The Story of Our Country Part 19

[Ill.u.s.tration: CUSTER'S LAST FIGHT.]

Now I have another story to tell. Our Civil War, which you have read about, ended in 1865. For thirty-three years after that--one-third of a century--we were at peace at home and abroad, and our country had the wonderful growth of which you have just read. Then, in 1898, almost at the end of the century, war came again. By good luck, it was not a big war this time, and it was one I can tell you about in a few words.

It was pity and charity that brought us into this war. South of Florida is the large and fertile island of Cuba, which had long belonged to Spain, and whose people had been very badly treated. At length they said they could stand it no longer, so they took their guns, left their homes, and went to war with the soldiers of Spain. For two years they fought bravely. Their old men, and their women and children, who had stayed at home, helped them all they could; so the Spaniards drove these from their homes into the cities, and left them there with hardly anything to eat. Thousands of these poor wretches starved to death.

You may be sure that our people thought this very wicked. They said that it ought to be stopped; but Spain would not do what they wished. Then they sent food to the starving people. Some of it got to them and some of it was used by others. Everybody in our country felt very badly to see this terrible affair going on at our very doors, and the government was told that it ought to take some action. What the government did was to send one of its war-vessels, the "Maine," to the harbor of Havana, the capital of Cuba.

Then something took place that would have made almost any country go to war. One dark night, while the "Maine" floated on the waters of the harbor, and nearly all her crew were fast asleep in their berths, a terrible explosion was heard under her, and the good vessel was torn nearly in half. In a minute she sank into the muddy bottom of the harbor, and hundreds of her sleeping crew were drowned. Only the captain and some of the officers and men escaped alive.

I fancy all of you must know how angry our people felt when they heard of this dreadful event. You were angry yourselves, no doubt, and said that the Spaniards had done this and ought to be punished by having Cuba taken from them. I do not think there were many Americans who did not feel like taking revenge for our poor murdered sailors.

War soon came. In April, 1898, the Congress declared war against Spain and a strong fleet of iron-clad s.h.i.+ps was sent to Cuba. An army was gathered as quickly as possible, and the soldiers were put on board s.h.i.+p and sailed away to the south. There was a Spanish fleet in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba and an American fleet outside keeping the s.h.i.+ps of Spain like prisoners in the harbor; so the soldiers were sent to that place, and it was not long before an army was landed and was marching towards the city of Santiago. I am glad to say that the fighting did not last very long. There was a bold charge up hill by the Rough Riders and others in the face of the Spanish guns, and the Spanish army was driven back to the city. Here they were shut up and soon surrendered, and the war in Cuba was at an end.

But the iron-clad s.h.i.+ps in the harbor were not given up. On the 3d of July a brave dash for liberty was made. They came out at full speed where our great s.h.i.+ps lay waiting, and soon there was one of the strangest fights that had ever been seen. The Spanish s.h.i.+ps rushed through the waters near the coast, firing as they fled. After them came the American s.h.i.+ps at full speed, firing as they followed. But not many of the Spanish halls touched the American s.h.i.+ps, while the great guns of the Americans raked the Spaniards fore and aft.

Soon some of their s.h.i.+ps were on fire and had to be run ash.o.r.e. In an hour or two the chase was at an end and the fine Spanish fleet was sunk and burning, with hundreds of its crew killed, while on the American s.h.i.+ps only one man had been killed. It was a wonderful flight and fight.

I should tell you more about it, only that I have another story of the same kind to relate.

Far away from Cuba, on the other side of the world, in the broad Pacific Ocean, near the coast of China, is a great group of islands called the Philippines, which had long belonged to Spain. Here, in the harbor of Manila, the capital of the islands, was a Spanish fleet. There was an American fleet in one of the harbors of China, under the command of Commodore George Dewey. And as soon as war had been declared Dewey was ordered to go to Manila and sink or take the Spanish fleet.

Dewey was a man who thought it his duty to obey orders. He had been told to sink or take the Spanish fleet, and that was what he meant to try his best to do. Over the waters sped his s.h.i.+ps, as swiftly as steam could carry them, and into the harbor of Manila they went at midnight while deep darkness lay upon the waters. It was early morning of the 1st of May when the American s.h.i.+ps rounded up in front of the city and came in sight of the Spanish fleet. This lay across the mouth of a little bay with forts to guard it on the land at each side.

It was a great danger which Commodore Dewey and his bold followers faced. Before them lay the Spanish s.h.i.+ps and the forts. There were torpedo boats which might rush out and sink them. There were torpedoes under the waters which might send the flags.h.i.+p itself to the bottom.

Some men would have stopped and felt their way, but George Dewey was not that kind of a man. Without stopping for a minute after his long journey from China, he dashed on with the fleet and ordered his men to fire.

Soon the great guns were roaring and the air was full of fire and smoke.

