16780. banks of New York City (general) (New York, NY)

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EDITORIAL NOTES The first Christian missionaries in the Feejee or Fiji islands were Rev. William Cross and David Cargill, who -[st the JO euo uo errore ands of the group, seventy-eight years ago, Oct. 12, 1835. These two pioneers were British Wesleyans, who had been engaged in mission work on the neighboring Tonga islands. They were provided with letters of recommendation from King George of Tonga to. His Majesty the King of Lakemba, and were kindly received by that naked monarch. The Tongan tongue was well understood by the Feejee islanders, so the missionaries were able to converse readily with the people of their new field. Tongan Christians also went to Lakomba to did the missionaries, and within a year they had made such progress as to prevent the massacre and eating of the crew of the Active, which went ashore on Lakomba. In 1838 three missionaries from England arrived with a printing press. The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark and the first part of the "Conference Catechism' were translated and printed. Under the influence of the missionaries war, murder and cannabilism soon ceased, but the natives long refused to give up the practice of polygamy. The first day of the American financial panic of 18 fell on "the unlucky thirteenth" of October. On that day all of the banks of New York city, save one, suspended specie payments, and their example was soon followed by practically all of the banks of the United States. The effects of the panic were soon felt, in Canada and England, and the latter country was plunged into dire commercial depression because of American failures. Although there had been periods of commercial and financial depression in the United States previous to 1857, the panic of that year was the first to involve the entire country. Only three banks in the whole United States paid cash throughout the panic, the most important of these being the Chemical Bank of New York, which earned the title of "Old Bullion" by successfully weathering the storm and refusing to Join with the other institutions in suspending payments. The other banks revenged themselves later by depriving the Chemical Bank of Clearing House privileges for several months. The panic was due to excessive land speculations and caused 5,123 commercial failures, with liabilities exceeding 000 000. Columbus Day. the twelfth of October, the anniversary of the discovof America by Christopher ColumB SB celebrated MOU ST '26PT as snq legal holiday in more than half of the states of the Union, and in Brazil and Costa Rica. A movement has been inaugurated to make the date a general Pan-American holiday, to be observed simultaneously by all the peoples from Alaska and northern Canada to Patagonia and Tierra del FueOF On this day in the years to come, 11 this plan is realized, the people of the western world will unite in honoring the memory of America's discoverer. For twenty-four hours they will forget boundary lines, and rejoice in being simply Americans, True, Uncle Sam has sought to monopolize the name "American" for his own people to the exclusion of the other Americans, but that is more his misfortune than his fault. The old gentleman with the striped suit and the goatee has doubtless racked his brain until it ached many a time in searching for a common and distinguished appellation for his subjects. If the Columbus Day project is ever fully realized the immortal discoverer will be celebrated by white, black, red and yellow, and all shades between, living under twenty-five different flags, JO surior JO Variety 8 Jepun pus government, ranging from democratic monarchy to despotic republic. Within the last year several new theories regarding Columbus have been aired by historians. Prof. Enrique Maria de Arribas y Turul, a noted Spanish historian. has written a small volume, just published, in which he attempts to prove that Columbus was a Spanish Jew. He points out that the discoverer always signed his name "Christobal Colon," which is the Spanish form of Christopher Columbus. The Spanish historian asserts, and backs up his assertion with many old documents, that Columbus was born in the town of Pontevedra, Spain, and not in Genoa, as is generally believed. The maiden name of the discoverer's mother has always been given as Fonterosa, and Prof. Arribas y Turul has discovered in the Pontevedra town archives a document showing a co-partnership between two Jewish merchants Colon and Fonterosa. "What could be more natural," inquires the historian, "than a subsequent nuptial partnership, especially since the Jews of those days made It a point to cement their industrial partnerships by intermarriage?" Other documents show that the Spanish authorities executed several of the Colon family for the "crime" of being Jews, although they had embraced the Christian faith, and the historian suggests that fear of sharing the same fate caused Columbus to ever afterward claim Genoa as his birthplace. "The mere suspicion of his being related to the Spanish Colons would have been fatal to his projects." The historian adds: "If the Church, which opposed his projects on Efolical and other grounds, had known Colon to be a Jew, "their CathMajesties would never have been ermitited to fit out a Jew to prove ible geography was radically Suo A recent number of the Mercuro de an article by M. Henri