American beginnings in Europe

Front matter

ra

AMERICAN

BEGINNINGS

Contents

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST

CHAPTER

PAGE.

Chapter I The Present And The Past

I. The Strong Men of the Past Our Teachers. — ^We stories of all listen with eager interest to stories of heroic men and help us"to^ their brave deeds. Such stories appeal to us because they ^^Y^ ?^°^® point to the noble things we too may do if we learn to hold noble ideals and aims and to take up hard tasks. They somehow make us feel grateful to the strong men whose deeds they tell of; for as we read we easily believe these men were in many ways much like ourselves, even though they lived in different times and countries and worked in ways quite unlike our own. While in imagination we join with them in meeting their dangers and in solving their problem^s, we learn how to live more wisely and how to be of greater service to others. We know that many of the things these heroes of long ago had to learn before they succeeded in doing their work are the very things we too must learn if we are to be successful.

These men of the past; to whom v/e owe so much, do These men not belong to any one time or countiy. Some of them beionVt? hved thousands of years ago, some but hundreds of years ^^iTand ago, and still others in more recent times. Many had countries their homes in ancient Greece and Rome, many in the European countries of the Middle Ages, and even more

The purpose of tills book belonged to more modern times and countries. But in whatever age or country they Hved^ many of the things they did are still helping us to-day. For what we are as a people is largely the outcome of the struggles of many men, of many ages, and of many lands.

Of course it is not always easy to trace the relation between the lives of men in far-away days and our own. Nor is it possible in this little book, even though it were desirable, to give the history of such men or of the periods or countries in which they lived. The pages which follow do not contain what we call organized histoiy. But it is hoped that in them you may get a few impressions which will help you to understand the spirit and purpose of the Greeks, the Romans, and other peoples who have done something to make our civilization w^hat it is. If you get such impressions you will understand better the meaning of your THE " MAYFLOWER," ONE HUNDRED Qwu historv wlieu vou como to study it,

FEET LONG OVER ALL, WHICH CAR- ^ '^ *^ .1

KiED ONE iiuNDRED AND TWO aud Tvdll sec more clearly the bearing of

PEOPLE .

all histoiy upon your own life. 2. Where Americans Came From. — Not only do our ways of living come from many lands, but our people do as well. Our forefathers were emigrants from several countries, and millions of people living in the United States to-day were born across the sea. These millions of foreign-born men and w^omen represent every civilized country of the world. Even in our own community it is probable there are people from many lands. Howimmi- ivlost, if not all, have come to the United States oe grants come q^q^^^ steamships, some of which now travel with great

New-comers in our own land

TIiE PRESENT AND THE PAST speed and carry people enough to fill a whole town. The fastest and best make the voyage from England or France to New York or Boston in five or six days, and carry from 2,000 to 3,000 passengers. Some of these steamers have four or five decks, with passenger elevators, telephones, and other conveniences^ making them like large floating hotels.

Of course you Imow that most of the immigrants of to-day come over as thirdclass, or steerage, passengers. Before they are admitted to any of our ports — New York City, for example — they are examined by the proper officials to see if they meet

the requirements of our laws for admission into this country. These laws require that immigrants shall be free from serious disease, shall not be convicts, and shall be selfsupporting. If they pass the examination the new-comers are free to go wherever they like, and, unless they decide to remain in New York, they travel by railroad to the places which they wish to make their new homes.

THE OLYMPIC, EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO FEET LONG, WHICH CARRIES THREE THOUSAND THREE HUNDKED AND SIXTY PEOPLE

The admission of immigranta to this country

Earlier Far different was it with those who in earher days

f^migrants found their way to the western world. As you may already know, among the first emigrants to settle in our country were the Pilgrims, who landed at Plymouth in 1620. They knew nothing of the luxuries of the great modern steamship. They set sail in the Mayflower^ a boat which carried only 102 passengers, of whom 20 w^ere boys and 8 were girls. Long weeks and months they were at sea. They suffered many trying experiences, and at times must have longed for the simple home comforts they had left behind. At last the tempestdriven Mayflower, with sails rent and timbers strained, dropped anchor safely after she had been sailing sixty-four days. The difference between the voyage of 1620 and that of to-day marks the progress of nearly three centuries in the speed and comfort of ocean travel. Some 3. What Americans Started With. — ^When the emi-

Sventfons grants from Europe came tp America in the seventeenth century they brought with them much that the people of Europe had learned up to that time. But they knew

nothing about many ways of doing things that we know to-day.

The steamship, the railroad, the trolley-car, the spinningmachine, the power loom, the sewing-machine, the telegraph, A MAKiNEKs COMPASS ^ud tho tclcphone had not been

invented. These and other inventions have come into use since the Pilgrims first landed on the " bleak New England shore." But fortunately for the Pilgrims and others who set-

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST 5

tied in America in the seventeenth century, many things inventions had been invented before their day. Among the most the^c^om/ng^ useful of these were the mariner's compass, gunpowder, ^^.^^-^

A PRINTING-PRESS OF THE TIME OF GT7TENBERO and the printing-press. With the compass as a guide, sailors were ready as they had never been before to venture far out into the sea in search of undiscovered shores; gunpowder made it easier to overcome wild and savage peoples; and the printing-press spread abroad the knowledge of new-found lands and of what men were doing everywhere. By the use of such inventions men could wield more power over the forces of nature and, what was of still greater advantage, could accomplish far more 'n their work together. The printing-press has been of t^special value in cheapening the cost of books and thus enabling a much greater number of people to profit by the wisdom of the ages.

