[Footnote 4: See map in this paragraph.]

151. Boone's daughter is stolen by the Indians; how he found her.—One day Boone's young daughter was out, with two other girls, in a canoe on the river. Suddenly some Indians pounced on them and carried them off.

One of the girls, as she went along, broke off twigs from the bushes, so that her friends might be able to follow her track through the woods. An Indian caught her doing it, and told her that he would kill her if she did not instantly stop. Then she slyly tore off small bits of her dress, and dropped a piece from time to time.

Boone and his men followed the Indians like bloodhounds. They picked up the bits of dress, and so easily found which way the savages had gone. They came up with the Indians just as they were sitting down round a fire to eat their supper. Creeping toward them behind the trees as softly as a cat creeps up behind a mouse, Boone and his men aimed their rifles and fired. Two of the Indians fell dead, the rest ran for their lives, and the girls were carried back in safety to the fort.

152. Boone is captured by Indians; they adopt him as a son.—Later, Boone himself was caught and carried off by the Indians. They respected his courage so much that they would not kill him, but decided to adopt him; that is, take him into the tribe as one of their own people, or make an Indian of him.

They pulled out all his hair except one long lock, called the "scalp-lock," which they left to grow in Indian fashion. The squaws[5] and girls braided bright feathers in this lock, so that Boone looked quite gay. Then the Indians took him down to a river. There they stripped him, and scrubbed him with all their might, to get his white blood out, as they said. Next, they painted his face in stripes with red and yellow clay, so that he looked, as they thought, handsomer than he ever had before in his life. When all had been done, and they were satisfied with the appearance of their new Indian, they sat down to a great feast, and made merry.

[Footnote 5: Squaws: Indian women.]

153. Boone escapes, but the Indians find him again; what a handful of tobacco dust did.—After a time Boone managed to escape, but the Indians were so fond of him that they could not rest till they found him again. One day he was at work in a kind of shed drying some tobacco leaves. He heard a slight noise, and turning round saw four Indians with their guns pointed at him. "Now, Boone," said they, "we got you. You no get away this time." "How are you?" said Boone, pleasantly; "glad to see you; just wait a minute till I get you some of my tobacco." He gathered two large handfuls of the leaves: they were as dry as powder and crumbled to dust in his hands. Coming forward, as if to give the welcome present to the Indians, he suddenly sprang on them and filled their eyes, mouths, and noses with the stinging tobacco dust. The savages were half choked and nearly blinded. While they were dancing about, coughing, sneezing, and rubbing their eyes, Boone slipped out of the shed and got to a place of safety. The Indians were mad as they could be, yet they could hardly help laughing at Boone's trick; for cunning as the red men were, he was more cunning still.



154. Boone's old age; he moves to Missouri; he begs for a piece of land; his grave.—Boone lived to be a very old man. He had owned a good deal of land in the west, but he had lost possession of it. When Kentucky began to fill up with people and the game was killed off, Boone moved across the Mississippi into Missouri. He said that he went because he wanted "more elbow room" and a chance to hunt buffalo again.

He now begged the state of Kentucky to give him a small piece of land, where, as he said, he could "lay his bones." The people of that state generously helped him to get nearly a thousand acres; but he appears to have soon lost possession of it. If he actually did lose it, then this brave old hunter, who had opened up the way for such a multitude of emigrants to get farms at the west, died without owning a piece of ground big enough for a grave. He is buried in Frankfort, Kentucky, within sight of the river on which he built his fort at Boonesboro'.

155. Summary.—Daniel Boone, a famous hunter from North Carolina, opened up a road through the forest, from the mountains of Eastern Tennessee to the Kentucky River. It was called the "Wilderness Road," and over it thousands of emigrants went into Kentucky to settle. Boone, with others, built the fort at Boonesboro', Kentucky, and went there to live. That fort protected the settlers against the Indians, and so helped that part of the country to grow until it became the state of Kentucky.

Tell about Daniel Boone. How did he help his father? Where did he go when he became a man? What did he cut on a beech tree? Where did he go after that? What is said of the Indians in Kentucky? Tell about Indian tricks. Tell about the two owls. Tell about the Wilderness Road. What is said of the fort at Boonesboro'? Tell how Boone's daughter and the other girls were stolen by the Indians. What happened next? Tell how Boone was captured by the Indians and how they adopted him. Tell the story of the tobacco dust. What did Boone do when he became old? What did Kentucky get for him? Where is he buried?



GENERAL JAMES ROBERTSON AND GOVERNOR JOHN SEVIER[1] (1742-1814; 1745-1815).

156. Who James Robertson was; Governor Tryon; the battle of Alamance.[2]—When Daniel Boone first went to Kentucky (1769) he had a friend named James Robertson, in North Carolina[3] who was, like himself, a mighty hunter. The British governor of North Carolina at that time was William Tryon. He lived in a palace built with money which he had forced the people to give him. They hated him so for his greed and cruelty that they nicknamed him the "Great Wolf of North Carolina."

At last many of the settlers vowed that they would not give the governor another penny. When he sent tax-collectors to get money, they drove them back, and they flogged one of the governor's friends with a rawhide till he had to run for his life.

The governor then collected some soldiers and marched against the people in the west. A battle was fought near the Alamance River. The governor had the most men and had cannon besides, so he gained the day. He took seven of the people prisoners and hanged them. They all died bravely, as men do who die for liberty.

[Footnote 1: Sevier (Se-veer'): he was born in Rockingham County, Virginia.]

