Good stories for great birthdays / arranged for story-telling and reading aloud and for the children's own reading

by Frances Jenkins Olcott

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful acknowledgments are due the following Publishers and Authors, for material from their books:—

To Houghton Mifflin Company for material from books by Edward Arber, Albert J. Beveridge, John Fiske, Henry Cabot Lodge, John T. Morse, James Parton, James B. Thayer, William Roscoe Thayer, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

To the New York Evening Post for stories written for its columns by the author of this book.

To the New York Times for “A Lock of Washington’s Hair,” by T. R. Ybarra.

To D. Appleton and Company for extracts from the Poems of William Cullen Bryant, and material from William Spence Robertson’s Rise of the Spanish-American Republics.

To Charles Scribner’s Sons for material from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography.

To Harr Wagner Publishing Company, San Francisco, California, publishers of the complete works of Joaquin Miller, for permission to use his Columbus.

To J. B. Lippincott Company for material from Charles Morris’s Heroes of Progress.

To Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Company for “Nellie and Little Washington,” from Harriet Taylor Upton’s Our Early Presidents, their Wives and Children.

To the Missionary Education Movement for “Dom Pedro,” from Margarette Daniels’s Makers of South America.

To the Macmillan Company for material from James Morgan’s Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man.

To Dr. Sherman Williams for “The Boy of the Hurricane,” from his New York’s Part in History, published by D. Appleton and Company.

To Mr. Wayne Whipple for “The Little Girl and the Red Coats,” from his Story-Life of Washington, published by John C. Winston Company.

To the Brooklyn Public Library, Montague Branch, for the use of its remarkably fine collection of volumes on early American history, many of which are rare and out of print.

To the Staff of the Brooklyn Public Library, Montague Branch, for most helpful co-operation.

. . . . . . . . . .

As this book of Great Birthdays was several years in the making, it is not possible to cite the many authorities, histories, and biographies which have been consulted. The following titles may give some idea of the kind of research work done, in order to make Great Birthdays of value in teaching American History:—

Fiske, American Revolution; Garden, Ancedotes of the Revolutionary War; Green, Short History of the English People; Journals of the Continental Congress; Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution; Elkanah Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution; Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, with other Original Documents (Hakluyt Society); Memorials of Columbus ... translated from the Spanish and Italian; Lives of Columbus by Irving, Lamartine, and Winsor; Story of the Pilgrim Fathers (Arber Reprint); Mourt’s Relation; Old South Leaflets; George Washington, Journal of my Journey over the Mountains, also his Writings; Ford, Washington and the Theatre; George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son; Headley, Illustrated Life of George Washington; Irving, Life of Washington; Lossing, Mary and Martha, the Mother and the Wife of George Washington; Lodge, George Washington, (American Statesmen Series); John Paul Jones’s Letters, also lives of him by De Koven, Headley, and Mackenzie; Lives of William Penn, by Dixon, Hodges, Janney, Stoughton; Lives of John Marshall, and addresses in his memory, by Beveridge, Binney, Flanders, Rawle, Sallie E. Marshal Hardy (in The Green Bag), Justice Story, and Chief Justice Waite; Peters, Haym Salomon; Franklin’s Autobiography; Humphreys, Life of the Honourable Major General Israel Putnam (material obtained largely from Putnam himself); Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut, by his descendant Jonathan Trumbull; correspondence, diaries, and speeches of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Abigail Adams, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Lafayette, Pitt, Lincoln, and Webster.

In writing the South American stories, the following have been most useful: Biggs, History of Don Francisco de Miranda’s Attempt to Effect a Revolution in South America; Palacio Fajardo, Outline of the Revolution in Spanish America; Encyclopedia of Latin America; Koebel, British Exploits in South America, also his South America; Captain Basil Hall, Extracts from a Journal; Larrazábal, Simón Bolivar; Mahoney, Campaigns and Cruises in Venezuela and New Grenada; Mehegan, O’Higgins of Chile; General Miller, Memoirs in the Service of the Republic of Peru; Bartolomé Mitre, Emancipation of South America; Pan-American Union, Bulletin; Petre, Simón Bolivar; Robertson, Rise of the Spanish-American Republics, also his Francisco de Miranda (American Historical Association); Smith, History of the Adventures and Sufferings of Moses Smith; also a number of volumes of travel including Lord Bryce, South America; and Winter, Argentina, and Chile.

CONTENTS

[October 12 COLUMBUS AND DISCOVERER’S DAY]
Columbus, Joaquin Miller	[2]
The Sea of Darkness	[3]
The Fortunate Isles	[5]
The Absurd Truth	[7]
Cathay the Golden	[10]
The Emerald Islands	[12]
The Magnificent Return	[13]
The Fatal Pearls	[15]
Tierra Firme
The Pearls
The Curse of the Pearls
Queen Isabella’s Page	[21]
The Twin Cities	[24]
The Pearls Again	[26]
[October 14 WILLIAM PENN, THE FOUNDER OFPENNSYLVANIA]
Within the Land of Penn, John Greenleaf Whittier	[30]
The Boy of Great Tower Hill	[31]
He Wore It as long as He Could, Samuel M. Janney	[32]
The Peacemaker	[33]
Westward Ho, and Away! John Stoughton	[34]
The City of Brotherly Love	[36]
The Place of Kings, Samuel M. Janney	[38]
Onas, W. Hepworth Dixon	[41]
[October 27 THEODORE ROOSEVELT, AMERICA’S HERO]
The Square Deal, Theodore Roosevelt	[44]
The Boy Who Grew Strong, James Morgan	[45]
Not in a Log Cabin
In the Wide Out-of-Doors
Busting Broncos
Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt	[50]
The Children of Sagamore Hill, William Roscoe Thayer	[52]
Off with John Burroughs, Theodore Roosevelt	[53]
The Big Stick, William Roscoe Thayer	[54]
A-Hunting Trees with John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt	[55]
The Bear Hunters’ Dinner, Theodore Roosevelt	[56]
Hunting in Africa, Theodore Roosevelt	[57]
The Ever Faithful Island	[59]
The Colonel of the Rough Riders, William Roscoe Thayer	[61]
The River of Doubt, William Roscoe Thayer	[65]
Theodore Roosevelt, William Roscoe Thayer	[69]
[October 30 JOHN ADAMS, THE SON OF LIBERTY]
Independence Day, John Adams	[74]
A Son of Liberty, Benson J. Lossing	[75]
The Adams Family	[76]
Aid to the Sister Colony, James Parton	[77]
A Famous Date	[80]
What a Glorious Morning!	[81]
John to Samuel	[82]
A Gentleman from Virginia	[83]
The Boy Who Became President	[85]
How Shall the Stars be Placed?	[88]
The Mysterious Stranger	[89]
His Last Toast	[91]
[November 15 WILLIAM PITT, DEFENDER OF AMERICA]
He at once breathed his own lofty spirit, John Richard Green	[94]
This Terrible Cornet of Horse	[95]
The Charter of Liberty	[98]
America’s Defender	[101]
The Sons of Liberty	[103]
A Last Scene, John Fiske	[105]
[December 2 DOM PEDRO THE SECOND, THE MAGNANIMOUS,THE BEST REPUBLICAN IN BRAZIL]
Freedom in Brazil, John Greenleaf Whittier	[110]
The Brazils Magnificent	[111]
The Empire of the Southern Cross	[112]
Making the Little Emperor, W. H. Koebel	[113]
The Patriot Emperor	[115]
I. Viva Dom Pedro the Second!
II. My People
III. Emancipating the Slaves, 1888
IV. The Empire of the Southern Cross—No More! Margarette Daniels
The United States of Brazil	[120]
[December 20 WILLIAM BRADFORD, AND THE LANDINGOF THE PILGRIMS]
So they left that goodly and pleasant city, William Bradford	[124]
The Father of the New England Colonies	[125]
The Savage New World	[128]
Welcome, Englishmen!	[131]
Lost! Lost! A Boy!	[132]
The Rattlesnake Challenge	[136]
The Great Drought, Governor Edward Winslow	[138]
[January 7 GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM, “OLD PUT”]
There was a generosity and buoyancy about the brave old man, Washington Irving	[142]
Seeing Boston	[143]
The Fight with the Wolf	[144]
From Plough to Camp	[146]
He Made Washington Laugh	[148]
A Generous Foe	[149]
Putnam not Forgotten!	[150]
[January 11 ALEXANDER HAMILTON, DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION]
He gave the whole powers of his mind, Daniel Webster	[154]
The Boy of the Hurricane, Sherman Williams	[155]
Call Colonel Hamilton	[157]
A Struggle	[158]
“He Knows Everything”	[159]
[January 17 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE AMERICAN SOCRATES]
Our Country, Benjamin Franklin	[164]
The Whistle, Benjamin Franklin	[165]
The Candle-Maker’s Boy	[166]
The Boy of the Printing Press	[167]
The Three Rolls	[168]
Standing Before Kings	[169]
The Wonderful Kite Experiment	[170]
The Rising Sun	[171]
To My Friend, Benjamin Franklin	[172]
[February 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR]
Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare, William Cullen Bryant	[174]
The Cabin in the Clearing	[175]
How He Learned to be Just	[176]
Off to New Orleans	[177]
The Kindness of Lincoln	[178]
The Little Birds
Rescuing the Pig
Opening Their Eyes
Lincoln and the Children	[181]
Hurrah for Lincoln!
Only Eight of Us, Sir
He’s Beautiful!
Please Let Your Beard Grow
Three Little Girls
The President and the Bible	[183]
Washington and Lincoln Speak	[185]
Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln	[186]
[February 22 GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY]
Lincoln on Washington’s Birthday	[190]
The Boy in the Valley	[191]
Washington’s Mother, George Washington Parke Custis	[194]
Washington’s Wedding Day, Henry Cabot Lodge	[197]
Washington and the Children, Grace Greenwood	[197]
The Little Girl and the Red Coats, Wayne Whipple	[200]
Nellie and Little Washington, Harriet Taylor Upton	[200]
Seeing the President, George Washington Parke Custis	[203]
Nelson the Hero, George Washington Parke Custis	[204]
Caring for the Guest, Elkanah Watson	[205]
Thoughtful of Others	[206]
The Cincinnatus of the West	[206]
Brother Jonathan	[208]
The Bloody Footprints, George Washington Parke Custis	[210]
An Appeal to God, Benson J. Lossing	[211]
Friend Greene	[213]
Light Horse Harry, Washington Irving	[216]
Captain Molly, George Washington Parke Custis	[218]
The Soldier Baron	[220]
Father Thaddeus	[223]
The Little Friend in Front Street	[228]
Farewell! My General! Farewell! J. T. Headley	[230]
From “Washington’s Legacy”	[232]
A King of Men, John Fiske	[233]
When Washington Died	[234]
[February 25 JOSE DE SAN MARTIN OF ARGENTINA, THE PROTECTOR]
San Martin, the Great Liberator, Joseph Conrad	[236]
The Boy Soldier	[237]
The Patriot Who Kept Faith	[238]
When San Martin Came	[240]
Argentina’s Independence Day	[243]
A Great Idea	[243]
The Mighty Andes, Bartolome Mitre	[245]
The Real San Martin	[247]
The Fighting Engineer of the Andes, Bartolome Mitre	[248]
The Hannibal of the Andes, General Miller and Bartolome Mitre	[249]
Not for Himself	[254]
Cochrane, El Diablo	[255]
Our Brothers, Ye Shall be Free	[256]
The Fall of the City of the Kings, Captain Basil Hall	[257]
San Martin the Conqueror, Captain Basil Hall	[261]
A Retreat
The Mother and Her Three Sons
The Little Girl Who Was Bashful
Another Little Girl
The Best Cigar
Duty Before the General
Lima’s Greatest Day	[265]
Hail, Neighbour Republics!	[266]
America for the Americans	[268]
What One American Did	[271]
The Amazing Meeting	[272]
What Happened Afterward	[274]
The Mystery Solved	[276]
[March 15 ANDREW JACKSON, OLD HICKORY]
I want to say that Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt	[280]
Mischievous Andy, James Parton	[281]
Reading the Declaration	[282]
Out Against Tarleton, James Parton	[283]
An Orphan of the Revolution, James Parton	[285]
The Hooting in the Wilderness, James Parton	[286]
Fort Mims	[289]
Davy Crockett	[290]
Chief Weatherford, James Parton	[291]
Sam Houston	[295]
Why Jackson was Named Old Hickory, James Parton	[297]
The Cotton-Bales	[299]
After the Battle of New Orleans, James Parton	[300]
[April 13 THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE FRAMER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE]
The Fourth of July, Hezekiah Butterworth	[304]
The Boy Owner of Shadwell Farm, James Parton	[305]
A Christmas Guest, James Parton	[306]
The Author of the Declaration	[308]
Proclaim Liberty	[309]
Only a Reprieve	[310]
On the Fourth of July	[313]
[May 29 PATRICK HENRY, THE ORATOR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE]
To the Reader, Patrick Henry	[316]
The Orator of the War for Independence, Charles Morris	[317]
A Surprise to All
A Failure That Was a Success
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
Facing Danger	[322]
[June 9 FRANCISCO DE MIRANDA OF VENEZUELA, THE FLAMING SON OF LIBERTY]
The Prince of Filibusters, William Spence Robertson	[326]
The Spanish Galleons	[327]
The Romance of Miranda	[331]
The Mystery Ship, James Biggs and Moses Smith	[335]
The End of the Mystery Ship	[339]
The Great and Glorious Fifth	[341]
A Terrible Thing	[343]
End of the Romance	[344]
[June 23-24 ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE FOUNDING OF PROVIDENCE]
God makes a Path, Roger Williams	[348]
Roger, the Boy	[349]
Soul Liberty	[350]
What Cheer! Z. A. Mudge	[352]
Risking His Life, Charles Morris	[354]
[July 6 JOHN PAUL JONES, AMERICA’S IMMORTAL SEA-FIGHTER]
Paul Jones, Ballad	[358]
The Boy of the Solway, J. T. Headley	[359]
Don’t Tread on Me! J. T. Headley	[360]
The First Salute, Alexander S. Mackenzie	[361]
The Poor Richard	[364]
Mickle’s the Mischief He has Dune, J. T. Headley	[365]
Paul Jones Himself, J. T. Headley	[367]
Some of His Sayings	[369]
[July 24 SIMON BOLIVAR OF VENEZUELA, THE LIBERATOR]
Bolivar, Barry Cornwall	[372]
The Precious Jewel	[373]
The Fiery Young Patriot	[376]
Seeing Bolivar, By a Young Englishman	[378]
Uncle Paez—The Lion of the Apure	[382]
Angostura	[384]
The Crossing, By One who Accompanied Bolivar	[385]
Peru Next	[388]
The Break	[389]
Bolivar the Man, William Spence Robertson	[390]
[August 20 BERNARDO O’HIGGINS, FIRST SOLDIER, FIRST CITIZEN OF CHILE]
The Name of O’Higgins, W. H. Koebel	[394]
The Son of the Barefoot Boy	[395]
The Single Star Flag	[397]
The Hero of Rancagua	[398]
Companions-in-Arms	[400]
The Patriot Ruler	[400]
First Soldier, First Citizen	[402]
Chile as She Is	[403]
One of Twenty	[405]
The Better Way	[406]
[September 6 THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, THE FRIEND OF AMERICA]
After the sacrifices I have made, Lafayette	[412]
I will Join the Americans! Edith Sichel	[413]
In America	[414]
On the Field Near Camden	[414]
The Banner of the Moravian Nuns	[416]
Loyal to the Chief, John Fiske	[418]
We Are Grateful, Lafayette!	[420]
Some of Washington’s Hair, T. R. Ybarra	[421]
Welcome! Friend of America!	[422]
[September 24 JOHN MARSHALL, THE EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION]
He had a deep sense of moral and religious obligation, Justice Joseph Story	[426]
The Boy of the Frontier, Albert J. Beveridge	[427]
In a Log Cabin
Off to the Blue Ridge
Making an American
Give Me Liberty!
The Young Lieutenant, Horace Binney	[433]
Serving the Cause, Henry Flanders	[434]
At Valley Forge, William Henry Rawle	[435]
Silver Heels, J. B. Thayer	[436]
Without Bread, John Marshall’s Sister	[437]
His Mother, Sallie E. Marshall Hardy	[438]
His Father, Justice Joseph Story	[438]
Three Stories, James B. Thayer	[439]
What Was in the Saddlebags
Eating Cherries
Learned in the Law of Nations
The Constitution	[442]
Expounding the Constitution, Chief Justice Waite	[444]
The Great Chief Justice, Horace Binney	[446]
Respected by All
The True Man
What of the Constitution? Washington, Bolivar, Webster, Lincoln	[448]
Envoy	[450]
[Appendix]
[I. Programme of Stories from the History of the United States]	[453]
[II. Story Programme of South America’s Struggle for Independence]	[460]
[Subject Index]:[A],[B],[C],[D],[E],[F],[G],[H],[I],[J],[K],[L],[M],[N],[O],[P],[Q],[R],[S],[T],[U],[V],[W],[Y].	[465]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Breakfast with the Children at Mount Vernon	[Frontispiece]
Columbus examines the Pearls	[18]
Roosevelt breaking “Devil”	[50]
John Billington brought on the Shoulders of an Indian	[136]
Franklin and the Kite Experiment	[170]
“He’s beautiful”	[182]
“‘Treason! Treason!’ cried some of the excited Members”	[318]
Paul Jones hoisting the Stars and Stripes	[362]
Drawn by Frank T. Merrill

