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 GQE»UCIfT DSPOHC 
 
MI-. ,\].M Ai. -Guilders, Ancestors 
 
 
YOUNG PEOPLE'S 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 BY 
 
 LUCY LOMBARDI BARBER 
 
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 PICTURES BY EDITH DUGGAN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
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 TO 
 BARBIE, JAN-JAN, AND CIEL 
 
 Jv£^ 
 
 OCT -2 1916 
 
 Copyright, 1916, by 
 Frederick A. Stokes Company 
 
 All rights reser'ved 
 
 S)CU4;37927 
 
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OUR COUNTRY 
 
 A little more than 400 years ago no white man had ever heard of this great land 
 we call " our country," and yet it is the oldest land in all the world. For thousands 
 upon thousands of years before the white men came to it, it had stretched broad be- 
 tween its two blue oceans ; wild beasts and savages roamed over it at will. When 
 the first white men came, there were many different kinds of country in this big land, 
 just as there are now. Along the eastern ocean, nearest Europe, were thick forests 
 dotted with lakes and rivers. To the west of these, beyond pine-covered mountains, 
 lay the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, green with meadow grass. 
 Beyond these valleys were high plains covered with herds of buffalo and wild horses, 
 deer and moose and elk. From these plains rose the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, 
 where mountain goat and grizzlies made their home. To the west the Rocky Moun- 
 tains sloped down again into dry deserts where no rain came and very little grew. 
 Beyond these deserts rose more mountains, the Sierras we call them, and these 
 sloped down into the beautiful coast country lying along the edge of that western 
 ocean no white man had yet looked upon or named. 
 
 INDIANS OF THE EASTERN COAST AND GREAT LAKES 
 
 Before the white men came, all the people in this great country were " red men " 
 with copper-colored skin and straight black hair. We call them " Indians." They 
 were a strong brave people, quick of eye and ear, great hunters and great fighters. 
 They were a kindly people, too, to those whom they loved and trusted, but to their 
 enemies they were very cruel. 
 
 Different sorts of Indians lived in different parts of the country. The wisest and 
 bravest were those who lived in the great forests of the eastern coast and about the 
 Great Lakes. These sped swiftly over the water in canoes made of the bark of 
 trees. They sometimes built huts of bark, but made no towns because they had to 
 move about constantly in search of deer and fish. Their clothing was made of the 
 skins of animals, their tents or wigwams were made of these skins, and their food 
 was largely the flesh of animals and fish, though sometimes they planted corn or 
 beans. They hunted with bows and arrows and sharp spears. They loved bright 
 colors and decorated their clothes and wigwams with beads made of stones and with 
 dyed porcupine quills and feathers. Before going into battle the warriors stained 
 their bodies and faces red and yellow and green and put gay feathers in their hair. 
 
 Of course, these Indians did not know of God as we know of Him, but many of 
 them believed that they were all the children of a Great Spirit who loved them and 
 whom they tried to please. 
 
 7 
 
[NDIAN WARRIOR 
 
tNDIAN WARRIOR 
 
INDIANS OF THE PLAINS 
 
 The Indians who lived in the great valleys and plains had no need of canoes. There 
 were few lakes or rivers in their country, and the animals they hunted were the swift 
 buffalo and elk. They had to move quickly over hundreds of miles after their fleet- 
 footed game, so they soon learned to train and ride the wild horses of the plains and did 
 all their hunting on horseback. They dressed in skins as the Lake Indians did, and they 
 too loved Ijright colors. They moved their villages often, following the elk and buffalo. 
 When they were on the march, the women and children rode horses too ; and the wig- 
 wams were folded and tied, with the baskets used for cooking, to two long poles which 
 the old horses dragged. The littlest children rode upon these poles, sitting on the 
 folded wigwams. 
 
 The Indians of the plains were not so wise or so kindly as the Coast Indians. They 
 were more warlike and more cruel. They had less love of the Great Spirit, and more 
 fear of the gods of the winds and of the sun and of the thunder, in whom they believed. 
 
 INDIANS OF THE DESERT AND WEST COAST 
 
 In the deserts that lie beyond the Rocky Mountains there were Indians too, but these 
 were smaller, browner people, not so brave and not so warlike, who found it rather 
 hard to live in that land of little rain. Few plants would grow and few animals could 
 live there. These Indians did not move about after game ; their way was to find a 
 spring of clear water, or a river, and to build a village there, because they needed water 
 more than game. They made houses of mud bricks, one house placed on top of another, 
 with ladders against the sides for climbing to the upper stories. The houses were called 
 pueblos. In front of their houses these Indians would plant peas and beans and grains 
 which served them as food. Their clothing was woven of the hair of goats. You see 
 they were more civilized but not more brave than the Lake Indians. They believed in 
 many gods, snake-gods, gods of the sun and of the rain, gods of war and peace. 
 
 The least noble of all the " red men," however, lived in that beautiful country that lies 
 along the western ocean. We call these Indians " Digger Indians " because, rather 
 than work at hunting or planting, they would dig into the earth for food, and lived upon 
 wild roots. They made huts of bark and grass and hunted a little, fished a little, and 
 rested a great deal. 
 
 Little more than four hundred years ago these Indians of the forests, the plains, the 
 deserts, and the coasts were the only people that knew and used the country that we live 
 in. It was their country. Then the white men came and took it from them bit by bit. 
 
SHIP OF COLUMBUS' DAYS 
 
QUEEN ISABELLA LISTENS TO COLUMBUS— 1492 
 
 The white men of those days lived in Europe, in such rich countries as England, 
 France, and Spain. They built strong ships and sailed bravely about the seas they 
 knew, but not the boldest sailor among them dared sail westward into that unknown 
 ocean which we now call the Atlantic. The Sea of Darkness they called it, and told 
 wild tales of whirlpools there and sea monsters and waves of boiling water. At that 
 time men thought the earth was flat, as indeed it seemed to be, and were afraid lest they 
 sail off its outer edge into some vast abyss. But a few wise men had guessed that the 
 earth was round, and in Italy lived a boy who was to prove it so. His name was Chris- 
 topher Columbus, and he grew up to be a sailor and maker of maps, and sailed through 
 all the seas men knew of then. 
 
 Columbus heard of the wonderful far country in the East called India, to which men 
 went by long journeys overland to bring back gold and jewels and rich silks and spices, 
 and he remembered what he had heard about the earth being round. " If the earth is 
 round," he said, " as I believe it is, why cannot I sail westward and ever westward, until 
 at last I come by sea to that far rich land of the East? " From that time on his dream 
 was to sail 'round the world. But men laughed at him and thought him mad with his 
 dream of a round earth. He was poor and had no money to buy ships or to pay sailors. 
 One day as, in despair, he was traveling through Spain, he met a kind priest who lis- 
 tened to his plan. This priest took him to rich men who brought him before Queen 
 Isabella of Spain. She looked at his maps and plans and listened to his words until she 
 too began to believe in a round earth. " I will give my jewels," she cried, " so that you 
 may buy ships and prove this thing." 
 
 COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA— 1492 
 
 So Columbus bought three small ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, and 
 with 120 frightened sailors on board, many of them crying with fear as they sailed 
 away, he set bravely forth into the Sea of Darkness. 
 
 Two months they sailed. The sailors grew more frightened and angry ; they wanted 
 to throw Columbus overboard and return to Spain. But at last, one clear night, they 
 sighted land and could not sleep for joy. The next morning they went ashore upon a 
 beautiful green island. The red-skinned natives came crowding down to meet them, 
 filled with wonder at the white faces of the Spaniards. Columbus, dressed in his finest 
 clothes of scarlet velvet, stepped ashore. He first knelt and thanked God, then raised 
 the flag of Spain and took the new land in Queen Isabella's name. The red men thought 
 him a god and knelt before him. They thought his sailing ships were giant canoes with 
 wings, that had flown down from heaven. 
 
 Columbus was perfectly sure that he had found India, so he named the islands the 
 West Indies, and called the red men Indians. But what he really found were the islands 
 lying south of the United States. We call the largest one of them Cuba. It was not 
 until some years later that he sailed to the mainland of the great American continent. 
 
 14 
 
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PONCE DE LEON NAMES FLORIDA— 1513 
 
 After Columbus had proved that the world was round, many gallant Spaniards, gen- 
 tlemen adventurers, sailed out across the Sea of Darkness, for they no longer were 
 afraid. They went to seek gold in these new Indies and sailed north and south of the 
 islands where Columbus landed. All the country that they discovered they took in the 
 name of the King of Spain. With them sailed an Italian, Americus Vespucius, for 
 whom the great new world was named America. 
 
 The Spanish sailors built small forts and towns in the newly discovered country and 
 many white men came to live in them. Ponce de Leon, a brave Spaniard, was among 
 them. Pie had come out with Columbus on his second voyage. When Ponce de Leon 
 was growing old and gray, he was told that northward there lay an island on which was 
 a magic fountain and that whosoever drank of the water of that fountain would be for- 
 ever young. Ponce de Leon wanted very much to be young and strong again, and there 
 were many who wished as he did to discover the fountain. With many men he sailed 
 north and on Easter Sunday they came to a flowery land which they named Florida, the 
 land of Easter. They rushed eagerly ashore, shouting through the forests. They 
 drank of every spring, they bathed in every stream, but they found no magic water to 
 make them young and so sailed home again. Eight years passed, and Ponce de Leon, 
 grown more old and gray, set out once more to look for the wonderful fountain. Pie 
 sailed again to Florida, but, instead of youth, he found death. Fierce Indians attacked 
 him and his sailors. Ponce de Leon was wounded by a poisoned arrow and died. 
 
 He had taken Florida in the name of the King of Spain and it remained a Spanish 
 country for hundreds of years. 
 
 BALBOA DISCOVERS THE PACIFIC— 1513 
 
 One of the bravest and kindest of the Spanish adventurers was Vasco de Balboa. 
 When he was a penniless young man, eager to see the world, he hid himself in a barrel 
 on board a Spanish ship just sailing from Spain. The ship took him very near that part 
 of the world where the Panama Canal is now. The country was called Darien. The 
 men who landed from the ship built a town upon the shore and Balboa was so w-ise and 
 clever that he soon became their leader. He married the daughter of an Indian chief 
 and treated the Indians kindly so that they became his friends. As a sign of friend- 
 ship, they gave the Spaniards their gold ear-rings and bracelets. When the Indian 
 chief saw how delighted the Spaniards were with the gold, he laughed and said, " Why 
 don't you go over the mountains there until you come to the great sea of the South ? Its 
 shores are lined with gold." So a little later Balboa and his comrades did go over the 
 mountains, though it was a long hard journey, with hostile Indians all along the way. 
 And at last, one clear morning in September, as they stood upon a peak in Darien, their 
 startled eyes looked down upon that waste of waters which men learned afterwards was 
 the greatest ocean of the world. They were the first white men to see the Pacific Ocean 
 from American shores. 
 
 But Balboa did not know it was a great ocean. He thought it only a large sea. He 
 believed, as Columbus and all the men of his time believed, that this new world was all 
 a part of India and that there was only one great ocean, the Atlantic, which he had 
 crossed from Spain. He was only sorry that the shores of this new sea were not, after 
 all, lined with gold. 
 
 19 
 
EARLY SPANISH EXPLORER 
 
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DE SOTO FINDS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER— 1542 
 
 The largest river in our country, and one of the largest in the world, is the Mississippi. 
 The first white man to reach this river was a Spanish cavalier named De Soto. He had 
 traveled much through South America where he had found wonderful old cities built 
 by the brown men of that part of the world and rich in gold and precious stones. Word 
 came to him of a great Indian city in North America piled high with gold, and though 
 he was already rich De Soto risked all he had to find this golden city of a dream. He 
 gathered together six hundred men eager to search for it. For a year they prepared for 
 their journey, then, magnificent " in cassocks and doublets of silk, pinkt and embroid- 
 ered," with three hundred horses, hundreds of swine, bloodhounds, and much food, they 
 sailed to Florida, that flowery land where Ponce de Leon had searched for the fountain 
 of youth. There they left their ship and plunged into the dark and tangled forests, going 
 toward the west. But though they were bold they were not wise or kind. They treated 
 the Indians most cruelly, burning their villages, and chaining the captured men and 
 women two by two with heavy bands of iron about their necks. The Indians, who had 
 known nothing of white men, learned to fear and hate them. Great bands of Indians 
 fought them all along the way and many of the Spaniards were killed. To be rid of 
 them the Indians would tell them talcs of gold in the Far West so that the Spaniards 
 plunged on eagerly into the forests looking for the wonderful city that had never been. 
 One of the most powerful of the Indian queens, hearing of their coming and knowing 
 nothing of their cruelty, sailed with her people down a river to meet them. She was 
 beautifully arrayed in a long robe of bird feathers, with chains of river pearls about her 
 neck. When the Spaniards saw her their eyes glittered. " Here are pearls worth a 
 fortune," they cried ; " the golden city must be near." The gentle-hearted queen took 
 from her neck the pearls and throwing them over De Soto's head, bade him welcome. 
 She gave him mantles of feathers and of thread made of bark. But, nevertheless, De 
 Soto took her prisoner and made her follow him on the march. It is pleasant to know 
 that later she escaped, taking her pearls with her. Months passed. The Spaniards' 
 horses died, their food grew less, skins and woven mats took the place of their embroid- 
 ered clothes. At last they came to a mighty river ; Mississippi, the Indians called it, 
 meaning " Great River." The white men made rafts to cross the water. But now De 
 Soto became very ill of a fever and died. The men who had come with De Soto did 
 not want the Indians to know that their great leader was dead, for De Soto had told 
 the Indians he was a child of the Sun and could not die. Therefore, very quietly at 
 night they carried his body out on a raft to the middle of the great river and let it sink 
 beneath the water. After De Soto's death his men searched no longer for the city piled 
 with gold, but made new rafts and floated down the Mississippi until, weary and spent, 
 they reached open water and a Spanish town on the coast. They had traveled five 
 years in search of their dream city and more than half their number had perished. 
 
 23 
 
SPANISH SOLDIER 
 
EXPLORER IN CANOE 
 
JOHN CABOT FINDS NEW LAND FOR ENGLAND— 1497 
 
 So many men from Spain swarmed out into the New World after Columbus dis- 
 covered it, and so much of the new land was taken in their king's name, that Spain be- 
 came the richest kingdom in all the world. Now the King of the English loved riches 
 too. He grew jealous of the wealth of Spain and wanted some of this new country for 
 his own. Therefore, four years after Columbus' first voyage, an Italian sailor, John 
 Cabot, was sent out by the English king to sail " to the east or west or north to discover 
 all the islands and countries in whatever part of the world." In a tiny ship, with only 
 18 men, John Cabot sailed to the north and discovered what he thought was China, but 
 what was really Labrador and Newfoundland. Later, he sailed not quite so far north 
 and skirted along the coast of that part of our country we now call New England. All 
 this wild land he took in the King of England's name and thus gave England her first 
 claim to a share in the New World. The English king was delighted and praised Cabot 
 loudly, though he gave him only $ioo for his trouble. However, Cabot went gaily about 
 dressed in silks and we are told tliat because of his wonderful voyage " the English ran 
 after him like madmen." 
 
 FRANCIS DRAKE SAILS ROUND THE WORLD— 1577 
 
 The very first man to sail around the world was a brave and wise man of Portugal, 
 named Magellan. "If the world is round," he said, " I will try to find a way by water 
 so that I can sail my ships from Spain to the New World and then to Spain again with- 
 out once turning back." After many months of trying, he did find a way and sailed 
 around the end of South America into the Western ocean. It looked so blue and 
 peaceful after the stormy passage he had had, that he named it the Pacific. The voyage 
 was long across its vast waters. Months and months passed. The sailors grew sick 
 and weary ; their food gave out ; their water was bad. At last, they reached the Philip- 
 pine Islands where they stopped to rest. But after a little the savages of the islands 
 killed Magellan and many of his men. Those who escaped sailed sadly on to Spain. 
 
 Fifty years passed before any other man was brave enough to risk that terrible 
 voyage. Then Francis Drake, a bold and handsome Englishman who loved to burn and 
 harry the ships of Spain, sailed around the world and home again on his ship The Golden 
 Hynde. He sailed up the west coast of America, burning Spanish towns there and tak- 
 ing Spanish ships, and then stopped on the shores of what we now call California. No 
 white man had touched those shores before. He raised the flag of England and took 
 the fair land in Queen Elizabeth's name, calling it New Albion. There he cleaned his 
 ship from stem to stem and set sail across the Pacific. His voyage was almost three 
 years long. Queen Elizabeth was so delighted with the success of this brave English- 
 man that she herself attended a great banquet on the deck of the Golden Hynde, and 
 there made Francis Drake a knight. 
 
 26 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH 
 
JACQUES CARTIER DISCOVERS THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 RIVER— 1535 
 
 While men of Spain and England were sailing to the New World to claim it for their 
 own, the men of France were not idle. They sailed north and west of where John Cabot 
 had sailed. They discovered new lands and rivers, called them New France, and 
 claimed them for their king. Brave Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, was the first to dis- 
 cover the St. Lawrence River. He thought the land about it rocky and dismal indeed, 
 but nevertheless told his sailors to make a cross of cedar wood and set it in the earth 
 there to mark the land as a part of New France. While this work was being done, 
 many curious Indians came stealing up to watch the strange white men. Cartier gave 
 them beads and bright cloth, and they gave him huge bundles of soft furs, skins of lynx 
 and fox and beaver they had killed in hunting. Cartier heaped his ship with furs and 
 took home a rich cargo. Beside the furs, he took two frightened little Indian boys whom 
 he had stolen away. Their eyes grew wide with wonder when they saw the white men's 
 cities of old France. The next year Cartier sailed again to the St. Lawrence and took 
 the little Indian boys back to their homes. We call the country that Jacques Cartier dis- 
 covered, Canada. 
 
 CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS THE GREAT LAKES— 1615 
 
 The greatest of all the Frenchmen who discovered and built up New France was 
 Samuel de Champlain, a soldier and a friend of kings. He was a great, strong, hand- 
 some man, with a gentle heart that " delighted marvelously in these enterprises." He 
 loved God, too, and was most anxious that the Indians should love Him, so that men said 
 he traveled with a sword in one hand and a crucifix in the other. Long after Jacques 
 Cartier's day, he too sailed up the St. Lawrence. He planted the colony of Quebec near 
 that Indian village from which Cartier had stolen the Indian boys. New France was 
 the home of the Algonquin Indians, who were forever at war with the Iroquois Indians, 
 living farther south. Champlain and his soldiers, with their light armor, swords and 
 guns, were a great marvel to the Algonquins, so they begged Champlain to join them 
 and fight with them against the Iroquois, who would fear him greatly. And Champlain 
 did so, for he knew he could travel far more easily through this wilderness, and govern 
 it more easily, if these Indians were his friends. The war-parties traveled hundreds of 
 miles in great canoes and Champlain went with them. The Iroquois had never seen 
 white men. When they saw Champlain coming forward with their enemies they stopped, 
 astonished. When he fired upon them, they turned and ran, and the Algonquins, re- 
 joicing, killed and captured many. But, though he did not know it, Champlain thus 
 started a most bitter and bloody war, which lasted a hundred years. The Iroquois, a 
 fierce and powerful people, never forgave the French for aiding the Algonquins. They 
 remained the bitterest enemies of France in the New World, and later gladly helped the 
 English drive the French from Canada. 
 