Round and round went the American s.h.i.+ps, firing as they pa.s.sed. Every shot seemed to tell. It was not long before some of the Spanish s.h.i.+ps were blazing, while hardly a ball had touched an American hull. After an hour or two of this hot work Dewey drew out and gave his men their breakfast. Then back he came and finished the job. When he was done, the whole Spanish fleet was sunk and burning, with hundreds of its men dead and wounded, while not an American s.h.i.+p was badly hurt and not an American sailor was killed. There had hardly been so one-sided a battle since the world began.

There, I have, as I promised, told you in few words the story of the war. Soon after a treaty of peace was signed and all was at an end. The brave Dewey was made an admiral and was greatly honored by the American people.

If you should ask me what we gained from the war, I would answer that we gained in the first place what the war was fought for, the freedom of Cuba from the cruel rule of Spain. But we did not come out of it without something for ourselves. We obtained the fertile island of Porto Rico in the West Indies and the large group of the Philippine Islands, near the coast of Asia. These last named came as the prize of Dewey's victory, but I am sorry to say that there was a war with the people themselves before the United States got possession. During the war with Spain we obtained another fine group of islands, that known as Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean. You can see from this that our country made a wide spread over the seas at the end of the nineteenth century. The winning of all these islands was an event of the greatest importance to the United States. It gave this country a broad foothold on the seas and a new outlook over the earth. Some of the proud nations of Europe had looked on this country as an American power only, with no voice in world affairs. But when Uncle Sam set his left foot on the Hawaiian Islands, in the Central Pacific, and his right foot on the Philippine Islands, near the coast of Asia, these powers of Europe opened their eyes and began to get new ideas about the great republic of the West. It was plain that the United States had become a world power, and that when the game of empire was to be played the western giant must be asked to take a hand.

This was seen soon after, when China began to murder missionaries and try to drive all white people from its soil. For the first time in history the United States joined hands with Europe in an Old World quarrel, and it was made evident that the world could not be cut up and divided among the powers without asking permission from Uncle Sam. But fortunately Uncle Sam wants to keep out of war.

And now we are near the end of our long journey. We have traveled together for more than four hundred years, from the time of Columbus to the present day, looking at the interesting facts of our country's history, and following its growth from a tiny seed planted in the wilderness to a giant tree whose branches are beginning to overshadow the earth. We have read about what our fathers did in the times that are no more. We have learned something of what has been taking place during our own lives. There is a new history before us in which we shall live and act and of which our own doings will form part. A new century, the twentieth, has opened before us, and it only remains to tell what our country has done in the few years that have pa.s.sed of this century.

CHAPTER XXVII

HOW A HUNTER BECAME PRESIDENT

I THINK it very likely that all, or nearly all, who read this book were born before the new century--the one we call the twentieth--began. It is a young century still. Yet there has been time enough for many things to take place in the country we call our own. Some of these you may remember. Others many of you were too young to know much about. So it is my purpose here to bring the story of our country up to the present time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROOSEVELT SURPRISED BY A GIANT HIPPOPOTAMUS.]

I have not said much about our Presidents, but there was a President elected in the first year of the twentieth century of whom I must speak, since his election led to a dreadful event. In the following year (1901) a beautiful exhibition was held at Buffalo, New York. It was called the Pan American Exhibition, and was intended to show what the nations of America had done in the century just closed.

I shall say little about the splendid electrical display, the fountains with their colored lights, the s.h.i.+ning cascades, the glittering domes and pinnacles, the caverns and grottoes, and all the other brilliant things to be seen, for I have to speak of something much less pleasant, the dark deed of murder and treachery which took place at this exhibition.

President McKinley came to Buffalo early in September to see the fine display and let the people see him, and on the 6th he stood with smiling face while many hundreds of visitors pa.s.sed by and shook hands with him.

In the midst of all this there came a loud, sharp sound. A pistol had been fired. The President staggered back, with pallid face. Men shouted; women screamed; a crowd rushed towards the spot; the man who held the pistol was flung to the floor and hundreds surged forward in fury. "He has shot our President! Kill him! Kill him!" they cried. The guards had a hard fight to keep the murderer from being torn to pieces by the furious throng.

The man who had shot the President belonged to a society called Anarchists, who hate all rulers and think it their duty to kill all kings and presidents. Poor, miserable wretch! he suffered the death he deserved. But his shot had reached its mark, and after a week of fear and hope, President McKinley died. He was mourned by all the people as if each of them had lost a member of his or her own family.

You probably know that when a President dies the Vice-President takes his place. McKinley's Vice-President was a capable man named Theodore Roosevelt. He was very fond of tramping through the wilds and of hunting wild beasts. At the time we speak of, when the news of the death of President McKinley was sent abroad, Vice-President Roosevelt was off on a long tramp through the Adirondack Mountains of New York, perhaps hoping to shoot a deer, or possibly a bear.

