If the patient reader will be good enough to examine this picture with a powerful microscope, he will discover, standing upon the utmost prominence of the new world, and in imminent danger of falling off, a citizen of the country who welcomes the stranger with uplifted tomahawk and a wild war-whoop. Lifting our eyes skyward we see the American eagle soaring forth to meet the great discoverer, with outstretched pinions, and bringing his whole family with him. We confess that we, for one, cannot gaze upon this scene without envying Mr. Columbus the luxury of his emotions and wishing we knew where there was a new world lying around loose that we might go right off and discover it. _CHAPTER II._ IN WHICH THE EARLY LIFE OF THIS MAN COLUMBUS IS INQUIRED INTO—DISAPPOINTED PARENTS—THE BANE OF GENIUS—“POOH-POOH!”—CONVINCING ARGUMENTS. Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa in Italy, a country chiefly famous for its talented organ-grinders. The youthful Christopher soon made the melancholy discovery that he had no talent in that direction. His tastes then rather took a scientific turn. This was a sad blow to his fond parents, who _did_ hope their son would take a turn at the hurdy-gurdy instead. His aged father pointed out that Science was low and unprofitable, Geology was a humbug, Meteorology and Madness were synonymous terms, and Astronomy ought to be spelled with two S’s. In vain his doting mother gently sought to woo him to loftier aims, and, in the fondness of a mother’s love, even presented him with a toy barrel-organ which played three bars of “Turn, sinner, turn,” in the hope that it might change the whole current of his life; but the undutiful child immediately traded it off to another boy for a bamboo fishing rod, out of which he constructed a telescope, and he used to lie upon his back for hours, far, far into the night, catching cold and scouring the heavens with this crude invention. One night his sorrow-stricken parents found him thus, and they knew from that moment that all was lost! [Illustration: _EARLY AQUATIC TENDENCIES EVINCED BY COLUMBUS._ ] Our hero took to the water naturally very early in life. Let the youth of America remember this. Let the youth of every land who contemplate discovering new worlds remember that strong drink is fatal to the discovery business; for it is our candid opinion, that, had Christopher Columbus taken to, say strong coffee in his very earliest infancy, the chances are that America would never have had a Centennial, and these pages had never been written. Two circumstances which the stoutest heart among us cannot for a moment contemplate without a shudder. When Columbus reached man’s estate he became a hard student, and spent the most of his time in his library, “Reading books that never mortal Ever dared to read before.” [Illustration: _COLUMBUS AMONG HIS BOOKS._ ]