 While on the war parties of the Algonquins, Champlain discovered Lake Champlain, 
 the Adirondacks, and some of the Great Lakes, which he took for France. 
 
 30 
 
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LA SALLE PADDLES DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— 1681 
 
 Champlain had brought priests to New France, who, " inflamed with charity," en- 
 tered the unknown forests to teach the Indians the ways of Christ. One of these, Pere 
 Marquette, went through the Great Lakes, and, entering the Mississippi, paddled down 
 it hundreds of miles. He did not know of De Soto's discovery of that wide river. He 
 brought back such tales of its wonders that a young Frenchman, bolder, tinner, more 
 untiring than any other of his time, set out to follow the Mississippi to its mouth and 
 take the land about it for France. His name was Cavelier de La Salle. He tried for 
 three years without success ; his ships were wrecked, his men deserted him, his food 
 and money failed. At one time he had to walk back, almost alone, one thousand miles, 
 through the wilderness, to collect another set of ships and men for the journey. But 
 the third year, his great fleet of canoes floated safely down the yellow river to the Gulf 
 of Mexico, and he returned to France triumphant. He named the new land Louisiana. 
 The ne.xt year his bad luck returned. He sailed from France with ships full of set- 
 tlers to found a town at the mouth of the Mississippi. The captain sailed four hun- 
 dred miles too far, and the ships were wrecked upon the coasts of Te.xas. La Salle 
 and his men were stranded there, without hope of escape. For two years they wan- 
 dered wearily over the plains. La Salle, though brave and honest, was a harsh and 
 haughty man. The more worthless of his men grew to hate him, and, at last, just as 
 he had decided to lead them on foot to Canada, they shot him dead from ambush. He 
 was but forty-two when he died. Through him, France gained possession of the great 
 central plains of North America. 
 
 HENRY HUDSON DISCOVERS THE HUDSON RIVER— 1609 
 
 Spain, France, and England now claimed parts of the big new world, but Spain was 
 exceedingly greedy, and refused to let men from other nations enter her part of 
 America or trade there. At this time the Dutch were at war with Spain, and wished 
 to anger her as much as possible. They, therefore, engaged a young Englishman, one 
 Henry Hudson, to find a way to the rich east for them. Henry Hudson was a master 
 seaman, very honest, and very gentle. He had one great desire, to find a short way 
 to China by the north seas. The Dutch gave him a small ship, The Half-Moon, and 
 twenty-four men. He sailed toward the north, but many of his men were villainous 
 and cowardly; fearing the dangers of the North, they forced him to sail west. He 
 reached a beautiful bay, and sailed up a broad blue river, hoping it would lead to the 
 Pacific Ocean. Great crowds of Indians came down to the river banks, to stare at the 
 strange ship and shout excited welcomes. They sold beautiful furs to the sailors in re- 
 turn for glass beads and ribbons. Hudson was bitterly disappointed when he found the 
 river did not reach the Pacific. He named it Hudson River, and took it for the Dutch. 
 Later the Dutch founded a settlement at the mouth of the river, where New York 
 is to-day. They called it New Amsterdam. 
 
 A year or so later Hudson sailed again, with many of the same wicked crew. He 
 was a good man and would not think evil of them. This time they sailed to the 
 North seas, and discovered great, dreary Hudson Bay. After a hard, cruel winter 
 there, during which the villains grew more evil through their sufferings, his men 
 turned against Hudson. Just as he was setting sail for England, they bound him and 
 his young son, John, and threw them, with seven sick sailors, into a small open boat 
 out on that icy sea. Then they jeeringly sailed away. Nothing more was ever heard 
 of valiant Henry Hudson. Perhaps, still hoping to find an opening through the 
 frozen seas to China, he turned his small boat northward with a steady hand and 
 " sailed ahead and left the rest to God." 
 
 35 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIG 
 
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SIR WALTER RALEIGH SMOKES AND PLANTS COLONIES— 1585 
 
 The great discoveries had been made and men had grown used to them before the 
 first English town was built in America. The English, like the Dutch, were bitterly at 
 war with Spain, when an Englishman, Walter Raleigh, thought of a plan for sending 
 hundreds of English to live in America to rival the strength of Spain there. Raleigh 
 was wise and witty, brave and gay, a great friend of the Queen Elizabeth. She had 
 first noticed him when he, a young soldier, had spread his velvet cloak before her over 
 a mud puddle, so that she need not soil her slippers. He was one of the first Englishmen 
 to learn to smoke tobacco, an art which the white men learned from the Indians. The 
 story goes that as he was puffing away one day, his servant entered, and, thinking his 
 master on fire, hastily threw a mug of beer over him to put him out. 
 
 This gay Sir Walter sent out two ships to find a proper place in America for starting 
 an English village. The sailors came back, full of praise for the beautiful country 
 around Chesapeake Bay. Elizabeth named the new land Virginia, and every one hoped 
 it would glitter with silver and gold. But the first two companies of settlers there were 
 starved out and driven away by the angry Indians. The third party landed on Roanoke 
 Island, and there the first English child born in America, little Virginia Dare, came into 
 the world. But these colonists were left four years without help from England, for all 
 the English ships were busied at that time in a mighty war with Spain. When Eng- 
 land had won the war and remembered to send food to the little village of Roanoke, 
 there was no village left, nor any living thing. No one ever knew what became of 
 little Virginia Dare and her people. Probably they were killed or captured by the In- 
 dians and so perished. 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF JAMESTOWN— 1607 
 
 Many years after the death of little Virginia Dare the first successful English town 
 in America was started, on the James River in Virginia. In the ship that brought the 
 colonists to Jamestown was a most remarkable man, John Smith by name, one who was 
 said to have a prince's heart in a beggar's purse. Though he was only twenty-nine, he 
 had already been a soldier with the Dutch and a soldier in Hungary, a prisoner among 
 pirates, a slave in Turkey, and a traveler everywhere. John Smith was wise and bold 
 and managed the Indians cleverly. Jamestown was poor and weak at first ; many men 
 died of fever and many of starving. While they were in this state. Smith went up the 
 river to explore, and was captured by Indians. He delighted them at first by showing 
 them his compass under glass. They had never seen glass and thought it magic. 
 Nevertheless they decided to kill him, and he had just sadly laid his head down upon a 
 large stone so that they might hammer it with tomahawks, when the chief's little daugh- 
 ter, a child of thirteen, named Pocahontas, threw herself upon him and begged for his 
 life. The chief, Powhatan, pardoned him at once and even adopted him as his own son. 
 
 After this Smith obtained much corn from the Indians, and this corn saved the lives 
 of the starving English. Pocahontas was always a great friend of the colonists. She 
 came often to Jamestown, bringing food, and twice after this she saved the life of John 
 Smith from her treacherous father. Years later she married an Englishman, John 
 Rolfe, and went to England, where they treated her as a great princess ; " the beautiful 
 savage," they called her. She died there, homesick for her own country. 
 
 39 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 
 
FIRST NEGRO SLAVES IN NORTH AMERICA— 1620 
 
 The first man in Virginia to plant his fields with Indian tobacco was John Rolfe, the 
 husband of Pocahontas. He sold his tobacco in England for a high -price. The Eng- 
 lish were learning to smoke and liked it. When the other colonists saw that tobacco 
 brought gold they planted tobacco too. But work in the tobacco fields was hard work 
 and hot work. Therefore, when a few years later twenty negroes from Africa were 
 brought by a Dutch ship to Jamestown to be sold as slaves, the colonists bought them 
 gladly and put them to work in the tobacco fields, for negroes work very well under a 
 hot sun and are not made ill by it. For the next two hundred years English ships 
 brought great numbers of negroes from Africa and sold them as slaves to the colonists. 
 In the Carolina colonies, where rice and indigo were raised, there were soon far more 
 negroes than white men, for only negroes could work in the hot, wet fields, which were 
 no more wet or hot than their African homes had been. 
 
 Now the men of that time thought there was nothing wrong in buying or selling black 
 or yellow men, just as we buy and sell meat and potatoes. The first Englishman to 
 catch black men in Africa and sell them to white men in America was Sir John 
 Hawkins, a very honorable man, and a brave sea-captain. He was proud of selling 
 slaves and thought it a noble calling, and yet he was a kindly, honest man who loved God 
 and made his sailors love Him. These were the rules posted in his many ships: 
 " Serve God daily ; love one another ; preserve your victuals ; beware of fire ; and keep 
 good company." It seems strange to us that these same ships should have been filled 
 with wretched, homesick negroes, stolen away from their jungle homes to be sold into 
 slavery. Yet when Captain John Hawkins was made a knight by the English king be- 
 cause of the splendid fights he had won for England, he chose for his coat of arms the 
 figure of a negro slave with chains upon his hands and feet, and nobody thought it a 
 strange choice. 
 
 The people of the Southern States bought slaves for two hundred and forty years. 
 All the hard work of the South was done by these negroes. The people of the North- 
 em States bought slaves too at first, but the negroes were not needed in the North ; 
 there were no hot, wet fields there in which only negroes could work. Therefore, be- 
 fore George Washington's time, the people of the North had set their negroes free or 
 had sold them to people in the South. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH MAKES THE COLONISTS WORK— 1609 
 
 At first there was much work to be done m Jamestown, but few who were wiUing to 
 do it. Most of the EngHsh colonists had expected to grow rich easily, but when they 
 found no gold or other precious thing in Virginia they grew angry and sulked. When 
 Captain John Smith became head of the little colony, he gathered the men together and 
 said firmly, " Now remember this. Those of you who do not work shall not eat. And 
 remember too that you shall not swear and grumble as you work. For every oath you 
 swear, a can of water shall be poured down your sleeves till you shall stop your swear- 
 ing." After this the colonists worked right merrily. Twenty new houses were built, 
 a deep well of sweet water dug, much land plowed. 
 
 But one unfortunate day, as Captain Smith was coming down the river with a boat- 
 load of gunpowder, the powder exploded, and, though he jumped quickly into the water, 
 he was so badly burned that he had to return to England. This was a vvoful loss to 
 the young colony. In the winter that followed there was little food and no work. By 
 spring there were but sixty colonists where five hundred had been ; all the others had 
 died. Help was sent to these sixty in June, from England, just in time to save them. 
 After that the English in Virginia prospered, new colonists were sent over, great 
 farms of tobacco and corn and potatoes were started. Virginia was saved. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF NEW ENGLAND— 1620 
 
 Captain John Smith, two years after leaving Jamestown, sailed all along the shores of 
 New England, which he named. He made a wonderful map of it, though he said that 
 he was not foolish enough to think that any one would ever choose to live in such a 
 dreary place except for the purpose of making money. But he was mistaken, for the 
 first English people who built homes there came because they wished to pray to God in 
 their own way without being punished and interfered with by the English king. They 
 had no thought of making money. One hundred of these brave people, who were called 
 Pilgrims, sailed from England in a tiny ship called the Mayftozver. Heavy storms 
 tossed them about on the sea for two long months and drove them farther north than 
 they had planned to go. They sailed from Plymouth, England, and they landed at a 
 place which John Smith, years before, had named Plymouth, New England. It was a 
 " stern and rockbound coast" and, in the first cold winter, almost half of the Pilgrims 
 died. Those who were left buried their dead upon a hill, and leveled their graves and 
 sowed the hill with wheat, so that the Indians might not see the graves and know how 
 few white men were left to guard the settlement. 
 
 But, in truth, there were not many Indians in that part of the country. A few years 
 before, thousands of Indians along that coast had died of a certain sickness, and the 
 rest, thinking an evil spirit dwelt there, had fled away. So the Pilgrims were not at- 
 tacked and slaughtered by the red men, as the first Virginia colonists had been. In the 
 spring, they were astonished to see an Indian come marching into their little town shout- 
 ing, " Welcome, Englishmen." His name was Samoset, and he had learned a little Eng- 
 lish from fur traders. He proved a great friend. Through him the Pilgrims made a 
 treaty with the chief of the Indians nearest them, Massasoit, and were not troubled by 
 Indian wars for many years thereafter. 
 
 46 
 

 
THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST AMERICAN COLLEGE— 1636 
 
 Ten years after the first Pilgrims came to New England, other English people who 
 wished to worship God in their own way settled Salem and Boston. These were 
 called Puritans because they wished to " purify " the Church of England. Like the Pil- 
 grims they came to America to find a new home, not to find gold as the Spanish came, or 
 other riches such as the first Virginians craved. They worked hard and were a serious 
 and earnest people who thought music, dancing, and theaters were grievous sins. The 
 wisest of them were afraid that in the wild new country to which they had come, 
 " these ends of the earth," as they called it, where the fear of Indians and of starvation 
 kept each man and woman busy, day and night, there would be too little time given to 
 learning. So, only six years after they had reached their new home, all the people 
 promised to give as much as each could give toward building a college. The next 
 year a gentle young clergyman, who loved his new home, died in Boston and left his 
 fortune and his books to the new college. His name was John Harvard. The 
 new college was named for him. It was very small at first. Some of the gifts the Puri- 
 tans gave to it were quaint and curious. One gave a number of sheep, one gave a fruit 
 dish, another a silver-tip jug, another a pewter flagon. The people were poor, but each 
 gave what he could, and the college grew and flourished. 
 
 The examinations for entering the college were quite different from those of to-day. 
 Each boy who wished to enter had to write, read and speak Latin as easily as English. 
 All the questions were asked and answered in Latin. All the papers were written in 
 Latin. Life there was not easy. There was but one fireplace for the whole college, 
 and the pupils studied at night in one great room by the light of the public candle. Yet 
 the New England boys were eager to go, and the classes grew larger each year. 
 
 KING PHILIP'S WAR— 1675 
 
 Most of the English settlers in New England treated the Indians as friends. They 
 taught English to many, they tried to teach the ways of Christ to many more. And 
 so, as long as the great chief Massasoit lived, with whom the Pilgrims had sworn friend- 
 ship, there was no Indian war. After his death, his son Philip became chief. By 
 this time thousands of English people had come to New England and had built towns 
 far north and far south of Plymouth. The Indians felt that the white men were 
 their masters ; they saw their land being taken from them, their deer and game being 
 killed and driven away. They were filled with a great hatred and fear of the white 
 men, and King Philip thought the time had come for the Indians to drive the white 
 men away forever. So just fifty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, King 
 Philip's dreadful war began. He joined together all the Indians of New England. 
 Great bands of them crept, by night, to the little villages on the edge of the forests, 
 then with frightful warwhoops dashed in upon the sleeping people, killed men, women, 
 and children, burned their homes and carried many away, to torture them or burn 
 them alive in the depths of the forest. It was a hideous time for the poor colonists. 
 Hundreds were killed, dozens of towns were destroyed. But the men of the colo- 
 nies marched in turn against the Indians. In a few years the white men with their 
 guns had killed so many thousands of the red men that King Philip's followers 
 begged him to ask for peace. Now King Philip was a very clever Indian, but a 
 very proud one too. When one brave came too near, begging him to surrender, 
 Philip raised his tomahawk and struck the man dead. This act caused Philip's 
 ruin. The angry brother of the dead man told the colonists where Philip was hid- 
 ing, he was surrounded and killed. This great war, instead of driving out the white 
 men, ended the power of the Indians in New England forever. 
 
 51 
 
COSTUMES DURING COLONIAL TIMES 
 

 V-' 
 
 BID. 
 
THE SALEM WITCHES— 1692 
 
 The towns of New England had little peace even after King Philip's war ended, for 
 the French in Canada watched their growth and success angrily. They did not wish 
 England to get so large a share of America. Therefore they sent French soldiers to 
 attack the New England towns nearest Canada, and they did a cruel and wicked thing 
 beside. They urged the Indians of Canada to attack these towns and to kill and 
 burn. 
 
 It was an anxious time for the Pilgrims and Puritans. They feared the Indians, 
 they feared the French ; and in a strange new way they began at that time to fear 
 each other. In those days, more than two hundred years ago, even the wisest men 
 and women believed things to be true which we know to-day are quite untrue and 
 silly. Wise and earnest though they were, yet they believed in witches and devils 
 and magic, and made themselves most unhappy from fear of these things. Now it 
 happened that six young girls of the Salem colony listened too long to stories of magic 
 that an old Indian servant told them and began to fancy that they had been bewitched 
 by certain people in Salem. They screamed and tore their hair and shrieked that 
 they were being tortured and called aloud the names of those who had bewitched them. 
 The people of Salem, young and old, were filled with terror. Each thought the other 
 a witch, or possessed of a devil. They could not think clearly, and in their terror 
 they took before their judges the men and women whom the girls accused of witch- 
 craft, and these learned and stern men hanged as witches nineteen of these innocent 
 women and men, who had done no wrong. Then suddenly the terror left the people 
 of Salem, they saw they had done a foolish and a wicked thing and they were bit- 
 terly sorry. After that there was no more talk of witches among them. 
 
 MOTHER GOOSE— 1715 
 
 Most of the books that people read in early New England, and most of the books 
 they wrote, were very serious religious books about church matters, for they were a 
 serious people. But a gay little book that all of us know by heart and love before 
 we can read at all, was written in Boston Town in that long-ago time, the book of 
 Mother Goose. A very large family named Goose came to Boston from England 
 and one of them was the kindly old lady who made up those comical rhymes about 
 Handy Spandy, little Jack Horner, and so many others. But she had no idea of 
 writing a book. She had a tiny grandson whom she trotted on her knee, and it was 
 only to amuse this little Boston baby that she sang her funny songs. But she 
 sang them so much, and so loudly and clearly, that the baby's father, in his printer's 
 workroom close by, heard them. The baby, of course, was very much pleased with 
 Mother Goose's songs, just as we are to-day, and his father liked them too, so he 
 printed them all in a queer little book with very curious pictures. This is the way 
 that Mother Goose, quite without knowing it, wrote one of the most famous and 
 well-beloved books that the world has ever known. 
 
 55 
 
KING CHARLES GIVES MARYLAND TO LORD 
 BALTIMORE— 1632 
 
 Between the English in Virginia and the English in New England lay a great 
 stretch of beautiful country. The Potomac and the Hudson River bordered it. A 
 large part of this beautiful country, near the Potomac River, was given by King 
 Charles I of England to a gallant and noble gentleman, named Lord Baltimore. 
 Lord Baltimore was a Catholic and planned to found a home in the New World for 
 all Catholics who wished to leave England, where they were badly treated. The King 
 gave him this wonderful gift of thousands of acres of land to be wholly his, so that 
 Lord Baltimore and his sons became more nearly kings over their land in America 
 than any other men have been in this land of the free. They had only to send two 
 Indian arrows to the King each year in sign of homage. Fortunately they were wise 
 men who ruled well. They named their country Maryland in honor of the Queen 
 and welcomed all kinds of people to their colony ; they permitted each person to worship 
 God exactly as he pleased, a thing no other colony was willing to permit in those 
 days, and RIaryland grew quickly. The first shipload of Maryland colonists sailed 
 up the Potomac River. Indians, eager to welcome the strange palefaces, rushed 
 down to the water's edge and waved a welcome. They sold to the colonists, in re- 
 turn for beads and hatchets, an Indian village of bark houses, in which the colonists 
 lived during their first winter. The squaws taught the English women how to make 
 corn bread and hominy, and how to roast oysters in their shells. The people of 
 Maryland lived at peace with the red men always. 
 
