is naturally a temperate
man, and sees careful eating and
drinking as the secret of long life.
For five years he has been per
fecting a diet which he expects to
carry him through to the century
mark, and which, true to human
nature, he believes capable of
carrying any one else through.
You probably will hear more
about it later on.
n n n
Talkalai. chief of the Apaches,
passed out Tuesday morning.
Talkalai knew nothing about
dietetics or chemistry, had no bil
lion dollar fortune with which to
hire experts, and never conducted
any five-year experiment, but he
lived to be 113, and probably had
a pet theory to explain the why
of it.
Old Wrinkled Meat, another In
dian chief, who died some years
ago at the age of 137, ascribed his
long life to the fact that he never
had slept in a bed. sat in a chair,
or eaten with a fork.
nun
Achievements Mocked
TALKALAI’S death cast some
thing of a shadow over the
dedication of the great Coolidge
dam in Arizona as far as the
Apaches were concerned.
In spite of the crowd, the gla
mour, the presence of Mr. Coolidge
himself, and even the promise of
prosperity, they could not forget
their old chief, under whom they
had lived so long.
Just another illustration of how
mortality mocks our achievements,
and as though it were not graphic
enough, there comes from France
the news of 150 dead and 3.000
homeless through the breaking of a
clam, and again, as though it were
not graphic enough, archeologists
constantly are unearthing ruins of
irrigation projects in the southwest
that fertilized the land for races
whom we hardly can name or
identify,
ft n n
Problems Solve Selves
WHAT did those races think of
alcohol, companionate mar
riage, or the possibility of promoting
peace by agreement?
Something, no'doubt, even if they
never enjoyed the advantage of an
eighteenth amendment, a free love
compaign, or a naval conference.
And by the same token, what will
the people who accupy this country #
a thousand, or two thousand, years
hence be thinking, or will the
chatter which takes up so much of
our time and attention have passed
into oblivion?
Most of the problems over which
men get excited solve themselves,
because they are not problems at
all. but conditions.
• Most of our moralizing and law’
making is of temporary value, be
cause it originates in temporary ex
citement and is designed as tem
porary correctives.
When we get too drunk we have
a headache, and after that w T e be
come very sorry for ourselves, swear
off, sign the pledge, and consecrate
ourselves to the promotion of world
wide drouth.
Eventually we cool off. and realize
that temperance, whether with re
gard to hooch, health, or legislation,
is the most dependable virtue.
f (E> j THjE. “
SHERIDAN’S BIRTH
March 6
ON March 6. 1831, Philip Sheri
dan. famous American soldier,
was born at Albany, N. Y.
In 1862, nine years after he w r as
graduated from West Point, Sheri
dan was appointed colonel of the
Second Michigan cavalry. At the
outbreak of the Civil war he gained
early recognition for his courage
and daring.
Recognized by Grant as a stub
born fighter. Sheridan w’as appoint
ed commander of the army at She
nandoah. While he won praise in
this command for his brilliant de
feat of General Early and the cap
ture bf 5.000 of his men and several
guns. Sheridan was censured widely
for his ruthless destruction of She
nandoah valley.
After the war, Sheridan visited
Europe to witness the Franco-Prus
sian war. On his return he we
named to succeed Sherman as ch
commander of the army. He di:
at Nonquitt, Mass., Aug. 5, 1888.
You Can’t Put Out a Fire With Gasoline!
cfM # >< \
Keep in Good Condition to Foil Colds
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Editor Journal of the American Medical
Association and if iJygeia, the
Health Magazine.
ONE of the first symptoms of
common cold is free discharge
of fluid from the nose. When the
body discharges fluid from any tis
sue, the reaction is a protective
ope. The fluid serves, first of all,
to wash away infectious and toxic
material; second, to bring to the in
fected spot the material from the
blood which attacks the germs.
If the cold does not promptly im
prove, the secretion stops and the
nose becomes for a while quite dry.
The organisms do not live in a dry
state and tends to die on the surface
of the mucous membranes which
then secret fluid to remove the in
fectious material.
Not infrequently the cold is not
limited to the nose, but the infec
tion and inflammation of the mem
IT SEEMS TO ME "ST
a FIRST-CLASS writing man is
tV dead and I can’t help feeling
that the yapping of the censors had
something to do with driving a
flaming spirit out of a frail body.
D. H. Lawrence had the pack at
his back almost throughout his
whole career. The Justice Fords
and Sumners of America and their
English equivalents prowled and
sniffed around each book he wrote.
Men not worthy to touch the toe
of his shoe were empowered to lay
violent hands on his novels.
Os course, the customs inspectors
and cops and agents who trailed
him here and abroad all will be for
gotten, every one, when Lawrence
takes his place among the well
remembered masters of English
prose.
One can’t be sure about such
things, but if posterity fails to fur
nish a haven for Lawrence that will
be posterity’s dumb-headedness and
misfortune,
* a m
Bad Words
IT will be a long time before the
Anglo-Saxon world grows up be
yond a fear of things it calls ob
scene, Words, even the blunt ones,
are not gorgons to transfix the be
holder into stone. To be sure, the
process of enfranchisement does
move on.