Still older inventions

WHEELS OF THE EGYPTIANS, A CHAMOT

A ROMAN PLOUGH

PRIMITIVE TOOLS

These inventions had been made many years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic; and very much earlier were many others which to-day seem so commonplace that we do not think of them as inventions at all. Some of them are the house, the boat, the bow^ the hatchet, the plough, and the spinning-wheel. It was many years before the rude man of primitive days learned to build a house to shelter himself, a boat to carry himself and his goods over the water, a plough to break up the soil, and a way to express his thoughts and feelings in wiitten words and sentences so as to make a permanent record.

AN EARLY SPINNING-WHEEi

AN ARCHER USING THE LONG LOW

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST

4. The Invention of the Alphabet. — This last is one of the most remarkable inventions ever made in the history of the world. But like most others it came about slowly, by various steps in a long process. Writing was used long before printing or earlt Egyptian pictuees. ploughing, breakeng clods,

AND SOWING

even the letters

of the alphabet. Instead of words the Egyptians in the earlier days used pictures. But as they had neither paper nor ink, they employed tools of hardened bronze and made the pictures on stone.

For instance, if they wished to write the word for man, they cut on the stone a picture of a man, or if they wished to write the word for cat, they cut a picture of a cat.

The first step, then, was to use a picture for every word. The second step was to use a picture for a syllable. In this case the picture was followed closely by other pictures. The third and final step was the use of a picture for a single letter. In this way the alphabet as we know it to-day grew out of pictures.

The Babylonians as far back as we know them had already gone beyond picture writing, and wrote in an alphabet of their own. They used tablets of clay and wrote with a bronze tool called the stylus.

CDKEIPOKM WBITINa

The

Egyptians used pictures instead of words

The first, second, and third steps in the use of pictures

The wedge« shaped letters of the Babylonians

The alphabet as we know it to-day

Men's knowledge of geography in different ages

As this was square at the end and they used only a corner of it in writings the mark left on the clay had the shape of a wedge. Hence arose the name ^^cuneiform'/' which means wedge-shaped.

The use of the alphabet as we know it to-day came later. Just when and by whom it was invented is uncertain. It is believed by some that the Cretans were the inventors of the alphabet and that the Phoenicians carried it to Greece.

5. How People of Any Age Learn from the Past. — It appears, therefore, from this brief glance backward, that we Americans about three hundred years ago, when John Smith and other Enghshmen reached Jamestown and the Pilgrims reached Plymouth, started with many things which had been invented or discovered in the ages long before our ancestors ever dreamed of coming to America. Such has ever been the way, for it has always been true that when the men of any time found out a way of doing things which helped them to live with greater ease and comfort, those who came after them continued to use these ways of working, unless they found better ones. In this manner the people of each age profit by the experience of those who have lived before them, and at the same time they themselves invent new ways of doing things. Thus the old stock of ideas is ever being added to, each period in the world's histoiy improving a little on what has gone before.

6. The World as Known When the Christian Era Began. — The world in 1620, for instance, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, was quite different from what it was in 1492, when Cohunbus discovered America. Nor

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST 9

was the difference wholly in ways of living brought about by useful inventions. It was also in men's greater knowledge of geography. By consulting the map you will see how different was the earth's surface in 1620 from what it was as known in the time of Columbus, and, again, how different still it was at the beginning of the Christian era, that is, nearly fifteen hundred years before Columbus found his way to the New World.

The names by which some of the ancient peoples a^e what some known are not the same as the names by which the peo- pie^^of^anple now living in these countries are known. For ex- cient times

^ ... . were called

ample, those living in what is now England were called Britons; those in France were called Gauls; those in Spain were called Iberians; and the chief part of those in Italy were called Romans. But even in those far-away times the men of Greece were called Greeks, though, to be sure, they called themselves Hellenes.

The most intelligent of these peoples v/ere the Greeks, The Greeks yet in the early day of their history they knew little of ^^J^^hy what lay beyond their own boundaries. Their ideas of geography were hazy and fanciful. They believed the earth to be a plane stretching from the ^Egean Sea in all directions far away into unknown regions. They thought that at the extreme north was an island, which had been discovered by Pytheas, a sailor from Marseilles. They called it Ultima Thule, which means most distant goal. The best authority now holds that this was not a real island, but the coast of Norway.

1. Our ways of living have come from many lands, and thereiFore we owe much to the past, which we learn through the study of history. 2. Many of the people Kving in our country to-day came from other countries, just as our forefathers did. 3. When the emigrants from Europe came to America in the seventeenth century they brought with them many ways of doing things that the people of Europe had learned up to that time.

1. In what ways do the stories of heroic men help us to live more wisely ?

2. From what countries do most of the immigrants to our land come now? Which of these countries are represented by immigrants in your own community?

3. From what countries did our forefathers come?

4. How do immigrants come to-day, and how did our forefathers come?

5. Name some modern inventions which the Pilgrims knew nothing about. Name three important ones made before the Pilgrims came; and also some older inventions.

6. How do people of any age learn from the past?

THE GREEKS AND WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM THEM