[Footnote 2: Alamance River (Al'a-mance): see map in paragraph 150.]

[Footnote 3: Robertson was born in Brunswick County, Virginia; he emigrated to North Carolina and settled in the neighborhood of Raleigh. See map in paragraph 150.]

157. James Robertson leaves North Carolina and goes west.—After the battle of Alamance James Robertson and his family made up their minds that they would not live any longer where Governor Tryon ruled. They resolved to go across the mountains into the western wilderness. Sixteen other families joined Robertson's and went with them. It was a long, hard journey; for they had to climb rocks and find their way through deep, tangled woods. The men went ahead with their axes and their guns; then the older children followed, driving the cows; last of all came the women with the little children, with beds, pots, and kettles packed on the backs of horses.



158. The emigrants settle on the Watauga River[4] in Tennessee.—When the little party had crossed the mountains into what is now the state of Tennessee, they found a delightful valley. Through this valley there ran a stream of clear sparkling water called the Watauga River; the air of the valley was sweet with the smell of wild crab-apples.

On the banks of that stream the emigrants built their new homes. Their houses were simply rough log huts, but they were clean and comfortable. When the settlers put up these cabins, they chopped down every tree near them which was big enough for an Indian to hide behind. They knew that they might have to fight the savages; but they had rather do that than be robbed by tax-collectors. In the wilderness Governor Tryon could not reach them—they were free; free as the deer and the squirrels were: that one thought made them contented and happy.

[Footnote 4: Watauga River (Wa-taw'ga): see map in paragraph 150.]

159. John Sevier goes to settle at Watauga; what he and Robertson did.—The year after this little settlement was made John Sevier went from Virginia to Watauga, as it was called. He and Robertson soon became fast friends—for one brave man can always see something to respect and like in another brave man. Robertson and Sevier hunted together and worked together.

After a while they called a meeting of the settlers and agreed on some excellent laws, so that everything in the log village might be done decently and in order; for although these people lived in the woods, they had no notion of living like savages or wild beasts. In course of time President Washington made James Robertson General Robertson, in honor of what he had done for his country.

Out of this settlement on the Watauga River grew the state of Tennessee. A monument in honor of John Sevier stands in Nashville, a city founded by his friend Robertson. Sevier became the first governor of the new state.



160. Summary.—James Robertson, of North Carolina, and John Sevier, of Virginia, emigrated across the mountains to the western wilderness. They settled on the Watauga River, and that settlement, with others made later, grew into the state of Tennessee, of which John Sevier became the first governor.

What friend did Boone have in North Carolina? Tell about Governor Tryon. What happened on the Alamance River? Where did Robertson and others go? Where did they settle? Why did they like to be there? Tell about John Sevier. What did he and Robertson do? What did Washington do for Robertson? What state grew out of the Watauga settlement? What did Sevier become? Where is his monument?



GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK (1752-1818).

161. The British in the west; their forts; hiring Indians to fight the settlers.—While Washington was fighting the battles of the Revolution in the east, the British in the west were not sitting still. They had a number of forts in the Wilderness,[1] as that part of the country was then called. One of these forts was at Detroit,[2] in what is now Michigan; another was at Vincennes,[3] in what is now Indiana; a third fort was at Kaskaskia,[4] in what is now Illinois.



Colonel Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, was determined to drive the American settlers out of the west. In the beginning of the Revolution the Americans resolved to hire the Indians to fight for them, but the British found that they could hire them better than we could, and so they got their help. The savages did their work in a terribly cruel way. Generally they did not come out and do battle openly, but they crept up secretly, by night, and attacked the farmers' homes. They killed and scalped the settlers in the west, burned their log cabins, and carried off the women and children prisoners. The greater part of the people in England hated this sort of war. They begged the king not to hire the Indians to do these horrible deeds of murder and destruction. George the Third was not a bad-hearted man; but he was very set in his way, and he had fully made up his mind to conquer the "American rebels," as he called them, even if he had to get the savages to help him do it.

[Footnote 1: See map in paragraph 187.]

[Footnote 2: Detroit (De-troit'): for these forts see map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 3: Vincennes (Vin-senz').]

[Footnote 4: Kaskaskia (Kas-kas'ki-a).]

162. George Rogers Clark gets help from Virginia and starts to attack Fort Kaskaskia.—Daniel Boone had a friend in Virginia named George Rogers Clark,[5] who believed that he could take the British forts in the west and drive out the British from all that part of the country. Virginia then owned most of the Wilderness. For this reason Clark went to Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, and asked for help. The governor liked the plan, and let Clark have money to hire men to go with him and try to take Fort Kaskaskia to begin with.

Clark started in the spring of 1778 with about a hundred and fifty men. They built boats just above Pittsburg[6] and floated down the Ohio River, a distance of over nine hundred miles. Then they landed in what is now Illinois, and set out for Fort Kaskaskia.[7]

[Footnote 5: George Rogers Clark was born near Monticello, Virginia. See map in paragraph 140.]

[Footnote 6: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 140.]

[Footnote 7: Fort Kaskaskia: see map in paragraph 161.]

163. The march to Fort Kaskaskia; how a dance ended.—It was a hundred miles to the fort, and half of the way the men had to find their way through thick woods, full of underbrush, briers, and vines. The British, thinking the fort perfectly safe from attack, had left it in the care of a French officer. Clark and his band reached Kaskaskia at night. They found no one to stop them. The soldiers in the fort were having a dance, and the Americans could hear the merry music of a violin and the laughing voices of girls.