OCTOBER 12
COLUMBUS
AND
DISCOVERER’S DAY

The Very Magnificent Lord Don Cristobal Colon, High Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the Islands and Tierra Firma.

COLUMBUS

“My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak.”
The stout Mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
“What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
“Why you shall say at break of day,
Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! and on!”

Then pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck—
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit Flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a World, he gave that World
Its grandest lesson—
“On! Sail on!”

From Joaquin Miller’s Columbus

Christopher Columbus was born in Italy, about 1451

First landed on an island of America, October 12, 1492

Sighted South America, 1498

Was sent in chains to Spain, 1500

Returned from his Fourth Voyage, 1504

He died, May 20, 1506

His name in Spanish is Cristobal Colon.

THE SEA OF DARKNESS

Before America was ever heard of, over four hundred years ago, a boy lived in Genoa the Proud City.

He was just one of hundreds of boys in that beautiful Italian town, whose palaces, marble villas, and churches climbed her picturesque hillsides. The boy’s name was Christopher Columbus.

Whenever he could leave his father’s workshop, where he was learning to comb wool, for his father was a weaver, how eagerly the boy must have run down to the wharfs and sat there watching the ships come and go.

They came from all those parts of the world which people knew about then, from Iceland and England, from European and Asiatic ports, and from North Africa. Caravels, galleys, and galleons, and sailing craft of all kinds, came laden with the wealth that made Genoa one of the richest cities of her time.

The sailors, who lounged on the wharfs, spun wonderful yarns. They told how beyond the Pillars of Hercules which guarded the straits of Gibraltar, there rolled a vast, unknown sea, called the Atlantic Ocean or the Sea of Darkness.

No one, they said, had ever crossed it. No one knew what lay beyond it. All was mystery. And any mariners, the sailors said, who had ventured far out on its black waters had never returned.

Fearful things had happened to such mariners, the sailors added, for the Sea of Darkness swarmed with spectres, devils, and imps. And when night fell, slimy monsters crawled and swam in its boiling waves. Among these monsters, was an enormous nautilus large enough to crush a whole ship in its squirming arms, and a serpent fifty leagues long with flaming eyes and horse’s mane. Sea-elephants, sea-lions, and sea-tigers, fed in beds of weeds. Harpies and winged terrors flew over the surface of the water.

And horrible, they said, was the fate which overtook the ship of any foolhardy mariners who ventured too far out on that gloomy ocean. A gigantic hand was thrust up through the waves, and grasped the ship. A polypus, spouting two water-spouts as high as the sky, made such a whirlpool that the vessel, spinning round and round like a top, was sucked down into the roaring abyss.

These frightful sea-yarns and many like them, the sailors told about the Atlantic Ocean, and people believed them. But the eyes of the boy Columbus, as he sat listening, must have sparkled as he longed to explore those mysterious waters of the Sea of Darkness, and follow them to the very edge of the world.

For all that lay to the west of the Azores, was a great and fascinating mystery, when Columbus was a boy, before America was discovered.

THE FORTUNATE ISLES

Listen now to some of the stories that the Irish sailors who visited Genoa, told when Columbus was a boy. And people in those days, believed them to be true.

They told how far, far in the West, where the sun set in crimson splendour, lay the Terrestrial Paradise from which Adam and Eve were driven. And other wonder tales the sailors told.

One was the enchanting tale of Maeldune, the Celtic Knight, who seeking his father’s murderer, sailed over the wide Atlantic in a coracle of skins lapped threefold, one over the other.

Many were the wonder-islands that Maeldune and his comrades visited—the Island of the Silvern Column; the Island of the Flaming Rampart; the Islands of the Monstrous Ants, and the Giant Birds; the Islands of the Fierce Beasts, the Fiery Swine, and the Little Cat; the Islands of the Black Mourners, the Glass Bridge, and the Spouting Water; the Islands of the Red Berries, and the Magic Apples; and the islands of many other wonders.

Many were the strange adventures that Maeldune had in enchanted castles with beautiful Queens and lovely damsels, with monstrous birds, sleep-giving potions, and magic food.

And the Irish sailors told, also, of good St. Brandan who set sail in a coracle, and discovered the Fortunate Isles. There he dwelt in blessed happiness, they said:—

“And his voice was low as from other worlds, and his eyes were sweet;
And his white hair sank to his heels, and his white beard fell to his feet.”

And still another tale the Irish sailors told, a tale of Fairy Land, called the Land of Youth. Thither once went Usheen the Irish Bard.

It happened on a sweet, misty morning that Usheen saw a slender snow-white steed come pacing along the shore of Erin. Silver were his shoes, and a nodding crest of gold was on his head. Upon his back was seated a Fairy Maiden crowned with gold, and wrapped in a trailing mantle adorned with stars of red gold.

Weirdly but sweetly she smiled, and sang an Elfin song; while over sea and shore there fell a dreamy silence. Through the fine mist she urged on her steed, singing sweeter and ever sweeter as she came nearer and nearer to Usheen.

She drew rein before him. His friends saw him spring upon the steed, and fold the Fairy Maiden in his arms. She shook the bridle which rang forth like a chime of bells, and swiftly they sped over the water and across the sea, the snow-white steed running lightly over the waves.

They plunged into a golden haze that shrouded them from mortal eyes. Ghostly towers, castles, and palace-gates loomed dimly before Usheen, then melted away. A hornless doe bounded near him, chased by a white hound. They vanished into the haze.

Then a Fairy Damsel rode swiftly past Usheen, holding up a golden apple to him. Fast behind her, galloped a horseman, his purple cloak streaming in the still air, a sharp sword glittering in his hand. They, too, melted mysteriously away.

And soon Usheen himself vanished into the Land of Youth, into Fairy Land.

These are some of the wonder tales that folk used to tell about the mysterious Atlantic Ocean, when Columbus was a boy.

THE ABSURD TRUTH

When Columbus was a boy, there was a story told that the Earth was round. Nearly every one who heard it thought it foolish—absurd.

“The Earth round!” they said; “do we not know that the Earth is flat? And does not the sun set each night at the edge of the World?”

But young Columbus had a powerful, practical imagination. He believed there were good reasons to think that the Earth was not flat. He attended the University of Pavia. He studied astronomy and other sciences. He learned map-making. He read how the ancient philosophers thought the Earth to be a sphere and how they had tried to prove their theory by observing the sun, moon, and stars.

Then, too, there were scholars in Europe, when Columbus was young, who agreed with the philosophers.

But no scholar or philosopher had ever risked his life in a frail ship and ventured across the terrible Sea of Darkness to battle with its horrors, and prove his theory to be fact. The surging billows of the Atlantic with angry leaping crests of foam, still guarded their mystery.

Young Columbus became a sailor, cruising with his uncle on the Mediterranean, sometimes chasing pirate ships. When older, he made long voyages. He learned to navigate a vessel. He visited, so some historians say, England and Thule. They say, too, that Thule was Iceland. Then if he visited Iceland, Columbus must have heard the strange tale of how Leif, son of Erik the Red, the bold Northman, sailed in a single ship over the Sea of Darkness, and discovered Vinland the Good on the other side of the Atlantic.

Columbus talked with sailors about their voyages. He heard how the waves of the Sea of Darkness sometimes cast upon the Islands of the Azores, gigantic bamboos, queer trees, strange nuts, seeds, carved logs, and bodies of hideous men with flat faces, the flotsam and jetsam from unknown lands far to the west.

Columbus’s imagination and spirit of adventure were fired. He became more eager than ever to explore that vast expanse of water, and learn what really lay in the mysterious region, where the sun set each night and from which the sun returned each morning.

“The Earth is not flat,” thought he, “much goes to prove it. India, from which gold and spices come, is assuredly on the other side. If I can but cross the Sea of Darkness, I shall reach Tartary and Cathay the Golden Country of Kublai Khan. I shall have found a Western Passage to Asia. I will bring back treasure; but more than all else I shall be able to carry the Gospel of Christ to the heathen.”

For Columbus, you must know, was one of the most devout Christian men of his time.

And he signed his name to letters, “Christ Bearing.” Christopher in the Greek language, means Christ-Bearer. Perhaps, he was thinking of the beautiful legend of St. Christopher, who on his mighty shoulders bore the Christ Child across the swelling river, even as he, Christopher Columbus, humbly wished to bear Christ’s Gospel across the raging waters of the Sea of Darkness.

CATHAY THE GOLDEN

Where was Cathay the Golden?

Who was Kublai Khan?

One of Columbus’s favourite books was written by Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, who served Kublai, Grand Khan of Tartary in Asia. Cathay was the name which Marco Polo gave to China.

In his book, Marco Polo told of many marvels. In the chief city of Cathay the Golden, ruled over by Kublai Khan, stood the Grand Khan’s palace. Its walls were covered with gold and silver, and adorned with figures of dragons, beasts, and birds. Its lofty roof was coloured outside with vermilion, yellow, green, blue, and every other hue, all shining like crystal.

To this city of Cathay, were brought the most costly articles in the world, gold, silver, precious jewels, spices, and rare silks. The Grand Khan had so many plates, cups, and ewers of gold and silver, that no one would believe it without seeing them. He had five thousand elephants in magnificent trappings, bearing chests on their backs filled with priceless treasure. He had also, a vast number of camels with rich housings.

At the New Year Feast, the people made presents to Kublai Khan of gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, and rich stuffs. They presented him, also, with many beautiful snow-white horses handsomely caparisoned.

These and other wonderful things, did Marco Polo write about in his book, and Columbus read them all.

. . . . . . . . . .

At last the time came, when Columbus was fully determined to discover a Western Passage, and thus open a path through the Ocean from Europe to Asia.

The Spanish courtiers laughed at Columbus; they called him a fool and madman to believe that the Sea of Darkness might be crossed. But as the years of waiting went by, Columbus grew stronger in his determination.

The story of his many years of patient but determined waiting in Spain, of his pleadings with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, for money, men, and ships with which to cross the Ocean Sea, is told in “Good Stories for Great Holidays.”

And in “Good Stories for Great Holidays,” it is told how at last Columbus was befriended by the Friar Juan Perez. There also may be found the stories of Columbus and the Egg, of his little son Diego at La Rabida, of Queen Isabella pledging her jewels, of Columbus’s sailing across the Sea of Darkness, of the mutiny, of his faith, perseverance, and wisdom, and how at last he sighted a cluster of beautiful green islands, lying like emeralds in the blue waters of the Atlantic—all these stories may be read in “Good Stories for Great Holidays.”

THE EMERALD ISLANDS
Columbus’s Day, October 12, 1492

It was with songs of praise, that Columbus first landed on one of those emerald islands of the New World.

And what delightful islands they were, sparkling with streams, and filled with trees of great height. There were fruits, flowers, and honey in abundance. Among the large leaves and bright blossoms, flocks of birds sang and called. There were cultivated fields of Indian corn.

And there were savages, naked dark-skinned folk, who peeped from behind trees, or ran frightened away. Later they grew bolder, and traded with Columbus and his men. Some of the savages smoked rolls of dried leaves. This was the first tobacco that white men had ever seen. Thus Columbus and his men discovered Indian corn, and tobacco.