 THE DUTCH GIVE UP NEW AMSTERDAM— 1664 
 
 As time passed and the colonies grew larger and richer, each nation in Europe grew 
 more greedy of its share of the New World. Each shouted to the other " Keep away ! 
 This is mine ! I got here first." And those that were strongest snatched from those 
 that were weak. 
 
 After Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River for the Dutch, Dutch merchants 
 went up the river to trade with the Indians for furs, Dutch farmers plowed the fields 
 along its banks, and a Dutch town grew up at its mouth. It was called New Am- 
 sterdam. The English colonists living north and south of New Amsterdam wanted 
 very much to trade in furs up the Hudson ; they also thought it would be well for Eng- 
 land to own all the coast of the Atlantic. They well knew that the Dutch had no 
 forts and no ships to defend their town. England was greatly tempted and watched 
 for a chance to snatch. Now when New Amsterdam was about forty years old, 
 a fine old Dutchman was governor there. His name was Peter Stuyvesant, and he 
 stamped about on a wooden leg, for one of his own had been shot away in battle 
 when he was young. He was a " leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old 
 governor," but very stern and vigorous, bossing his Dutchmen about and making 
 them do exactly as he pleased. As he grew older, he grew fiercer, and the good 
 Dutchmen of New Amsterdam were very weary of him. Then one day, without 
 any warning at all, a fleet of English ships sailed into the harbor, pointed their guns 
 at the town, and sent a letter to Governor Stuyvesant asking him politely to give up 
 New Amsterdam in the King of England's name. The old governor was furious, 
 and tore the letter to bits, but he had few soldiers and few gims, his townspeople 
 begged him to surrender, and so, though he said he would " rather be carried out 
 dead," he was forced to give up his town. In this way England pushed *he Dutch 
 out of the New World and took for herself the provinces of New York, New Jersey 
 and Delaware. What was New Amsterdam is now the city of New York. 
 
 58 
 
--j-^^" 
 
 ^3Sm 
 
 DUTCH HOUSE IN NEW YORK 
 
WILLIAM PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA— 1682 
 
 The kings of England were generous with that part of the New World claimed by 
 England. They did not know how very generous they were. King Charles the Sec- 
 ond used it to reward his favorites and to pay his debts. He gave the land between 
 Virginia and Florida to six gentlemen of his court who sent colonists to live there. 
 This was the beginning of North and South Carolina. Then to pay a debt of a 
 large sum of money which he owed an English admiral, he gave to the admiral's son, 
 William Penn, a grant of land lying half-way between Plymouth and Jamestown, a 
 most beautiful country of forests and rivers, larger than all of England. 
 
 William Penn was a Quaker. The Quakers, like the Puritans, did not like the ways 
 of the Church of England. They believed in doing exactly as Christ had taught 
 men to do. They would not swear, they would not strike back when struck, they 
 lived simply. They would not take off their hats in church or before any man, not 
 even the King. They wore plain clothes and large flat hats. The English Govern- 
 ment hated them, put many of them in prison, and even burned some of them to death. 
 When William Penn was young he too was put in prison for a time because he in- 
 sisted on doing as the Quakers did. His own father grew angry with him because 
 he would not take off his hat before him. 
 
 Now when the King gave him this wonderful gift, William Penn decided to build 
 up a Quaker settlement in America where men could pray to God and dress and act 
 exactly as they pleased. He sailed to America with the Quaker colonists and started 
 a city there, which he called Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and William 
 Penn was so truly kind and wise in the way he ruled his country that it was really 
 filled with brotherly love, and many people came to it. Philadelphia was soon the 
 largest city in America. Later it was for a time the capital of the United States. 
 
 Although the King of England himself had given Penn this land, Penn knew very 
 well that the real owners were the Indians. He sent for all the chiefs of the Indian 
 tribes soon after he arrived in America. The Indians were full of wonder and did not 
 try to attack the Quakers. They came in great numbers and sat solemnly around 
 an elm tree, staring at Penn and his men. Penn had no soldiers with him, and his 
 men had no guns or swords. The Indians were amazed at their boldness. Then 
 Penn told them he had come to make a bargain with them, to buy their land. He 
 offered them money and gifts. He said, " All between us shall be openness and love. 
 We are one flesh and blood. The friendship between us shall last forever." The 
 Indians were delighted with the fairness of Penn's bargain. They accepted his gift 
 of cloth and hatchets. " We will live in love with William Penn and his children as 
 long as the sun and moon shall shine," they answered, and they smoked with the 
 Quakers the pipe of peace. The Indians kept their promise of peace so carefully 
 that no Quaker was ever killed by an Indian. It would have been well for the other 
 colonies if they had been as fair to the Indians as was William Penn. 
 
 62 
 
^ 
 
 ■m 
 
 
OGLETHORPE FOUNDS GEORGIA FOR THE DEBTORS OF 
 ENGLAND— 1732 
 
 Georgia was the last of the English colonies to be founded, and the one farthest 
 south. It was planted by a wonderfully good man who had once been a soldier, Gen- 
 eral Oglethorpe. At that time, in England, any man who owed another man money 
 and could not pay what he owed, was thrown into a dirty prison and kept there until 
 his debt was paid or until he died. Many poor men died most wretchedly in these 
 prisons while their wives and children starved outside. It was for these men that 
 Oglethorpe started the colony of Georgia. He brought over shiploads of debtors, tak- 
 ing them from filthy prisons and giving them new homes in a new world where they 
 could be happy once more. But there was another reason for founding Georgia. 
 The Spanish in Florida were very angry because the English had built so many 
 towns in America and took great delight in urging the Indians of the south to attack 
 the colonies nearest Florida, those of North and South Carolina. Thousands of In- 
 dians came up from Florida and burned and killed in the Carolinas. The King of 
 England therefore told Oglethorpe that he could have Georgia only if he would at- 
 tack the Spaniards and keep them from sending murderous Indians up into Carolina. 
 Oglethorpe promised to do this and kept his promise. 
 
 The people of Carolina were so pleased that, when Oglethorpe's first ship stopped 
 at a Carolina town on its way to Georgia, they met it with shouts of joy and loaded it 
 with their finest cows and pigs as a gift to Oglethorpe. 
 
 FATHER JUNTPERO SERRA HEARS MASS AT MISSION 
 CARMEL— 1776 
 
 You will remember that Sir Francis Drake, when he sailed round the world, stopped 
 to clean his Golden Hynde on the shores of California, and took that beautiful 
 country for his English queen. For two hundred years few men thought again of 
 that far-away shore of the Pacific. Spain was busy in Mexico and South America, 
 and England was busy building up her Atlantic colonies. But Spain watched England 
 greedily and decided at last to send Spaniards from Mexico up the shores of the Pacific 
 to claim California for Spain and build Spanish towns before England should decide 
 to build English towns there. So a great expedition was sent north from Mexico just 
 two hundred years after the days of Francis Drake. 
 
 Most of these men were soldiers, but some were Catholic priests, and one of these 
 was the soul of the enterprise and the cause of its success. He was a thin, lame, 
 pale-faced priest, with beautiful eyes, named Junipero Serra. He had a great gap- 
 ing wound in his leg, make by a snake bite ; a wound that never healed. When men 
 told him he should rest and nurse it, he only answered, " Speak not to me thus. I 
 am determined to go on. I seem to hear voices of unconverted thousands calling 
 me." He came to California to teach the Indians about Christ. He started many 
 churches and built houses of mud brick about them for the Indians. He showed 
 them how to plant and care for seeds of olive trees and oranges brought from Spain 
 and dried grape roots from Mexico. He taught them how to pray, holding on high 
 the crucifix while the Indians knelt before it. Many thousands of Spaniards came 
 to live in the land that Father Junipero Serra thus helped to prepare for them. 
 When Serrl died, the hundreds of Indians who loved him threw themselves upon 
 the ground and wept. The ruins of his first settlement still stand at Carmel-by-the- 
 Sea, in California. 
 
 67 
 
TOWN CRIER 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON VISITS A FRENCH PORT— 1753 
 
 In the rich colony of Virginia there grew up a tall, strong, raw-boned youth, who 
 was to do great things for the people of America. His name was George Washing- 
 ton. On his father's farm he learned to ride and to wrestle e.xceedingly well and 
 to dance beside, and though he could go to school very little he learned a great deal 
 from the forests near his home. At sixteen he became a surveyor and spent three 
 years in the mountains almost alone, measuring off land. There he grew so strong 
 and self-reliant, and so wise in Indian ways, that the Governor of Virginia made him 
 Captain of a company of Virginia soldiers. At this time a great war was beginning 
 between the French and English in z\merica. The French wished to keep the English 
 in the east, and the English wanted to push west into the French lands. To prevent 
 this the French urged the Indians to attack the English colonists. The Indians were 
 delighted ; they burned and tortured and sometimes even ate the bodies of the white 
 men they had killed. At last the French built a fort close to Virginia ; whereupon the 
 Governor of Virginia sent a letter to the French soldiers asking them to leave at once 
 as they were on Virginia land. Captain George Washington took this letter. Indian 
 guides went with him. They cut their way through 500 miles of thick forests and 
 crossed freezing rivers on cakes of ice. When Captain Washington gave the letter 
 to the French commander that gentleman bowed low, but refused to leave the fort. 
 He and Washington dined politely together. Then Washington too bowed low and re- 
 turned to the Governor of Virginia. This was the beginning of the French and In- 
 dian War. Shortly after this the colonists sent soldiers to drive the French from their 
 forts. George Washington led these soldiers and fired the first shot of that long and 
 bloody struggle. 
 
 BILADDOCK'S DEFEAT— 1755 
 
 During the first four years of the French and Indian War the English were beaten 
 at every turn. The English soldiers could not understand the ways of Indian warfare. 
 They were used to fighting in solid masses out in the open, whereas the Indians always 
 scattered and hid behind rocks or trees, from which they shot. The French fought as 
 the Indians did. 
 
 The first general who came over from England, General Braddock, suffered a most 
 terrible defeat. He was an English bulldog sort, brave, honest and obstinate. "Of 
 course a mere savage, such as an Indian, can do nothing against my men," he said. 
 George Washington begged him to fight as the Indians did, but he angrily refused. 
 He led his men through a wilderness to attack the French fort, Duquesne, where 
 Pittsburgh stands to-day. There were no roads; the soldiers had to cut their way. 
 He insisted that they march in close ranks. Suddenly they came upon the French and 
 Indians in a narrow forest path. The French and Indians scattered and surrounded 
 the English, shooting from behind trees and bushes. The poor English, in bright red 
 coats, stood in solid line. They did not know what to do. They could see nothing 
 to aim at, only puffs of smoke from the forest. The French and Indians shot them 
 down by dozens. If any of the English tried to break for shelter Braddock drove 
 them back to the ranks. He himself was very brave and had four horses shot under 
 him, and at last was badly wounded. Nine hundred English soldiers were killed or 
 wounded. It was Washington who led the shattered army back to Virginia. As poor 
 Braddock lay dying of his wound he was heard to say, " Who would ever have thought 
 it," and after a little he added sadly, " We should know better how to do it next time." 
 
 71 
 
CANNON DURING REVOLUTION 
 
BOSTON TEA PARTY 
 
THE BATTLE OF QUEBEC— 1759 
 
 Though the French won at first, they lost everything in the end. One by one the 
 English and the colonists captured the French forts. At last a large English army 
 was sent to Quebec to seize it. A young general named Wolfe was at the head of 
 these soldiers, a tall, thin, delicate man, but a brilliant leader. The French had 16,000 
 men to defend Quebec, and a great general too. General JMontcalm. He was a small 
 man, but the Indians said of him that in his eyes were the greatness of the pine trees 
 and the fire of the eagle. Wolfe encamped his soldiers on the banks of the St. Law- 
 rence opposite the city of Quebec. For two months he stayed there trying to decide 
 how to seize Quebec, for Quebec was built upon a rock hundreds of feet high and 
 there was no way of reaching it except through the spot where the 16,000 Frenchmen 
 lay in wait. Most of this time Wolfe was very ill. " Oh, doctor, just patch me up for 
 this business," he begged, " and Fll ask no more." 
 
 At last he discovered a tiny path up the steep rocky cliff leading to a field above 
 the city. Very quietly under cover of night his troops rowed across the river 
 and by morning 3,000 had climbed that cliff and stood ready to fight. Mont- 
 calm, as soon as he heard, rushed his Frenchmen out to defend the city, but only a 
 few thousand had reached the plain when the English dashed upon them and over- 
 came them and took Quebec. The brave young English general, Wolfe, was 
 shot through the arm and leg and side and lay dying. " They fly, they fly," shouted 
 one of his men. "Who fly?" cried Wolfe. "The French, sir." "Now, God be 
 praised," said Wolfe ; " I can die in peace." The French general too was wounded. 
 Seeing his blood, his soldiers cried out, " He will die." He answered, " Do not weep 
 for me, my children, it is nothing " ; and then, as he fell back dying, added sadly, " So 
 much the better. I shall not live to see Quebec surrender." 
 
 After this great victory the French were forced to give to England all of Canada 
 and the Great Lakes. 
 
 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY— 1773 
 
 Thirteen English colonies now lay along the eastern coast of North America. The 
 men and women who lived in these colonies were very proud of being English. Each 
 colony cared very little for the other colonies, and a great deal for Mother England. 
 They did not think of themselves as Americans at all but as English people, loyal to 
 their king, and loyal English they would always have been if the English king and his 
 lawmakers had treated them wisely and fairly. But the lawmakers of England would 
 not let the people of the colonies do as they pleased. They would not let them build 
 ships, or make hats, or spin cloth, or manufacture any other thing. They made them 
 send all their furs to England. They made them use only English ships. And now, 
 after the French and Indian War, there came an English king, George III, to the throne, 
 who was a mean man and wanted to rule his people in mean ways. He declared the 
 American colonists were a wretched set of cowardly peasants who should be made to pay 
 to England whatever England asked. England needed money, so, without consulting 
 the Americans, he said they should pay the King something for every pound of tea they 
 used, and sent over many shiploads of tea to be sold in America. But though they loved 
 tea, the colonists would buy none of it on these terms. As the ships of tea lay in the 
 harbor of Boston, fifty men of Boston dressed themselves as Indians, painted their 
 faces and feathered their hair, and with whoops and war cries climbed into the Eng- 
 lish ships, cut open the chests, and dumped the King's tea into the salt water. This 
 curious tea party, where not a shot was fired, was the beginning of the Revolutionary 
 War. 
 
 y4 
 
PAUL REVERE 
 
PAUL REVERE AND THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON— 1775 
 
 The King of England still thought the Americans a set of cowards who would 
 run at the first sound of cannon, so he sent English soldiers to Boston to punish the 
 rebels, as he called them, for spoiling his tea. But the men of the colonies were now 
 very angry. All those who had fought against the Indians and French brought out 
 their guns. Companies of " minute men " were formed. The people of New England 
 were ready for war, and very soon the first battle was fought, the battle of Lexington. 
 This is how it came about. The British soldiers in Boston knew that the colonists had 
 been collecting guns at Concord town, and decided to march there and capture them. 
 A young minute man, named Paul Revere, had been watching the redcoats in Boston 
 as a hawk watches its prey. One night he heard of their plan to attack Concord. 
 Quietly he rowed across the river from Boston ; there, " booted and spurred and ready 
 to ride," he watched the Old North Church until two lanterns were hung as a signal 
 there to tell him which way the British marched. Then up and away on his horse he 
 flew shouting his news at every farm till he had waked the whole countryside and 
 every man was armed. Meanwhile the nine hundred British marched boldly on. At 
 daybreak they reached the little town of Lexington. There on the green common stood 
 sixty minute men, roused by Paul Revere. The British soldiers halted and their cap- 
 tain shouted, " Lay down your arms, you villains, you rebels. Confound you, why 
 don't you lay down your arms?" Now the leader of the men of Lexington had said, 
 " If they want a war, let them have it now, but do not fire until they fire." Therefore 
 the colonists stood their ground silently and looked the British in the eye. And the 
 British fired. Seven men of Lexington fell dead. The nine hundred soldiers march 
 on, but soon the whole country swarmed with angry farmers who shot from every 
 bush and boulder. The puzzled redcoats thought " the very sky rained rebels." Back 
 they hurried to Boston, the men of New England shooting them down as they ran, so 
 that two hundred and seventy British fell before they reached the city. Eighty-eight 
 Americans were killed. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL— 1775 
 
 Real war between England and the thirteen colonies liad come at last. The 
 men of New England, with guns in their hands and anger in their hearts, closed round 
 the city of Boston, filled with British troops. The British officers gave balls and plays 
 in Boston and laughed at the tattered rebels outside the town. One night the Amer- 
 icans moved their cannon to the top of a small hill overlooking Boston. The English 
 officers next morning rubbed their eyes. " Why, the rebels are really going to fight," 
 they exclaimed. And they sent 3,000 Englishmen to drive the Americans from Bunker 
 Hill. Now these Englishmen marched straight up the green hill in the face of the 
 American cannon. But the American general, Putnam, cried to his men, hidden behind 
 breastworks, " Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes." On marched the Brit- 
 ish until they came within fifty yards of the American guns, and because not a shot 
 was fired they thought the rebels had run away and the hill was won. Suddenly all 
 the Americans fired at once, and the whole front rank of the British fell headlong. 
 Once more the brave redcoats charged up the hill and the rebel shot mowed them down. 
 Still a third time they charged, and this time the Americans, to their dismay, found 
 their powder and shot had all been used and they could fire but one volley. So, re- 
 luctantly, step by step, fighting with swords and bayonets, they retreated, and the Brit- 
 ish took Bunker Hill. But more than one thousand British lay dead. They had 
 learned at last that the colonists could fight. 
 
 78 
 
W^"^''- 
 
 ¥ '\~^UJ!!*mhii 
 
 
 
NATHAN HALE DIES FOR HIS COUNTRY— 1776 
 
 Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, General George Washington came up from Vir- 
 ginia to lead the men of New England. The colonists remembered how bravely and 
 wisely he had fought in the French and Indian War and chose him for chief commander. 
 He found the American army camped round the city of Boston, without uniforms, with- 
 out tents, and often without food. He spent a winter drilling them there, collecting 
 clothes and food, powder and shot for them, and by spring they were so bold and ready 
 that they forced the British troops to leave Boston forever. But the war had only just 
 begun. The British attacked New York, and the Americans did not have men and gims 
 enough to keep the British out. Those were sad and anxious days for the new United 
 States. 
 