When the news came, no one knew where he was, and dozens of the mountain-climbers were sent out to find him. As they spread out and pushed forward, the crack of rifles could be heard on all sides and megaphones were used to send their voices far through the mountain defiles. But hour after hour pa.s.sed and the shades of evening were at hand, and still no answer came; no sign of Roosevelt and his party could be traced. Finally, when they were near the high top of Mount Marcy, answering shots and shouts were heard, and soon the hunting party came in sight.

When Mr. Roosevelt was told the news they brought--that the President was at the point of death--he could hardly believe it; for the last news had said that he was likely to get well. He knew now that he must get to Buffalo as soon as he could, so that the country should not be without a President, and he started back for the clubhouse from which he had set out at a pace that kept the others busy to keep up with him.

Night had fallen when he reached the clubhouse, but there was to be no sleep for him that night. A stagecoach, drawn by powerful horses, waited his coming, and in very few minutes he was inside it, the coachman had drawn his reins and cracked his whip, and away went the horses, plunging into the darkness of the woods that overhung the road.

That was one of the great rides in our history. You would have said so if you had been there to see. There were thirty-five miles to be made before the nearest railroad station could be reached. The road was rough and muddy, for a very heavy thunderstorm had fallen that day. Darkness overhung the way, made more gloomy by the thick foliage of the trees.

Here and there they stopped for a few minutes to change horses, and then plunged on at full speed again. What thoughts were in the mind of the solitary pa.s.senger whom fate was about to make President of the great United States, during that dark and dismal night, no one can tell.

Fortune had built for him a mighty career and he was hastening to take up the reins of government, soon to be dropped by the man chosen to hold them.

Alden's Lane was reached at 3:15 in the morning and the horses were again changed. The road now before them was the worst of all, for it was very narrow in places and had deep ravines on either side, while heavy forest timber shut it in. But the man who handled the horses knew his road and felt how great a duty had been placed in his hands, and at 5:22 that morning, when the light of dawn was showing in the east, the coach dashed up to the railroad station at North Creek. Here a special train, the locomotive puffing out steam, lay waiting for its distinguished pa.s.senger.

News of greater weight now greeted the traveler. He was told that the President was dead. He had pa.s.sed away at Buffalo three hours before.

The man who landed as Vice-President on that solitary platform, was now President of the United States. Only the oath of office was needed to make him such.

Disturbed in mind by the thrilling news, the traveler of the night stepped quickly into the car that waited for him, and the engine darted away through the dawn of the new day. Speed, speed, speed, was the thought in the mind of the engineer, and over the track dashed the iron horse and its single car, often at a rate of more than a mile a minute.

Hour after hour pa.s.sed by as they rushed across the state. At 1:40 in the afternoon the train came rattling into Buffalo, and its pa.s.senger leaped to the platform and made all haste to the house of Ainsley Wilc.o.x, one of his special friends. There, that afternoon, he was sworn into office as President of the United States, and the scene we have described came to an end, one of the most dramatic among those in our country's history. Never before had a man been sought in the depths of a mountain wilderness and ridden through rain and gloom a whole night long, to be told at the end that he had become the ruler of one of the greatest nations on the earth!

I have told you that Theodore Roosevelt was fond of hunting. While he was President he had to leave the wild animals alone, but he did another kind of hunting, which was to hunt for dishonesty and fraud among the great business concerns of the country. He said that every man ought to have an equal chance to make a living, and he had laws pa.s.sed to help in this.

This kind of hunting made him very popular among the people, which was shown by his being elected President by a large majority when the time came for the next Presidential election. He also won much fame by helping to put an end to the dreadful war between Russia and j.a.pan, and men everywhere began to speak of him as the greatest of living rulers.

While Mr. Roosevelt was President several things took place which are worth speaking about. One was the building of the Panama ca.n.a.l to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is not yet finished, but when it is done it will be the greatest ca.n.a.l on the earth. A second thing was the splendid World's Fair held at St. Louis in 1904, in memory of the purchase from France of the great Louisiana country a century before. Two years later the large city of San Francisco was destroyed by earthquake and fire, with great loss of life and property.

One thing more must be spoken of, for with this President Roosevelt had much to do. This was to have great dams built on the mountain streams of the West, so as to bring water to millions of acres of barren lands and make them rich and fertile. Also, to save the forests, nearly 200,000,000 acres of forest land were set aside as the property of the nation and kept from the axes of the woodcutters.

The time for another Presidential election came In 1908, but Mr.

Roosevelt would not run for the office again. I fancy he was tired of it and wanted to do some real hunting, for he soon set out for Africa, the land of the largest and fiercest animals on the earth. Here is the elephant, the rhinoceros, the lion, the wild buffalo and other savage beasts, and he spent a year in killing these animals and in keeping them from killing him. I have no doubt you would like to read of the exciting time he had in this great hunting trip, but I must stop here and leave it untold, for it is no part of the Story of Our Country.