As Columbus sailed along the shores of the islands, he watched anxiously for the crystal-shining domes of Kublai Khan’s Palace to rise among the trees. But no Cathay the Golden gleamed among the green, no elephants in trappings of cloth-of-gold, paced the sands.

Instead, all was wild though so beautiful. The only people were the dark-skinned ones, whom Columbus named Indians; for he was sure that he had come across the Sea of Darkness by the Western Passage to India.

THE MAGNIFICENT RETURN

It was a day of great rejoicing when Columbus returned to Spain. The whole country rose up to do him honour. Bells were rung, mass was said, and vast crowds cheered him as he passed along streets and highways.

No one called him a fool and madman then. Had he not crossed the Sea of Darkness and returned alive? Neither nautilus, gigantic hand, nor polypus had dared to harm him. The Sea of Darkness was a mysterious gloomy sea no longer, instead it was the wide Atlantic Ocean, a safe pathway for brave mariners and good ships, a pathway leading to new lands of gold and spices far toward the setting sun. And so all Spain did honour to Columbus.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella eagerly awaited him at Barcelona. He entered that city with pomp and in procession. Balconies, windows, roofs were thronged. Crowds surged through the streets to gaze in wonder on that strange procession, so spectacular, so magnificent.

First came the dark-skinned savage men, in paint and gold ornaments; after them walked men bearing live parrots of every colour; then others came carrying rich glittering coronets and bracelets, together with beautiful fruits and strange vegetables and plants, such as the people of Europe had never dreamed could exist.

Then passed the great discoverer himself, Christopher Columbus, a-horseback, and surrounded by a cavalcade of the most brilliant courtiers of Spain.

He dismounted, and entered the saloon where the King and Queen sat beneath a canopy of brocade. He modestly greeted them on bended knee. They raised him most graciously, and bade him be seated in their presence.

After they had heard his tale with wonder, and had examined the treasures that he had brought with him from beyond the Sea of Darkness, the King and Queen together with their whole Court knelt in thanksgiving to God.

To reward Columbus, his Sovereigns bestowed upon him the titles of Don Christopher Columbus, Our Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the Indies. They also promised to make him ruler over any other islands and mainland he might discover.

Columbus immediately began to prepare for another voyage. With a fleet of seventeen ships, bearing supplies and colonists, he sailed across the Sea of Darkness once more to the islands of the New World. He planted a colony there. He discovered other islands. And he still kept on searching diligently for Cathay the Golden.

Turbulent adventurers, rapacious gold-hunters, and vicious men, were among the colonists. And Columbus, in the name of his Sovereigns, with great difficulty ruled over them all.

THE FATAL PEARLS

Tierra Firme

It was in May, 1498. The fleet of Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, in the name of the Holy Trinity, set sail from Spain for a third voyage across the Atlantic.

It was no longer a Sea of Darkness to Columbus, but a sure pathway to golden lands. There he still hoped to find the Earthly Paradise from which Adam and Eve had been driven. And there too, he still expected to discover Cathay the Golden in Tartary, and Cipango, the great island of the western sea, which we call Japan.

His ships sailed on, now plunging through the lifting billows, now lying becalmed on glassy waters under the fierce rays of the tropic sun, and now moving through a region of balmy airs and light refreshing breezes.

July arrived, yet he had not sighted land. The fierce heat of the sun had sprung the seams of the ships. The provisions were rancid. There was scarcely any sweet water left in the casks. The anxious, watchful Admiral scanned the horizon.

On the last day of the month, came a shout from the masthead:—“Land!”

And Columbus beheld the peaks of three mountains rising from the sea, outlined sharply against the sky. Then he and his men, lifting up their voices, sang anthems of praise and repeated prayers of thanksgiving.

As the ships drew nearer to the three peaks, Columbus perceived that they rose from an island and were united at their base.

“Three in one,” he said, and named the island after the Holy Trinity in whose name he had set sail. For he had vowed before leaving Spain, to name the first new land he saw after the Trinity. That is why that island, to-day, is called Trinidad.

They filled their casks there. Then onward they sailed, skirting the coast of Trinidad, hoping to find a harbour to put into while repairing the ships. Soon, they saw a misty headland opposite the island.

“It is another island,” said Columbus.

It was no island. Wonderful to relate, Columbus had just discovered a new Country.

It was the coastline of a vast southern continent. It was Tierra Firme. It was South America!

The Pearls

Young Indian braves, graceful and handsome, their black hair straight and long, their heads wrapped in brilliant scarfs, other bright scarfs wound round their middles, came in a canoe to visit Columbus’s ships.

Soon after this visit, Columbus set sail again, not knowing that he had just sighted one of the richest and greatest continents on earth. Sailing past the mouths of the mighty Orinoco River, pouring out their torrents with angry roar into the Caribbean Sea, Columbus skirted what is now called Venezuela.

Other friendly Indians came to his ships. It was then that Columbus saw for the first time the pearls which were to help ruin him, and which were to work wretchedness and death for so many poor Indian folk.

Among the friendly Indians were some who wore bracelets of lustrous pearls. The gold and spices got by Columbus on his former voyages were of slight beauty compared with those strings of magnificent pearls.

Columbus examined them eagerly. He longed for some to send back to Queen Isabella, in order to prove to her what a rich land he had just discovered.

He questioned the Indians. Where had they got the pearls? They came from their own land, and from a country to the north and west, they answered.

Columbus was eager to go thither. But first he sent men ashore to barter for some of the bracelets. With bright bits of earthenware, with buttons, scissors, and needles, they bought quantities of the pearls from the delighted Indians, to whom such articles were worth more than gold and jewels of which they had plenty.

Then Columbus, hoisting sail, ran farther along the coast purchasing pearls until he had half a bushel or so of the lustrous sea-jewels, some of them of very large size.

He named a great gulf, the Gulf of Pearls. He discovered other islands, among them the island of Margarita, which means a pearl.

After which he turned his ships toward Santo Domingo, not knowing how tragic a thing was to befall him there, partly on account of the pearls.

The Curse of the Pearls

Those fatal sea-jewels had already begun their evil work.

While Columbus was tarrying to collect them, a rebellion fomented by bad men who had taken advantage of his absence, had broken out in the Island of Santo Domingo. When Columbus reached there, he suppressed it. But his enemies hastened to send lying reports about him to the Spanish Court. And the courtiers, who were jealous of his high position, wealth, and power, urged King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to have him deposed.

One of their accusations against him was, that he had held back from his Sovereigns their rightful portion of the rich find of pearls.

So at last, the royal edict went forth that the very magnificent Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the Indies, should be tried and, if found guilty, deposed and returned to Spain.

The man sent to do all this, and govern in Columbus’s stead, was named Bobadilla.

Bobadilla arrived at Santo Domingo with royal commands for Columbus to surrender all power to him, and to obey him in everything. He caused him to be arrested and thrown into prison. He tried and condemned him. He ordered him put into chains. But no one could be found to rivet the chains until one of Columbus’s own servants, “a shameless and graceless cook,” did so with glee.

Then Bobadilla reigned in Columbus’s place over the Indies.

Meanwhile, the grand old Admiral broken in spirit, carped at by his foes, was placed in manacles aboard a caravel.

Bobadilla had given orders that the chains should not be removed, but the humane master of the ship offered to break them.

“Nay,” said Columbus with dignity, “my Sovereigns have commanded me to submit, and Bobadilla has chained me. I will wear these irons until by royal order they are removed. And I shall keep them as relics and memorials of the reward of my services.”

But when Queen Isabella learned how he had been brought back to Spain in shackles, she was greatly angered. Both Sovereigns commanded that he should be immediately released. And when the venerable Columbus grown old in her service, entered her presence, Queen Isabella wept bitterly. Columbus fell at her feet, unable to utter a word, so great was his sorrow.

Both Sovereigns promised to restore all his titles and the wealth which had been taken from him by force. But though Bobadilla was finally deposed from power because of his treatment of Columbus and because of his evil rule, yet the royal promise was not fulfilled. His titles and property were never restored to Columbus.

Instead, he was again sent overseas, on a fourth voyage of discovery.

With four miserable caravels manned by only a hundred and fifty men, the gray-headed, weary Columbus set forth once more still hoping to discover the country of Kublai Khan, and find the Earthly Paradise. And this time Columbus took with him his younger son, Ferdinand, who was thirteen years old.

QUEEN ISABELLA’S PAGE

Off to find Kublai Khan, to drink from his golden cups, to eat from his silvern plates, to ride his elephants, to visit in his great palace, and, perhaps, to discover the Earthly Paradise—what more thrilling adventure could a boy want?

So Ferdinand Columbus, Queen Isabella’s page, eager for adventure, set sail with his father Columbus, to cross the Sea of Darkness and explore beyond the emerald islands.

For, while his father, on his former voyage, had been gathering pearls among the Pearl Islands of the New World, the boy Ferdinand, amid the splendour of the Spanish Court, had been waiting upon Queen Isabella.

But now, what a change! Ferdinand was off across the heaving, foaming Sea of Darkness in a small caravel tossed about like a cockleshell on the billows. A tempest with rain, thunder, and lightning arose. It struck Columbus’s wretched caravels. They were buffeted by the wind, their sails were torn, their rigging, cables, and boats were lost. Food was washed overboard. The sailors were terrified, they ran about making religious vows and confessing their sins to each other. Even the boldest was pale with fear.

“But the distress of my son who was with me, grieved me to the soul ...” wrote Columbus afterward, “for he was but thirteen years old, and he enduring so much toil for so long a time. Our Lord, however, gave him strength to enable him to encourage the rest. He worked as if he had been eighty years at sea.”

But there was more to trouble plucky Ferdinand than the storm at sea. Columbus, his father, fell sick near to death. There was no one who could direct the ships’ course, but Columbus himself. So he had a little cabin rigged up on deck. Lying there, he gave his orders. Presently, to Ferdinand’s joy, he grew better.

Meanwhile, what was happening to the wicked Bobadilla? That same tempest was doing great things. It was buffeting, lashing, and wrecking a caravel which was taking Bobadilla to Spain. The ship, plunging under the howling, raging, black waters, sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking Bobadilla with it, and the treasure he had stolen from Columbus.

But Columbus’s own caravels won safely through the storm and across the Caribbean Sea. They drew near to an unknown shore—the coast of Central America.

There is not space here in which to tell of the many adventures of Columbus and his men, nor of all the things that Ferdinand saw. There were other storms. At one time, the seas ran high and terrific, foaming like a caldron. The sky burned like a furnace, the lightning played with such fury that the waves were red like blood.

The coast of Central America was thickly peopled with savages. Some of them were richly clothed, and wore ornaments of gold and coral, and carried golden mirrors fastened round their necks. Ferdinand saw other savages in trees living like wild birds, their huts built on sticks placed across from bough to bough. He saw strange beasts, beautiful birds, delicious fruits, brilliant flowers, great apes, and alligators basking in the rivers.

There were fights with natives, a massacre of some of his father’s men, there was starvation and misery. Then Columbus, after having sailed down the coast and back again, turned the ships homeward.

Then came the most terrible adventure of all. The ships were riddled by worms, their sides were rotten, and the water was pouring through them like a sieve. Columbus reached the lonely island of Jamaica, just in time to drive his two remaining ships on the beach, and save them from sinking.

There for many months Ferdinand was marooned with his father and the men. There was more starvation, a mutiny, and adventures with savages. Then came the exciting rescue by two caravels.

Such were the adventures of Queen Isabella’s page. But he went back to Spain without seeing Cathay the Golden and Kublai Khan’s palace.

THE TWIN CITIES

While Columbus was exploring the coast of Central America, he fell sick of a fever. He had a dream. He tells us of this dream in his own letters.

He dreamed that a compassionate Voice spoke to him, bidding him believe in God, and serve Him who had had him from infancy in His constant and watchful care, and who had chosen him to unlock the barriers of the Ocean Sea.

This Voice said many things to Columbus, adding these words, “Even now He partially shows thee the reward of so many toils and dangers incurred by thee in the service of others. Fear not but trust.”

And even then, Columbus, though he did not know it, was actually seeing the land where his hopes were to come true. For to-day, we Americans know that while Columbus was exploring inlets and river-mouths on the coast of Central America searching for the Western Passage to Asia, he entered Limon Bay of Panama. He even sailed part way up the Chagres River.

And if his melancholy eager eyes might have been opened, what a vision he would have had of the future! He would have beheld the Caribbean Sea beating on civilized shores. He would have seen Twin Cities rising, their pleasant white, palm-shaded houses smiling in the sun, the Twin Cities of Cristobal and Colon—Christopher and Columbus—proud to bear his famous name. He would have seen those Twin Cities guarding a Western Passage to Asia.

He would have perceived in his vision ships, greater than any Spanish caravels, sliding through a Canal the wonder of the world, on their way to and from Asia the Golden.

. . . . . . . . . .

But as it was, in a miserable little caravel, tempest-racked, with masts sprung and sides worm-eaten, the weary disappointed Columbus with the boy Ferdinand, returned at last to Spain.

And about two years later, in the City of Valladolid, “the Grand Old Admiral,” who had given a New World to the Old, died almost in poverty. As he passed away, he murmured, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

THE PEARLS AGAIN

The curse of the pearls still held strong after Columbus’s death. News of the discovery of the Pearl Islands in the New World, spread rapidly through Europe. Many cruel and greedy pearl-hunters hastened to set out for the islands.

They pillaged the native villages. They hunted the Indians like wild beasts. They forced them to work in the mines. But, worst of all, they made them dive into the deep sea for pearls, under the most horrible conditions.

Then it was that the compassionate friend of the Indians, the humane priest Bartolome de Las Casas, took up their cause and pleaded for them with the Spanish Crown. But Spain was too far away for the Crown to control Spanish officials in America, and do much to lessen the sufferings of the natives.

Thus sorrow and desolation followed the finding of the sea-jewels. In time, they became a rich part of the cargoes of the Treasure Galleons. And they forged one of the first links in the chain of oppression which bound all Spanish America for over three hundred years.

For how this chain was broken by the great Liberators, read:—

Miranda, the Flaming Son of Liberty, page [325]; San Martin, the Protector, page [235]; O’Higgins, First Soldier, First Citizen, page [393]; Bolivar, the Liberator, page [371].

OCTOBER 14
WILLIAM PENN THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA

As Justice is a preserver, so it is a better procurer of Peace,
than War.

William Penn

Within the Land of Penn,
The sectary yielded to the citizen,
And peaceful dwelt the many-creeded men.

