True stories of American history for our young people ...

Front matter

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Introduction

THIS book is designed to impress upon the mind of American youth the principal great events in our history; to acquaint them with the manners and customs of different periods and in different sections, and to stimulate n them such a love for American history that they will seek its fuller details in :he volumes of our great historians.

It was the custom among some nations of antiquity to repeat to each fresh generation the noble deeds of their ancestors, thus making history a great oral tradition, and turning it from a dead record into a living romance. The Athenian boys learned Homer by heart ; the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " took the place of the pile of books which the schoolboy of to-day carries under his arm when he sets his "morning face" schoolward. In this,_,way boys learned beauty and sloquence of speech, and imbibed the spirtf of art while they were yet at their James. But they learned even greater things than these ; they grew up with the heroes of their race and took part in their great deeds. The bravest and most poetic things which their race had done were familiar and became dear to them while their natures were most receptive and responsive. The past was not dim and obscure to them as it is to too many Americans ; it was a living past, full of splendid figures and heroic deeds. To boys so bred in the very arms and at the very heart of their race it was a glorious privilege to be an Athenian ; to share in a noble history, to be a citizen of a beautiful city, to have the proud consciousness of such place and fame among men. It is not surprising that as the result of such an education the small city of Athens produced more great men in all departments in the brief limits of a century than most other cities have bred in the long course of history. There was a vital inspiring education behind that splendid flowering of art, literature, philosophy, and statesmanship.

This book endeavors to do for American boys and girls what such training oc (11}

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as the above did for the young Athenian, by setting before them in true but glowing narrative the most heroic and most interesting things in the history of our grand and glorious country.

It is doubtful if any country has ever developed greater energy of spirit or greater variety of character than this; and this is the chief reason why our history has such significance and such fruitage of achievement.

To know this history is a duty and a delight. A man whose brave ancestors have carried the name he bears far, and made it a synonym for courage and honor, IS rightly proud of his descent and gets from it a new impulse to bear as brave a part in his own day. Americans can honestly cherish such pride • it is justified by what lies behind them. No man can be truly patriotic who does not know something of the nation to which he belongs, and of the country in which he lives. Such knowledge is a part of intelligent citizenship. In this country where the government rests on the intelligence and virtue of the entire population' such a knowledge is a duty and a necessity. Not to know these things is to miss a noble and inspiring landscape which we might see simply by the Sftina up of the eyes. ^

The American boy and girl ought to have the same education, and this book IS for them both. Too many women and almost as many men grow up with the most indefinite ideas of their own country. They do not know what has been done here ; they do not even know how people live in other parts of the broad land. They know something of their own communities, but they are ic^norant of the greater community to which they belong. The story of the country's birth and growth, of its struggles and achievements, of its wonderfully diversified lite, of its heroic men and noble women, ought to be familiar to every boy and girl from earliest childhood. This knowledge is the A B C of real education and to furnish this knowledge was an object in the preparation of this volume

It IS a book for the family and for fireside reading. America is pre-eminendy the country of homes; that is, the country which, by its free institutions and its large social and industrial conditions, makes comfortable homes possible to its entire population. These homes are not only the sources of happiness and the nurseries of purity and prosperity, they are also the schools of citizenship trom these schools are graduated year after year, in unbroken and never-ending classes, the men and women who continue and enlarge the work and the influt ence of the nation. The Bible has been and will remain the great text-book in these'schools; but other books are needed, and this book aims to take its place as an indispensable book of instruction and entertainment. The history of a race is the best possible material for the education of the children of that race _ There is no romance so marvelous as this record of fact; none so full of mcident, adventure, heroism, and human vicissitude. From the voyacres of the earliest Spanish, French, and English explorers to the inventions and discoveries

INTRODUCTION. i.?

of modern times ; from the struggles for our own freedom in 1776 to our heroic battle for Cuban liberty from Spanish oppression in 189S, the story never fails of thrilling interest. It is a romance of humanity written by the hand of Providence on the clean, broad page of a new continent. It is a Bible for new illustration of the old laws of right and wrong which underlie all history; but it is a modern version of The Arabian Nights for marvels and miracles of human skill and achievements. The building of Aladdin's palace was a small affair compared with the building of some of our States; and the rubbing of Aladdin's lamp was but a faint burnishing compared with the glow of prosperity which hard work has brought out on the face of this continent. There is no romance so wonderful as the story of life told, not by novelists of varying degrees of skill, but acted out by great multitudes of eager, energetic men and women as recorded in this volume, for the education and inspiration of tiie boys and girls, young men and women of America.

America ! What heart does not thrill with patriotic pride at the mention of the word? Of her glorious history how truly has the poet sung:

" Land of the West, though passing brief The record of thine age, Thou hast a name that darkens all On history's wide page."

Yet, if we may dare to prophesy, the past with all its achievements is not to be compared to the future greatness of our country, from whose fires on freedom's altar the torch of liberty is being lighted throughout the world, and

"We behold, as in a vision, stern Columbia, sword in hand. And we hear the tramp of legions marshaling at her command ; Listen to the ringing challenge that she sends across the sea, 'They that wield the rod oppression must account for it to me.' We behold her, God commissioned, striking ancient error down. Wresting from the cruel despot sword and sceptre, throne and crown ; ' All the watching world applauds her when she cuts the captive's thongs

And, full fortified by justice, rights the martyred nation's wrongs."

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS.

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INTRODUCTION . . J

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CHAPTER I. The Story of Christopher Columbus and what He Did i^

-Visifs Sn.in A m °/.^'V'"'.-'"=^^"^ ^''^y '°' Port«gal-His plan-Sees the king_Tl,e king's indifference I

taken signs-La d at a A nei'^^^^^^^^^^ '^°" Palos-Mu,iny-Colun,l,u.'s firn^ne'ssiMis- fl

death at Valladolid found-Returns to Spain-Voyages and di,cover,es-Humilia.ion-His!'