 There was a young captain in the American army at this time, a tall, broad-shouldered, 
 brown-haired fellow, with a cheery smile and a true heart, who gave his life for his 
 country in a way it is well to remember. His name was Nathan Hale, and though he 
 was only twenty-one he was already captain of a brave company called " Congress' 
 Own." Nathan Hale had gone to Yale when he was sixteen. He had done very well at 
 college and became very popular, so that men said he had a great future before him. As 
 soon as he heard of the killing of American minute men at Lexington, he made a ringing 
 speech calling upon all brave men to march immediately upon the British, and he him- 
 self became a soldier. In the army every one trusted him and every one loved him, he 
 was so brave and strong and fearless. 
 
 Now there came a time when the American army was in great danger. Washington 
 knew that he must find out at once what the English were planning to do, so that he 
 might save his small army from their many ships and troops. But he could find out 
 nothing. With a heavy heart he called his officers together and asked them if there was 
 one among them who would go as a spy into the British camp and learn the British 
 secrets. To become a spy is a desperate and dangerous thing, for a spy when 
 caught is hanged. Washington's officers refused the task. A second time they were 
 asked, and this time Nathan Hale, pale from a recent sickness, rose and said simply, 
 " I will undertake it." At first he was very successful. Dressed as a Tory school- 
 master he entered the British camp, where he secretly made maps and learned all that 
 Washington wished to know. With a light heart, and full of hope, he set out for Wash- 
 ington's camp, but on the way, as he sat in an inn at dinner, he was recognized and next 
 morning was given over to the British as a spy. They searched him and found his maps 
 in the soles of his shoes. Then Nathan Hale knew that his end had come, but he 
 faced the British general without fear. The general thought him such a splendid fellow 
 that he promised to spare his life if he would join the British army and fight against the 
 Americans. Nathan Hale refused. The next morning at daybreak he was hanged. 
 He did not ask for mercy. As they put the rope about him he said, " I only regret that 
 I have but one life to lose for my country." The man who hanged him was a brutal fel- 
 low, who tore in bits the last letters that Nathan Hale had written after he was sentenced 
 to death. This hanginan had read the letters and destroyed them, he said, because he 
 " did not want the rebels to know that they had a man who could die with such firmness." 
 
 83 
 
NUTE MAN 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE— 1776 
 
 When George Washington and his men drove the British troops from Boston, King 
 George of England was angry indeed. He was determined to force the colonists to do 
 as he commanded and he sent thousands of English soldiers against them, and fleets of 
 battleships, and he even hired twenty thousand German soldiers to fight them too. Then 
 the colonists saw that their Mother England was no longer a good mother. At first the 
 men of America had had no thought of breaking away from England. They had only 
 asked to be treated fairly by the English king. But now they saw that King George in- 
 tended to treat them as slaves, not as free Englishmen. Therefore the people in each of 
 the colonies chose men whom they could trust and sent them to the city of Philadelphia. 
 There these men met together in the town hall and formed what was called a congress. 
 There they talked over the troubles of the colonists and decided that it was best to de- 
 clare that their thirteen colonies were free and independent from all other nations. One 
 of these men, Thomas Jefferson, wrote what is called The Declaration of Independence, 
 stating that the thirteen colonies had now become the United States of America. The 
 other men of the congress signed the declaration. Then the great bell in the town hall 
 of Philadelphia was loudly and joyfully rung to let the people know that all Americans 
 were free forever from the English king. The colonists shouted for joy at the news. 
 From north to south bells were rung and bonfires blazed and the men of America swore 
 they would never lay down their guns till every British soldier had been driven home. 
 Thus on the Fourth of July, 1776, there was born a new nation into the world, our na- 
 tion, the United States of America. 
 
 BETSY ROSS MAKES A FLAG— 1777 
 
 The new nation of these United States was a year old before it had a flag. The peo- 
 ple of America had at first lived under the English flag, but now that they had quarreled 
 with England they needed a flag of their own to wave before their soldiers in battle. It 
 was General George Washington himself who planned our flag with its thirteen red and 
 white stripes, one for each colony, and in one corner silver stars in a blue sky, one star for 
 each State. The men of Congress decided to adopt this flag, and the story goes that they 
 sent Washington and Robert Morris with a sketch of the flag as they planned it to Betsy 
 Ross, a maker of flags in Philadelphia. This Betsy Ross was a brave young woman 
 whose husband had been killed by the English soldiers only a short time before, while he 
 was guarding American food supplies. Her heart leaped at the thought of making her 
 country's first flag. She looked at the sketch. The stars that Washington had drawn 
 had six points. She told him that they should have but five, and with two quick snips 
 of her scissors in a folded bit of paper, she cut a five pointed star that pleased him so 
 much that he changed his drawing. When the first flag was finished, Washington was 
 delighted with it, and Betsy Ross was asked to make many more like it for the American 
 troops. 
 
 But Betsy Ross' flag was not the first stars and stripes to wave in battle. The first 
 was a very crude flag, made from an old white shirt, an old blue jacket, and some strips 
 of red cloth from the petticoat of a soldier's wife, and it waved over a fort in northern 
 New York which the Americans had captured from the English after a bloody fight in 
 August, 1777. 
 
 Not long ago the President of our United States stood looking thoughtfully at our flag 
 of stars and stripes, and he said: " It seems to me that I see alternate strips of parch- 
 ment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice, and strips of blood spilt to 
 vindicate those rights, and there, in the corner, a glimpse of the blue serene into which 
 every nation may swim which stands for these great things." 
 
 87 
 
LIBERTY BELL 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 The greatest of the first Americans who fought for freedom was George Washington. 
 But one of the greatest of those who made the new nation did not fight at all, though he 
 gave all his time and thought to his country. This was Benjamin Franklin, the grand 
 old man of the Revolution. He was twenty-six years older than Washington, and 
 seventy years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Frank- 
 lin was born in Boston and was one of the youngest of a family of seventeen children. 
 His father made candles, and Benjamin made them too until he was ten years old. 
 He did not go to school. He became a great man because he simply insisted on making 
 himself great. He read and worked, and worked and read, until he knew more than 
 most men and could do more than most men. He became a printer and published books 
 so wise that we repeat his sayings to this day without in the least remembering he 
 said them: such sayings as "Honesty is the best policy" and "God helps those 
 who help themselves." He invented stoves, fire-departments, and policemen, and 
 started the University of Pennsylvania. He sent up a kite in a thunderstorm with its 
 wet string tied to a key in his hand and brought down a spark of electricity from the 
 lightning, proving lightning and electricity were the same. But what he did for the 
 new United States of America was most important of all, for the American people sent 
 him to France to ask aid against England in our fight for freedom, and he proved him- 
 self so wise, so pleasant, and so clever, that he persuaded the French not only to give 
 us money, but to send trained troops and battleships to fight for us, and in this way to 
 help us in the end to win our war and to become in reality the United States of 
 America. 
 
 JOHN PAUL JONES BEGINS TO FIGHT— 1779 
 
 When the colonists began to fight for liberty or death they had no regular army, and, 
 of course, they had no navy, no warships or ships of any kind in which they could put to 
 sea. But England had a mighty navy and sent her warships to hammer the American 
 towns with cannon balls and destroy them with fire. Many a town fell before their shot 
 and shell. The Americans built what ships they could, though these were few, and men 
 who loved salt water set out in them to harry if possible the British shipping. The brav- 
 est of these sailors was John Paul Jones of Virginia. He prowled along the English 
 coast in his little ship, the Ranger, and captured many English merchantmen, but he did 
 not burn defenseless towns or fire on women and children as the British had done in 
 America. Benjamin Franklin begged the French, who were glad at that time to hurt 
 England, to give Paul Jones a fleet with which he might do great things. They gave him 
 a curious old ship named the Bonhomme Richard and three others. With these he sailed 
 the British Channel, watching for ships to capture. He came one day upon forty Eng- 
 lish vessels with two warships to guard them, and instantly set out after them. The larg- 
 est of these British battleships was the Serapis, and Paul Jones' rolling old Bonhomme 
 Richard was small and rickety beside her. But Jones let go his gmis at her and the bat- 
 tle began. All night they fought, so close together that when Paul Jones saw his ship 
 was beginning to sink he seized a stout rope and lashed the Bonhomme Richard to the 
 Serapis; then the bloody fight went on. The English captain saw the Americans dying 
 in heaps on the deck, and called out, " Have you struck your colors? " " I have not yet 
 begun to fight," shouted Captain Jones. With his own hands he aimed two guns at the 
 masts of the Serapis. They fell, and the Serapis surrendered. Both ships were shot to 
 pieces, and the Bonhomme Richard sank only a little while after she had captured the 
 Serapis. The Serapis sank a few hours later. Paul Jones seized the merchant ships 
 and England learned that Americans could fight on sea as well as on land. 
 
 90 
 
COACH DURING TIME OF REVOLUTION 
 
AMERICAN SOLDIERS SPEND THE WINTER AT VALLEY 
 FORGE— 1777-78 
 
 Two years after Washington forced the redcoats out of Boston, one of the British 
 generals, Burgoyne, and his whole army were surrounded and taken prisoners by the 
 American forces. This was an immense surprise and grief to England. But even 
 after this great victory times were very hard for Washington and his men. The Eng- 
 lish held New York and Philadelphia. Washington did not have enough men or guns 
 to drive them out. The army of the United States was very poor and badly cared for. 
 The leaders of the different States did not know how to send their men food and clothes 
 and ammunition. There was no real government. Washington had to take his men for 
 the winter to a cleft in the mountains called Valley Forge, where they froze and starved, 
 though there was food and clothing enough for all if the congress of colonists had known 
 how to manage properly. Few of the soldiers had shoes ; their bare cut feet made bloody 
 tracks in the snow. Washington was heartsick over the sorrows of his men. He, too, 
 had little enough to eat. But he kept a brave spirit and spent the winter in drilling his 
 men and making them into trained soldiers. In this he was helped by a gay and brave 
 young Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, and a gray old German, the Baron von 
 Steuben. Steuben had fought in many wars in Europe. He said the Americans would 
 make splendid soldiers if they were trained. So he took a musket himself, and from 
 morning till night, all that bitter winter, he taught that ragged army to advance, to re- 
 treat, to shoulder arms, to wheel and tuni. He could not speak English, which vexed 
 him much, but he swore at them roundly in other tongues, and by spring they were 
 trained troops. Thus the army came forth from the terrible winter at Valley Forge 
 stronger and bolder than ever, though fewer in numbers. 
 
 THE WINNING OF THE WEST BY CLARK— 1779 
 
 While George Washington was trying to drive the redcoats from New York, another 
 leader from Virginia was winning the western part of our country from England. This 
 was John Rogers Clark, a wilderness hunter, 25 years old. The English had three forts 
 in the western country, along the Mississippi, and began stirring up the Indians there 
 against the colonists, paying them to burn and kill. Clark with a hundred hunters like 
 himself, marched secretly to one of these forts, Kaskaskia. As he drew near he saw 
 that a ball was going on at the fort. All the people of the village were dancing there, 
 and the sentinels, thinking no enemy was near, were watching the gay party. Clark 
 walked through the open door into the bright room, leaving his men outside. Then he 
 leaned with folded arms against a doorpost, and watched the dancers. Suddenly an In- 
 dian who stood near, saw him and gave a wild warcry. The dancers stopped, the women 
 screamed, the men rushed for their guns. But Clark held up his hand and called out, 
 as his men came pouring into the room, " Go on with your dancing, but remember that 
 you are dancing now in Virginia, not on English ground." The fort was taken without 
 a blow, and Vincennes, another English stronghold, was taken too. Clark and his men 
 marched back to Virginia, well pleased. But during the winter word was brought to 
 Clark that the English had come back to Vincennes. Instantly Clark called together 
 one hundred and thirty brave fellows and started West. It was at the time of melting 
 snow. The whole country was covered with icy water. For two weeks they marched, 
 often up to their waists, sometimes up to their necks in the cold water. At last, frost- 
 bitten, ill, half-starved, they reached Vincennes. After a twelve hours' siege they cap- 
 tured it and drove the English forever from the West. By his quickness and bravery, 
 Clark thus took from England all the country from which the States of Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin are made. 
 
 94 
 
BENEDICT ARNOLD TURNS TK^ITOR— 1780 
 
 There was one brave man in the army of General Washington whose story is more 
 sad than that of Nathan Hale. This man was Benedict Arnold, a man as brave as 
 Washington himself, a kind, impetuous man, and a brilliant soldier, but a man who be- 
 came a traitor to his country. At the beginning no man did more to win the freedom 
 of the Americans than Benedict Arnold. When the British general, B>'rgoyne, 
 marched down from Canada to take the Hudson River, it was Benedict Arnold who led 
 the American troops against him and took him and his army prisoner. In this battle a 
 wounded German soldier shot at Arnold and struck his knee. As Arnold fell from his 
 horse, one of his soldiers ran up to the wounded German and was about to kill him when 
 Arnold called out, " No, no, do not hurt him ; he is a fine fellow." It would have been 
 well for Arnold if, in this moment of glory, the German soldier had shot him dead. 
 After this battle he was not made a general as he should have been and was treated 
 unfairly by Congress. He was a proud man, his heart grew bitter against his own 
 country and he became a traitor. A traitor is the most wicked of men ; one who pre- 
 tends to love his country but is really eager to give her over to her enemies in return 
 for money and power. Arnold wrote secretly to the English general saying that on a 
 certain day he would surrender to the English the great fort of West Point and all the 
 American soldiers of whom he had command there. Fortunately his letters were dis- 
 covered and he fled for his life to the ship of the English general. Washington had so 
 loved and trusted Arnold that when he heard Arnold had tried to ruin his country the 
 tears streamed down his cheeks and he cried out, " Arnold a traitor ; whom can we 
 trust now." 
 
 Benedict Arnold joined the English army and led English troops against the very men 
 who had once fought under his command. But he was never again a happy man. 
 When he lay dying in England, a very old man, he called for his American uniform in 
 which he had run away. He put it on and he put on the epaulettes and sword-knot 
 Washington had once given him for his bravery. " Let me die," he said, " in this old 
 uniform in which I fought my battles. God forgive me for ever putting on any other." 
 
 THE SURRENDER OF CORN WALLIS— 1781 
 
 For sLk long years the men of the United States fought the English soldiers. If 
 it had not been for the courage and wisdom of George Washington they could never 
 have won their freedom from England. But Washington would never give up, and 
 at last he conquered. He conquered with the help of French soldiers and French 
 ships of war, for the young United States had too few men and too little money to 
 win alone, brave and determined though its people were. 
 
 But fortunately France did help them with men and money. In October, six years 
 after the battle of Bunker Hill, the British general, Comwallis, was captured with all 
 his men and the war was ended. This general had taken the cities of Georgia and South 
 Carolina, but had been driven into Virginia by American troops and had moved his sol- 
 diers to the seashore. He thought English ships would join him there and bring 
 him more soldiers. But to his horror French ships and not English sailed in behind 
 him, while George Washington, with French and American soldiers hurried down 
 from the north and bombarded him in front. Poor Comwallis was surrounded and 
 had to give up his sword and his men. Even Comwallis could not help admiring the 
 skill with which Washington had trapped him, and he told Washington very prettily 
 that he ought to have expected no less from such a general. When the news of 
 Comwallis' surrender reached England, Lord North, the head of the English govern- 
 ment, rushed up and down wringing his hands and crying, " My God, it is all over," 
 and King George the Third was so annoyed that he forgot to date his letters that day, 
 a thing he had never forgotten before. 
 
 99 
 
NDIAN PAPOOSE 
 
eijD. 
 
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION— 1787 
 
 After the war with England was over the United States was left a free nation but a 
 very wobbly one. There was no head to the nation, no government, no money to pay its 
 soldiers. Its people were all poor and had few ways of getting rich again. The States 
 began to quarrel among themselves. King George of England heard of these troubles 
 and smiled. " These new Americans will soon be asking to become Englishmen again," 
 he said. But he was wrong. The strong and wise men of America met together in 
 Philadelphia in the very building where, eleven years before, the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence had been signed. There they sat every day for four hot summer months be- 
 hind locked doors, talking and planning and working out together a new and free kind 
 of government for their new and free country. George Washington led these men. 
 He sat in a great armchair at one end of the room ; behind him, on the wall, was 
 painted a golden sun. Wise old Benjamin Franklin was there, and shy James Madi- 
 son, and handsome Alexander Hamilton and many others. Long and long they 
 talked and planned. Often they quarreled and agreed again, but so well did they 
 keep the secrets of their council room that no one knew of what they talked until at 
 last, at the end of the summer, they had decided upon their Constitution of the United 
 States. Then they told the States their plan of government. One by one each State 
 agreed to it. They were to hav^a President, a Vice-President, a Senate, a Congress, 
 and a court of Judges, to lead them and make their laws and pay their debts. So 
 wisely was this planned that to this day the people of the United States are living 
 under the very form of government invented by these earnest, eager men. 
 
 When these men had written their Constitution and were ready to rest from their 
 labor, old Benjamin Franklin rose and said, " Gentlemen, through all these days I have 
 sat looking at yonder sun painted upon the wall and have wondered whether it was a 
 rising or a setting sun. Now, gentlemen, I am happy in the knowledge that it is a rising 
 sun." That rising sun brought the dawn of a government of the people, by the people, 
 for the people. 
 
 GEORGE W^ASHINGTON IS MADE PRESIDENT— 1789 
 
 And now the Americans were to have their first President. They thought of but one 
 man, General George Washington. General Washington had left the army after the war 
 ended ; with tears in his eyes he had kissed his gallant officers good-by and had gone to 
 live again quietly on his beautiful Virginia farm. His hair was white now, grown white 
 in his country's service. When he heard that he had been elected President his heart 
 was sad for he knew hard work and trying times were before him. But he also knew 
 his countrymen needed him. So he rode away to New York to become President. In 
 those days, of course, there were no trains or steamboats, and the roads were very bad. 
 It took Washington two weeks to make his journey. But all along the way the people 
 welcomed him and rejoiced over him, their hero. At every town and village they 
 ran to meet him, cheering. Washington was a tall, strong, grave man. He looked a 
 worthy President as he rode among his people, bowing and smiling his kind smile. 
 At Trenton, where he had once beaten the English badly, he was met by a cloud of 
 young girls in white, who made a pathway of flowers for him to ride upon. At last 
 he reached New York, and there, on a balcony overlooking great crowds of happy 
 people, he kissed the Bible and swore to guard the interests of all Americans, and 
 so became the first President of these United States. 
 
 103 
 
THOMAS Jefferson's home 
 
PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON— 1801 
 
 The second president of the United States was John Adams, and the third was Thomas 
 Jefferson, the man who at the beginning of the Revolution had written the Declaration 
 of Independence on that first great Fourth of July. Thomas Jefferson was a man 
 worth remembering. He was a very big man and very strong. He could run, he could 
 ride, he could wrestle. He was always well. He ate little and slept little. Winter and 
 summer he was up with the sun. He could play the violin and he could dance extremely 
 well. But besides all this he could study, and study he did through his long life so that 
 his brilliant mind was very full of what wise men should know. He was gay and active 
 and kind. During the eight years that he was President the people of the United States 
 were at peace and grew strong. Thomas Jefferson believed in the people. He thought 
 there was good in every one of them, even the most humble, so that the people began to 
 believe in themselves and prospered. President Thomas Jefferson lived in the new 
 White House in the new capital city of Washington. He kept its doors always open so 
 that any American who wished could enter and shake the President's hand and talk to 
 him. He dressed very simply and behaved in a simple, hearty way. The people loved 
 him, especially the poor. 
 