Peace brooded over all. No trumpet stung
The air to madness, and no steeple flung
Alarums down from bells at midnight rung.

The Land slept well. The Indian from his face
Washed all his war-paint off, and in the place
Of battle-marches, sped the peaceful chase.
. . . . . . . . . .
The desert blossomed round him; wheatfields rolled
Beneath the warm wind, waves of green and gold,
The planted ear returned its hundredfold.

John Greenleaf Whittier

William Penn was born in London, October 14, 1644

Received the Charter, granting him Pennsylvania, 1681

Composed the Plan for the Peace of Europe, 1693

He died in England, May 30, 1718.

THE BOY OF GREAT TOWER HILL

In a house on Great Tower Hill near London Wall, was born William Penn, who was to become the Founder of Pennsylvania.

He was christened William after his ancestor, Penn of Penn’s Lodge. He was a charming baby, with round face, soft blue eyes, and curling hair. His father, Captain Penn, who had been called home to see the new baby on that first birthday of little William Penn, went back to his ship rejoicing that he had such a handsome son and heir.

When William Penn was ten years old, a strange thing befell him. He was not like other boys. He was quiet and serious. At that time he was a schoolboy in an English village.

One day, he was alone in his room. Suddenly he felt a wonderful peace and an “inner comfort,” while a glory filled the room. He felt that he was drawn near to God, so that his soul might speak with him. A strange experience for a boy to have. But it was an experience which helped to shape William Penn’s life. From that time on, he believed that he had been called to live a holy life.

When he grew older, his family tried to make him forget this religious experience, but he never forgot. In time he became a Friend—or Quaker. In those days, Friends were bitterly persecuted in England. William Penn suffered imprisonments and persecutions, but always with patient sweetness and endurance.

At last, the persecutions of the Friends made William Penn turn his thoughts toward the New World of America.

HE WORE IT AS LONG AS HE COULD

When William Penn became a Friend, he did not immediately leave off his gay apparel, as other Friends did. He even wore a sword, as was customary among men of rank and fashion.

One day, being with George Fox the great leader of the Friends, he asked his advice about wearing the sword, saying that it had once been the means of saving his life without injuring his antagonist, and that moreover Christ has said, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.”

“I advise thee,” answered George Fox quietly, “to wear it as long as thou canst.”

Shortly after this, they met again. William Penn had no sword.

“William,” said George Fox, “where is thy sword?”

“Oh!” replied William Penn, “I have taken thy advice. I wore it as long as I could!”

Samuel M. Janney (Retold)

THE PEACEMAKER

“He must not be a man but a statue of brass or stone, whose bowels do not melt when he beholds the bloody tragedies of this war in Hungary, Germany, Flanders, Ireland, and at sea; the mortality of sickly and languishing camps and navies; and the mighty prey the devouring winds and waves have made upon ships and men,” wrote William Penn over two hundred years ago.

It was then that William Penn became the peacemaker.

The world was in the midst of a terrible war. William Penn did not believe in war. He had cast aside his own sword for principle’s sake, and had bravely suffered persecutions and imprisonments in the Tower of London and in Newgate. Fearlessly now he came forward with a plan for world peace, which he hoped would stop bloody wars, and persuade rulers to arbitrate their quarrels.

He published a “Plan for the Peace of Europe,” urging the formation of a league of European countries.

So earnest is this plan and so profoundly thought out, that it has had much influence on rulers and statesmen, who from time to time have held peace congresses in Europe. But rivalry of Nations, has prevented the peace plan from ever being carried out.

“Christians,” argued William Penn, “have embrewed their hands in one another’s blood, invoking and interesting all they could the good and merciful God to prosper their arms to their brethren’s destruction. Yet their Saviour has told them that He came to save and not to destroy the lives of men, to give and plant peace among men. And, if in any sense, He may be said to send war, it is the Holy War indeed, for it is against the Devil, and not the persons of men. Of all His titles, this seems the most glorious as well as comfortable for us, that He is the Prince of Peace.”

WESTWARD HO, AND AWAY!

The time arrived when William Penn’s peaceful thoughts went sailing over the Atlantic, westward ho, and away! For he was appointed a trustee of Jersey in America. There came to him while he was still in England, news of immense tracts of land lying beyond Jersey, so fertile that under cultivation they would yield harvests unparalleled in his island home. He heard of rich minerals, of noble forests, of river-banks offering splendid sites for towns and cities, of bays where proud navies might ride at anchor.

Moreover, many Friends, who had fled from persecution in England, were settled in Jersey. Their industry had already turned the wilderness into a garden. They were holding their meetings and worshipping God, without fear of constables and fines, of imprisonments and attacks by mobs. In Jersey, they had full liberty of conscience.

And William Penn, as his thoughts sailed westward ho, and away! saw, rising from the sea, bright and fair, a land of refuge not only for persecuted Friends, but for all oppressed people. He determined to found a new State in America, where nobody should be persecuted for religion’s sake, where everybody should be free, and where the people should govern themselves. “A holy experiment,” he called it.

He presented a petition to Charles the Second, asking for a royal grant of land near Jersey. “After many waitings, watchings, solicitings,” the title to a vast tract was confirmed to him under the Great Seal of England. He was to be its ruler and “Lord Proprietor,” “with large powers and privileges.” He was to make laws, grant pardons, and appoint officials as he saw fit, but subject to the approval of the English Government.

Penn named his land, “Sylvania”; but the King called it Penn-sylvania, in honour of old Admiral Penn, William Penn’s father.

Almost the first thing that Penn did was to write to the people already settled in Pennsylvania, “a loving address.”

“My Friends,” he began, “I wish you all happiness, here and hereafter. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast you within my lot and care....

“You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people.”

Thus William Penn promised the People of Pennsylvania, Liberty and the right to govern themselves. And he kept his promises.

John Stoughton (Retold)

THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

With what delight did William Penn first set foot on the shore of the Delaware River. It was Autumn. The sweet clear air, the serene skies, the trees, fruits, and flowers, filled him with a wellnigh unspeakable joy.

And later, while being rowed up the river in a barge, he saw the ancient forest trees on either bank, their leaves flaming with red, gold, and amber. He saw flocks of wild fowl rise up from the water, and fly screaming overhead. The solitude and grandeur of the wilderness brooded over all.

Meanwhile, farther up the river, a welcome was awaiting him. In a little town, shaded by pine-trees and built on the high shore, there were white men and Indians hurrying to and fro. They were preparing an entertainment for William Penn, their Governor.

The town was Penn’s capital city. He had named it Philadelphia, which means Brotherly Love.

And as his barge drew near the City of Brotherly Love, the white settlers, Swedish, Dutch, and English Friends, greeted him heartily, for they already knew how just, gentle, and wise he was.

As for the Indians, so stately in their robes of fur and nodding plumes, William Penn walked with them, and sat down on the ground to eat with them. They gave him hominy and roasted acorns. And after the feast, they entertained him with their sports, jumping and hopping. And William Penn sprang up gayly like a boy, and joining in their games, beat them all, young Braves and old.

And so the Red Men learned to love and trust their great White Father—Onas they called him. For Onas is Indian for a pen, or a quill.

Such was William Penn’s happy welcome to the City of Brotherly Love.

THE PLACE OF KINGS

It was the last of November. The lofty forest trees on the shore of the Delaware had shed their summer attire. The ground was strewn with leaves. A Council-fire was burning brightly beneath a huge Elm, not far from the City of Brotherly Love.

It was an ancient Elm, which for over a hundred years had guarded Shackamaxon, the Place of Kings. For long before the Pale-faces had landed on the shore of the Delaware, Indian Sachems, Kings of the Red Skins, had held their friendly councils in its shade, and smoked many a Pipe of Peace.

On that November day, the tribes of the Lenni Lenapé under the wide-spreading branches of the Elm, were gathered around the Council-fire. They were seated in a half circle, like a half moon. They were all unarmed.

Among the Chiefs, was the Great Sachem Taminend, revered for his wisdom and beloved for his goodness. He sat in the middle of the half moon, with his council, the aged and wise, on either hand.

They waited.

Then, lo! a barge approached. At its masthead flew the broad pennant of Governor William Penn. The oars were plied with measured strokes, guiding the barge to land. And near the helm sat William Penn attended by his council.

He landed with his people, and advanced toward the Council-fire. A handsome man he was, only thirty-eight years old, athletic, and graceful. His manners were courteous, his blue eyes were friendly. He was plainly dressed, with a scarf of sky-blue network bound about his waist.

Some of his people preceded him. They carried presents for the Indians, which they laid on the ground before them.

Then William Penn approached the Council-fire.

Thereupon the Great Sachem, Taminend, put on a chaplet surmounted by a horn, the emblem of his power, and through an interpreter announced that the Nations were ready to hear William Penn.

Thus being called upon, William Penn began his speech:—

“The Great Spirit,” he said, “who made me and you, who rules the heavens and the earth, and who knows the innermost thoughts of men, knows that I and my friends have a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with you, and to serve you to the utmost of our power.

“It is not our custom to use hostile weapons against our fellow-creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed. Our object is not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good.

“We are met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will, so that no advantage is to be taken on either side, but all to be openness, brotherhood, and love.”

Here William Penn unrolled a parchment on which was inscribed an agreement for trading, and promises of friendship. He explained the agreement article by article. Then laying the parchment on the ground, he said that that spot should ever more be common to both Peoples,—Pale-face and Red Skin.

The Indians listened to his speech in perfect silence, and with deep gravity. And when he was finished speaking, they deliberated together, for some time. Then the Great Sachem ordered one of his Chiefs to address William Penn.

The Chief advanced, and in the Sachem’s name saluted him, and taking William Penn by the hand, made a speech pledging kindness and neighbourliness, saying that the English and the Lenni Lenapé should live together in love, so long as the sun and the moon should endure.

Samuel M. Janney (Retold)

ONAS

After the Treaty was made at the Place of Kings, the Lenni Lenapé, for many years enjoyed the mild and just rule of their “elder brother Onas.” He met them often around the Council-fire, hearing and rectifying their wrongs, adjusting trade matters, and smoking with them the Pipe of Peace.

And William Penn made treaties with the Indians who dwelt on the Potomac, and with the Five Nations. Thus Pennsylvania had quiet; and the Red Men were friends of the settlers. Sometimes they brought the white men venison, beans, and maize, and refused to take pay. Whereas, in the other Colonies, the Indians were dangerous neighbours, cruel and delighting in blood. They had been made suspicious and revengeful by the injustice and wickedness of white men.

So the Red Men of Pennsylvania, trusted William Penn, although he was a Pale-face. What Pale-face had they ever seen like him? A Pale-face was to them a trapper, a soldier, a pirate, a man who cheated them in barter, who gave them fire-water to drink, who hustled them off their hunting-ground.

But here was one Pale-face, who would not cheat and lie; who would not fire into their lodge; who would not rob them of their beaver skins; who would not take a rood of land from them, till they had fixed and he had paid their price.

Where were they to look for such another lord?

So when they heard that Onas was about to sail for England, Indians from all parts of Pennsylvania gathered to take sorrowful leave of him.

After he was gone, they preserved with care the memory of their treaties with him, by means of strings or belts of wampum. Often they gathered together in the woods, on some shady spot, and laid their wampum belts on a blanket or a clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction went over the whole. So great was their reverence and affection for William Penn, inspired by his virtues, that they handed on the memory of his name to their children.

. . . . . . . . . .

When William Penn died in England, the Indians sent his wife a message, mourning the loss of their “honoured brother Onas.”

And with the message went a present of beautiful skins for a cloak “to protect her while passing through the thorny wilderness without her guide.”

W. Hepworth Dixon and Other Sources

OCTOBER 27
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AMERICA’S HERO

On behalf of all our people, on behalf no less of the honest man of means, than of the honest man who earns each day’s livelihood by that day’s sweat of his brow, it is necessary to insist upon honesty in business and politics alike, in all walks of life, in big things and in little things; upon just and fair dealing as between man and man.

Theodore Roosevelt

THE SQUARE DEAL

We of the great modern democracies, must strive unceasingly to make our several Countries, lands in which a poor man who works hard can live comfortably and honestly, and in which a rich man cannot live dishonestly nor in slothful avoidance of duty.

And yet, we must judge rich man and poor man alike by a standard which rests on conduct and not on caste. And we must frown with the same stern severity on the mean and vicious envy which hates and would plunder a man because he is well off, and on the brutal and selfish arrogance, which looks down on and exploits the man with whom life has gone hard.

Theodore Roosevelt

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City, October 27, 1858

Was appointed Police Commissioner of New York City, 1895

Aided in establishing the Independence of Cuba, 1898

Was elected Governor of the State of New York, 1898

Served as President of the United States, 1901-1909

He died, January 6, 1919.

THE BOY WHO GREW STRONG

Not in a Log Cabin

Theodore Roosevelt, unlike Abraham Lincoln, was not born in a log cabin. On the contrary, he was born to wealth and position in the City of New York.

He was reared in an elegant home and educated in one of the famous universities of the Country. He read law, but he had no need to practise a profession. His father had retired from business, and there was no occasion for the son to take up a business career.

But Theodore Roosevelt preferred for himself a life of toil—the strenuous life.

Ill-health was the first and greatest of all his disadvantages. “When a boy,” said he, “I was pig-chested and asthmatic.”

From earliest infancy he was called to battle with asthma. It lowered his vitality and threatened his growth. His body was frail, but within was the conquering spirit. He determined to be strong like other boys.

In this, he had the loving help of gentle parents. On the wide back porch of their home in the City of New York, they fitted up a gymnasium, where he strove for bodily vigour with all his might. Although at the start, his pole climbing was very poor, he kept trying until he got to the top. He would carry his gymnastic exercises to the perilous verge of the window ledge, more to the alarm of the neighbours than of his own family.

In the Wide Out-of-Doors

Summer was the season of Roosevelt’s delight. Then he ceased to be a city boy. At his father’s country place on Long Island, he learned to run and ride, row, and swim. And when the long sleepless nights came, the father would take his invalid boy in his arms, wrap him up warmly, and drive with him in the free open air through fifteen or twenty miles of darkness.

The boy had his father’s love of the woods and the fields. He studied and classified the birds of the neighbourhood, until he knew their songs and plumage and nests. He and his young friends could be relied on to find the spot where the violets bloomed the earliest, and the trees on which the walnuts were most plentiful, as well as the pools where the minnows swarmed, and the favourite refuge of the coon.