Clark left his men just outside the fort, and, finding a door open, he walked in. He reached the room where the fun was going on, and stopping there, he stood leaning against the door-post, looking on. The room was lighted with torches; the light of one of the torches happened to fall full on Clark's face; an Indian sitting on the floor caught sight of him; he sprang to his feet and gave a terrific war-whoop. The dancers stopped as though they had been shot; the women screamed; the men ran to the door to get their guns. Clark did not move, but said quietly, "Go on; only remember you are dancing now under Virginia, and not under Great Britain." The next moment the Americans rushed in, and Clark and his "Long Knives," as the Indians called his men, had full possession of the fort.



164. How Fort Vincennes was taken; how the British got it back again; what Francis Vigo[8] did.—Clark wanted next to march against Fort Vincennes, but he had not men enough. There was a French Catholic priest[9] at Kaskaskia, and Clark's kindness to him had made him our friend. He said, I will go to Vincennes for you, and I will tell the French, who hold the fort for the British, that the Americans are their real friends, and that in this war they are in the right. He went; the French listened to him, then hauled down the British flag and ran up the American flag in its place.

The next year the British, led by Colonel Hamilton of Detroit, got the fort back again. When Clark heard of it he said, "Either I must take Hamilton, or Hamilton will take me." Just then Francis Vigo, a trader at St. Louis, came to see Clark at Kaskaskia. Hamilton had held Vigo as a prisoner, so he knew all about Fort Vincennes. Vigo said to Clark, "Hamilton has only about eighty soldiers; you can take the fort, and I will lend you all the money you need to pay your men what you owe them."

[Footnote 8: Vigo (Vee-go).]

[Footnote 9: The priest was Father Gibault (Zhe-bo').]

165. Clark's march to Fort Vincennes; the "Drowned Lands."—Clark, with about two hundred men, started for Vincennes. The distance was nearly a hundred and fifty miles. The first week everything went on pretty well. It was in the month of February, the weather was cold, and it rained a good deal, but the men did not mind that. They would get wet through during the day; but at night they built roaring log fires, gathered round them, roasted their buffalo meat or venison, smoked their pipes, told jolly stories, and sang jolly songs.

But the next week they got to a branch of the Wabash River.[10] Then they found that the constant rains had raised the streams so that they had overflowed their banks; the whole country was under water three or four feet deep. This flooded country was called the "Drowned Lands": before Clark and his men had crossed them they were nearly drowned themselves.

[Footnote 10: See map in paragraph 161.]

166. Wading on to victory.—For about a week the Americans had to wade in ice-cold water, sometimes waist deep, sometimes nearly up to their chins. While wading, the men were obliged to hold their guns and powder-horns above their heads to keep them dry. Now and then a man would stub his toe against a root or a stone and would go sprawling headfirst into the water. When he came up, puffing and blowing from such a dive, he was lucky if he still had his gun. For two days no one could get anything to eat; but hungry, wet, and cold, they kept moving slowly on.



The last part of the march was the worst of all. They were now near the fort, but they still had to wade through a sheet of water four miles across. Clark took the lead and plunged in. The rest, shivering, followed. A few looked as though their strength and courage had given out. Clark saw this, and calling to Captain Bowman,—one of the bravest of his officers,—he ordered him to kill the first man who refused to go forward.

At last, with numbed hands and chattering teeth, all got across, but some of them were so weak and blue with cold that they could not take another step, but fell flat on their faces in the mud. These men were so nearly dead that no fire seemed to warm them. Clark ordered two strong men to lift each of these poor fellows up, hold him between them by the arms, and run him up and down until he began to get warm. By doing this he saved every one.

167. Clark takes the fort; what we got by his victory; his grave.—After a long and desperate fight Clark took Fort Vincennes and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it in triumph. The British never got it back again. Most of the Indians were now glad to make peace, and to promise to behave themselves.

By Clark's victory the Americans got possession of the whole western wilderness up to Detroit. When the Revolutionary War came to an end, the British did not want to give us any part of America beyond the thirteen states on the Atlantic coast. But we said, The whole west, clear to the Mississippi, is ours; we fought for it; we took it; we hoisted our flag over its forts, and we mean to keep it. We did keep it.

There is a grass-grown grave in a burial-ground in Louisville, Kentucky, which has a small headstone marked with the letters G. R. C., and nothing more; that is the grave of General George Rogers Clark, the man who did more than any one else to get the west for us—or what was called the west a hundred years ago.



168. Summary.—During the Revolutionary War George Rogers Clark of Virginia, with a small number of men, captured Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois, and Fort Vincennes in Indiana. Clark drove out the British from that part of the country, and when peace was made, we kept the west—that is, the country as far as the Mississippi River—as part of the United States. Had it not been for him and his brave men, we might not have got it.

What did the British have in the west? Where were three of those forts? Who hired the Indians to fight? How did they fight? What did most of the people in England think about this? What is said of George the Third? What friend did Daniel Boone have in Virginia? What did Clark undertake to do? Tell how he went down the Ohio. Tell how he marched on Fort Kaskaskia. What happened when he got there? What did Clark say to the people in the fort? How was Fort Vincennes taken? What did the British do the next year? Tell about Francis Vigo. What did Clark and his men start to do? How far off was Fort Vincennes? Tell about the first part of the march. What lands did they come to? Tell how the men waded. How did Clark save the lives of some of the men? Did Clark take the fort? What did the Americans get possession of by this victory? What happened at the end of the Revolutionary War? What did we say? What is said of the grave at Louisville, Kentucky? What did Clark get for us?



GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM (1738-1824).

169. What General Putnam did for Washington, and what the British said of Putnam's work.—When the British had possession of Boston in the time of the Revolution, Washington asked Rufus Putnam,[1] who was a great builder of forts, to help him drive them out. Putnam set to work, one dark, stormy night, and built a fort on some high land[2] overlooking Boston Harbor.



When the British commander woke up the next morning, he saw the American cannon pointed at his ships. He was so astonished that he could scarcely believe his eyes. "Why," said he, "the rebels have done more in one night than my whole army could have done in a week." Another officer, who had command of the British vessels, said, "If the Americans hold that fort, I cannot keep a ship in the harbor."

Well, we know what happened. Our men did hold that fort, and the British had to leave Boston. Next to General Washington, General Rufus Putnam was the man who made them go; for not many officers in the American army could build such a fort as he could.

[Footnote 1: Rufus Putnam was born in Sutton, Massachusetts.]

[Footnote 2: Dorchester Heights: now South Boston.]

170. General Putnam builds the Mayflower; goes down the Ohio River and makes the first settlement in Ohio.—After the war was over, General Putnam started with a company of people from New England, to make a settlement on the Ohio River. In the spring of 1788 he and his emigrants built a boat at a place just above Pittsburg.[3] They named this boat the Mayflower,[4] because they were Pilgrims going west to make their home there.



At that time there was not a white settler in what is now the state of Ohio. Most of that country was covered with thick woods. There were no roads through those woods, and there was not a steamboat or a railroad either in America or in the world. If you look on the map[5] and follow down the Ohio River from Pittsburg, you will come to a place where the Muskingum joins the Ohio. At that place the Mayflower stopped, and the emigrants landed and began to build their settlement.

[Footnote 3: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 140.]

[Footnote 4: Mayflower: see paragraph 64.]

[Footnote 5: See map in paragraph 140.]

171. What the settlers named their town; the first Fourth of July celebration; what Washington said of the settlers.—During the Revolutionary War the beautiful Queen Mary of France was our firm friend, and she was very kind and helpful to Dr. Franklin when he went to France for us. A number of the emigrants had fought in the Revolution, and so it was decided to name the town Marietta,[6] in honor of the queen.

When the Marietta settlers celebrated the Fourth of July, Major Denny, who commanded a fort just across the river, came to visit them. He said, "These people appear to be the happiest folks in the world." President Washington said that he knew many of them and that he believed they were just the kind of men to succeed. He was right; for these people, with those who came later to build the city of Cincinnati, were the ones who laid the foundation of the great and rich state of Ohio.

[Footnote 6: The queen's full name in French was Marie Antoinette; the name Marietta is made up from the first and the last parts of her name.]

172. Fights with the Indians; how the settlers held their town; Indian Rock; the "Miami[7] Slaughter House."—But the people of Marietta had hardly begun to feel at home in their little settlement before a terrible Indian war broke out. The village of Marietta had a high palisade[8] built round it, and if a man ventured outside that palisade he went at the risk of his life; for the Indians were always hiding in the woods, ready to kill any white man they saw. When the settlers worked in the cornfield, they had to carry their guns as well as their hoes, and one man always stood on top of a high stump in the middle of the field, to keep a bright lookout.



There is a lofty rock on the Ohio River below Marietta, which is still called Indian Rock. It got its name because the Indians used to climb up to the top and watch for emigrants coming down the river in boats. When they saw a boat, they would fire a shower of bullets at it, and perhaps leave it full of dead and wounded men to drift down the river. In the western part of Ohio, on the Miami River, the Indians killed so many people that the settlers called that part of the country by the terrible name of the "Miami Slaughter House."

[Footnote 7: Miami (Mi-am'i).]

[Footnote 8: See picture of a palisade in paragraph 70.]

173. What General Wayne did.—But President Washington sent a man to Ohio who made the Indians beg for peace. This man was General Wayne; he had fought in the Revolution, and fought so furiously that he was called "Mad Anthony Wayne." The Indians said that he never slept, and named him "Black Snake," because that is the quickest and boldest snake there is in the woods, and in a fight with any other creature of his kind he is pretty sure to win the day. General Wayne won, and the Indians agreed to move off and give up a very large part of Ohio to the white settlers. After that there was not much trouble, and emigrants poured in by thousands.

174. Summary.—In 1788 General Rufus Putnam, with a company of emigrants, settled Marietta, Ohio. The town was named in honor of Queen Mary of France, who had helped us during the Revolution. It was the first town built in what is now the state of Ohio. After General Wayne conquered the Indians that part of the country rapidly increased in population.

What did General Rufus Putnam do for Washington? Where did General Putnam go in 1788? What is said of Ohio at that time? Where did the Mayflower stop? What is said of Queen Mary of France? What did the settlers name their town? What did Washington say about the settlers? What did these people do? What is said about the Indians? What about Indian Rock? What was the country on the Miami River called? What is said about General Wayne? What did the Indians call him? Why did they give him that name? What did the Indians agree to do? What happened after that?



ELI WHITNEY (1765-1825).

