Children of the Days Read Online Free PDF

Days.”
    Taking part were Native Americans, Japanese Ainu, African pygmies and other specimens on display in the parallel world’s fair.
    They were not allowed into the formal athletic competitions, begun six weeks earlier and continuing for another three months, although two Zulus in the Boer War exhibit obtained special dispensation to run the marathon and came in fifth and twelfth.
    Fred Lorz, white and male, won that race, which was the most popular event. Shortly thereafter, it came out that he had run half the route in a friend’s car.
    That was the last piece of Olympic chicanery that did not involve the chemical industry.
    From then on, the world of sport went modern.
    Athletes no longer compete on their own. They carry whole medicine cabinets inside.

July 3
T HE S TONE IN THE H OLE
    Three months had passed since King James II outlawed golf in 1457 and still not a single Scot paid any heed.
    In vain, the monarch repeated the order: young men must dedicate their best efforts to the art of archery, essential for national defense, instead of wasting time whacking little balls.
    But golf was born in Scotland’s green pastures back around the year 1000 by shepherds who eased their boredom knocking stones into rabbit holes, and the tradition remained invincible.
    Scotland is home to the two oldest golf courses in the world. They are open to the public and entry is practically free. What a rarity: in most of the world this privatized sport belongs to the few, and golf courses gobble up the land and chug the water that belongs to us all.

July 4
T HE S OUTHERN C ROSS
    On this night in 1799, Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland discovered the Southern Cross.
    Sailing across the immense ocean, they saw these heretofore unseen stars.
    The Southern Cross pointed the way to America.
    Humboldt and Bonpland did not come to conquer. They wished not to take but to give. And give they did, these scientist adventurers who helped us to see and know ourselves.
    Years later, at the end of their trip deep into the South American heartland, Humboldt returned to Europe.
    Aimé, “Don Amado,” chose to remain behind in this land that had become his own.
    To the end of his days, Don Amado collected and classified thousands of unknown plants. He rediscovered lost medicinal herbs from the indigenous store of knowledge and set up free herbal pharmacies for all. He hoed, planted, harvested; he raised children and chickens. He learned and taught, endured prison and practiced love thy neighbor (“starting with the females,” he liked to say).

July 5
T HE R IGHT TO L AUGH
    According to the Bible, King Solomon of Israel did not have a high opinion of laughter. “It’s crazy,” he said.
    And on happiness: “What good is it?”
    According to scripture, Jesus never once laughed.
    The right to laugh without sin had to wait until this day in 1182, when a baby named Francis was born in the town of Assisi.
    Saint Francis of Assisi was born smiling and years later he instructed his disciples, “Be happy. Avoid sad faces, frowns, scowls . . . ”

July 6
F OOL M E
    Today in 1810 Phineas Barnum was baptized in Connecticut.
    The baby grew up to found the most famous circus in the world.
    It began as a museum of rarities and monstrosities that drew multitudes:
    they bowed before a blind slave woman, 161 years old, who had suckled George Washington;
    they kissed the hand of Napoleon Bonaparte, 25 inches tall;
    and they confirmed that the Siamese twins Chang and Eng were truly attached and that the circus mermaids had genuine fishtails.
    Professional politicians of every epoch envy Barnum more than any other man. He was the undisputed master at putting into practice his great discovery: People love to be fooled .

July 7
F RIDAMANIA
    In 1954 a Communist demonstration marched through the streets of Mexico City.
    Frida Kahlo was there in her wheelchair.
    It was the last time she was seen alive.
    She