 After he was no longer President he lived at his beautiful home " Monticello." There 
 he looked after the University of Virginia, which he had founded. And there on the 
 Fourth of July, just fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, he died. His only 
 wish during his last illness had been that he might live to see the sun rise once more on 
 that day of freedom. He lay quietly through the night of the third, and as the sun rose 
 he smiled happily. " It is the Fourth of July," he said, and died in peace. 
 
 106 
 
FIRST COTTON GIN 
 
ELI WHITNEY MAKES A COTTON GIN— 1793 
 
 The people of the United States now began to build factories of their own, and ships 
 of their own, and to grow rich. One of the chief causes of their growing wealth was a 
 small and simple machine called a cotton gin, invented by a farmer's son. This boy, Eli 
 Whitney, always liked working in his father's tool-house far better than plowing in his 
 father's fields. He could mend anything. When only a boy he earned money mending 
 violins, and making nails and walking sticks and hatpins, all by hand. By and by he 
 went south to teach in Georgia, and there he visited a bright little lady, Mrs. Nathaniel 
 Greene. At her table one day he heard the planters who lived near her saying how sorry 
 they were that there was no machine for taking the seeds out of their cotton. A negro 
 slave took all day to pick out the seeds from a single pound, they said, so that it did not 
 pay them to raise cotton in their fields. " Mr. Whitney can do anything. He will invent 
 a machine for you," said Mrs. Greene. " I will try," said Eli Whitney. So he locked 
 himself each day in a little workroom, and by and by had made with his own hands a 
 small machine of wood with revolving teeth that tore the seeds from the cotton with 
 wonderful ease. But the cotton clogged the teeth. He could think of no way to keep 
 the teeth clean. " Why don't you use this ? " said Mrs. Greene, one day, holding up the 
 hearth brush. " Thank you, I will," he said, delighted. So he added a revolving brush 
 to his machine, and his cotton gin was finished. The Southern planters were all excite- 
 ment. Every one ordered gins and every one planted cotton. After the seeds were 
 taken out, the cotton was sold in England, and the planters grew very rich. But this 
 little cotton gin also did a great deal of harm. Because of it more and more negroes 
 were needed to work in the new cotton fields, and many thousands were caught in 
 Africa and sold as slaves to the cotton planters in America, so that slavery as well as 
 wealth grew rapidly in the South. 
 
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE— 1803 
 
 The United States grew very much while Jefiferson was President; in fact it more 
 than doubled its size. No one was more surprised by this than the Americans them- 
 selves. You see, after the war with England, the United States reached to the Missis- 
 sippi and no farther. Beyond the Mississippi lay a great stretch of land called Louisiana, 
 reaching to the Rocky Mountains. This belonged at first to France, and then to Spain, 
 and Spain was very disagreeable about letting Americans bring boats and goods down 
 the river to the Spanish city of New Orleans. The Western Americans grew very 
 angry about this. Suddenly President Jefferson heard that Spain had sold Louisiana 
 secretly to France, so he sent James Monroe to France to ask Napoleon to sell to the 
 Americans the city of New Orleans, and so put an end to the troubles on the river. 
 Now Napoleon had intended to send thousands of French people to Louisiana and 
 make another New France there, but he had so many wars on his hands that he had 
 no soldiers to spare to defend Louisiana, and besides he needed money, so to Jeffer- 
 son's great surprise he said, " I will sell you all of Louisiana or nothing." Now this 
 was a reckless step. When Napoleon's brothers heard of it they rushed to him to beg 
 him to change his mind. They found him in his bath and perfectly furious at their 
 insolence. He splashed them thoroughly and told them to mind their own aft'airs, and 
 then he sold Louisiana to the astonished Americans for fifteen million dollars. When 
 his secretary brought him the agreement signed by the Americans he clapped his hands 
 and said, " Now Pve given England a rival that will humble her pride." But he 
 added sadly, " The Americans are getting an empire for a trifle." It proved a magnif- 
 icent bargain. After the Louisiana purchase the United States spread west to the 
 Rocky Mountains. 
 
 no 
 
^■ 
 
 tu-^i 
 
LEWIS AND CLARK CROSS THE CONTINENT— 1805 
 
 After the Americans had bought the great country of Louisiana they found they knew 
 nothing whatever about it. They heard wild stories of giants there twenty feet high and 
 of mountains of white salt. Jefferson himself thought it only a " barren sand." Many 
 Americans were more surprised than pleased to have this great stretch of country added 
 to their nation. Therefore President Jefferson sent out at this time Captain ]\Ieriwether 
 Lewis and Captain William Clark, exceedingly brave young men, to explore this West- 
 ern land. They took with them twenty-six hardy soldiers and frontiersmen. What a 
 trip they had ! On foot, in canoes and on horseback they crossed from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific Ocean, over rivers and mountains no white man had ever seen before. They 
 were gone almost three years and traveled eight thousand miles, yet they lost only one 
 man, and that man died of colic. They found no giants or salt mountains, but they 
 crossed the high Rockies that touch the clouds, they fought with grizzly bears, they shot 
 buffalo, wolves and elk, they met thousands of Indians who feasted them with roasted 
 dog. Their adventures were without number. After they crossed the Rockies they 
 found so little to eat that they were glad to beg dogs and roots from the Indians. These 
 made them very ill, but ill or well they kept on, nursed and aided by a faithful Indian 
 woman, Sacajawea, " the bird-woman," who, with her husband and little baby, guided 
 them all the way. They reached the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon coast, and so, after 
 their return to Washington, the United States claimed the Oregon country, though Eng- 
 land claimed it too. 
 
 DECATUR FIRES THE "PHILADELPHIA"— 1804 
 
 When the United States was young, there were many pirates on the seas. Most 
 of these pirates were Turks, who lived in North Africa. They captured ships by hun- 
 dreds, made slaves of the sailors, and robbed and burned outrageously. The Kings 
 or Sultans of these pirates grew very rich and powerful. At last the Americans 
 sent a fleet of warships to Africa to punish these Turkish pirates. But the best of 
 these American ships, the Philadelphia, ran on a rock and was captured by the Turks. 
 The Turks threw the three hundred American sailors on her into a deep, wet dun- 
 geon writhing with snakes, and took the Philadelphia for themselves. They anchored 
 her near their city of Tripoli, with two hundred and thirty cannon to guard her. Then 
 a young American captain, Stephen Decatur, decided to burn the Philadelphia right 
 under the noses of the Turks, so that those wicked pirates could not use her. Every 
 sailor on the American ships of war begged to go with him on this great adventure, 
 but he could take only seventy. Dressed as Italians they rowed into the harbor of 
 Tripoli at night, straight to the ship Philadelphia. Very swiftly they tied their boat 
 to the side of the larger ship, and before the astonished Turks on board could do more 
 than shriek " Americanos " those seventy sailors swarmed up the sides of the Phila- 
 delphia, and with swords and pistols rushed upon the Turks. Amid wild shouts they 
 hacked and hewed until twenty Turks were killed and the rest, screaming, threw 
 themselves into the black water. Then the Americans poured gunpowder and oil over 
 the ship, set her on fire, and as the flames shot up her masts they climbed down safely 
 into their little boat and rowed away. The guns from the Turkish forts sent cannon 
 balls hurling after them, the Turks from every boat in the harbor fired at them, but 
 not one of them was hurt. This wonderful, brave deed so frightened the Turks that 
 they soon after set free their American prisoners and promised to take no more Amer- 
 ican ships. 
 
 115 
 
E:xjf. 
 
 3^ '^^^- 
 
FULTON'S STEAMBOAT GOES UP THE HUDSON RIVER— 1807 
 
 About this time an American, Robert Fulton, built the first steamboat that 
 would really go. Fulton was a handsome young artist from Pennsylvania, whose 
 head was full of his own ideas. When a boy he had made his own skyrockets for 
 the Fourth of July. He went to France to study painting, but instead invented there 
 a torpedo boat which Napoleon was interested in but would not buy. Then he built 
 a trial steamboat, but the very moment Napoleon's agents were to look it over, it sank 
 heavily to the bottom of the Seine. Discouraged, Fulton came home. A wealthy 
 friend of his, Robert Livingston, urged him to build a steamboat on the Hudson. 
 So he put together an ugly, stout little vessel, with a huge smokestack. Livingston 
 said it looked exactly like a sawmill put on a scow and set on fire. Fulton named it 
 the Clermont and announced that he was ready to take his friends for a trip up tlie 
 Hudson River. The people of New York had watched the building of the Clermont 
 with sneers and jeers. " Come, let's go down to see the end of Fulton's Folly," they 
 said, and lined the shores to watch it start. Robert Livingston and his daughter, and 
 several others, went on board, though they were rather nervous. And the Clermont, 
 with a mighty whistle, and a huge cloud of black smoke, started up stream. Every 
 one cheered wildly. She made a splendid trip. Many people along the banks of the 
 Hudson, seeing her for the first time, took to their heels in fright, thinking a mon- 
 ster had come upon them. After this many steamboats were built and were an im- 
 mense help to the Americans. They could now travel far, quickly and safely, over 
 the great rivers of their country, east and west and south. On the steamboats they 
 went out into the wilderness by thousands to build new homes and new States. 
 
 THE "CONSTITUTION" AND THE " GUERRIERE "— 1812 
 
 Thirty years after the Americans freed themselves from England they had a sec- 
 ond tussle with their old enemy. England had for years treated them very rudely ; 
 she knew our new nation had no arms, no navy and little money. At last she grew 
 too insolent. She captured American ships and robbed them ; she would not let them 
 sail where they chose, and, worst of all, she claimed the right to stop any American 
 ship and seize any sailor upon it, under pretense that the sailor was an Englishman 
 and should therefore serve on an English ship of war. In this way hundreds of Amer- 
 icans were made to fight on English ships against England's enemies. The Ameri- 
 cans grew angry and declared war on England. Now England had very many ships 
 and we had few, yet, to every one's surprise, our few ships won many bloody 
 sea-fights, and the English but one or two. Our first victory was that of the Consti- 
 tution, which fought the Guerriere. Captain Hull commanded the good ship Consti- 
 tution, built sixteen years before in Boston, of New England oak and pine. She had 
 sailed in many waters, and helped to conquer Turkish pirates. Old Ironsides we 
 called her. She met the Guerriere ofif the New England coast on a smooth evening 
 sea. The Guerriere was a smaller ship but very ready to fight ; her captain, Dacres, was 
 a bold man too. They tacked about each other, for of course they were sailing vessels, 
 and a lucky shot from Old Ironsides shot away one mast of the Guerriere. Then 
 the Guerriere lunged heavily into the Constitution, their rigging became entangled, and 
 they could not get apart. The sailors rushed on the decks of each, and fired muskets 
 at each other, and the heavy guns kept pounding out their bursting shells. The 
 Guerriere was caught a little behind the Constitution. Soon the American gunners 
 shot away the two remaining masts of the Guerriere, so that the poor ship lay help- 
 less, rolling like a log in the water, the muzzles of her guns dipping into the waves. 
 Old Ironsides was not hurt, and lived to fight another day. 
 
 119 
 
FULTON S STEAMBOAT, THE CLERMONT 
 
ANDREW JACKSON 
 
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS— 1815 
 
 In this second war with England the Americans fought very well on sea and very 
 badly on land. However, they won one wonderful battle, the battle of New Orleans. 
 A fiery Indian fighter of Tennessee heard that 12,000 English soldiers were sailing to 
 capture New Orleans and immediately gathered together an army of woodsmen^ and 
 hunters and with them marched to save the city. This man was Andrew Jackson. 
 During the Revolutionary War, when he was a boy, the British had taken him pris- 
 oner. A British officer then ordered him to black the officers' boots, and when little 
 Andrew answered briskly, " I am not a servant to any Briton that breathes," the of- 
 ficer had struck him across the cheek with his sword. Ever afterward Andrew Jack- 
 son hated the British. That is why he gathered his buckskin army together and 
 marched night and day to save New Orleans. " There will be time to sleep after- 
 ward," he said. Andrew Jackson led a queer mixture of men. Long thin hunters 
 from Tennessee, with coonskin caps and buckskin trousers, were the backbone of the 
 army; there were Spanish and French from New Orleans, fighting for their homes, 
 free negroes and friendly Indians, and even bronzed old sea-pirates, with gold rings 
 in their ears, who manned the cannon. In front of New Orleans his men hastily 
 built strange breastworks of mud and cotton bales and molasses barrels and lay in 
 wait behind them for the British. The English ships arrived and twelve thousand 
 redcoats who had fought the great Napoleon marched out to take the city of New 
 Orleans. Jackson's men quietly watched them come. " Now, boys, make every shot 
 tell," shouted Jackson, and they fired. The British fell by hundreds, but with unfail- 
 ing courage those behind rushed on. The Americans fired again and again. Every 
 shot told. The British broke and ran, leaving two thousand men dying upon the 
 field. Of Andrew Jackson's men only fifteen were hurt. New Orleans was saved. 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE— 1823 
 
 After the second war with England the United States was treated with proper re- 
 spect by England and the other nations of Europe. The Americans were at peace 
 with the world and grew stronger and richer. James Monroe was elected President. 
 He was a gentle Virginian, one of the last of those gentlemen who wore the pretty 
 cocked hat such as Washington wore. They called him " the last cocked hat." While 
 he was President, the Americans were so comfortable and prosperous that men speak 
 of that time as the era of good feeling. During these years, the people of South 
 America and Mexico, who had been ruled by Spain since Columbus discovered Amer- 
 ica, decided that they would free themselves from Spain forever, just as the Ameri- 
 cans had freed themselves from England ; whereupon they took arms and drove the 
 Spanish from their land and made themselves free people without kings. Now Spain, 
 France, and Russia, did not like this at all, but the Americans were delighted. " Amer- 
 ica is for Americans," they declared. They sent messages of cheer to the South 
 American republics and marched by torchlight in their own towns to celebrate the 
 growth of freedom. France and Russia wished to force the Mexicans and South 
 Americans to submit to Spain, but President Monroe suddenly put his foot down, and 
 in the name of the people of the United States he declared that there should be no 
 more European colonies made in America, that the United States would never inter- 
 fere in the wars of Europe, but that, if the nations of Europe tried to take over any 
 land in North or South America, the United States would fight. This is called the 
 Monroe Doctrine. It means just one thing. " America for the Americans." Spain, 
 France, and Russia heeded the warning, and the Mexicans and South Americans re- 
 mained free. 
 
 122 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
THE FIRST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE— 1830 
 
 During these peaceful years, the American people spread out into the middle west- 
 ern country; they built canals and good broad roads, and then tried laying iron rails 
 along the ground over which strong horses pulled iron-wheeled wagons. These were 
 the first railways. An Englishman named Stephenson invented a steam locomotive 
 to take the place of horses, but his engine, though it ran very well on straight Eng- 
 lish roads, could not run on the curved and crooked, up and down roads of hilly 
 America. Puzzled Americans shook their heads and said sadly that we could never 
 have steam railways in our country. But a clever Mr. Cooper of New York was 
 already busily making an American locomotive for crooked American roads. When 
 it was finished it was a tiny, squat affair, no bigger than a hand car, with a boiler 
 smaller than a flour barrel. Of course people laughed at it and said it would never 
 run. But Cooper hitched a horse car to it, filled the car with his excited friends, 
 and went spinning down the rails at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The man who 
 owned the horse cars and horses challenged Cooper to a race. There were two sets 
 of rails running side by side, so a car drawn by two strong gray horses started down 
 one while Cooper drove his engine down the other. The engine passed the horses 
 with cheers but the belt flew off the wheel, the engine slowed down, gasped and 
 stopped, and the horses won the race. Poor Mr. Cooper cut his hands dreadfully 
 putting the belt back in place, but managed to start his engine again and finish the 
 journey. He was not discouraged, and in a few years his engines were pufiing in 
 many States. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER BINDS THE STATES TOGETHER 
 
 As the United States grew larger more and more men and women poured into it 
 from Europe, eager for freedom and new homes. Many stayed in the Eastern States, 
 but many more filled the raw States of the West. It was important that these new 
 Americans should learn to love and respect their new country and to obey its laws. 
 The great men of America, by their example, taught them this. The greatest of 
 these early statesmen was Daniel Webster, a New England farmer's son. His father 
 had fought with General Washington against the British. Daniel was the youngest 
 son, a thin, delicate boy, with huge dark eyes, — " All Eyes " the boys called him. 
 He loved two things, reading and playing. He read and learned by heart every book 
 in his village, but at farm work he did little. He had a beautiful voice and used to 
 recite the books he knew so well that the workers on the farm listened with delight. 
 His father was poor, but Daniel was so clever that the family went on half rations 
 that he might go to school and college. He grew up a tall, deep-eyed young man, with 
 thick black hair, clean, honest, and hardworking. After college he wanted very much 
 to study law in the office of Mr. Gore of Boston, a wise and clever man whom he 
 did not know. He asked Mr. Gore to take him, and that wise gentleman looked over 
 the tall country fellow carefully and said, " Hang up your hat, young man. I think 
 you will do." So Daniel hung up his hat and in a very short time became the 
 greatest lawyer in America. He spoke so well and so Vvfisely that men would travel 
 hundreds of miles to hear him. For many years he led the people of the United 
 States, though he was never President. All his life he defended the United States, 
 loved it, worked for it, and taught others to love it too. 
 