175. The name cut on a door.—Near Westboro', Massachusetts,[1] there is an old farm-house which was built before the war of the Revolution. Close to the house is a small wooden building; on the door you can read a boy's name, just as he cut it with his pocket-knife more than a hundred years ago.[2] Here is the door with the name. If the boy had added the date of his birth, he would have cut the figures 1765; but perhaps, just as he got to that point, his father appeared and said rather sharply: Eli, don't be cutting that door. No, sir, said Eli, with a start; and shutting his knife up with a snap, he hurried off to get the cows or to do his chores.[3]



[Footnote 1: See map in paragraph 135.]

[Footnote 2: The house is no longer standing, and the door has disappeared.]

[Footnote 3: Chores: getting in wood, feeding cattle, etc.]

176. What Eli Whitney used to do in his father's little workshop; the fiddle.—Eli Whitney's father used that little wooden building as a kind of workshop, where he mended chairs and did many other small jobs. Eli liked to go to that workshop and make little things for himself, such as water-wheels and windmills; for it was as natural for him to use tools as it was to whistle.

Once when Eli's father was gone from home for several days, the boy was very busy all the while in the little shop. When Mr. Whitney came back he asked his housekeeper, "What has Eli been doing?" "Oh," she replied, "he has been making a fiddle." His father shook his head, and said that he was afraid Eli would never get on much in the world. But Eli's fiddle, though it was rough-looking, was well made. It had music in it, and the neighbors liked to hear it: somehow it seemed to say through all the tunes played on it, "Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well."

177. Eli Whitney begins making nails; he goes to college.—When Eli was fifteen, he began making nails. We have machines to-day which will make more than a hundred nails a minute; but Eli made his, one by one, by pounding them out of a long, slender bar of red-hot iron. Whitney's hand-made nails were not handsome, but they were strong and tough, and as the Revolutionary War was then going on, he could sell all he could make.

After the war was over the demand for nails was not so good. Then Whitney threw down his hammer, and said, "I am going to college." He had no money; but he worked his way through Yale College, partly by teaching and partly by doing little jobs with his tools. A carpenter who saw him at work one day, noticed how neatly and skilfully he used his tools, and said, "There was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to college."

178. Whitney goes to Georgia; he stops with Mrs. General Greene; the embroidery frame.—When the young man had completed his course of study he went to Georgia to teach in a gentleman's family. On the way to Savannah he became acquainted with Mrs. Greene, the widow of the famous General Greene[4] of Rhode Island. General Greene had done such excellent fighting in the south during the Revolution that, after the war was over, the state of Georgia gave him a large piece of land near Savannah.

Mrs. Greene invited young Whitney to her house; as he had been disappointed in getting the place to teach, he was very glad to accept her kind invitation. While he was there he made her an embroidery frame. It was much better than the old one that she had been using, and she thought the maker of it was wonderfully skilful.

[Footnote 4: General Greene: see paragraph 140.]

179. A talk about raising cotton, and about cotton seeds.—Not long after this, a number of cotton-planters were at Mrs. Greene's house. In speaking about raising cotton they said that the man who could invent a machine for stripping off the cotton seeds from the plant would make his fortune.

For what is called raw cotton or cotton wool, as it grows in the field, has a great number of little green seeds clinging to it. Before the cotton wool can be spun into thread and woven into cloth, those seeds must be pulled off.



At that time the planters set the negroes to do this. When they had finished their day's labor of gathering the cotton in the cotton field, the men, women, and children would sit down and pick off the seeds, which stick so tight that getting them off is no easy task.



After the planters had talked awhile about this work, Mrs. Greene said, "If you want a machine to do it, you should apply to my young friend, Mr. Whitney; he can make anything." "But," said Mr. Whitney, "I have never seen a cotton plant or a cotton seed in my life"; for it was not the time of year then to see it growing in the fields.

180. Whitney gets some cotton wool; he invents the cotton-gin; what that machine did.—After the planters had gone, Eli Whitney went to Savannah and hunted about until he found, in some store or warehouse, a little cotton wool with the seeds left on it. He took this back with him and set to work to make a machine which would strip off the seeds.

He said to himself, If I fasten some upright pieces of wire in a board, and have the wires set very close together, like the teeth of a comb, and then pull the cotton wool through the wires with my fingers, the seeds, being too large to come through, will be torn off and left behind. He tried it, and found that the cotton wool came through without any seeds on it. Now, said he, if I should make a wheel, and cover it with short steel teeth, shaped like hooks, those teeth would pull the cotton wool through the wires better than my fingers do, and very much faster.



He made such a wheel; it was turned by a crank; it did the work perfectly; so, in the year 1793, he had invented the machine the planters wanted.

Before that time it used to take one negro all day to clean a single pound of cotton of its seeds by picking them off one by one; now, Eli Whitney's cotton-gin,[5] as he called his machine, would clean a thousand pounds in a day.

[Footnote 5: Gin: a shortened form of the word engine, meaning any kind of a machine.]

181. Price of common cotton cloth to-day; what makes it so cheap; "King Cotton."—To-day nothing is much cheaper than common cotton cloth. You can buy it for ten or twelve cents a yard, but before Whitney invented his cotton-gin it sold for a dollar and a half a yard. A hundred years ago the planters at the south raised very little cotton, for few people could afford to wear it; but after this wonderful machine was made, the planters kept making their fields bigger and bigger. At last they raised so much more of this plant than of anything else, that they said, "Cotton is king." It was Eli Whitney who built the throne for that king; and although he did not make a fortune by his machine, yet he received a good deal of money for the use of it in some of the southern states.



