FRANK RAY DAVIS
With October 12 bearing down on me from my big wall calendar, I realized it was that season again to honor Christopher Columbus, the intrepid discoverer of America.
But just as I was reaching for my Book of Eulogies I was stricken again by an old nagging doubt: With millions of Indians living here thousands of years you’d certainly think that at least one of them could have risen off his duff long enough to discover a piece of real estate as valuable as the Americas.
What a pity that poor Queen Isabella had to pawn her jewels to buy Columbus three old tubs—one of which couldn’t even make it here—so Columbus could manfully struggle through gales and calms and lousy ship-board food. Just to do a job that any one of those shiftless Redskins could have done merely by lifting his moccasin and discovering the land beneath it.
So for the 517th time: All hail Columbus, the Great Discoverer, the man who did what millions of others couldn’t!