He was taken to Europe, in the hope that it would benefit his health, “a tall thin lad with bright eyes and legs like pipestems.”

When at last, he was ready to go to college, he had vanquished his enemy, ill-health, and was ready to play a man’s part in life.

“I made my health what it is,” he said later, “I determined to be strong and well, and did everything to make myself so. By the time I entered Harvard, I was able to take part in whatever sports I liked. I wrestled and sparred, and I ran a great deal, and, although I never came in first, I got more out of the exercise than those who did, because I immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself.

Busting Broncos

After leaving college, young Roosevelt entered politics. Finally, between legislative sessions, he surrendered to his impulses and started for the Wild West.

He left the train in North Dakota at the little town of Medora. The young visitor from the East, sought out two hunters and told them that he wished to go buffalo hunting with them. And he did so, though hunting the buffalo then was no fancy pastime.

It was, in truth, a rare chance to see the Wild West in the last glow of its golden age. Soon it was all to vanish and pass into the most romantic chapter of American history.

Before his first visit was at an end, he had become a ranchman.

The young master of Elkhorn Ranch, brave, outspoken, and always ready to bear his full share of toil, and hardship, was not long in winning the respect and hearty good-will of the bluff, honest men of the Bad Lands.

After only a little experience in ranching, he learned to sit in his saddle and ride his horse like a life-long plainsman.

But he never pretended to any special fondness for a bucking bronco; and a story is told of a trick played on him by some friendly persons in Medora.

He was in town, waiting for a train that was to bring a guest from the East. While he was in a store, the jokers placed his saddle on a notoriously vicious beast, which they substituted for his mount.

When he came out, in haste to ride around to the railway station, he did not detect the deception.

Once, he was on the horse’s back, the bronco bucked and whirled to the amusement of the grinning villagers. But to their amazement, the young ranchman succeeded in staying on him and spurring him into a run.

Away they flew to the prairies, and soon back they raced in a cloud of dust and through the town. The friend from the East arrived, and joined the spectators, who waited to see if the young squire of Elkhorn ever would return.

In a little while, he was seen coming along the road at a gentle gait. And when he reached his starting point, he dismounted, with a smile of quiet mastery, from as meek a creature as ever stood on four legs.

He had no use, however, for a horse whose spirit ran altogether to ugliness. When he first went West, he doubted the theory of the natives that any horse was hopelessly bad.

For instance, there was one in the sod-roofed log stable of Elkhorn, who had been labelled The Devil. Roosevelt believed that gentleness would overcome Devil. The boys thought it might, if he should live to be seventy-five.

After much patient wooing, Devil actually let Roosevelt lay his hand on him and pat him. The boys began to think that possibly there was something in this new plan of bronco busting.

One day, however, when his gentle trainer made bold to saddle and mount him, Devil quickly drew his four hoofs together, leaped into the air, and came down with a jerk and a thud. Then he finished with a few fancy curves, that landed his disillusioned rider a good many yards in front of him.

Roosevelt sprang to his feet and on to the back of the animal. Four times he was thrown. Finally, the determined rider manœuvred Devil out on to a quicksand where bucking is impossible. And, when at last, he was driven back to solid earth, he was like a lamb.

In this rough life of the range, the young ranchman conquered for ever the physical weaknesses of his youth, and put on that rude strength which enabled him to stand before the world, a model of vigorous manhood.

James Morgan (Arranged)

SAGAMORE HILL
His Home at Oyster Bay
From Roosevelt’s Autobiography

Sagamore Hill takes its name from the old Sagamore Mohannis, who, as Chief of his little tribe, signed away his rights to the land, two centuries and a half ago.

The house stands right on the top of the hill, separated by fields and belts of woodland from all other houses, and looks out over the Bay and the Sound.

We see the sun go down beyond long reaches of land and of water. Many birds dwell in the trees round the house or in the pastures and the woods near by. And, of course, in Winter gulls, loons, and wild fowl frequent the waters of the Bay and the Sound.

We love all the seasons; the snows and bare woods of Winter; the rush of growing things and the blossom-spray of Spring; the yellow grain, the ripening fruits, and tasseled corn, and the deep, leafy shades that are heralded by “the green dance of Summer”; and the sharp fall winds that tear the brilliant banners with which the trees greet the dying year.

The Sound is always lovely. In the summer nights, we watch it from the piazza, and see the lights of the tall Fall River boats as they steam steadily by. Now and then we spend a day on it, the two of us together in the light rowing skiff, or perhaps with one of the boys to pull an extra pair of oars. We land for lunch at noon under wind-beaten oaks on the edge of a low bluff, or among the wild plum bushes on a spit of white sand; while the sails of the coasting schooners gleam in the sunlight, and the tolling of the bell-buoy comes landward across the waters....

Early in April, there is one hillside near us which glows like a tender flame with the white of the bloodroot. About the same time, we find the shy mayflower, the trailing arbutus. And although we rarely pick wild flowers, one member of the household always plucks a little bunch of mayflowers to send to a friend working in Panama, whose soul hungers for the northern Spring.

Then there are shadblow and delicate anemones about the time of the cherry blossoms. The brief glory of the apple orchards follows. And then the thronging dogwoods fill the forests with their radiance.

And so flowers follow flowers, until the springtime splendour closes with the laurel and the evanescent honey-sweet locust bloom. The late summer flowers follow, the flaunting lilies, and cardinal flowers, and marshmallows, and pale beach rosemary; and the goldenrod and the asters, when the afternoons shorten and we again begin to think of fires in the wide fireplaces.

Theodore Roosevelt

THE CHILDREN OF SAGAMORE HILL

Mrs. Roosevelt looked after the place itself. She supervised the farming, and the flower gardens were her especial care.

The children were now growing up, and from the time when they could toddle, they took their place—a very large place—in the life of the home. Roosevelt described the intense satisfaction he had in teaching the boys what his father had taught him.

As soon as they were large enough, they rode their horses, they sailed on the Cove and out into the Sound. They played boys’ games, and through him, they learned very young to observe nature.

In his college days, he had intended to be a naturalist, and natural history remained his strongest avocation. And so he taught his children to know the birds and animals, the trees, plants, and flowers of Oyster Bay and its neighbourhood. They had their pets—Kermit, one of the boys, carried a pet rat in his pocket.

Three things Roosevelt required of them all: obedience, manliness, and truthfulness.

William Roscoe Thayer

OFF WITH JOHN BURROUGHS
From Roosevelt’s Autobiography

One April, I went to Yellowstone Park, when the snow was still very deep, and I took John Burroughs with me. I wished to show him the big game of the Park, the wild creatures that have become so astonishingly tame and tolerant of human presence.

In the Yellowstone, the animals seem always to behave as one wishes them to! It is always possible to see the sheep, and deer, and antelope, and also the great herds of elk, which are shyer than the smaller beasts.

In April, we found the elk weak after the short commons and hard living of Winter. Once, without much difficulty, I regularly rounded up a big band of them so that John Burroughs could look at them. I do not think, however, that he cared to see them as much as I did.

The birds interested him more, especially a tiny owl, the size of a robin, which we saw perched on the top of a tree, in mid-afternoon, entirely uninfluenced by the sun, and making a queer noise like a cork being pulled from a bottle.

I was rather ashamed to find how much better his eyes were than mine, in seeing the birds and grasping their differences.

Theodore Roosevelt

THE BIG STICK

I saw in Roosevelt a strong man, who had taken early to heart Hamlet’s maxim, and had steadfastly practised it:—

“Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When Honour’s at the stake.”

He himself summed up this part of his philosophy in a phrase which has become a proverb:—

“Speak softly; but carry a big stick.”

More than once in his later years, he quoted this to me, adding, that it was precisely because this or that Power knew that he carried a big stick, that he was enabled to speak softly with effect.

William Roscoe Thayer (Condensed)

A-HUNTING TREES WITH JOHN MUIR
From Roosevelt’s Autobiography

When I first visited California, it was my good fortune to see the “big trees,” the Sequoias, and then to travel down into the Yosemite with John Muir. Of course, of all people in the world, he was the one with whom it was best worth while thus to see the Yosemite....

John Muir met me with a couple of packers and two mules to carry our tent, bedding, and food for a three days’ trip.

The first night was clear, and we lay down in the darkening aisles of the great Sequoia grove. The majestic trunks, beautiful in colour and in symmetry, rose round us like the pillars of a mightier cathedral than ever was conceived even by the fervour of the Middle Ages.

Hermit thrushes sang beautifully in the evening, and again with a burst of wonderful music at dawn. I was interested and a little surprised to find that, unlike John Burroughs, John Muir cared little for birds or bird songs, and knew little about them. The hermit thrushes meant nothing to him, the trees and the flowers and the cliffs, everything. The only birds he noticed or cared for, were some that were very conspicuous, such as the water-ousels—always particular favourites of mine too.

The second night, we camped in a snow-storm on the edge of the cañon walls, under the spreading limbs of a grove of mighty silver fir. And next day, we went down into the wonderland of the Valley itself.

I shall always be glad that I was in the Yosemite with John Muir, and in the Yellowstone with John Burroughs.

Theodore Roosevelt (Condensed)

THE BEAR HUNTERS’ DINNER
From Roosevelt’s Autobiography

When wolf-hunting in Texas, and when bear-hunting in Louisiana and Mississippi, I was not only enthralled by the sport but also by the strange new birds and other creatures, and the trees and flowers I had not known before.

By the way, there was one feast at the White House, which stands above all others in my memory, this was “The Bear Hunters’ Dinner.”

I had been treated so kindly by my friends on these hunts, and they were such fine fellows, men whom I was so proud to think of as Americans, that I set my heart on having them at a hunters’ dinner at the White House.

One December, I succeeded. There were twenty or thirty of them, all told, as good hunters, as daring riders, as first class citizens as could be found anywhere. No finer set of guests ever sat at meat in the White House.

And among other game on the table, was a black bear, itself contributed by one of these same guests.

Theodore Roosevelt (Condensed)

HUNTING IN AFRICA
From Roosevelt’s Autobiography

The African buffalo is undoubtedly a dangerous beast, but it happened that the few that I shot did not charge.

A bull elephant, a vicious “rogue” which had been killing people in the native villages, did charge before being shot at. My son Kermit and I stopped it at forty yards.

Another bull elephant, also unwounded, which charged, nearly got me, as I had just fired both cartridges from my heavy double-barreled rifle, in killing the bull I was after—the first wild elephant I had ever seen. The second bull came through the thick brush to my left, like a steam plow through a light snowdrift, everything snapping before his rush, and was so near that he could have hit me with his trunk. I slipped past him behind a tree.

People have asked me how I felt on this occasion. My answer has always been that I suppose I felt as most men of like experience feel on such occasions. At such a moment, a hunter is so very busy that he has no time to get frightened. He wants to get in his cartridges and try another shot.

Rhinoceros are truculent, blustering beasts, much the most stupid of all the dangerous game I know. Generally their attitude is one of mere stupidity and bluff. But on occasions they do charge wickedly, both when wounded and when entirely unprovoked. The first I ever shot, I mortally wounded at a few rods’ distance, and it charged with the utmost determination. Whereat I and my companion both fired, and, more by good luck than anything else, brought it to the ground just thirteen paces from where we stood.

Another rhinoceros may or may not have been meaning to charge me; I have never been certain which. It heard us, and came at us through rather thick brush, snorting and tossing its head. I am by no means sure that it had fixedly hostile intentions. And indeed, with my present experience, I think it likely that if I had not fired, it would have flinched at the last moment, and either retreated or gone by me. But I am not a rhinoceros mind-reader, and its actions were such as to warrant my regarding it as a suspicious character. I stopped it with a couple of bullets, and then followed it up and killed it.

The skins of all these animals which I thus killed are in the National Museum at Washington.

Theodore Roosevelt (Condensed)

THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLAND

Now, let us see what Theodore Roosevelt did to help establish Liberty in this Hemisphere.

It is a far cry from the Very Magnificent Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and discoverer of the West Indies and South America, to plain Theodore Roosevelt of Oyster Bay and citizen of the United States of North America.

Yet it was a very direct cry, a ringing call down through four centuries, a never ceasing plea for Liberty and safety.

And it was plain Colonel Theodore Roosevelt who, with his Rough Riders, helped to break the last link of the chain of Spanish domination in America. Its first link was unwittingly forged by Columbus, when he discovered the gold and pearls of the New World.

Through the many years, Cuba, the “Ever Faithful Island,” remained loyal to Spain, while her other American possessions declared their Independence, slipped from her grasp, and set up Republics.

But instead of taking warning from her American losses, Spain continued her policy of repression in Cuba.

Then there arose Cuban Patriots, among them, Gomez, Maceo, and Garcia, who struggled for Cuba’s Freedom. There were rebellions, insurrections, and war. Great and terrible were the sufferings of the People.

It is not possible here to give an account of the Cuban War for Independence. But after a terrific struggle, it was finally won in 1898, with the help of our United States. Thus Spain lost her last foothold in America, and withdrew from this hemisphere.

To-day, the Island of Cuba the “Ever-Faithful Island,” the “Pearl of the Antilles,” is a flourishing Republic with a world commerce. And during the World War, the red, white, and blue, single-bestarred Flag of Cuba, waved over a brave Cuban Army, the ally of the United States.

But as to Theodore Roosevelt’s part in liberating the Island, while he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley, we will let one of his biographers tell about it:—

THE COLONEL OF THE ROUGH RIDERS

In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests, which give us the right and the duty to speak and act, the war in Cuba must stop.

President McKinley

Roosevelt had always felt the danger to the United States of maintaining a despicable or an inadequate Navy, and from the moment he entered the Navy Department, he set about pushing the construction of the unfinished vessels and of improving the quality of the personnel.

He was impelled to do this, not merely by his instinct to bring whatever he undertook up to the highest standard, but also because he had a premonition that a crisis was at hand, which might call the Country, at an instant’s notice, to protect itself with all the power it had.

Roosevelt was impressed by the insurrection in Cuba, which kept that Island in perpetual disorder. The cruel means, especially reconcentration and starvation, by which the Spaniards tried to put down the Cubans, stirred the sympathy of the Americans, and the number of those who believed that the United States ought to interfere in behalf of humanity, grew from month to month.

During his first year in office, Assistant Secretary Roosevelt busied himself with all the details of preparation. And all the while he watched the horizon towards Cuba, where the signs grew angrier and angrier.