Later, Mr. Whitney built a gun-factory near New Haven, Connecticut, at a place now called Whitneyville; at that factory he made thousands of the muskets which we used in our second war with England in 1812.

]

[Footnote 6: In the war of 1812 the British war-ships attacked Fort McHenry, one of the defences of Baltimore. Francis Scott Key, a native of Maryland, who was then detained on board a British man-of-war, anxiously watched the battle during the night; before dawn the firing ceased. Key had no means of telling whether the British had taken the fort until the sun rose; then, to his joy, he saw the American flag still floating triumphantly above the fort—that meant that the British had failed in their attack, and Key, in his delight, hastily wrote the song of the Star Spangled Banner on the back of a letter which he had in his pocket. The song was at once printed, and in a few weeks it was known and sung from one end of the United States to the other.]

182. Summary.—About a hundred years ago (1793), Eli Whitney of Westboro', Massachusetts, invented the cotton-gin, a machine for pulling off the green seeds from cotton wool, so that it may be easily woven into cloth. That machine made thousands of cotton-planters and cotton manufacturers rich, and by it cotton cloth became so cheap that everybody could afford to use it.

What name did a boy cut on a door? What did Eli make in that workshop? What did he make while his father was away? What did his father say? What did Eli's fiddle seem to say? What did Eli make next? How did he make his nails? Where did he go after he gave up making nails? When he left college where did he go? What lady did he become acquainted with? What did he make for her? What did the cotton-planters say? What must be done to raw cotton before it can be made into cloth? Who did this work? What did Mrs. Greene say to the planters? What did Mr. Whitney say? What did he do? Tell how he made his machine. What did he call it? How many pounds of cotton would his cotton-gin clean in a day? How much could one negro clean? What is said about the price of cotton cloth? What did the planters say about cotton? Who built the throne for King Cotton? What did Mr. Whitney build at Whitneyville? What did he make there?



THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

183. How much cotton New Orleans sends to Europe; Eli Whitney's work; who it was that bought New Orleans and Louisiana for us.—To-day the city of New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, sends more cotton to England and Europe than any other city in America.

If you should visit that city and go down to the riverside, you would see thousands of cotton bales[1] piled up, and hundreds of negroes loading them on ocean steamers. It would be a sight you would never forget.



Before Eli Whitney[2] invented his machine, we sent hardly a bale of cotton abroad. Now we send so much in one year that the bales can be counted by millions. If they were laid end to end, in a straight line, they would reach clear across the American continent from San Francisco to New York, and then clear across the ocean from New York to Liverpool, England. It was Eli Whitney, more than any other man, who helped to build up this great trade. But at the time when he invented his cotton-gin, we did not own New Orleans, or, for that matter, any part of Louisiana or of the country west of the Mississippi River. The man who bought New Orleans and Louisiana for us was Thomas Jefferson.

[Footnote 1: A bale or bundle of cotton is usually somewhat more than five feet long, and it generally weighs from 400 to 550 pounds. The cotton crop of this country in 1891 amounted to more than 8,650,000 bales; laid end to end, in a straight line, these bales would extend more than 8000 miles.]

[Footnote 2: 2 See paragraph 180.]

184. Who Thomas Jefferson was; Monticello;[3] how Jefferson's slaves met him when he came home from Europe.—Thomas Jefferson was the son of a rich planter who lived near Charlottesville in Virginia.[4] When his father died, he came into possession of a plantation of nearly two thousand acres of land, with forty or fifty negro slaves on it.

There was a high hill on the plantation, which Jefferson called Monticello, or the little mountain. Here he built a fine house. From it he could see the mountains and valleys of the Blue Ridge for an immense distance. No man in America had a more beautiful home, or enjoyed it more, than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's slaves thought that no one could be better than their master. He was always kind to them, and they were ready to do anything for him. Once when he came back from France, where he had been staying for a long time, the negroes went to meet his carriage. They walked several miles down the road; when they caught sight of the carriage, they shouted and sang with delight. They would gladly have taken out the horses and drawn it up the steep hill. When Jefferson reached Monticello and got out, the negroes took him in their arms, and, laughing and crying for joy, they carried him into the house. Perhaps no king ever got such a welcome as that; for that welcome was not bought with money: it came from the heart. Yet Jefferson hoped and prayed that the time would come when every slave in the country might be set free.



[Footnote 3: Monticello (Mon-ti-cel'lo).]

[Footnote 4: See map in paragraph 140.]

185. Thomas Jefferson hears Patrick Henry speak at Richmond.—Jefferson was educated to be a lawyer; he was not a good public speaker, but he liked to hear men who were. Just before the beginning of the Revolutionary War (1775), the people of Virginia sent men to the city of Richmond to hold a meeting in old St. John's Church. They met to see what should be done about defending those rights which the king of England had refused to grant the Americans.

One of the speakers at that meeting was a famous Virginian named Patrick Henry. When he got up to speak he looked very pale, but his eyes shone like coals of fire. He made a great speech. He said, "We must fight! I repeat it, sir,—we must fight!" The other Virginians agreed with Patrick Henry, and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, with other noted men who were present at the meeting, began at once to make ready to fight.



186. Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence; how it was sent through the country.—Shortly after this the great war began. In a little over a year from the time when the first battle was fought, Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and some others to write the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson really wrote almost every word of it. He was called the "Pen of the Revolution"; for he could write quite as well as Patrick Henry could speak.

