be at that hour unveiled and presented to the city of New York by the Italians. The divine blessing was invoked upon the gift by Archbishop Corrigan. President Barsotti, of the Italian committees, whose labors and generosity produced the monument, made a short address on behalf of the donors, and General di Cesnola spoke for the Italian citizens of the United States. He said: "The Italian residents and citizens in the United States are conscious that the true monument of Columbus is this grand land, its institutions, its prosperity, its blessings, and its lessons of advancement for all humanity. Yet the Italians have desired to testify, at least to the present generation, their full and unfailing sense of their great and peculiar debt. They have procured, in contributions great and small, but uniformly large in spirit, the execution of this monument, and have erected and presented it in token of their affection and gratitude to this great and beloved country, the country in which they have found a permanent home, a more congenial form of government, and better and freer facilities generally to earn their livelihood."

The people were ready for the evening parade, irrespective of the discomforts of the long day, and waited far into the night to see the historic floats, the vision of ages past, of great and gallant deeds on sea and land -the story, indeed, of the prehistoric age and the giant strides of progress since then in one brilliantly illuminated panoramic view. To describe it in one chapter would be even more difficult than the task imposed upon Secretary Foster at the dinner which closed the festivities on the following evening. He said, "To make the United States the subject of an after-dinner speech reminds one of the despair of the great philosopher Kant, when the versatile and would-be omniscient Madame de Staël demanded of him an explanation of his philosophy at an evening reception, and how his despair was turned to disgust when, after patiently hearing him for ten minutes, she interrupted him by saying: 'That will do, that will do, I understand it all now.'" There were innumerable features of this memorable object lesson in the metropolis which it would be interesting to chronicle, but lack of space forbids. Our chief concern is with salient facts, not details. It should be stated, however, that twentyfive hundred policemen handled the surging millions of spectators admirably, without the use of a club. And considering all the circumstances of the festival, it is a source of sincere congratulation that no serious accidents occurred to mar the pleasures of reminiscence. As a whole the exhibition will pass into history as one which in its peculiar characteristics could be seen only in the city which stands in the vanguard of human progress. The following words of Vice-President Morton are to the point :

"The opening pageant has been worthy of the great pilot and the great discoverer. It has been applauded by a countless audience of millions of intelligent people, so vast that no other city of the New World, and few of the Old World, could administer to its care and protection. Our houses of worship testified for two days to the deep impression called forth by the occasion; the army of children from the public schools, equipped only with the weapons of education, put in evidence our confident hope in the future; and the processional progress on land and water, by day and night, gave constant proof of the patriotism of all our people, of every kindred and tribe and tongue, of the capacity of self-control of these educated masses, and of the power and ingenuity of a great people. There were transported to our doors, with speed and comfort, vast numbers of men and women and children, exceeding the population of most of the capitals of the world, by scientific methods of which Columbus never dreamed; and during the watches of the night this cosmopolitan city, with its streets and avenues, its squares and arches, its dwellings and monuments, was illuminated as by fire, by electric inventions which are the products of the land which Columbus discovered.

It is impressive from the events of the past five days that we have added a new holiday to the American calendar. The 12th of October will hereafter be marked with white.' We have instituted the Columbian festival, to be repeated at the expiration of each one hundred years to the furthermost limit of time by actors who will not have been witnesses of the preceding celebration."

The celebrating spirit has passed on to other cities-even to the Pacific coast. It reached Chicago on the 21st of October. General Porter, in his witty speech at the Columbian dinner, alluded to the confusion of dates involving research into the Julian and Gregorian calendars, saying, "When we consider the day selected for the celebration in New York and the dates selected for the celebration of the event in Chicago, it leads us to the unquestioned belief that Columbus must have discovered New York on the 12th and Chicago on the 21st of October." Of patriotism he spoke in a strain of impassioned eloquence. “Patriotism must be taught to the young when the mind is impressionable. That is the reason I enjoyed more than all things else connected with these memorable celebrations the marching through the avenues of our city of that phalanx of school children, waving the proud emblem of their country's glory. It is such sights as these that teach the young that the flag of their country is not only a banner for holiday display, but that it is a proud emblem of dignity, authority, power."

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA

THE SIMPLE TRUTH MORE WONDERFUL THAN FAIRY TALES

The history of Louisiana from its discovery to the present day reads like a romance. The discovery of America in 1492 by Columbus opens a new page in the history of heroic adventure and wonderful discoveries never before limned by the historian. Individual enterprise undertook and accomplished wonders which challenge human credulity. Among the young and ambitious adventurers who followed the banner of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru and acquired riches from the sack of the empire of the Inca was Hernando de Soto. It is recorded that he insisted that Pizarro should release the Indian emperor on his promise that he would set him at liberty upon filling a room with gold and silver, amounting to fifteen million dollars. And he continued to win laurels and fortune until 1536, when he returned to Spain in his thirty-sixth year, with a half million, and married the lady of his youthful love. Soon he invested his fortune in an expedition to Florida, and in 1541 landed on its coast, and traveling in a northwest direction struck the Mississippi river, as tradition claims, at Natchez, the first white man to gaze upon that majestic stream. Following up the river for a week, he crossed and followed the west bank to the mouth of the Arkansas, thence up White river to the Ozark mountains, and wintered in 1541 in the county of Newton in Missouri, where the evidences of their mining still exist. The lead mines of Granby were taken by the Spaniards for silver, but on the discovery of the error they went south and discovered the hot springs of Arkansas, and believed they had found the famous fountain of youth which had lured Ponce de Leon to his ruin. Passing to the mouth of Red river, De Soto died, and was buried in the bosom of the great father of waters, at night, by his followers, who designed to impose upon the ignorant natives by pretending that De Soto was a divine being and had voluntarily gone to a celestial abode. The expedition was wrecked, and but few ever returned to recount the story of their wanderings, and only detached narratives are saved amid the historical records of Spain, from which we catch a few glimpses of the principal figures. Not enough was known to give Spain a title to the vast region entitled Louisiana, which was first seen by De Soto. It was left for French enterprise to rediscover and outline in vague shape the Missis

sippi and the vast empire washed by its waters, and thus the French became the original owners of the territory of Louisiana.

In 1554 the French had settled Canada, and voyagers and trappers had

gradually conciliated the Mohawks and Iroquois, and extended their discoveries to the great lakes and the sources of the Ohio river. In 1673 the governor of Canada sent an expedition to find the Mississippi river,