But the young Secretary had to act with circumspection. President McKinley, desiring to keep the peace up to the very end, would not countenance any move which might seem to the Spaniards either a threat or an insult.

Early in the evening of February 15, 1898, the U. S. battleship Maine, peaceably riding at her moorings in Havana Harbour, was blown up. Two officers and 264 enlisted men were killed by the explosion and in the sinking of the ship.

The next morning, the newspapers carried the report to all parts of the United States, and, indeed, to the whole world. A tidal wave of anger surged over this Country.

“That means war!” was the common utterance.

I doubt whether Roosevelt ever worked with greater relish than during the weeks succeeding the blowing-up of the Maine. The Navy Department arranged in hot haste to victual the ships; to provide them with stores of coal and ammunition; to bring the crews up to their full quota by enlisting; to lay out a plan of campaign; to see to the naval bases and the lines of communication; and to coöperate with the War Department in making ready the land fortifications along the shore.

Having accomplished his duty as Assistant Secretary, Roosevelt resigned. He thought that he had a right to retire from that post, and to gratify his long cherished desire to take part in the actual warfare.

General Alger, the Secretary of War, had a great liking for Roosevelt, offered him a commission in the Army, and even the command of a regiment.

This he prudently declined, having no technical military knowledge. He proposed instead that Dr. Leonard Wood should be made Colonel, and that he should serve under Wood, as Lieutenant Colonel.

While Roosevelt finished his business at the Navy Department, Colonel Wood hurried to San Antonio, Texas, the rendezvous of the First Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry—the Rough Riders!

A call for volunteers, issued by Roosevelt and endorsed by Secretary Alger, spread through the West and Southwest, and it met with a quick response.

Not even in Garibaldi’s famous Thousand, was such a strange crowd gathered. It comprised cow-punchers, ranchmen, hunters, professional gamblers, and rascals of the Border, sportsmen, mingled with the society sports, former football players and oarsmen, polo players, and lovers of adventure from the great eastern cities. They all had one quality in common—courage—and they were all bound together by one common bond—devotion to Theodore Roosevelt.

Nearly every one of them knew him personally. Some of the western men had hunted or ranched with him. Some of the eastern had been with him in college, or had had contact with him in one of the many vicissitudes of his career.

. . . . . . . . . .

I shall not attempt to follow in detail the story of the Rough Riders, but shall touch only on those matters which refer to Roosevelt himself.

Wood having been promoted to Brigadier General, in command of a larger unit, Theodore Roosevelt became Colonel of the regiment of Rough Riders.

On July 1 and 2, he commanded the Rough Riders in their attack on and capture of San Juan Hill, in connection with some coloured troops.

In this engagement, their nearest approach to a battle, the Rough Riders, who had less than five hundred men in action, lost eighty-nine in killed and wounded.

Then followed a dreary life in the trenches, until Santiago surrendered, and then a still more terrible experience, while they waited for Spain to give up the war.

Under a killing tropical sun, receiving irregular and often damaged food, without tent or other protection from the heat or from the rain, the Rough Riders endured for weeks the ravages of fever, climate, and privation.

Finally, because of Roosevelt’s insistence, the Government at Washington, without loss of time, ordered the Army home.

The sick were transported by thousands to Montauk Point, at the eastern end of Long Island, where in spite of the best medical care which could be improvised, large numbers of them died.

But the Army knew, and the American Public knew, that Roosevelt had saved multitudes of lives. At Montauk Point, he was the most popular man in America.

This concluded Roosevelt’s career as a soldier. The experience introduced to the Public those virile qualities of his, with which his friends were familiar.

William Roscoe Thayer (Arranged)

THE RIVER OF DOUBT

Roosevelt decided to make one more trip for hunting and exploration. As he could not go to the North Pole, he said, because that would be poaching on Peary’s field, he selected South America.

He had long wished to visit the Southern Continent, and invitations to speak at Rio Janeiro and at Buenos Aires, gave him an excuse for setting out.

He started with the distinct purpose of collecting animal and botanical specimens, this time for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which provided two trained naturalists to accompany him. His son Kermit, toughened by the previous adventure, went also.

Having paid his visits and seen the civilized parts of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, he ascended the Paraguay River, and then struck across the plateau which divides its watershed from that of the tributaries of the Amazon. For he proposed to make his way through an unexplored region in Central Brazil, and reach the outposts of civilization on the Great River.

The Brazilian Government had informed him that by the route he had chosen, he would meet a large river—the River of Doubt—by which he could descend to the Amazon.

There were some twenty persons, including a dozen or fifteen native rowers and pack-bearers, in his party. They had canoes and dugouts, supplies of food for about forty days, and a carefully chosen outfit.

With high hopes, they put their craft into the water and moved down stream. But on the fourth day, they found rapids ahead. And from that time on, they were constantly obliged to land and carry their dugouts and stores round a cataract.

The peril of being swept over the falls, was always imminent, and as the trail, which constituted their portages, had to be cut through the matted forest, their labours were increased. In the first eleven days, they progressed only sixty miles. No one knew the distance they would have to traverse, nor how long the river would be broken by falls and cataracts, before it came down into the plain of the Amazon.

Some of their canoes were smashed on the rocks. Two of the natives were drowned. They watched their provisions shrink. Contrary to their expectations, the forest had almost no animals. If they could shoot a monkey or a monster lizard, they rejoiced at having a little fresh meat.

Tropical insects bit them day and night and caused inflammation and even infection. Man-eating fish lived in the river, making it dangerous for the men when they tried to cool their inflamed bodies by a swim.

Most of the party had malaria, and could be kept going only by large doses of quinine. Roosevelt, while in the water, wounded his leg on a rock; inflammation set in, and prevented him from walking, so that he had to be carried across the portages.

The physical strength of the party, sapped by sickness and fatigue, was visibly waning. Still the cataracts continued to impede their progress and to add terribly to their toil. The supply of food had shrunk so much, that the rations were restricted, and amounted to little more than enough to keep the men able to go forward slowly.

Then fever attacked Roosevelt, and they had to wait for a few days, because he was too weak to be moved. He besought them to leave him and hurry along to safety, because every day they delayed consumed their diminishing store of food, and they might all die of starvation.

They refused to leave him, however. A change for the better in his condition came soon. They moved forward. At last they left the rapids behind them, and could drift and paddle on the unobstructed river.

Roosevelt lay in the bottom of a dugout, shaded by a bit of canvas put up over his head, and too weak from sickness even to splash water on his face; for he was almost fainting from the muggy heat and the tropical sunshine.

Forty-eight days, after they began their voyage on the River of Doubt, they saw a peasant, a rubber-gatherer, the first human being they had met. Thenceforward they journeyed without incident.

The River of Doubt flowed into the larger river, Madeira; where they found a steamer which took them to Manaos on the Amazon.

During the homeward voyage, Roosevelt slowly recovered his strength, but he had never again the iron physique with which he had embarked the year before. The Brazilian Wilderness stole away ten years of his life.

He found on his return home that some geographers and South American explorers laughed at his story of the River of Doubt. He laughed, too, at their incredulity; and presently the Brazilian Government, having established the truth of his exploration and named the river after him, Rio Teodoro, his laughter prevailed. He took real satisfaction in having placed on the map of Central Brazil, a river six hundred miles long.

William Roscoe Thayer (Arranged)

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The evil men do lives after them; so does the good. With the passing of years, a man’s name and fame either drift into oblivion or they are seen in their lasting proportions.

You must sail fifty miles over the Ionian Sea and look back, before you can fully measure the magnitude and majesty of Mount Ætna. Not otherwise, I believe, will it be with Theodore Roosevelt, when the people of the future look back upon him. The blemishes due to misunderstanding will have faded away. The transient clouds will have vanished. The world will see him as he was....

Those of us who knew him, knew him as the most astonishing human expression of the Creative Spirit we had ever seen. His manifold talents, his protean interests, his tireless energy, his thunderbolts which he did not let loose, as well as those he did, his masterful will sheathed in self-control like a sword in its scabbard, would have rendered him superhuman, had he not possessed other qualities which made him the best of playmates for mortals.

He had humour, which raises every one to the same level. He had loyalty, which bound his friends to him for life. He had sympathy and capacity for strong, deep love. How tender he was with little children! How courteous with women! No matter whether you brought to him important things or trifles, he understood.

I can think of no vicissitude in life in which Roosevelt’s participation would not have been welcome. If it were danger, there could be no more valiant comrade than he. If it were sport, he was a sportsman. If it were mirth, he was a fountain of mirth, crystal pure and sparkling....

But yesterday, he seemed one who embodied Life to the utmost. With the assured step of one whom nothing can frighten or surprise, he walked our earth as on granite. Suddenly, the granite grew more unsubstantial than a bubble, and he dropped beyond sight into the Eternal Silence.

Happy we who had such a friend! Happy the American Republic which bore such a son!

William Roscoe Thayer (Condensed)

OCTOBER 30
JOHN ADAMS
THE SON OF LIBERTY
SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

I have passed the Rubicon: swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my Country, is my unalterable determination.

John Adams

INDEPENDENCE DAY

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.

It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

It ought to be solemnized with pomp, and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, tend illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, for ever more.

John Adams

John Adams was born in Braintree, or Quincy, Massachusetts, October 30, 1735

Was a member of the Committee that framed the Declaration of Independence; and he signed the Declaration

Was Commissioner to France, 1778

Was Ambassador to England, 1785

Became Second President of the United States, 1796

He died on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Fourth of July, 1826

A SON OF LIBERTY

There was no loftier genius nor purer Patriot during the struggle for Independence, than John Adams.

He was born at Braintree—now a part of Quincy—Massachusetts. He was descended from Henry Adams who came to America during the reign of Charles the First. On his mother’s side, he was descended from John Alden, the Pilgrim Father who came over in the Mayflower. Thus, from both sides of his house, John Adams inherited staunch, fearless, English blood and love of Independence.

He went to school in Braintree, and later graduated from Harvard University. After which he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He married Abigail Smith of Weymouth, Massachusetts. They made their home in Boston.

It is not possible here to tell all that John Adams did for America. He was an ardent Patriot, a Son of Liberty, serving the country at the risk of his life. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was a member of the Committee appointed to frame the Declaration of Independence. He signed the Declaration. He was sent abroad on foreign missions. He was elected Vice-President, and afterward called to be second President of the United States. He lived to see his son, John Quincy Adams, made sixth President of the United States.

He died on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, at the great age of ninety-one.

Benson J. Lossing and Other Sources

THE ADAMS FAMILY

John Adams was not the only great American Patriot in his Family. His cousin, Samuel Adams, was a popular and fearless leader in the movement for Independence. His activities were so feared by England, that the Government issued orders for his arrest and trial for high treason.

Abigail Adams, John Adams’s wife, was one of the noble American women who helped to win the War for Independence. She kept her husband informed of the movements of the British around Boston, while he was attending the Continental Congress. She wrote him many patriotic letters, which are inspiring reading to-day. She signed some of them “Portia,” so that if they fell into the hands of the enemy, no one could tell who wrote them. She sent many of the letters to her husband by secret messengers.

Their son, John Quincy Adams, became sixth President of the United States.

His son, Charles Francis Adams, and the latter’s two sons, Charles Francis and Henry Adams, served the Country in important offices, at home and abroad. They were historians and statesmen.

John and Abigail Adams, their son and his two sons, kept diaries or wrote letters, memoirs, and biographies, which form a vivid and intimate story of many historical events dating from the War for Independence down nearly to our own time.

Thus America has to thank the Adams Family for historical records of great importance.

AID TO THE SISTER COLONY

It was a clear and frosty night—that night, when the moonbeams fell on the tea thrown overboard by the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere, all booted and spurred, was ready for a famous ride—not the one to Lexington, but to Philadelphia this time. Soon he was off and away, galloping southward, spreading, as he rode along, the astonishing news that Boston Town had at last defied King George. There were public rejoicings everywhere, as the news was passed along.

“This,” said John Adams exultingly, “is the most magnificent movement of all!... This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible!... What measures will the Ministry take in consequence of this? Will they resent it?—Will they dare to resent it?—Will they punish us?—How?”

. . . . . . . . . .

John Adams did not have to wait long to find out—how. For King George decided to punish the people of brave Boston Town, by starving them into submission. The Boston Port Bill was passed in England. A British Fleet blockaded Boston Harbour. No ship could go in or out; all supplies of food and fuel were cut off. The Boston folk suffered starvation, disease, and death; but they would not submit. Their misery became almost unendurable.

Then it was that Massachusetts’ sister Colonies roused themselves.

Samuel Adams of Boston sent a circular letter to each of the Colonies asking for help. Food, fuel, and money came pouring in.

All that Summer, Boston, suffering, impoverished Boston, lay upon every loyal American heart. Each province, county, city, town, neighbourhood, sent its contribution.

Windham, Connecticut, began the work of relief, and sent in, with a cordial letter of applause and sympathy, “a small flock of sheep.” Two hundred and fifty-eight sheep was Windham’s notion of a small flock!

New Jersey soon wrote that she would be glad to know which would be more acceptable to a suffering sister, cash or produce. “Cash,” replied Boston, “if perfectly convenient.”

Massachusetts farmers supplied grain by the barrel and bushel. The Marblehead fishermen forwarded “two hundred and twenty-four quintels of good eating-fish, one barrel and three-quarters of good olive oil”—with money to boot.

North Carolina promptly sent two sloop-loads of provisions. South Carolina’s first gift was one hundred casks of rice.

And Baltimore Town contributed three thousand bushels of corn, twenty barrels of rye-flour, two barrels of pork, and twenty barrels of bread.

Virginia!—there seemed to be no end to Virginia’s gifts!

And as the cool season approached, the farmers could be more liberal. Flocks of fat sheep and droves of oxen, together with hundreds of cords of wood, grain, and money in plenty, helped to relieve the suffering town. From New York they came, and from Maryland, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, from the three counties on the Delaware, and from every little mountain-town in New Hampshire and Vermont.

As for Canada, from cold and remote Quebec came some wheat, and from Montreal a hundred pounds sterling.

The letters that accompanied the gifts, and the grateful answers from the Boston Committee, would fill a large volume.

“Boston is suffering in the common cause,” said her sister Colonies.

“If need be,” said George Washington of Virginia, “I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march myself at their head, for the relief of Boston.”

James Parton, and Other Sources (Retold)

A FAMOUS DATE

September 5, 1774! What a famous date in American history! And in the history of the whole World!