The Declaration was printed and carried by men mounted on fast horses all over the United States. When men heard it, they rang the church bells and sent up cheer after cheer. General Washington had the Declaration read to all the soldiers in his army, and if powder had not been so scarce, they would have fired off every gun for joy.



187. Jefferson is chosen President of the United States; what he said about New Orleans.—A number of years after the war was over Jefferson was chosen President of the United States; while he was President he did something for the country which will never be forgotten.

Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, with the lower part of the Mississippi River, then belonged to the French; for at that time the United States only reached west as far as the Mississippi River. Now as New Orleans stands near the mouth of that river, the French could say, if they chose, what vessels should go out to sea, and what should come in. So far, then, as that part of America was concerned, we were like a man who owns a house while another man owns one of the doors to it. The man who has the door could say to the owner of the house, I shall stand here on the steps, and you must pay me so many dollars every time you go out and every time you come in this way.



Jefferson saw that so long as the French held the door of New Orleans, we should not be free to send our cotton down the river and across the ocean to Europe. He said we must have that door, no matter how much it costs.

188. Jefferson buys New Orleans and Louisiana for the United States.—Mr. Robert R. Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was in France at that time, and Jefferson sent over to him to see if he could buy New Orleans for the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte[5] then ruled France. He said, I want money to purchase war-ships with, so that I can fight England; I will sell not only New Orleans, but all Louisiana besides, for fifteen millions of dollars. That was cheap enough, and so in 1803 President Jefferson bought it.



If you look on the map[6] you will see that Louisiana then was not simply a good-sized state, as it is now, but an immense country reaching clear back to the Rocky Mountains. It was really larger than the whole United States east of the Mississippi River. So, through President Jefferson's purchase, we added so much land that we now had more than twice as much as we had before, and we had got the whole Mississippi River, the city of New Orleans, and what is now the great city of St. Louis besides.

[Footnote 5: Napoleon Bonaparte (Na-po'le-on Bo'na-part).]

[Footnote 6: See map in this paragraph, and compare map in paragraph 187.]

189. Death of Jefferson; the words cut on his gravestone.—Jefferson lived to be an old man. He died at Monticello on the Fourth of July, 1826, just fifty years, to a day, after he had signed the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, who had been President next before Jefferson, died a few hours later. So America lost two of her great men on the same day.

Jefferson was buried at Monticello. He asked to have these words, with some others, cut on his gravestone:—

Here Lies Buried THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of American Independence.

190. Summary.—Thomas Jefferson of Virginia wrote the Declaration of Independence. After he became President of the United States, he bought Louisiana for us. The purchase of Louisiana, with New Orleans, gave us the right to send our ships to sea by way of the Mississippi River, which now belonged to us. Louisiana added so much land that it more than doubled the size of the United States.

Before Whitney invented his cotton-gin how much cotton did we send abroad? How much do we send from New Orleans now? Did we own New Orleans or Louisiana when Whitney invented his cotton-gin? Who bought them for us? Who was Thomas Jefferson? What is said about Monticello? Tell how Jefferson's slaves welcomed him home. For what profession was Jefferson educated? Tell about Patrick Henry. What did he say? What did Washington and Jefferson do? What did Jefferson write? What was he called? How was the Declaration sent to all parts of the country? What was Jefferson chosen to be? To whom did New Orleans and Louisiana then belong? How far did the United States then extend towards the west? What could the French say? What were we like? What did Jefferson say? Did we buy it? How much did we pay? How large was Louisiana then? How much land did we get? What else did we get? When did Jefferson die? What other great man died on the same day? What words did Jefferson have cut on his gravestone at Monticello?



ROBERT FULTON (1765-1815).

191. What Mr. Livingston said about Louisiana; a small family in a big house; settlements in the west; the country beyond the Mississippi River.—Even before we bought the great Louisiana country, we had more land than we then knew what to do with; after we had purchased it, it seemed to some people as though we should not want to use what we had bought for more than a hundred years. Such people thought that we were like a man with a small family who lives in a house much too large for him; but who, not contented with that, buys his neighbor's house, which is bigger still, and adds it to his own.

If a traveller in those days went across the Alleghany Mountains[1] to the west, he found some small settlements in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, but hardly any outside of those. What are now the great states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were then a wilderness; and this was also true of what are now the states of Alabama and Mississippi.

If the same traveller, pushing forward, on foot or on horseback,—for there were no steam cars,—crossed the Mississippi River, he could hardly find a white man outside what was then the little town of St. Louis. The country stretched away west for more than a thousand miles, with nothing in it but wild beasts and Indians. In much of it there were no trees, no houses, no human beings. If you shouted as hard as you could in that solitary land, the only reply you would hear would be the echo of your own voice; it was like shouting in an empty room—it made it seem lonelier than ever.

[Footnote 1: See map in paragraph 140.]

192. Emigration to the west, and the man who helped that emigration.—But during the last hundred years that great empty land of the far west has been filling up with people. Thousands upon thousands of emigrants have gone there. They have built towns and cities and railroads and telegraph lines. Thousands more are going and will go. What has made such a wonderful change? Well, one man helped to do a great deal toward it. His name was Robert Fulton. He saw how difficult it was for people to get west; for if emigrants wanted to go with their families in wagons, they had to chop roads through the forest. That was slow, hard work. Fulton found a way that was quick, easy, and cheap. Let us see who he was, and how he found that way.