Phrases, which once might have
created a tempest in any drawing
room are uttered freely now on the
stage. I haven’t noticed that this
has made any particular change in
the fabric of morality.
Words are the ghosts of things
and it is stupid to suppose that any
fact can be banished out of life by
the mere process of refusing to per
mit the utterance of its name.
Still more silly is the notion that
evil can be exercised by using a leng
and fancy name instead of a short
and simple one. There’s no salva
tion on that boad. Heaven never
was meant to be a home for
hinters.
But the censors did more than
break the body of D. H. Lawrence.
It seems to me that in recent
years they marred the quality of
! his work. I don’t agree with the
dead author’s own estimate that
I "Lady Chatterley’s Lover’’ was his
finest book.
j Lawrence walked a bit beyond his
goal in order to shock people.
Not that there’s any harm in that.
If smugness and complacency are
not listed generally among the car
dinal sins, they ought to be.
Nobody is quite alive unless he
gets shocked with some reasonable
degree of regularity once a year.
U U St
Fettered
AND in speaking of “Lady Chat
terley’s Lover,’’ I must not for
get that I, too. belong among the
generations fettered into a fear of
-ex.
If I say that Lawrence was some
what too aggressively outspoken in
’vis suppressed book, the fault quite
possibly may lie in my own inhibi
ts.
Surely it must be so that the
literary artist will not always sub-
DAILY HEALTH SERVICE
branes extends to the lining of the
sinuses, the large cavities adjacent
to the nose cavity, which serve to
give resonance to the voice and to
warm the air passing into the lungs
for other purposes.
A common cold is not like other
infectious diseases, which occur once
and then do not usually appear in
the life of the individual. One may
have a cold again and again, for
the simple reason that the germs
which cause cold may be taken in
with the air or on the hands or in
various other ways and set up infec
tion whenever the mucous mem
branes are lowered in their resist
ance.
Hence, most physicians recom
mend that the one best method for
preventing colds is to keep the body
in as good a condition as possible.
This is done by proper food, the
proper amount of rest, exercise and
fresh air.
nrit to having boundaries fixed be
yond which he may not venture. He
can accept no territorial limits short
of the borders set by Einstein.
Nothing which exists can be whol
ly foreign to his interest, nor should
it be denied him. Beyond the as
terisks lies the truth to set us free.
Conventions still in existence re
duce the novelist to the status of
a mere approximater. I know there
is much talk about modern litera
ture’s preoccupation with sex. “Isn’t
there anything else to write about?”
complain certain peevish critics.
And even so, it seems to me that
this important phase of human life
still receives less than its due from
tiie fictionists. The American novel
has gone only a little way beyond
the familiar stencil: “And so they
were married and lived happily ever
after.”
n n a
Left Out
NONE but the brave dare to ven
ture into those realms of hu
man conduct and intimacy which
have such vital significance in the
life of every man and woman born
into the world alive.
These things can not be legislated
out of life even if we would, and
why must they be left in the limbo
which lies between the last line of
A_, „
fellowship of|
y * I
/ Dallq
/ Lenten Devotion
Thursday, March 6
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Read James 4:13-27.) Memory
verse: “What is your life?” (James
4:14.)
MEDITATION
This is the question of questions.
It will engage us during this Lenten
season. The answer we give to this
question will determine the answer
we give to all of our other questions.
James does not answer it. He says
that it is a very transient thing, like
a morning mist that the sun carries
away. But to say that life is short
does not tell us what it is. The
Bible nowhere defines life, but it
uses many symbols of life. The Book
of Revelation calls it “a river of wa
ter.” It springs from hidden depths,
is replenished from the sky, and
flows down its winding course mak
ing the valley green, quenching
men's thirst and giving them life.
The question for today is; What is
your life?
PRAYER
O Thou, from whom life comes
and to whom it returns, we thank
Thee for our lives. Grant us to
know better than we do life’s divine
meaning and majestic? purposes, to
the end that we may not live in
vain, but become Thy profitable
servants. Amen.
In many instances the nose is so
, const) ucted that it is not possible
to breathe easily through both sides;
the air currents do not circulate
properly, and the obstruction pre
vents the discharge of material from
the nose.
In such instances it may be neces
sary to open the breathing space
by various methods of lessening the
| size of the structures within the
! nose, by shrinking the membranes
or by changes in the septum.
The tissues of the human body
i tend to self-regulation. However,
they respond readily to abnormal
conditions and if they are to regu
late themselves well, they must be
I given a fair opportunity. In many
! instances modern surgery is physi
ologic surgery.
It r estores the normal conditions
under which tissues can function
j efficiently.
(deals and opinions repress) and
n this column are those of
me of America’s most inter
esting - writers and are pre
sented without regard to their
agreement or disagreement
with the editorial attitude of
this paper.—The Editor.
Chapter X and the first of Chap
ter XI.
We read that a door closed behind
them, and next we hear that the
morning sun was streaming through
the window when Joan awakened.
