Life — October 6, 1892 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

192 SOME AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS. OLUMBUS evidently knew noth- ing of the magazine of the pres- ent day. If he had, he would have -thought twice before he discovered America. He was a pious man and he would not willingly have been the cause of inflicting on the American people so \ many dreary pages about A, himself. Suicide would have \\ claimed him for its own at an early age if he could have He) foreseen the libellous por- ety traits of himself they would (yee print. Lire is always the friend of the oppressed, and so it seeks to do justice to the memory of poor Columbus. He was a great discoverer, but if he could discover any likeness to himself in the alleged portraits printed by our esteemed monthly contemporaries, he is entitled to more credit than ever accrued to him from the mere running against a continent which he could not have avoided except by sailing around in a circle. At large expense, LIFE equipped PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS IN THE JESUIT LIBRARY AT HOHO- KUS (1427). an expedition to seek out and se- cure all the existing authentic por- traits of Columbus. It knew that the task would be an arduous one, because Columbus has been dead several years and is not at present running for office. Bearing these things in mind, our 25 expedition turned with 3 eagerness to the third mae, volume of the encyclo- MAbs Vedia to find the cir- cumstances of the birth and early education of Columbus. Finding that the first four pages of the ar- ticle on Columbus have been torn out by the office boy to make a kite, we were forced to search the numerous towns and counties of Spain where Columbus voted and paid taxes on his American invest- ments, This was done in order to secure that knowledge of his minutest acts which every maga- zine reader in the United States continues to thirst for. It has been claimed that Colum- PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS NOW IN THE OLOROSO CONVENT IN AMONTILLA- DO (1499). LIFE bus was brought up on the bottle. After interviewing three hundred and eight of his colored nurses, now re- siding in various parts of Spain, Italy and Ireland, we are inclined to give no cre- dence to this statement. In the Jesuit Library at Hohokus there is preserved a section of rubber garden hose which it is claimed was used by the infant Columbus in the pro- cess of securing nutriment from a galvanized iron recep- tacle. As we understand it, india rubber was not put to this use until after Columbus had cut his first tooth, and the evidence is, therefore, rather against the genuine- ness of the relic. In this same institution, however, is pre- served an authentic and most interesting portrait of the ex- plorer. It represents him in the uniform he wore at various Schuetzenfests and greased-pole-climbing contests. The next portrait which enlists our jattention is the photo- graph taken by Sarony. This is especially interesting from the fact that when Columbus sailed on his first trip to America he was engaged to seventeen young ladies in dif- ferent parts of Spain. Finding it difficult to sit for a suf- ficient number of portraits in oil, he sent each of themacopy of this photograph. Their authenticity is established by the fact that on the back of each of them, in Columbus's own handwriting, is the inscription : PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS IN THE ROYAL MUSEUM AT GRAN- ADA (1562). When this you see, Remember Columbus. The good nuns of the Oloroso Convent, attached to the First Presbyterian Church of Amontilla- do, have in their keeping one of the most interesting of this remarka- ble series which we have unearthed for the benefit of the American pub- lic. Some—not all of course—of the readers of this article have seen a five dollar bill, and will remember the view of the landing of Columbus. Columbus is represented pointing a sword toward the sky, while in the background are Spanish sailors in armor, one of them holding aloft a banner with the inscription, “§.T.—1860—X.” Grouped about are a number of Indians in the cus- tomary cigar-store attitudes. Our investigations have demonstrated FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY SARONY TAKEN THE DAY BEFORE COLUMBUS SMLED FOR AMERICA (1492). comicbooks.com