 126 
 
THE FALL OF THE ALAMO— 1836 
 
 The State of Texas has a gallant history. At first Spain ruled it, then for a long 
 time it was part of Mexico. Many Americans moved there and built new homes, liv- 
 ing under the Mexican Government. At last a wicked man, named Santa Anna, be- 
 came powerful in Mexico. He treated the Texans cruelly, robbed them of their land 
 and money, and at last ordered them to give up their guns to his soldiers. But the 
 Texans loved liberty. They refused to give up their guns and declared Texas a free 
 State. Then Santa Anna, enraged, marched into Texas with six thousand Mexican 
 soldiers. The Texans flew to arms. Santa Anna marched first against the town of 
 San Antonio. In it were one hundred and eighty-five armed Texans under Colonel 
 Travis. These brave men refused to surrender to Santa Anna. Instead, they shut 
 themselves up in an old church called the Alamo, and prepared to defend themselves to 
 the last. Now Santa Anna had six thousand men and many cannon, but so bravely 
 and cleverly did these trapped Texans fight that it took him thirteen days to subdue 
 them. After the Mexicans had pounded the walls of the Alamo with their cannon 
 for twelve days. Colonel Travis called his wearied men together. " Men," he said, 
 " the promised help has not come. But I will never surrender or retreat." Then he 
 drew a line across the floor. " Let every man who is determined to stay here and 
 die with me, cross that line," he cried. " Who will be first ? March!" With shouts 
 the men leaped over the line. Men who were sick crawled from their beds and tot- 
 tered over it. One, Colonel Bowie, who was too ill to rise, asked to be carried over in 
 his cot. Only one man chose to escape. The next day Santa Anna stormed the 
 Alamo. At every door and window the Texans fought, with guns and gun butts, 
 pistols, swords and knives, until at last every one of them lay dead, and about them 
 lay heaped up the bodies of the Mexicans whom they had slain. Colonel Bowie 
 fought bravely from his bed ; he too was killed. Santa Anna paid dear for the Alamo. 
 To win it, he sacrificed two thousand of his men. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO— 1836 
 
 General Sam Houston then led the army of Texas against the Mexicans. He was a 
 strong man, without fear, and had lived much among the Indians. He dressed as 
 they did, in buckskin trousers and Mexican blanket. His was a very small army, 
 only seven hundred men, but after the massacre of the Alamo these men swore at 
 whatever cost to drive Santa Anna from their State. They followed the Mexican 
 army, waiting for a chance to strike. Houston was always watchful; he never slept 
 until daylight, then waking his men with three taps of the drum he lay down himself to 
 sleep. At last he trapped Santa Anna between a marsh and a river. Houston ordered 
 the bridge behind his men cut down so that neither the Texans nor the Mexicans could 
 retreat. Then he shouted his watchword, " Remember the Alamo 1 " and charged. The 
 Mexicans lay behind breastworks. " The Alamo ! The Alamo ! " went up from 
 Houston's army in a wild scream, and the Texans tore across the open prairie and over 
 the Mexican breastworks, shooting, stabbing, beating. It was their day of vengeance. 
 The Mexicans could not rally. They fled, crj'ing, " It's no use," and every one of them 
 was killed or captured. The proud Santa .•\nna dressed himself quickly in the clothes 
 of one of his dead soldiers, and ran skulking through the prairie grass. However, he 
 was caught next day and led before General Houston who lay wounded under an oak. 
 Santa Anna looked insolently down upon his conqueror. " You should be a proud 
 man. General," he said, " for you have beaten the Napoleon of the West." Houston 
 treated him with every kindness and later sent him back to Mexico. 
 
 131 
 

 THE ALAMO 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR— 1846 
 
 Santa Anna promised General Houston that Texas should be free, but as soon as 
 he was safe at home in Mexico he changed his mind, and for many years Mexican 
 soldiers fought with angry Texans along the border of the State. But Texas was 
 really free, and after nine years was taken into the Union and became one of our 
 United States. Soon war broke out between Mexico and the people of the United 
 States, who claimed that Texas was larger than Mexico would admit. The Ameri- 
 cans had been at peace for thirty years ; they had but a handful of soldiers, but boys 
 and men rushed to enlist, and butchers, bakers, lawyers, doctors, farmers, and clerks, 
 all became soldiers and fought exceedingly well. These men were marched to Mex- 
 ico ; under General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott they pushed across her 
 borders, defeated the Mexicans in every battle, and at last reached the gates of Mex- 
 ico City itself, where Santa Anna with all that was left of his army had taken his 
 last stand. The Mexicans had fought bravely in every battle, and now tried hard to 
 defend their capital. The old stone castle of Chapultepec stood on a wooded hill 
 overlooking the city. In it were young Mexican boys who were learning to be sol- 
 diers, for this castle was a military school like our West Point. Now General Scott 
 decided that the Americans must seize this castle before they could capture the city. 
 Santa Anna had stationed eight hundred soldiers there to help the cadets defend it, 
 and it bristled with guns. The Americans charged up the hill, crouched for a mo- 
 ment under rocks and in hollows to pick off the Mexican gunners with rifle shots, 
 then rushed across the castle ditch, planted ladders against the walls and scrambled 
 up like monkeys. The first climbers fell back, dead or wounded, but more pushed on. 
 They gained the parapet, drove the Mexicans from the windows, and forced them over 
 the walls, then reached the roof, ran up the American flag, and the castle was theirs. 
 But those poor brave boys of Mexico, those cadets of the castle who had been learn- 
 ing to be soldiers, had learned their lesson well, for each one had fallen, fighting 
 bravely for his country, and each had died that day a soldier's death. 
 
 After the city of Mexico had fallen peace was declared, and the United States took 
 from Mexico, California, New Mexico, and Arizona. In return we paid Mexico 
 $15,000,000. After this war the United States stretched from sea to sea, from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 13s 
 
MORSE INVENTS THE TELEGRAPH— 1844 
 
 A great many useful things have been invented by citizens of our United States. 
 One of these is the electric telegraph, by which we can send in a very few minutes a 
 message round the earth. The man who invented the telegraph was a painter of very 
 good pictures, Samuel Finley Morse. Though he had studied electricity, he expected to 
 be a painter always. But one day, as he was crossing the ocean, he talked with some 
 others on the ship of magnets and electric sparks. As he talked, there popped suddenly 
 into his head the idea of sending messages over electric wires and recording them with 
 magnets. All that day he sat drawing plans of instruments for sending such messages. 
 Too excited to sleep, he spent the night working out his plan. When Morse went 
 ashore he said to the Captain, " Remember, Captain, when you hear of the electric tele- 
 graph, that it was invented on your good ship Sully." But though Morse was sure his 
 telegraph would succeed, no one else was interested in it. Morse himself could think 
 of nothing else. He shut himself up in a little room and made his delicate instru- 
 ments. He slept and ate in his little room, cooking his own meals, for he was poor. 
 At last his telegraph instruments worked well, but he had no money to build the first 
 test line. He went to Washington and asked the United States Government to ad- 
 vance him money, offering to sell to the Government his wonderful invention. The 
 men of Congress laughed. Sending messages by wires was simply impossible, they 
 said. However, they grudgingly gave him $30,000 to build the first telegraph line. 
 Morse and his friends, all excitement, strung the wires from Washington to Balti- 
 more and then from the Capitol of the United States sent the first message, " What 
 God hath wrought." Before many years had passed, the world was strung with wires 
 and all the kings of the earth had showered medals and gifts upon Samuel Finley 
 Morse. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA— 1848 
 
 Poor Mexico gave up more than she knew when she surrendered California to the 
 United States, for just two weeks before peace was declared gold was discovered in 
 California, whole mountain sides and river beds of gold, so that California became at 
 once the richest part of the Union. An old Swiss named Sutter had started a saw- 
 mill on the American River in California. The man who was building it, a man named 
 Marshall, saw some glittery yellow specks in the mill race one morning. He picked 
 them out and hammered them. They were bright and heavy and yet would not break. 
 Marshall's eyes grew wide. He sprang up and shouted to a carpenter working on the 
 mill, " I've found it 1 " " Found what? " said the carpenter. "Gold, gold," shouted 
 Marshall. " You're of¥ your head," said the carpenter, and went on with his work. 
 But Marshall seized a horse and rode pell-mell down to Sutter's ranch. He showed 
 the glittery rocks to Sutter. Sutter took down his encyclopedia and read what it had 
 to say about gold. Then he tested the nuggets. " It's gold, all right," he said. Mar- 
 shall was half wild with excitement. He and all the men at the mill stopped work and 
 began to wash gold out of the river sands. In a month or two every man in California 
 had stopped work. Fields were left half planted, houses half built, stores left empty; 
 every one was up and away to the mountains to wash gold from the rivers. The sol- 
 diers left their barracks, the sailors left their ships. In another month or two letters 
 began to reach the Eastern cities telling about gold free for the taking. Men doubted, 
 wondered, and then arose and started west, first hundreds of them, then thousands, 
 then tens of thousands. At the end of a year seventy-seven thousand people had 
 poured into California, by sea or land, looking for gold. Many of them found it 
 and grew rich, but many more did not. 
 
 138 
 
prair:e schooner traveling 
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 
 
PRAIRIE SCHOONERS CROSS THE GREAT PLAINS— 1830-1860 
 
 Long before gold was discovered in California many thousands of men, women, and 
 children had crossed America to find new homes in the wild Western country. There 
 were no railways then, and no roads; only beaten paths or Indian trails across these 
 thousands of miles of plains and mountains and deserts. Trappers and fur-traders 
 were the first to cross. Then men heard of farm lands in the West free for the taking 
 and many began to pack all they had in great white-topped wagons. Into these they 
 put their food and furniture, their wives and children, behind them they tied their cows, 
 pigs and horses, then with slow-moving oxen to draw them, they started out along the 
 trapper's trails toward the setting sun. Every year more and more of these white- 
 topped wagons started west ; " prairie schooners," they were called, because they were 
 like wheeled ships on a sea of sand. They had to cross hundreds of miles of hot des- 
 erts where water-holes were few ; they had to climb steep barren mountains where at 
 almost any moment a blizzard might sweep down upon them and bury them in snow. 
 Often and often the tired animals would die of thirst or hunger, and the poor travelers 
 would leave their wagons behind and trudge desperately on afoot or in despair turn 
 back. Much of this Western country too was filled with crafty Indians, who wanted no 
 white men on their hunting grounds. These Indians loved to lie in wait for the little 
 bands of settlers and dash suddenly upon them, killing the men and horses, burning the 
 white-topped carts. Each pioneer carried a gun both night and day; even the Httle 
 boys had guns and the women too. Theirs was a dangerous and anxious journey. 
 And yet, though many died of hunger or thirst on the way and many were killed, many 
 more lived to build new homes in the West and to make new States there of strong 
 and valiant people. 
 
 THE CIVIL WAR— 1861-1865 
 
 And now we come to the saddest time in the history of our United States, the time 
 of civil war, a war of Americans against Americans, the men of the North fighting 
 against the men of the South. Before this war there were thirty-one States in the 
 Union and the American people had grown powerful and rich. But all was not well 
 with them for the people of the North and the people of the South had begun to 
 quarrel. In the North there were large cities, many factories, many ships sailing to 
 far countries ; the men of the North were men of business. In the South there 
 were few large cities, few factories or shipyards ; the men of the South were planters 
 of cotton, sugar and rice. Throughout the South were great plantations, with a 
 beautiful big house in the center and long rows of little cabins behind from 
 which negro slaves went out each morning to work and in which they danced 
 far into the night. These very slaves were the cause of the quarrel between 
 the Northern and Southern people. As the years passed, the people of the North 
 began to cry out loudly against slavery, saying that all men, white or black, should 
 be free and equal. They said it was an evil and wicked thing that black men and 
 women, heavy chains on their hands and feet, should be sold in the markets of the 
 South like cattle. They wanted to free the millions of slaves already in the South 
 and when new States were made out of the Western country, they declared that no 
 slavery should be allowed there. The people of the South grew angry. Most of them 
 were kindly people, who treated their negroes well. They thought that with- 
 out negro slaves they could not cultivate their hot, wet fields and that by freeing the 
 slaves their country would be ruined. So these Southern people declared that the ne- 
 groes were happy as slaves ; that the law of the United States permitted slaves and 
 that each State should be allowed to do as it pleased in the matter. 
 
 142 
 
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FORT SUMTER IS FIRED ON— 1861 
 
 In the midst of this quarrel Abraham Lincohi, who hated slavery, was elected Pres- 
 ident of the United States. Immediately the men of the South met together and de- 
 clared that Abraham Lincoln should never be their President. They said that their 
 Southern States should no longer be a part of the United States of America, but in- 
 stead should be called the Confederate States of America, and that their President 
 should be Jefferson Davis. They left the Union. When some one in their meeting 
 asked, "What if this leads to war?" the others shouted, "It cannot lead to war." 
 Yet war did follow. Abraham Lincoln became President and at once declared that 
 no State should leave the Union, and he called for seventy-five thousand Union sol- 
 diers to keep the States together. 
 
 The first shot of the war was fired in South Carolina at a strong square fort called 
 Sumter in the harbor there. In it were United States soldiers. When the Governor 
 of South Carolina asked them to leave because the fort stood in Confederate waters, 
 they answered that the fort belonged to the United States and therefore it was their 
 duty to remain. No one knew just what to do. The Southerners did not wish to fire 
 the first shot. They went again to the commander of Fort Sumter and asked him to 
 depart in peace. He refused, but as the Southerners left he grasped their hands. " If 
 we never meet again in this world, God grant we may in the ne.xt," he said. Greatly 
 moved and excited, the Southern soldiers returned to their battery and prepared their 
 cannon for the first shot. Robert Pryor, a brave Southerner, was asked to fire it, but 
 he turned away his head and said huskily, " Ah, no, I could not fire the first gun of 
 the war." Others fired it. Fort Sumter guns replied. After a three-day bombard- 
 ment, the fort surrendered. War between the North and South had begtm. This war 
 lasted four years, and in it six hundred thousand men lost their lives. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN— 1861 
 
 The real battles of the war did not begin until months after the firing on Fort 
 Sumter. Neither the North or South had a proper army. Thousands of men rushed 
 to enlist, but though they were good fighters they were not yet good soldiers. They 
 were not used to obeying orders. They were apt in the midst of drill to lay down their 
 guns and stroll away while their officers helplessly raged. They thought soldiering 
 meant only fighting. Some Southern soldiers when told to dig trenches answered 
 proudly that they had come to fight, not to use a pick and shovel. There were few 
 uniforms ready, and those that were ready did not fit. Many a brave fellow, eager 
 to charge, had his courage dampened by trousers four inches too long and shirt sleeves 
 barely reaching his elbows. Curious things they put into their knapsacks for their 
 first march, — boots, towels, night shirts, looking glasses, preserves, cough mixtures. 
 Some started off with sheet iron stoves and some with umbrellas. Poor fellows! 
 After their first long march they gladly threw these things away and dragged into camp 
 with only their blankets, guns and cartridges. Three months after Fort Sumter's fall, 
 the first great battle of the war was fought, — the Battle of Bull Run. Eighteen thou- 
 sand Federal soldiers marched from the city of Washington into Virginia, eighteen thou- 
 sand Confederates met them at Bull Run Creek, and after a day's hard fighting drove 
 them back. Few of these men had ever before heard the roar of cannon, but they 
 fought like heroes, and hundreds fell. Suddenly at the day's end the Northern soldiers 
 decided they had had enough. Though their officers screamed and swore at them and 
 even with tears begged them to stay, they started hot foot back to Washington. This 
 victory made the Southerners feel that they had taught the Northerners to leave them 
 alone, but, in fact, the North had only just begun to fight. 
 
 147 
 
CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Through all the years of the war, Abraham Lincoln was President of the United 
 States. Lincoln was born in a Kentucky log cabin. When he was seven years old his 
 father put all he had into an oxcart and set out for Indiana. Little Abraham sat on 
 the front seat of the cart and cracked the whip. His father built in Indiana a one- 
 roomed cabin. There was a little dark attic above. Little Abraham used to climb up 
 into it every night by pegs driven into the wall and slept on dry leaves in a corner. 
 His family was very poor ; often they had only roasted potatoes for dinner ; but they 
 were happy. Abraham grew strong and tall ; six feet and four inches tall, the strong- 
 est boy in his county. When he was seventeen his father moved to Illinois. Abraham 
 helped to build the new log cabin there. He and his father split three thousand rails 
 that summer. He went to school '" by littles," but he learned to read, and read every 
 book he could borrow. He worked at farming all day, but at night he piled logs on the 
 fire and by their light did sums and practised writing on shovel backs or boards. He 
 grew to be a wise and kind man with a gift for telling stories. Men used to come at 
 night from miles around to sit by the stove of the village store and listen to the wit of 
 " Honest Abe." He became a river-boat man, then a storekeeper, then a lawyer, but 
 whatever his occupation men flocked to listen to him, for his thoughts were clear and 
 helpful. And at last, because he was wise, honest, and absolutely without fear, he was 
 made President. It was Abraham Lincoln who set free the negro slaves. During the 
 war he declared there should never again be slaves in the United States. After the 
 war this declaration was made law. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN COMMANDER, LEE 
 
 The great man of the South during these years of war was Robert E. Lee. Lincoln 
 was a statesman and President of the United States. Lee was a soldier and the great- 
 est general of the Confederacy. And yet when the war began Robert E. Lee was the 
 man first asked by President Lincoln to lead the Northern armies. For thirty-five 
 years Lee had been an officer in the army of the L'nited States, and when eleven South- 
 ern States left the LTnion it was Lee whom Lincoln asked to force them to return. Lee 
 answered that he could take no part in an attack upon the Southern States. In the 
 South he had been born and his fathers had been bom. His heart was with the peo- 
 ple of the South. He therefore resigned from the army of the United States. A few 
 days later he was made General of the Southern army in \'irginia. Nothing could 
 show more clearly how closely the North and South of our United States were bound 
 together than this ; that each side chose the same man to command its armies. 
 
 General Lee was a tall, handsome man, with quiet eyes and a gentle smile. His father 
 was " Light Horse Harry " Lee who had led George Washington's cavalry all through 
 our war with England. It was a great sorrow to Lee that the States which George 
 W^ashington had bound together had been broken apart by quarrels over slavery. He 
 was like a father to his soldiers ; he refused any comfort that they could not have. 
 Food became very scarce in the Southern army. General Lee lived on cabbage for 
 days together. One day he entertained several generals at dinner in his tent, and the 
 dinner was a dish of boiled cabbage but on top of it was a small piece of salt pork. 
 The piece was so small that each general in turn refused politely to take any of it and 
 it was left untouched. The next day as Lee's cabbage was served he asked for that 
 bit of pork. " Lor' Massa," his black cook answered, " I jes' borrowed that piece o' 
 pork for the 'casion and I'se done returned it." 
 
 151 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
LINCOLN S CABIN 
 
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG— 1863 
 
 The army of men in blue from the North, the Army of the Potomac, as it was called, 
 advanced again and again into Virginia, but though fearless and strong, it did little 
 against the army of General Lee. At last in the battle of Chancellorsville, the Northern 
 army was badly beaten and General Lee led his victorious men in gray across the Potomac 
 River and on into the State of Pennsylvania to raid that Northern country. Hidden by 
 mountains, the Southern army, half barefoot, marched north until it reached Pennsyl- 
 vania. But the beaten army of the North was quickly put in shape again under General 
 Meade, a brave and patient man. With this blue army. General Meade followed the 
 Southern army, keeping between Lee and the City of Washington. These were mighty 
 armies indeed, — one hundred thousand men in blue marching to meet seventy thousand 
 men in gray. These were not raw fighters who had not yet learned to be soldiers, but 
 veterans who for two years had followed their flag. They carried no iron stoves or um- 
 brellas now. They had grown used to fighting and long marches. They were real sol- 
 diers, often very dusty and dirty, and those in gray often without caps or shoes and rag- 
 ged beside. 
 