On that day, met for the first time, the Continental Congress of America.

From Colony after Colony, the delegates came riding into Philadelphia. George Washington of Virginia came with fiery Patrick Henry, and Edmund Pendleton, “one of Virginia’s noblest sons.” There came Cæsar Rodney, “burley and big, bold and bluff,” with Thomas McKean and George Read, all from the three counties on the Delaware, and Roger Sherman with Silas Deane of Connecticut, and John Jay and Livingston of New York. From Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina, the eager delegates came riding into the City of Brotherly Love. And, of course, John Adams and Samuel Adams, representing the suffering Colony of Massachusetts Bay, were on hand when Congress opened.

Among its first acts, the First Continental Congress sent a letter to General Gage; an address to the People of Great Britain; one to the People of Quebec; and a Petition to King George, setting forth the grievances of the American Colonists, the violations of their rights as free Englishmen, and asking for justice, but strongly urging a renewal of harmony and union between the Colonies and the Mother Country, England.

American histories tell how King George disregarded that Petition. American histories, also, tell how William Pitt and other great English statesmen, nobly defended America, as you may see if you read the story of William Pitt, on page [93].

WHAT A GLORIOUS MORNING!

When Paul Revere came galloping into Lexington, after warning the countryside that the British were coming to seize the powder and shot, he roused Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were staying with friends.

Paul Revere was come to warn them also; for the British General Gage had given orders for their arrest, and intended to send them to England to be tried for high treason.

The British Government was specially afraid of John Hancock, one of the most daring and active of the Boston Patriots. “The terrible desperado,” he was called by that Government.

While he and Samuel Adams were escaping from Lexington and hurrying across some fields Samuel Adams exclaimed:—

“Oh, what a glorious morning is this!”

It was the morning of the Battle of Lexington, when the shot was fired that was heard round the world.

After the Second Continental Congress opened, John Hancock was chosen to preside, while the Congress discussed how to defend the Country.

JOHN TO SAMUEL

New England was in arms. Lexington and Concord had been fought, and Boston was being besieged by the New England Army.

The Congress was discussing the defense of the whole Country. There were some members who wished the Congress to take over the New England Army and appoint a Commander-in-Chief.

It was then that John Adams met his cousin Samuel Adams, in the State House yard. This is the way John Adams tells it:—

“‘What shall we do to get Congress to adopt our Army?’ said Samuel Adams to John Adams.

“‘I will tell you what I am determined to do,’ said John to Samuel. ‘I have taken pains enough to bring you to agree upon something; but you will not agree upon anything. And now I am determined to take my own way, let come what will come!’

“‘Well,’ said Samuel, ‘what is your scheme?’

“Said John to Samuel, ‘I will go to Congress this morning, and move that a day be appointed to take into consideration the adoption of the Army before Boston, the appointment of a General and officers; and I will nominate Washington for Commander-in-Chief!’”

A GENTLEMAN FROM VIRGINIA

So it happened, that John Adams rose in his seat, and moved that the Congress should adopt the Army of New England men, and appoint a Commander-in-Chief, adding, that he had in mind some one for that high command, “a gentleman from Virginia, who is among us, and very well known to all of us; a gentleman whose skill and experience as an officer, whose independent fortune, great talents and excellent universal character, would command the approbation of all America, and unite the cordial exertions of all the Colonies better than any other person in the Union.”

Every one knew whom John Adams meant. And George Washington, who was sitting near the door, was so overcome by modesty, that he sprang up and darted into the library close by.

But his modesty did not prevent his election. He was unanimously chosen Commander-in-Chief; while the army of New England men was adopted by Congress and named “the Continental Army.”

Later, when Washington’s appointment was announced in the Congress, he rose in his place, and said most earnestly:—

“Since the Congress desire, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert every power I possess in their service and for the support of the glorious cause.

“But I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honoured with.”

But far-sighted John Adams was delighted. He was enthusiastic. “There is something charming to me in the conduct of Washington,” he wrote to a friend, “a gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent, leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his Country.

“His views are noble and disinterested. He declared, when he accepted the mighty trust, that he would lay before us an exact account of his expenses, and not accept a shilling pay.”

And to Abigail Adams, his wife, far off in Braintree, guarding her children from battle, and murder, and from sudden death, John Adams wrote:—

“I can now inform you, that the Congress have made choice of the modest and virtuous, the amiable, generous, and brave George Washington, Esquire, to be General of the American Army.”

He wrote thus joyously on the 17th day of June,—while on that very day, Abigail Adams and little John Quincy Adams were standing on a hilltop watching Charlestown burn and fall into ashes.

THE BOY WHO BECAME PRESIDENT

“My head is much too fickle, my thoughts are running after birds’ eggs, play, and trifles, till I get vexed with myself,” wrote little John Quincy Adams, nine years old, to his father John Adams.

Those were terrible times. Little John Quincy’s thoughts were running after other things besides birds’ eggs. He could hear the thunder of British cannon and the answering roar of American guns. There was fighting very near him. From a hilltop, he could see the battle raging. He knew that some of the American boys who were fighting, were from Braintree.

Sometime before, little John Quincy and his mother, Abigail Adams, had escaped from their home in Boston, and had taken refuge in Braintree, which was not far away. Now they were living in constant terror for fear the British should attack Braintree. His father, John Adams, was not there to protect him. He was attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

On the 17th of June, 1775, the British cannonading began in the direction of Charlestown. John Quincy and his mother climbed the hill, and watched the battle. With terror-stricken eyes, the boy saw Charlestown go up in flames and fall in ashes. And as for Abigail Adams, she trembled with fear lest the British should attack Braintree next; and then what would become of John Quincy and the other children?

So John Quincy and his mother watched the famous battle of Bunker Hill. And while they were listening to the cannon and the guns, their beloved friend, Dr. Joseph Warren, the noble Patriot who had joined the American forces as volunteer, fell mortally wounded.

And when the news of his death reached Braintree, John Quincy burst into tears, for Dr. Warren had been the family physician, and had once saved the boy from having a broken finger amputated.

And through those exciting times, John Quincy was a staunch boy-patriot. When he was only nine years old, he became his mother’s post-boy, riding to Boston and back, eleven or more miles each way, to get news for her.

And every morning before he climbed out of bed, he did as his mother had taught him. After he had said the Lord’s Prayer, he recited:—

How sleep the Brave, who sink to rest,
By all their Country’s wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod,
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

By Fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung,
There Honour comes, a Pilgrim grey,
To watch the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping Hermit there.[1]

Thus the boy-patriot did what he could. And when he grew up, he served his Country so well in many important matters, that he was called to her highest office, and became the sixth President of the United States.

HOW SHALL THE STARS BE PLACED?

On that great day, when the Congress of the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as our National Flag, it resolved that the union should be Thirteen Stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.

And a new Constellation it was, Thirteen Stars of the Thirteen States united as one, a Constellation destined to shine on all the World—Liberty enlightening the World!

But how should the Stars be grouped upon the Flag?—that was the question.

John Adams suggested that they should be arranged in the form of the Constellation Lyra, the beautiful cluster of stars shining in our northern night.

But the new Constellation of American Stars could not be arranged thus to look well. So it was decided to place them in a circle, for a circle has no end. And it was hoped that as the Country grew larger, adding more States and a new Star for each State, that the circle would widen.

And it has widened and widened, until there is no longer any room for a circle on our Flag; but spangled like the sky at night, it has become the Star-Spangled Banner.

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER

A mysterious foreign stranger suddenly appeared in New York City, after John Adams had retired from the presidency. He was handsome, with beaming hazel eyes and flashing white teeth. He was graceful, with courtly manners. He called himself George Martin.

But what his real name was, or what his mysterious purpose was, only a few people knew.

He was dined and toasted by New York officials. He went to the City of Washington on his secret mission. He was granted private interviews by the President and Secretary of State. He talked much about his friends Catherine the Great of Russia and William Pitt of England. He seemed to know the secret plots and political intrigues of Europe.

Then he vanished as mysteriously as he had come.

A few weeks later, John Adams heard the astounding news. The stranger was no other than the celebrated South American Patriot, Don Francisco de Miranda. He had sailed away secretly from New York in a little ship laden with arms and ammunition. And, what was worse, he had taken with him a band of young American men, some of them mere boys; and he was sailing toward the Spanish main with the intention of freeing South America from Spanish rule.

He had taken with him young William Steuben Smith, John Adams’s grandson. Young Smith was a college boy, very bright and courageous, and thirsty for adventure.

“What do you think were my sensations and reflections?” wrote John Adams to a friend. “I shudder to this moment, at the recollection of them! I saw the ruin of my only daughter and her good-hearted, enthusiastic husband, and had no other hope or wish or prayer than that the ship, with my grandson in it, might be sunk in a storm in the Gulf Stream!”

For young William Steuben Smith’s father was surveyor of the port of New York, and had allowed Miranda’s ship to clear with arms and ammunition in its hold, to be used against Spain with whom we were at peace.

Then came to John Adams the terrible news, that Spanish armed vessels had captured some of the American boys. His grandson had been captured, and thrown into a dungeon in a dark, filthy fortress in Venezuela. He was to be tried as a pirate taken on the high seas, and without doubt he would be hanged.

The Spanish Ambassador, who had known John Adams in Europe, hastened to offer his services. He would intercede with Spain for the grandson, he said.

“No,” said John Adams to a friend; “he should share the fate of his colleagues, comrades, and fellow-prisoners.”

But happily it was all a great mistake. Young Smith was not hanged as a pirate. He had not been captured at all. Instead, he was sailing gayly on in Miranda’s Mystery Ship. He had been made aid-de-camp and lieutenant-colonel, and had donned Miranda’s brilliant uniform.

For the story of what happened further to the Mystery Ship, see page 335.

HIS LAST TOAST

It was the last day of June, 1826. In five days, it would be the Fourth of July—the Fiftieth Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams had been one of the committee to frame the Declaration.

A neighbour was sitting with John Adams in his home in Quincy—that used to be Braintree. Ninety and one years old was John Adams!

The neighbour was to be orator at the annual banquet on the Fourth of July. He had called to ask John Adams to compose the toast.

“Independence for ever!” said John Adams.

But would he not wish to add something further to the toast, asked the neighbour.

“Not a word,” replied John Adams.

The Fourth of July dawned. The great Patriot lay dying. At the setting of the sun, those who stood beside him heard him whisper:—“Thomas Jefferson still lives!”

As the sun sank out of sight, a loud cheering came from the village. It was the shouts of the people at the words of his toast:—“Independence for ever!”

The cheering echoed through the room where John Adams was. But before its last sounds could die away, the great Patriot had passed into history and eternity—on the Fourth of July,—on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence!

NOVEMBER 15
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM DEFENDER OF AMERICA

The Colonists are ... equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind, and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen.

William Pitt

He at once breathed his own lofty spirit into the Country he served, as he communicated something of his own grandeur to the men who served him.

“No man,” said a soldier of the time, “ever entered Mr. Pitt’s closet, who did not feel himself braver when he came out, than when he went in.”

John Richard Green

He stands in the annals of Europe, “an illustrious and venerable name,” admired by countrymen and strangers, by all to whom loftiness of moral principle and greatness of talent are objects of regard.

Thomas Carlyle

William Pitt was born in England, November 15, 1708

Created Earl of Chatham, 1766

He died May 11, 1778

He was known “as the Great Commoner,” while in the House of Commons; as “Chatham,” after he entered the House of Lords; and as “the Elder Pitt,” to distinguish him from his son William Pitt, called “the Younger,” who likewise was a great statesman.

There are American towns and cities named in honour of William Pitt, our Defender; among them, Pittsburgh, Penn.; Chatham, N. Y.; and Pittsfield, Mass.

THIS TERRIBLE CORNET OF HORSE

In the hilt of Napoleon’s ceremonial sword, was set a huge diamond, one of the largest in the world. It had been brought from India by “Diamond Pitt” of England, who had sold it to the Regent of France.

“Diamond Pitt,” was Thomas Pitt. An adventurous young sailor, he had gone to India, and had started in business for himself as a trader.

The British East India Company claimed the monopoly of trade in India. When the bold young Englishman, without so much as “by your leave,” started an opposition business, the Company determined to crush him.

It set its powerful legal machinery to work. But it was one thing to try to crush Thomas Pitt, and quite another thing to do it. He fought desperately for his rights. Though he was arrested and fined he still kept on trading, in defiance of the Company. He battled so successfully and for so many years, that at last for its own protection, the Company was forced to take him into its service.

He rose to be Governor of Madras. He became known as “Diamond Pitt,” because he was always in search of large diamonds. Thus he procured the famous “Pitt Diamond,” which found its way into Napoleon’s sword.

With a part of the fortune which “Diamond Pitt” got from its sale, he bought an estate in England. Later he became a member of Parliament.

“Diamond Pitt’s” grandson, William Pitt, was not a strong boy. He spent much time with his books. He liked to read Shakespeare aloud to the family. He enjoyed reading the Faëry Queen, in which the Red Cross Knight, fearless of harm or evil thing, rides about rescuing the innocent and helpless.

Though he was not strong in body, William Pitt had an iron will. He had “Diamond Pitt’s” indomitable courage and the fighting qualities with which the sailor had matched his strength against that of the powerful East India Company.

William Pitt attended Oxford University. When he was twenty-three, he was commissioned Cornet of Horse in the King’s Blues.

The fearless Cornet of Horse was soon elected to the House of Commons. He started his political career in the House with a fiery, sarcastic speech supporting the Prince of Wales, who was at enmity with the King his father.

William Pitt was a born orator. He was tall, elegant, and graceful. His eyes were bright and piercing. He spoke with dignified gesture. And he delivered this speech with such strength, magnetism, and irony, that the Prime Minister exclaimed, “We must muzzle this terrible Cornet of Horse!”

To muzzle him, he tried, at first with promises of reward. But William Pitt was incorruptible. He would not sell his honour. Then influence was brought to bear, and the young Cornet of Horse was dismissed from the army.

But this very act, by which his enemies planned to muzzle William Pitt, brought him before the public eye. His fearlessness and remarkable oratory advanced him daily with both Parliament and People.

In time, William Pitt became a leading power, at first in the House of Commons, and afterward, when he was created Earl of Chatham, in the House of Lords. He served twice as Prime Minister of England; and he laid the solid foundations of the British Colonial Empire.