Human understanding can hardly
feed on such hiatuses and grow in
strength and stature. An asterisk,
I think, is just about the most ig
noble work of man. It is the full
stop of the craven.
Possibly, I am betraying my own
possession of that lust to regulate
and alter the expression of others
which lies in every man.
But as I write, news comes that
the higher court has acquitted Mrs.
Dennett and reversed the verdict
that the truth about sex must be
contraband. That’s encouraging.
I am heartened, too, by the
friendly laughter of the audience at
“Fifty Million Frenchmen,” when
languid lady refuses the proffered
postcards with a gesture of acute
and bored contempt. The world will
learn in time that ignorance is a
pretty inexact synonym for inno
cence.
(Copyright, 1930. by The Times)
Daily Thought
But the wicked shall be cut off
from the earth, and the trans
gressors shall be rooted out of it.
—Proverbs 2:22.
nan
The happiness of the wicked
passes away like a torrent.—Racine.
t( A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss’*
(Neither does a sitting hen)
This is not true of “rolling dollars it
you roll them into an interest account
here, as they will gather i\’2 r c com
pounded semi-annually on April Ist
and October Ist.
1930 is still young—there are still nine
months in which to save.
<fc
We Pay 4 c <° on Savings
The >leyer-Kiser Bank
128 East Washington Street
V*, •*•*
SCIENCE
—BY DAVID DIETZ
Eclipses of Sun and Moon
Have Played Important
Parts in History of Past
Centuries.
'■y'HE dramatic bill of fare for next
month includes a couple of
spectacles staged by Mother Nature.
They will be among the most im
pressive and inspiring which she
has in her repertoire.
On 'Vpril 13 there will be an
eclipse of the moon. On April 28
there will be an eclipse of the sun.
The lunar eclipse will be visible as
a partial eclipse in all parts of the
| United States.
The solar eclipse will be total
along a narrow track from a pome
north of San Francisco to a point
near Butte, Mont. It will be visible.
; however, as a partial eclipse in all
parts of the United States.
Few occurrences are more awe
inspiring than an eclipse, particular
ly an eclipse of the sun. Here are
spectacles in which the chief actors'
are the great blazing sun, monarch
of the solar system, the earth itself,
and the beautiful moon.
In the early days of civilization
eclipses were regarded with panic
and terror. Many thought that they
I heralded war and pestilence and
I even the end of the world,
j But the astronomer-priests of an
! cient Chaldea already understood
the causes of eclipses in prehistoric
times and possessed sufficient
knowledge of them to predict their
occurrence.
nan
Drastic
Among the earliest records of
eclipses is an account in the
Chinese annals of one which took
place in 2000 B. C. It was the duty
of the royal astronomers to warn
the emperor of an approaching
eclipse, so that the priests might
perform rites to ward off any evil
effects which the event otherwise
might bring.
But it seems that the two royal
astronomers failed to warn his
majesty. According to one version
of the incident, they had drunk too
much rice wine.
Suddenly the eclipse started. The
emperor naturally was greatly wor
ried. He felt that the situation re
quired most drastic measures. Ac
cordingly, he ordered the execu
tioner to behead the two astrono
mers.
In 557 B. C. Cyrus, king of Per
sia, was besieging Larissa, an an
cient city on the eastern banks of
the River Tigris. The siege was
unsuccessful until an eclipse of the
sun occurred.
The defenders fled from the walls
of the city in terror. Cyrus’ men
who either were more sophisticated
or. perhaps, had been told of th/
eclipse by one of Cyrus’ astronomer
priests, captured the city.
nan
Columbus
AN eclip-e of the moon occund
on March 1. 1501, vlvm Chr
toplier Columbus was on the is lad
of Jamaica. That eclipse was *•
sponsible for saving the great d>-
coverer s life
The natives had refused t 0 suply
Columbus with food and his ten
were faced with starvation. Colm
bus. knowing that the eclipse as
due, sent word to the natives nat
he would blot out the moon urces
food was forthcoming.
When the eclipse began at the
moment Columbus had saic it
w'ould, the natives were terrfied.
They implored him to restore the
moon to the heavens and pronlsed
him all the food he wanted.
Columbus, knowing that the
eclipse would last a certain leigth
of time, told the natives that bing
ing the moon bark wa a hard liece
of work and that they would lave
to give him a little time in wiicb
to do it.
Os course, in due time the eclipse
came to an end. As the end of the
eclipse approached, Columbus came
out of his cabin to which he had
retired, and told the natives he was
ready to restore the moon.
No doubt they sighed with relief
as the shadow began to leave the
moon's face and it.s light returned,
to its full strength.
It is interesting to contemplate
what Columbus would have done
had the night been cloudy, for
obviously, in that case, the natives
would not have known that an
eclipse was taking place.
There is an Indian tradition that
an eclipse of the sun prevented *
war between the Mohawks and the
Senecas.
The war was just about to begin
when the eclipse occurred. Both
tribes took it to be a sign of heav
enly displeasure and a truce was
agreed upon.

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