 General Lee did not know just where Meade's men were and General Meade knew as 
 little about Lee, but mile by mile they drew nearer until on the first of July, about four 
 thousand of Lee's men left the mountains to look for shoes in the little town of Gettys- 
 burg and came face to face with the advance guard of Meade. Thus suddenly began the 
 greatest battle of the war, the battle of Gettysburg. It raged three days. Those were 
 days of terrible slaughter. The roar of the cannon was more dreadful than thunder or 
 earthquake. Brave men on both sides fell by thousands. At first the Southern men in 
 gray swept back the men in blue. But at the end of the first day General Meade placed 
 his men and guns on a high ridge and held his ground so firmly there that the men in gray 
 could get no foothold. At last General Lee ordered one last charge to break the Union 
 line. Under fire from the Northern guns, ten thousand men in gray, under General 
 Pickett's command, swept across a mile of open field, dashed up the slope and drove the 
 Union gunners from their places. A shell from Southern cannon burst through the 
 roof of the little house where General Meade sat giving orders. The Northern line 
 seemed broken. General Armistead of the South leapt on the LTnion wall and shouted, 
 " Boys, give 'em the cold steel." But as he shouted he fell. Fresh troops in blue 
 rushed in upon his men from both sides and the gray line was hurled back across the 
 mile of open field, hundreds upon hundreds falling as they fought. Shattered and 
 broken, they could not charge again. So on that third of July the day was won for the 
 Union and the army of General Lee was driven back to the mountains and began its re- 
 treat to Virginia. The spot where General Armistead fell is called the high-water mark 
 of the rebellion. " No one died on that field with more glory than he ; yet many died 
 and there was much glory." 
 
 154 
 
GEN. GRANT 
 
GENERAL GRANT TAKES A SOUTHERN CITY— 1863 
 
 Not only in Virginia and near the City of Washington was the Civil War fought. 
 Northern armies marched into Tennessee and Mississippi and great efforts were made 
 to capture the towns lying along the Mississippi River to open that waterway again to 
 Union ships. After months of bloody fighting the Confederates were driven from all 
 the large cities on the river except one, Vicksburg in Mississippi.- Vicksburg stood 
 upon a high bluff, the Mississippi at its feet, and behind it swamps and rough hills. 
 To capture it required patience and skill. This hard task was given to Ulysses S. 
 Grant, the greatest general fighting for the North. Unconditional Surrender Grant, 
 his men called him. He was a short, stocky man who talked little. Not a very sol- 
 dierly looking man, for he often forgot to wear his sword and would go about with his 
 uniform unbuttoned, chewing a cigar. But what he undertook to do, he did, so that 
 President Lincoln said of him, '" I cannot spare that man. He fights." Grant tried 
 for months to besiege Vicksburg. To do this he had to leave the river and march be- 
 hind the city where a Southern army lay in wait. The difficulty was in feeding his 
 men. If he left the river, he would leave his food supply, which came in boats from 
 the North. At last Grant, in desperation, landed his men below Vicksburg, told them 
 to put three days' food in their knapsacks and make it last five, then marched straight 
 into the enemy's country. This daring move succeeded. Grant defeated the Southern 
 army, drove it back into Vicksburg, and then with Union gunboats in front and Union 
 armies behind it, he settled down to starve out the city. All through these months of 
 marching and fighting his young son, thirteen years old, stayed with him. On July 
 fourth Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. The Southern soldiers who had been living on 
 mules, rats and unripe corn for weeks were soon cracking jokes with the men in blue, 
 and eating bread given them from blue knapsacks. 
 
 THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MERRIMAC"— 1862 
 
 Until our Civil War, all ships, even ships of war, were made of wood. Now, they are 
 made of steel. A single sea-fight changed the great ships of the world from wood to 
 steel, — the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac. The Mcrrimac belonged to 
 the South. She was a captured wooden ship, but far-seeing Southerners had cut her 
 down and covered her sides with plates of heavy iron, through which the noses of 
 her guns were thrust. She looked like a great turtle. Her engines were old, she was 
 as hard to turn as Noah's ark, but she was iron-clad and the shells of other ships 
 could not hurt her. With this curious ship the Confederates steamed into Chesapeake 
 Bay straight at the tall wooden sailing ships of the Northern navy. There the Mer- 
 rimac sank the two largest ships and disabled a third. Her iron sides were unhurt. 
 The people of the South rejoiced. The people of the North were terribly frightened. 
 " One such iron ship can destroy all of our wooden navy," they cried. " The Mcrrimac 
 will sail into our harbors and throw cannon balls into our cities. What are we to do? " 
 But something had already been done. A Northern man named Ericsson had heard of 
 the building of the Merrimac and had constructed another sort of iron Ship, called the 
 Monitor. This fiat little boat was being towed to Chesapeake Bay and the morning after 
 the Merrimac's victory, when she steamed out to finish up the Union navy, these two 
 ships met. The Monitor looked like a tin can on a shingle, but she was iron from bow 
 to stern and very little of her showed above the water. The two strange craft banged 
 at each other for hours but neither could hurt the other. One gunner of the Mcrrimac 
 stopped firing. " I could damage that cheesebox," he said, " as much with a snap of 
 my thumb as with a cannon ball." At last the ships parted and the Merrimac steamed 
 back to her harbor. The Monitor unhurt had saved the Union navy. All the nations 
 of the world hastened to change their wooden warships into ships of iron. 
 
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THE UNITED STATES GIVES AWAY ITS LAND 
 
 Each new region that was added to our United States brought into the Union milhons 
 of miles of land, forests and deserts, mountains and plains, which no man owned. The 
 Government of the United States decided to give a great deal of this land to men and 
 women who needed a farm and a home. Any one who wished to own one hundred and 
 sixty acres of it could do so by simply " staking a claim," that is by going to the land, 
 building a house upon it and living there five years. Of course thousands of Americans 
 went out gladly to live upon these free lands, and many who were not yet Americans, 
 many Germans, French, Dutch, Swedes and English, came across the ocean and swore to 
 become American citizens in order to claim a share of it. Later, as the Indians grew few 
 and scattered, the land which the Government had once given to the Indians for their 
 own, was thrown open to white settlers. Those were exciting days, those days of the 
 great land rush. All who wished a share of this long-forbidden Indian country came 
 weeks ahead to its boundary line. On a certain day at a certain hour they were to cross 
 the border and stake their claims. Soldiers stood at intervals all along the line to keep 
 out those who tried to cross too soon. All sorts of people, good and bad, rich and poor, 
 crowded along the boundary for miles, on horseback, mule back, in wagons and prairie 
 schooners, some on bicycles and some in running shoes, ready to race for land. 
 Promptly on the hour the soldiers fired their signal. Over the border shot the thou- 
 sands and the race began. They spread like a veil over the vast open country and 
 each drove his stake where he could. Then they began to build. Tents, dugouts, 
 cabins, and whole towns sprang up in a day, stores opened, newspapers started, and 
 even churches rose, staked out by bishops who had joined the race. 
 
 SPAIN IS CRUEL TO CUBA 
 
 Our country has fought five wars. The fifth was fought against Spain and lasted 
 four months. There was no fighting, however, either in Spain or in the United States. 
 All the fighting was done on the islands south of Florida or far out in the Pacific Ocean. 
 You will remember that shortly after Columbus discovered America he landed on the 
 Island of Cuba and took that island in the name of Spain. The Spanish people ruled 
 Cuba for four hundred years. The Cubans were forced to do exactly as Spain told 
 them, to give up their land and their money Often they were thrown into prison with- 
 out reason and sometimes killed. The Cuban people, poor and unhappy, took arms 
 against the Spanish soldiers but again and again they were beaten down and treated 
 more cruelly than before. At last they grew desperate. Bands of angry Cubans 
 marched through the country burning the sugar cane, tearing down Spanish houses and 
 killing Spaniards. The Spaniards, to stop this kind of warfare, did a cruel and dreadful 
 thing. They ordered their soldiers to bring into all the towns where Spanish sol- 
 diers were stationed every man, woman and child who lived out in the country or in the 
 small villages. Hundreds of thousands of poor people who had been living peaceful, 
 busy lives were gathered together and driven into the towns and there they were kept 
 with nothing to do, and without enough food or clothing until half of them had died 
 of starvation or of fever. The people of the United States begged Spain to be more 
 merciful but Spain would not listen. At last the Americans felt that such cruelty could 
 not be permitted. Just at this time an American battleship, the Maine, while she lay in 
 Cuban waters, was blown up with a terrific explosion, no one knows how, and two hun- 
 dred of her men were killed or drowned. The Americans, thinking Spaniards had 
 sunk the Maine, declared that Spain should be driven from Cuba forever and that the 
 Cuban people should be free. War was declared. " Remember the Maine " became 
 our watchword, and our battleships and soldiers were prepared for fight with Spain. 
 
 179 
 
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 SOLDIER DURING CIVIL WAR 
 
ADMIRAL DEWEY SINKS THE SHIPS OF SPAIN— 1898 
 
 To every one's surprise the first battle of our war with Spain was not fought in Cuba 
 at all but ten thousand miles away on the far side of the Pacific Ocean. Spain had 
 owned for hundreds of years large islands in the Pacific, called the Philippine Islands. 
 When war was declared a fleet of Spanish battleships lay near these islands, and a fleet 
 of American battleships, under Admiral Dewey, lay off the China Coast not so very far 
 away. Admiral Dewey was ordered to capture or destroy these Spanish ships and, in a 
 wonderfully short time, he did as he was told. With his six ships of war he sailed 
 straight into ^Manila Bay where the thirteen ships of the Spanish fleet were hiding. The 
 guns of the Spanish forts near the city of Manila fired upon the American ships as they 
 sailed in but did no damage. That night the two hostile fleets lay quiet in the same bay. 
 At five o'clock next morning the battle began. The American ships in a long line sailed 
 in front of the anchored Spanish fleet. The guns of the Spanish ships and forts fired 
 heavily upon them, but the Americans did not fire a shot until they were very close. 
 Then Admiral Dewey turned to the Captain of his flag-ship and said coolly, " You may 
 fire when you are ready, Gridley." Five times the American ships passed the anchored 
 Spaniards, pouring shells upon them. Then they steamed out of range, the sailors ate 
 breakfast and at eleven o'clock steamed back again to finish their work. The S[)aniards 
 were brave and fought well, but they did not shoot straight. The American sailors had 
 been taught to shoot and at the end of that morning ten Spanish ships had been sunk 
 and four hundred Spaniards killed; not an American ship was hurt and not an Ameri- 
 can sailor was badly wounded. The people of the United States rubbed their eyes when 
 they heard of this victory. Most of them had never heard of the Philippines before. 
 Few knew that Dewey was there. They had begim the war to free Cuba from Spain 
 and suddenly without warning they had taken from Spain the faraway Philippine Is- 
 lands, of which they knew nothing. Yet every one was delighted. 
 
 LIEUTENANT HOBSON ALSO SINKS A SHIP 
 
 Spain sent battleships at once to Cuba to prevent American soldiers from landing 
 there. American battleships went out to meet them. For a time the two fleets played a 
 game of hide-and-seek, but at last the Spanish fleet was discovered in the harbor of San- 
 tiago. The American ships drew in close to the harbor so that the Spanish ships co'uld 
 not get out without a battle, and for a month, there the two fleets lay. Seven young 
 Americans then did a brave and gallant thing, a deed we should long remember. The 
 American admiral decided to sink a ship across the entrance of Santiago harbor so that 
 the Spanish fleet could not pass out. He chose Lieutenant Hobson to plan this danger- 
 ous task. Hobson fastened electric torpedoes to the bottom of an old coal ship, the 
 Merrimac, and called for men to man her. It seemed certain death to go upon her. Yet 
 hundreds of the sailors asked to go. These brave men implored Hobson to choose 
 them, and were utterly miserable when they were denied. Only six were needed. 
 With these six, on a dark night in June, Hobson sailed the Merrimac in to her grave. 
 The Spaniards saw her as she neared the harbor and fired upon her. Her anchors and 
 steering gear were shot away, but her sailors were unhurt. The electric torpedoes then 
 exploded, the Merrimac sank in the channel, and the seven brave men clinging to the 
 raft went down with their ship. But to their own delight they and the raft came up 
 again. They clung to the raft all night. In the morning the Spanish Admiral himself 
 came in a launch to take them off. Though he made them prisoners, he greeted them 
 as " most brave." After the war was ended they were all set free. 
 
 183 
 
SOUTHERN PLANTATION HOUSE 
 
HOUSE IN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 
 
GUAM 
 
 During this war, one little Spanish island way out in the dim Pacific fell into our 
 hands like a ripe plum. This was the Island of Guam, which lies between America and 
 the Philippines. There were two Spanish forts and two small towns upon it. During 
 the war an American battleship guarding transports full of soldiers on their way to 
 Manila came to the little island. Leaving the transports outside the American battle- 
 ship plunged boldly into the Spanish harbor. She passed the first fort. No guns were 
 fired at her. She passed the second fort and sent twelve shells whistling over its old 
 walls. No guns were fired in return. Much puzzled the Americans sailed up to the 
 town and cast anchor. What was their surprise to see a little band of Spanish officers 
 gay in gold lace coming down to meet them with bright smiles of welcome. In small 
 boats they left the shore and came aboard the American battleship bowing low. There 
 they began to apologize in their best Spanish style because they had not been able to 
 return our battleship's salute. Poor Spanish officers, far out in the Pacific. They had 
 heard no news of war and thought the American sailors had come on a friendly visit. 
 Of course they were angry when told that they were prisoners of war, as indeed they 
 were. The American captain took down the Spanish flags on the island, ran up the 
 Stars and Stripes, and with the unhappy Spanish soldiers on his ship sailed on to the 
 Philippines. The Island of Guam remains an American, not a Spanish island. 
 
 THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS JOIN THE UNITED STATES— 1898 
 
 Very near the center of the blue Pacific Ocean there is a group of sunny islands where 
 cocoanuts grow and parrots chatter. They are called the Hawaiian Islands. For hun- 
 dreds of years they belonged to the gentle, dark-skinned people who lived upon them, and 
 the kings of these people ruled there. About one hundred years ago good men from 
 America sailed to these islands to teach these people the ways of Christ. The Hawaiians 
 had always prayed to images or idols of stone and wood, and sometimes they had killed 
 their fellow-men as an offering to these idols. Yet, strange to say, just before the com- 
 ing of the white men, they had broken and thrown away these images and were waiting 
 to hear of a new God. They became Christians, and many learned our language. Their 
 kings still ruled them, and they were at peace. Many Americans made their homes upon 
 the islands, planting great fields of sugar-cane, pineapple and banana. At last one of 
 the Hawaiian kings decided that he would see the world and set out to travel round it. 
 To his great surprise the kings and emperors of all the nations of the earth treated him 
 as a brother. Though he was a king only of small islands, still he was a king and there- 
 fore of their kind. They heaped honors upon him, gave him medals and dinners, and at 
 last they turned his head. When he reached home again he decided at once to be a real 
 king. He built a castle, organized an army, and spent the money of his people for his 
 own pleasure. When at last he died his people were thorougiily tired of kings. In a 
 short time they said they would have no more, and they became what the United States 
 became after our war with England, a republic. The people of this new republic were 
 very fond of the United States. During our war with Spain they gave coal to American 
 ships of war and food to American sailors as they stopped on their way to the Philip- 
 pines. They often asked to be made a part of the United States, and after the war we 
 gladly welcomed them. In this way these islands, two thousand miles from California, 
 have become a part of our nation. 
 
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ONE KIND OF TRANSPORTATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
TEACHING THE FILIPINOS 
 
 In spite of Hobson's bold deed, the sunken Menimac did not block the harbor of 
 Santiago. By and by the Spanish fleet slipped out and set off at full speed. Imme- 
 diately the American ships opened fire so heavily that in a short time every Spanish ship 
 was forced to run ashore. Soon after this the American soldiers defeated the Span- 
 iards in Cuba. Beaten on sea and on land, the Spaniards sued for peace. So ended 
 the power of old and gallant Spain. Her money, her army, her navy were gone, and 
 her proud and unwise people were humbled by the men of that new world she had her- 
 self discovered. 
 
 After our war with Spain Cuba was free and governed herself, but the islands of 
 Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines became the property of the United States. 
 We paid Spain $20,000,000 for them. The people of the Philippines were small, brown 
 people, gentle and willing, and glad to be free from Spain, for the Spaniards had 
 treated them harshly. But some of them wished to be free as Cuba was free and for 
 three years fought fiercely against the American soldiers sent to the islands. The 
 people of the United States, however, decided that the Filipinos were as yet too weak 
 and knew too little to be able to take care of themselves properly and so began to teach 
 and train them before letting them try self-government 
 
 The Philippine Islands are very different from any part of our America. They are 
 always very hot and often swept by fierce storms of wind and rain. Bananas, rice, 
 bamboo, grape fruit, and oranges grow there. Monkeys and parrots live in the for- 
 ests. Instead of horses, slow water buffalo and tiny, shaggy ponies are used. There 
 are no cows. It is so hot that the little children wear no clothes at all. The older 
 children wear bright red and yellow calico. They eat curious things, locusts and big 
 black beetles. Many of them are very poor and often do not have enough of anything to 
 eat except perhaps bananas. Usually a brook runs through a Philippine village, and the 
 people of the village use the brook for many things. They wash their clothes in it, 
 sitting in the water themselves and pounding the clothes, spread on a flat rock, with 
 a smooth piece of wood, instead of soap; they bathe in it, let their pigs wade in it, 
 prepare their fish and chicken for cooking in it, and lead their water buffalo to wal- 
 low in its mud. There is nothing more useful than a Philippine brook. 
 
 These small brown people are most eager to learn to speak English, and to read 
 and write, so the United States has opened many schools there and many American 
 teachers have crossed the ocean to teach in them. The little Filipinos think these 
 teachers very wonderful. The children bring them presents of grapefruit or bananas 
 or sometimes very old eggs, for the Filipinos are very fond of eggs and think a 
 bad one almost as nice as a fresh one. The schoolhouses are built of bamboo poles 
 and grass mats, with roofs of palm branches or grass. The floors are often of beau- 
 tiful dark wood which the little brown children polish carefully with banana leaves and 
 which they sit upon for lessons. Sometimes the schools are outdoors. Most of the 
 children love to go to school and study very hard. It is so hot during the day that 
 these children do not care to play, but on the cool, moon-lit nights they pour out from 
 their bamboo houses to run and shout as other children do. Some day they will have 
 learned all that we have to teach them and then perhaps they can be free as we are 
 free and become a separate nation. 
 
 190 
 

 
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ADMIRAL FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY— 1864 
 
 Though the United States had only two ships of war when the Civil War began, and 
 the Confederate States had none, both North and South began to build them at once. 
 As the North had more iron foundries, ship-yards, and money, the Northern ships were 
 ready quickly and in a short time Northern gunboats lay along the Southern coast to 
 keep ships loaded with food or guns from reaching the Southern people. One by one 
 the Southern harbors were captured. The last to be taken was JMobile Bay in Alabama. 
 It was captured by Admiral Farragut, the great commander of the Union navy. He did 
 many bold things as the war went on, but the boldest was his dash into Mobile Bay. The 
 bay had strong Southern forts at its mouth and a row of sunken torpedoes across its en- 
 trance and within it was the strongest ship in the world at that time, the Southern iron- 
 clad Tennessee. Farragut's ships were of wood, except his four little monitors, but he 
 lashed them together two by two and with the monitors in the lead ordered full steam 
 ahead past the powerful guns of the Southern forts. A rain of cannon balls was hurled 
 against his ships, and to add to the horror, the first monitor struck a torpedo, staggered 
 and went down. For a moment the ships stood still but Admiral Farragut rushed his 
 ship on, steamed headlong over the sunken torpedoes, passed the iron-clad Tennessee, 
 and, followed by his fleet, anchored in Mobile Bay. Strange to say, the remaining tor- 
 pedoes did not explode. In the smoke of the fight Farragut had climbed high up on the 
 mast so that he might see more clearly and one of his men, seeing him there, and fear- 
 ing that he might be wounded and fall, hurried after him with a rope and lashed him 
 to the mast. There the brave old gentleman directed the fight, aloft like a gallant fig- 
 urehead, as the shells burst round him. 
 