But more than all else, he was an Englishman defending the unalienable rights of all Englishmen. He steadfastly combated those political evils in the British Government, which, at that time, were threatening to undermine English Liberty as set down in the Magna Carta and safeguarded by the English Constitution.

THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY
The Signing of the Magna Carta, 1215

O Thou, that sendest out the man
To rule by land and sea,
Strong mother of a Lion-line,
Be proud of those strong sons of thine,
Who wrenched their rights from thee!

What wonder if in noble heat,
Those men thine arms withstood,
Retaught the lesson thou hadst taught,
And in thy spirit with thee fought fought—
Who sprang from English blood!

Alfred Tennyson (Condensed)

Magna Carta! The Great Charter of the liberties of Englishmen!

At Runnimede, the freemen of England through the action of their Barons, forced King John to sign and seal the Magna Carta. His tyrannous power was torn from him. He was forced to pledge himself to violate no longer the rights and privileges of English freemen.

For, from times remote, human rights and liberties, protecting them from oppression by rulers, had been theirs by laws and by common consent.

About a hundred years after the signing of the Magna Carta, the great principle, that English freemen should not be taxed without representation, was established.

When King Charles the First broke his promises to respect the rights of his subjects, he was tried and executed. When King James the Second governed in despotic manner, exercising what he believed to be the “divine right of Kings,” he lost his throne.

What has this to do with America and William Pitt? Everything!

During the reigns of the Stuart Kings, large sections of America were explored and settled by English freemen, who came to America to escape persecution, and to enjoy English Liberty which at that time they could not possibly have had in England.

The Stuart Kings believed in “divine right,” which means that the King is the Lord’s annointed, and that neither Parliament nor People may question any of his acts; and that no matter how cruel or tyrannous a King may be, the People must submissively obey him.

The Magna Carta and the English Constitution protect the English People against this doctrine of “divine right.”

So, when during the reign of these Kings, men and women fled from England to find Liberty and refuge in America, they brought with them their ancient institutions, the rights and privileges guaranteed them under the Magna Carta.

There were other Englishmen equally courageous, equally liberty-loving, who came to seek their fortunes and build homes in the New World. They, too, brought with them their rights and privileges.

These English pioneers hewed their way through the savage wilderness. Many of them were massacred by Red Men, while their homes were burned; some of them were carried into captivity and tortured. Yet the great body of undaunted English settlers, resolutely kept on pushing their frontiers westward. They laid out farms and plantations, they built villages and towns, they founded churches and schools. They obtained charters from far away England, confirming their rights. And through God’s blessing they prospered, and became strong and rich.

Other liberty-loving folk, the Dutch, settled in great numbers in what is now New York and New Jersey; while many settlers from different parts of Europe, came to the New World to build homes for themselves and their children.

The very air of America breathed freedom. The magnitude of the country and the difficulties of pioneer-life helped to invigorate, expand, and make indomitable those ideals of English Liberty which the first settlers and frontiersmen had brought with them.

When King George the Third inherited the British Crown, he was unable to understand the free spirit of Englishmen. And he was far from realizing its tremendous growth in the New World.

He taxed the Americans without representation. He placed a standing army in the Colonies, without their consent. He blockaded the Port of Boston to force her to submit to his unjust laws. In some cases, trial by jury was abolished. These are some of his tyrannous violations of the rights and privileges of English freemen.

The People of America, in indignation, petitioned the King for redress.

There was no redress.

So the People of America rose in arms; and, in the true spirit of Magna Carta, they issued the Declaration of Independence.

Now, we shall see what William Pitt had to do with all this.

AMERICA’S DEFENDER

“For the defence of Liberty, upon a general principle, upon a constitutional principle, it is a ground on which I stand firm, on which I dare meet any man.”

“This Country had no right under Heaven to tax America! It is contrary to all the principles of justice and civil policy.”

“If I were an American,” he exclaimed, “as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my Country, I never would lay down my arms—never—never—never!”

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

It was natural that an English statesman who sincerely and firmly believed in the rights of all Englishmen, should become the defender of America. And her loyal friend and champion was William Pitt. By the weight of his eloquent speeches, he fought her battles in Parliament.

When the Stamp Act was passed, he was absent from his place in Parliament, because of illness. But later, he was present. Leaning on his crutch, for he was still very sick, he indignantly arraigned the British Ministry which had brought about the passage of the Act.

“When the resolution was taken in this House to tax America,” he said, “I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it!

“The Colonists are the subjects of this Kingdom, equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally bound by its laws, and equally participating in the Constitution of this free Country. The Americans are the sons ... of England!”

And when one of the members made a speech abusing the Americans, defending the Stamp Act, and accusing Pitt of sowing sedition among the American Colonists, he rose and answered:—

“The gentleman tells us,” he said, “America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of Liberty, as voluntarily to let themselves be made slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest.

“In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this Country can crush America to atoms. I know the valour of your troops, I know the skill of your officers.... But on this ground,—on the Stamp Act—when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it!

“In such a cause, even your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the State, and pull down the Constitution along with her.

“Is this your boasted peace? To sheathe the sword, not in its scabbard, but in the bowels of your Countrymen?

“Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately.”[2]

. . . . . . . . . .

And whether the Stamp Act was repealed “absolutely, totally, and immediately,” John Fiske tells in his thrilling history, “The American Revolution.”

THE SONS OF LIBERTY

William Pitt was not the only English statesman who championed America. There was Lord Rockingham, at one time Prime Minister of England, also the Earl of Camden, and the celebrated Charles James Fox.

And there was Edmund Burke, “one of the earliest friends of America,” with his scratch wig, round spectacles, and pockets stuffed with papers. He pleaded our cause so brilliantly that his hearers were dazzled by his oratory “with its passionate ardour, its poetic fancy, its amazing prodigality of resources, the dazzling succession in which irony, pathos, invective, tenderness, the most brilliant word-pictures, the coolest arguments, followed each other.”

And among America’s British friends, was Colonel Barré, a member of the House of Commons. In an indignant speech against the Stamp Act, he referred to the American Patriots as “Sons of Liberty.”

When his speech reached America, the name “Sons of Liberty” was adopted by secret societies pledged to resist the Stamp Act.

In Boston, the Sons of Liberty held meetings under the Liberty Tree, a huge elm; they met also in Faneuil Hall, since called “the Cradle of American Liberty.” In New York City, the Sons of Liberty erected a tall Liberty Pole, and defended it against the Red Coats.

All over the Country, the Sons of Liberty were active, sometimes too violently so, in the cause of American Independence.

A LAST SCENE

In 1778, a dramatic event took place in the House of Lords.

William Pitt, old now and wasted by disease, but the fire of whose genius still burned bright and clear, was about to speak.

France had acknowledged the Independence of the United States. Germany was planning to do so; while Spain stood ready to enter into an alliance with the Americans. England was at war with France. The situation of England seemed desperate.

And on that dramatic day in the House of Lords, the Duke of Richmond was about to move that the royal fleets and armies should be instantly withdrawn from America, and peace be made on whatever terms Congress might see fit to accept.

But William Pitt would not willingly consent to a step that seemed certain to wreck the Empire his genius had won for England.

He had got up from his sick bed, and had come into the House of Lords to argue against the motion.

Wrapped in flannel bandages, and leaning upon crutches, his dark eyes in their brilliancy enhancing the pallor of his careworn face, as he entered the House, supported on the one side by his son-in-law, and on the other by that younger son who was so soon to add fresh glory to the name of William Pitt, the peers all started to their feet, and remained standing until he had taken his place.

In broken sentences, with strange flashes of the eloquence which had once held captive ear and heart, he protested against the hasty adoption of a measure which simply prostrated the dignity of England before its ancient enemy, the House of Bourbon.

The Duke of Richmond’s answer, reverently and delicately worded, urged that while the magic of Chatham’s name could work anything short of miracles, yet only a miracle could now relieve them from the dire necessity of abandoning America.

Chatham rose to reply, but his overwrought frame gave way, and he sank in a swoon upon the floor.

All business was at once adjourned. The peers, with eager sympathy, came crowding up to offer assistance, and the unconscious statesman was carried in the arms of his friends to a house near by, whence in a few days he was removed to his home.

There, after lingering between life and death for several weeks, on the 11th of May, and in the seventieth year of his age, Lord Chatham breathed his last.

The man thus struck down like a soldier at his post, was one whom Americans, no less than Englishmen, have delighted to honour.

John Fiske (Retold)

DECEMBER 2
DOM PEDRO THE SECOND THE MAGNANIMOUS THE BEST REPUBLICAN IN BRAZIL

TO
H. M. DOM PEDRO II
EMPEROR OF BRAZIL
SCHOLAR AND SCIENTIST, PATRON OF
ARTS AND LETTERS
STERLING STATESMAN AND MODEL MONARCH,
WHOSE REIGN OF HALF A CENTURY HAS BEEN
ZEALOUSLY AND SUCCESSFULLY DEVOTED TO
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, INDUSTRIAL
ENTERPRISE, AND THE ABOLITION
OF SLAVERY
THROUGHOUT THE VAST AND OPULENT
“EMPIRE OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS”

Dedication by Frank Vincent

FREEDOM IN BRAZIL

With clearer light, Cross of the South shine forth
In blue Brazilian skies:
And thou, O River, cleaving half the earth,
From sunset to sunrise,
From the great mountains to the Atlantic waves,
Thy joy’s long anthem pour,
Yet a few years (God make them less!) and slaves
Shall shame thy pride no more.
No fettered feet thy shaded margins press,
But all men shall walk free.
Where, thou the high-priest of the wilderness,
Hast wedded sea to sea.

And thou, great-hearted Ruler, through whose mouth
The word of God is said
Once more:—“Let there be light!”—Son of the South,
Lift up thy honoured head,
Wear unashamed a crown by thy desert
More than by birth thy own,
Careless of watch and ward; thou art begirt
By grateful hearts alone.
The moated wall and battleship may fail,
But safe shall Justice prove;
Stronger than greaves of brass or iron mail,
The panoply of Love.

John Greenleaf Whittier (Condensed)

Dom Pedro was born December 2, 1825

Was made Emperor at five years of age, April 7, 1831

Visited the United States, 1876

His daughter, Princess Isabel, emancipated the slaves, 1888

He abdicated, and Brazil was proclaimed a Republic, 1889

Dom Pedro died, December 5, 1891.

THE BRAZILS MAGNIFICENT

Robinson Crusoe, after escaping from Moorish slavery with the boy Xury, was rescued by a Portuguese ship bound for South America. He was carried by the ship’s captain to the Brazils.

There he settled, bought a plantation and made a fortune. Then, away from those same Brazils, he sailed and was wrecked and cast upon his Desert Island.

Magnificent and rich were Robinson Crusoe’s Brazils, or the Country of Brazil, stretching vast and unknown far westward into the interior of the continent. Near the sea-coast, in the parts inhabited by civilized men, were plantations of coffee, tobacco, and fruits. Primeval forests covered the shores of the rivers whose mighty waters rushed far out into the ocean. Fierce savages roved the forests. There were gold, spices, and diamonds in Robinson Crusoe’s Brazils, and rare woods, brilliant birds, butterflies, and flowers.

And so is the country of Brazil to-day—a magnificent land! Only there are cities there now, and towns and villages. And to-day, Brazil is a Republic with a Constitution like that of our own United States.

In Robinson Crusoe’s time, Brazil was owned and ruled by the Kingdom of Portugal, just as other parts of South America were owned and ruled by the Crown of Spain.

How Brazil won Independence and became a Republic, is a fascinating story.

THE EMPIRE OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS

Brazil, on which the Southern Cross of four bright stars, looks down, first became a Kingdom, then an Empire and after that a Republic.

When Napoleon’s Army threatened to invade Portugal, the Royal Family of Portugal fled in terror of their lives. They escaped from Lisbon, crossed the Atlantic, and found refuge in the royal Colony of Brazil.

In 1815, Brazil was declared a Kingdom, though still to remain a part of Portugal. The first and only European Kingdom in America!

When the time arrived, that the Royal Family might safely return to Portugal, the King left his son, Dom Pedro, to be Regent or Governor of Brazil.

But the Brazilians had grown used to having their King live among them. More just laws and greater privileges were theirs, when their ruler lived in the land. He could understand their needs better than if he ruled them from Europe. So the Brazilians became dissatisfied, when their country was reduced once more to the state of a Colony.

Dom Pedro was a patriotic Brazilian, and ruled the Country without much regard to Portugal’s wishes. Trouble soon arose between the Mother Country and Brazil. Dom Pedro proclaimed the Independence of Brazil, September 7, 1822. An Empire was established, and Dom Pedro was made Emperor under a Constitution.

But as time went on, the Emperor did not uphold the People’s rights; so he was forced to abdicate in favour of his little son, Dom Pedro, who was only five years old.

After which, Dom Pedro the First, sailed away to Europe, leaving little Dom Pedro the Second, to rule in his stead.

MAKING THE LITTLE EMPEROR

“The King is afloat! God save the King!” were the shouts which rang through the streets of Rio Janeiro, for now that their Emperor Pedro the First had abdicated and escaped on an English man-o-war, the people were giving themselves up to rejoicing.

“The King is afloat! God save the King!” was the cry of the townspeople and the streets, festooned with coffee branches, were made to glow with coloured silks, while the balconies were thronged with señoritas in all their finery of brilliant dresses, garlands, fluttering fans, and feather flowers.

They were witnessing the triumphal entry into his capital of the new Emperor, Dom Pedro the Second, the little lad of five and a half years old.

First in the procession of the Child-Emperor, were justices of the peace bearing green flags. Then came the little Emperor.

And what a figure was this! A tiny infant in a huge state-coach, dragged by four strings of excited mulattoes! He cried, and at the same time waved a white handkerchief.

The tender-hearted Brazilians, every man and woman of their number a child-adorer, were altogether overcome by the sight, and even the choir that accompanied the procession, was touched. Its triumphant chant died away in an emotional quiver.

With great pomp, little Pedro was installed as Emperor, the eyes of the enthusiastic spectators swimming with tears, as he was carried out of the chapel in the arms of an old chamberlain.

Later, while sitting in a little chair at the window of the palace, he reviewed the troops of his Empire.

But though little Pedro was now Emperor of all Brazil, he was too young to rule. A Regent ruled for him for ten years, while Pedro studied and prepared himself to govern his People.

W. H. Koebel and Other Sources

THE PATRIOT EMPEROR