 THE SURRENDER OF LEE— 1865 
 
 During the fourth year of the war, General Grant was put in command of the Union 
 armies in Virginia and for months, with this powerful blue army, he battered, battered 
 against the gray lines of General Lee, never resting, never discouraged. On each side 
 the men were equally brave and equally stubborn. Grant, however, had almost twice as 
 many men as Lee and step by step the men in gray fell back until they intrenched them- 
 selves before the city of Richmond. There, hammer though he might. Grant could not 
 stir them. So he settled down to starve them out ; the Union armies came up to join him 
 from the South and at last, at the end of ten months, Lee was forced to surrender. 
 Then General Lee and General Grant, who had been fighting desperately against each 
 other for so long, met quietly in an old farmhouse and signed the papers that were to 
 bring peace again to our Laiited States. They had seen each other only once before, 
 long ago when both were fighting bravely for the United States, against Mexico. Gen- 
 eral Grant was most fair and kind. He allowed the Southern soldiers to return to their 
 homes and to take their horses with them. General Lee asked that his men might have 
 food ; they had had nothing but a little parched corn for days. General Grant sent them 
 food at once. Then General Lee went back to his men, and with bared head and tears 
 running down his cheeks, said good-by to them, telling them to go back to their homes 
 and become again citizens of the United States. The war was over. Great was the re- 
 joicing in the North. And the one man above all others who felt happiness that day was 
 Abraham Lincoln. His great wish had come true. The slaves were free and the thirty- 
 one States were again one nation. 
 
 163 
 
ROBERT E. LEE 
 
RUSSIA SELLS US A COLD COUNTRY— 1867 
 
 After the Civil War was ended, the United States bought from Russia a great piece of 
 land jutting out into the Pacific Ocean, farther north than any of the States. It 
 is called Alaska. At first the American people were rather angry with their Govern- 
 ment for buying Alaska. They knew little about it and thought it only a waste of 
 snowfields. It is a strange land. In it are smoking volcanoes and rivers of ice, miles 
 of forests and miles of treeless country, called tundra, covered with moss three feet 
 deep. There are whales, seal, walrus, and many fish in its waters. There are bear, 
 fox, muskox and reindeer on its land. Indians and Eskimos live there, who, instead 
 of horses, harness to their sledges bristly, curved-tailed Alaskan dogs. To-day the 
 American people are very glad that Alaska is theirs. The northern part of it is indeed 
 a land of bitter cold, where the sun shines only half the year and then shines all day 
 and all night too. But this land of the midnight sun proved the best part of Alaska, 
 because, just twenty-five years after Alaska was bought, two men discovered there a 
 river really paved with gold. Glittering bits of gold shone in the sand of the river 
 bottom and along the river banks; and this gold had no owner. When the world 
 heard of it, men eager for free gold rushed to Alaska by hundreds and then by thou- 
 sands. They found in the Far North not one but many river beds yellow with gold; 
 the very sands of the seashore shone with it. But these gold-seekers had a terrible 
 journey to make before they arrived at the northern gold fields. With packs on their 
 backs they toiled over mountains white with snow and slippery with ice ; they marched 
 down frozen rivers. Many of them never reached the yellow sands. Great masses of 
 snow from the high hills sometimes swept down upon them, burying them forever; 
 sometimes they froze, sometimes they starved. Yet as more men pushed into Alaska, 
 the small towns there grew larger, stores were opened, railroads built and now many 
 thousands of Americans have their homes there. 
 
 A RAILROAD JOINS THE EAST AND WEST— 1869 
 
 At first the people who lived in the far western part of our country felt very much 
 alone. If they wished to return to their old homes a weary journey by oxcart or horse- 
 back lay before them. Letters from their friends in the East took three or four months 
 to reach them. Even after the roads became really good the stage coaches that carried 
 the mails to the West took more than a month for the trip. For a time fast ponies with 
 clever riders carried the mails to California, but the riders rode night and day at terrific 
 speed and riders and horses were changed at stations all along the way, in order to 
 cover nineteen hundred miles in ten days. Great was the joy of the people of the 
 West therefore when it was at last decided to build an iron trail, a railroad track, straight 
 across the United States from sea to sea. The building of this first track was a great 
 adventure. Railroads had already been built as far west as the Missouri River, but be- 
 yond the Missouri lay the wild unknown country. Through this country the course of 
 the railroad was carefully mapped out, then two lines of track were started at the same 
 time, one going west from the Missouri River, one east from San Francisco Bay. They 
 were to be built toward each other and where they met they were to be joined and so 
 bring East to West. For three years thousands of men worked like mad laying this 
 longest track ; Chinamen worked on the western line. Irishmen, on the eastern. Angry 
 Indians who wanted no more white men in their hunting grounds hovered about like 
 vultures. Sometimes they would pull up the track, tear down the telegraph wires, kill 
 the engineers and workmen. At last, on the bare hills of Utah, the two tracks came 
 together. One last rail was laid by the Chinese, one by the Irish. The Governor of 
 California drove a last spike of gold into the last tie. Then an Eastern engine and a 
 Western engine met nose to nose upon the track and the crowd cheered. 
 
 167 
 
UNION SOLDIER 
 
COSTUME DURING CIVIL WAR 
 
THE INDIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR LAND— 1876 
 
 When white men first came to America, as you know, they found the red men in posses- 
 sion, roaming free from north to south. America was the red man's country. But the 
 white men pushed them farther and farther west, fought them, took their lands from 
 them and often cheated them and mistreated them. The Indians were forced across 
 the Mississippi and out upon the plains and mountains of the West. Our Government 
 tried to treat them fairly and gave them land in the West for their own. But white set- 
 tlers began to pour into that land too, and the Indians, watching them come, grew more 
 angry and savage. When the railroad was built through to California the Indians de- 
 cided that the time had come to make a last great fight against the white men, and all 
 through the West their painted braves went on the war path, burning towns and killing 
 settlers. At last the soldiers of the United States were sent to subdue them. But to 
 subdue them was no easy matter. These Indians were brave and crafty. They had good 
 guns and strong ponies and they had learned something of the white men's ways. They 
 did all their fighting on horseback, their naked bodies painted in gay colors and their 
 ponies painted too. They rode without saddle or bridle, whooping and screaming madly 
 as they rode. It was not pleasant or easy to fight them. The soldiers learned that the 
 best way was to creep up on their villages stealthily and take them by surprise. 
 
 One of the bravest of the American officers who fought against the Indians was Gen- 
 eral Custer. He was a slim, tall fellow, young and active and rash, who had fought 
 bravely in the Civil War. He was a showy fellow too and wore his hair in long yellow 
 curls over his shoulders, so that his men, who loved him, called him " Old Curly," and the 
 Indians, who feared him, called him " Big Chief Long Yellow Hair." For ten years he 
 led his horsemen against the Indians but in his last charge he fell. He had crept one 
 day with his men close to a great Indian village on the Little Big Horn River. The 
 cleverest and most cruel of the Indian chiefs were at its head ; " Sitting Bull," and 
 " Rain-in-the-Face," " Little Horn " and " Crazy Horse," who had led many a wicked 
 raid against the whites. Custer divided his regiment into three divisions and ordered 
 his men to attack the village at three different points. But things went wrong that day. 
 There were more Indians than he had guessed, thousands of them ; more Indians than 
 had ever before fought together at one time. They penned two of his divisions in a lit- 
 tle valley, and then turning hurled themselves by hundreds on Custer and his two hun- 
 dred men. They caught him in a little hollow, and round and round the hollow they 
 circled, screaming and shooting. Their guns were new and good. The guns of the sol- 
 diers were old and the cartridges stuck in them. At the end of that dreadful day Custer 
 and every one of his two hundred men lay dead. They died fighting, and of all that band 
 only Custer's beautiful horse " Comanche " escaped. For years afterward " Comanche " 
 was the pet of those sorrowful few who were left of Custer's regiment. But though 
 Custer fell, his last charge broke the spirit of the Indians. They were-sick of the strug- 
 gle. Many went to Canada and others tried to live peacefully where our Government 
 told them to live. But very many died of drink and disease and heart-break. We have 
 little to be proud of in our treatment of that once-proud race. 
 
 170 
 
BELL'S FIRST TELEPHONE 
 
BELL INVENTS THE TELEPHONE— 1876 
 
 Very much less than fifty years ago there were no telephones at all. Though the 
 world was old, no one in it had ever thought or dreamed of telephones. The man who 
 invented the telephone was Alexander Graham Bell who lived in Boston and taught 
 deaf and dumb children to read the lips of others and often to speak. Bell knew a 
 great deal about speech and sound. He was also interested in electricity. For three 
 years he worked in the cellar of a friend, for he himself was poor, trying to make 
 waves of electricity carry sound along a wire, and at last he did it. He was a tall, 
 thin, black-haired man, with fiery eyes. When he heard the first tiny sound come over 
 the wire he almost fainted with excitement. But other people were not so interested as 
 he. Bell worked on alone at his instrument and at last took it to Philadelphia to show 
 it at a great fair there. The United States was just one hundred years old that year 
 and the Fair was held to celebrate its birthday. Bell was given a little table for his 
 telephone in a corner of a big building. For days nobody looked his way. Then the 
 Judges of the Exposition passed by and Bell jumped up to explain his telephone to 
 them, but the Judges were not interested and were just going on, with a sniff, when to 
 Bell's immense surprise the Emperor and Empress of Brazil marched in with a gay 
 company and the Emperor seized Bell's hand. Long ago he had visited Bell's school 
 for the deaf and dumb and remembered it with pleasure. After that all was smooth 
 sailing. The Emperor sat down at the telephone, the Judges waited to watch him, and 
 Bell went across the room and spoke over the wires. The Emperor dropped the re- 
 ceiver in utter amazement. " My God, it talks," he said. Then each of the Judges 
 was eager to try it, and from that time the telephone was the greatest success of the 
 Fair. In a very few years there were telephones in every State in the Union. Bell 
 became a rich and honored man. 
 
 THE WIZARD OF ELECTRICITY— 1879 
 
 There is one great American who has done much to amuse and entertain the world. 
 This man invented the electric light, the phonograph, and the moving picture. His 
 name is Thomas Edison, and he has invented many other things beside, such as electric 
 cars and electric railroads. His father was too poor to send him to school. .When 
 twelve, he began to earn his own living, selling papers on railway trains. However, 
 he read everything he could find, even books on chemistry and electricity. Electricity 
 interested him most. He would watch telegraph operators for hours, asking endless 
 questions. One day little Thomas Edison saw the baby of a station agent playing on the 
 track and behind it a freight car rolling swiftly down. Edison leaped for the baby 
 and flung it across the tracks just in time to save it. The baby's father was so grate- 
 ful that he offered to teach Edison telegraphy. That was Edison's start in life. He 
 became a telegraph operator. Soon his clear mind saw many ways in which Morse's 
 telegraph instrument could be improved, so he improved it. By improving the tele- 
 graph he made money enough to try other improvements. Up to this time oil lamps, 
 candles and gas were the only lights used. Many men had tried to make electric 
 lamps but could make none that would burn longer than a few "hours. Edison deter- 
 mined to make a perfect electric lamp. He had first to find something that would burn 
 for days to use as a filament for his lamp. He was a wonderfully patient man. One 
 by one he tried every material in the world ; all the metals, all the plants. At last he 
 found a Japanese bamboo that would do. He made his lamp and turned on the elec- 
 tricity. Then he and his helpers sat down to watch. Hour after hour it burned ; a day, 
 a night, another day and far into a second night, as Edison and his men sat watching. 
 At last after forty hours' burning it grew dim and went out. Edison went to bed and 
 slept, a happy man. He had perfected electric light. 
 
 174 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 When our war with Spain began, a stocky smiling man, who wore big spectacles, 
 brought together a company of horsemen and led them to Cuba ; men from offices in 
 cities and men from cattle-ranches, and one hundred American Indians beside. They 
 were brave and quick with a gun and they were called the Rough Riders. The Rough 
 Riders fought well in Cuba and when they came home the people of the United States 
 greeted them with cheers and made a hero of the stocky man in spectacles. This man 
 was Theodore Roosevelt. Later he became President of our United States and a lively 
 President too. Theodore Roosevelt could ride and box and wrestle ; he could talk and 
 talk well for hours at a time. He never grew tired and he never showed fear. He 
 made the American people understand that he would have none but honest men run the 
 country for him, and when he found men in office who were not honest he pitched them 
 out and put honest men in their stead. He was interested in everything and afraid of 
 nothing. Now the strange thing about this strong, brave man is the fact that when he 
 was a boy he was neither strong nor brave. He was a thin, awkward boy, so near- 
 sighted that he could not see an owl without his spectacles. He was a timid boy. 
 He was afraid of horses and rough men. But he was wise enough to decide that 
 some day he would be strong and some day he would be brave, and he set himself to 
 work to become so. When he felt afraid of anything, no matter what, he said noth- 
 ing about it, and behaved as if he were not afraid at all. To his great delight he 
 found that gradually day by day he came not to be afraid at all. To make himself 
 strong, he ate the simplest food and walked and rode no matter how it tired him, 
 until at last he became really tireless. In this way he learned to face a Spanish can- 
 non or an outraged politician with joy in the adventure, and no man can call him 
 coward. 
 
 TWO BROTHERS TEACH THE WORLD TO FLY— 1903 
 
 Not very long ago two quiet young Americans invented one of the most wonderful 
 things in the world, a flying machine that would fly. These inventors were brothers, 
 Wilbur and Orville Wright. In their shop they made excellent bicycles and in their 
 spare moments worked together over plans for a machine heavier than air that would 
 nevertheless stay up in the air and carry a man besides. They first made a large 
 box kite on wheels called a glider. Then they wrote to the weather man in Wash- 
 ington to know where the winds were strongest and steadiest. He told them at Kitty 
 Hawk Beach behind Kill Devil Plill in North Carolina. So to Kitty Hawk they took 
 their glider, and in it sailed down the wind from the top of Kill Devil Hill. At last they 
 put together a glider, a propeller and a gasoline engine in such a way that the machine 
 would stay up in the air as long as it was kept in motion. They invited men from Kitty 
 Hawk to watch their first flight. Then Wilbur climbed in, Orville pushed off the ma- 
 chine and Wilbur flew 860 feet. For the first time since the world began a man was 
 seen to fly. Yet no one seemed much interested. The Wright brothers for three years, 
 improved their machine until at last they could fly 20 miles in 7,^ minutes. They 
 invited their friends to see the flights. They often flew near a large city. But they 
 were such quiet men, that no one realized what was going on. At last some news- 
 paper reporters were sent out to see if they really flew. These men, thinking that 
 Wilbur and Orville had been keeping their machine a secret, went cautiously to Kitty 
 Hawk by a roundabout way, hid themselves behind a sand hill and waited. That after- 
 noon the innocent Wrights came out and flew as usual. The reporters' eyes grew wide 
 with surprise. Then they telegraphed to all the world that men could fly, and the two 
 quiet brothers woke up next morning to find themselves forever famous. 
 
 195 
 
ESQUIMO WOMAN 
 
X 
 
 WARSHIP PASSING THROUGH CANAL 
 
THE STARS AND STRIPES AT THE NORTH POLE— 1909 
 
 Ever since Columbus discovered America, brave men have been pushing toward the 
 north, at first to find a northern way to China, then to search for the North Pole. 
 Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians, tried to find it and failed. At last Americans too 
 began to try and a few years ago an American did reach the Pole and set the Stars and 
 Stripes to waving there. This man was Robert Peary. He had tried many times and 
 had learned how to succeed. He built a ship with curved iron sides, which a sea of ice 
 could not crush; he filled this ship with wiry men, food for three years, Eskimos, 
 sledges, and Arctic dogs. Then he steamed through icebergs as far north as his ship 
 could go. The ship stopped 438 miles south of the North Pole. Storms raged, the 
 bitter cold never ceased. When spring came, Peary and his men set out across the ice 
 fields of the Arctic Ocean. They were dressed in furs and wore moccasins and gloves 
 of fur. Their food was hard biscuit and dried meat. Their drink was snow boiled 
 with tea. Their meals were cooked on alcohol stoves. Food, stoves, and alcohol, were 
 piled on sledges drawn by fuzzy dogs. On they pushed for weeks. Their faces froze, 
 their feet and hands froze. To thaw them they put their frozen hands or feet up under 
 the fur coat of another man and held them there until they burned and stung. Eating 
 two meals a day, sleeping six hours a night, they hurried on over ridges of old ice, 
 thin films of young ice, drifts of snow. Now and then Peary sent men back to keep 
 open the back trail. At last Peary, his negro helper Hanson, and four Eskimos, 
 reached the North Pole. There they built a snow hut, flew the Stars and Stripes, and 
 turning started back to the ship. They rushed on in a daze, fifteen, seventeen hours a 
 day, over the rocking ice. In a month they reached safety ; then, their work done, and 
 full of thankfulness, they slept and slept, woke, ate, and slept again. 
 
 THE PANAMA CANAL JOINS TWO OCEANS— 1915 
 
 The United States has dug the biggest ditch in the world, a ditch forty-three miles 
 long and forty feet deep, straight through a hot, wet jungle. This ditch is called the 
 Panama Canal and it joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across that narrow strip of 
 land connecting North America and South America. For four hundred years men 
 dreamed of this great canal. Fifty years ago the French people began it. They 
 worked well and dug twelve miles of it, but the land was hot and unhealthy ; terrible 
 sickness came upon them ; one man of every three died as he worked ; and at last they 
 gave up the task. After our war with Spain our nation decided to build the canal, but 
 before we began digging, we had to do several other things. The country of Panama 
 was wonderfully dirty, it was full of swamps and jungles, and swarmed with flies and 
 mosquitoes, bringing disease. White men could not live there. So first our Americans 
 cleaned up the country. They drained swamps, cut down jungles, washed houses, laid 
 streets, dug sewers, killed off mosquitoes and flies, until Panama became one of the 
 cleanest, healthiest countries in the world. Engineers, boiler-makers, skilled workers 
 then came from the United States; day laborers came from all the countries in the 
 world, and in a short time Americans, Negroes, Spaniards, Greeks, Russians, Bulgar- 
 ians, Germans were working together to dig the big ditch. Forty-three thousand men 
 all working together, fed with good food sent them in ice-lined ships ! Three hundred 
 huge rock drills at work at one time ! Sometimes thirty tons of dynamite roared at a 
 single blast ; valleys were ripped open, mountains torn down. Giant steam shovels 
 picked up seven tons of broken rock at a bite and threw them into dump cars which 
 whirled them away. Dirt flew in Panama. And now after ten years of labor our 
 canal is finished, and the ships of all the nations slip through from sea to sea. 
 
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