193. Robert Fulton's boyhood; the old scow; what Robert did for his mother.—Robert Fulton was the son of a poor Irish farmer in Pennsylvania.[2] He did not care much for books, but liked to draw pictures with pencils which he hammered out of pieces of lead.

Like most boys, he was fond of fishing. He used to go out in an old scow, or flat-bottomed boat, on a river near his home. He and another boy would push the scow along with poles. But Robert said, There is an easier way to make this boat go. I can put a pair of paddle-wheels on her, and then we can sit comfortably on the seat and turn the wheels by a crank. He tried it, and found that he was right. The boys now had a boat which suited them exactly.



When Robert was seventeen, he went to Philadelphia. His father was dead, and he earned his living and helped his mother and sisters, by painting pictures. He staid in Philadelphia until he was twenty-one. By that time he had saved up money enough to buy a small farm for his mother, so that she might have a home of her own.

[Footnote 2: Fulton was born in Little Britain (now called Fulton) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. See map in paragraph 135.]

194. Fulton goes to England and to France; his iron bridges; his diving-boat, and what he did with it in France.—Soon after buying the farm for his mother, young Fulton went to England and then to France. He staid in those countries twenty years. In England Fulton built some famous iron bridges, but he was more interested in boats than in anything else.

While he was in France he made what he called a diving-boat. It would go under water nearly as well as it would on top, so that wherever a fish could go, Fulton could follow him. His object in building such a boat was to make war in a new way. When a swordfish[3] attacks a whale, he slips round under him and stabs the monster with his sword. Fulton said, 'If an enemy's war-ship should come into the harbor to do mischief, I can get into my diving-boat, slip under the ship, fasten a torpedo[4] to it, and blow the ship "sky high."'



Napoleon Bonaparte liked nothing so much as war, and he let Fulton have an old vessel to see if he could blow it up. He tried it, and everything happened as he expected: nothing was left of the vessel but the pieces.

[Footnote 3: Swordfish: the name given to a large fish which has a sword-like weapon, several feet in length, projecting from its upper jaw.]

[Footnote 4: Torpedo: here a can filled with powder, and so constructed that it could be fastened to the bottom of a vessel.]

195. What Fulton did in England with his diving-boat; what he said about America.—Then Fulton went back to England and tried the same thing there. He went out in his diving-boat and fastened a torpedo under a vessel, and when the torpedo exploded, the vessel, as he said, went up like a "bag of feathers," flying in all directions.



The English people paid Fulton seventy-five thousand dollars for showing them what he could do in this way. Then they offered to give him a great deal more—in fact, to make him a very rich man—if he would promise never to let any other country know just how he blew vessels up. But Fulton said, 'I am an American; and if America should ever want to use my diving-boat in war, she shall have it first of all.'

196. Fulton makes his first steamboat.—But while Fulton was doing these things with his diving-boat, he was always thinking of the paddle-wheel scow he used to fish in when a boy. I turned those paddle-wheels by a crank, said he, but what is to hinder my putting a steam engine into such a boat, and making it turn the crank for me? that would be a steamboat. Such boats had already been tried, but, for one reason or another, they had not got on very well. Robert R. Livingston was still in France, and he helped Fulton build his first steamboat. It was put on a river there; it moved, and that was about all.

197. Robert Fulton and Mr. Livingston go to New York and build a steamboat; the trip up the Hudson River.—But Robert Fulton and Mr. Livingston both believed that a steamboat could be built that would go, and that would keep going. So they went to New York and built one there.

In the summer of 1807 a great crowd gathered to see the boat start on her voyage up the Hudson River. They joked and laughed as crowds will at anything new. They called Fulton a fool and Livingston another. But when Fulton, standing on the deck of his steamboat, waved his hand, and the wheels began to turn, and the vessel began to move up the river, then the crowd became silent with astonishment. Now it was Fulton's turn to laugh, and in such a case the man who laughs last has a right to laugh the loudest.



Up the river Fulton kept going. He passed the Palisades;[5] he passed the Highlands;[6] still he kept on, and at last he reached Albany, a hundred and fifty miles above New York.

Nobody before had ever seen such a sight as that boat moving up the river without the help of oars or sails; but from that time people saw it every day. When Fulton got back to New York in his steamboat, everybody wanted to shake hands with him—the crowd, instead of shouting fool, now whispered among themselves, He's a great man—a very great man, indeed.

[Footnote 5: See map in paragraph 55.]

[Footnote 6: See map in paragraph 55.]

198. The first steamboat in the west; the Great Shake.—Four years later Fulton built a steamboat for the west. In the autumn of 1811 it started from Pittsburg[7] to go down the Ohio River, and then down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The people of the west had never seen a steamboat before, and when the Indians saw the smoke puffing out, they called it the "Big Fire Canoe."

On the way down the river there was a terrible earthquake. In some places it changed the course of the Ohio so that where there had been dry land there was now deep water, and where there had been deep water there was now dry land. One evening the captain of the "Big Fire Canoe" fastened his vessel to a large tree on the end of an island. In the morning the people on the steamboat looked out, but could not tell where they were; the island had gone: the earthquake had carried it away. The Indians called the earthquake the "Big Shake": it was a good name, for it kept on shaking that part of the country, and doing all sorts of damage for weeks.

[Footnote 7: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 135.]

199. The "Big Fire Canoe" on the Mississippi; the fight between steam and the Great River; what steamboats did; Robert Fulton's grave.—When the steamboat reached the Mississippi, the settlers on that river said that the boat would never be able to go back, because the current is so strong. At one place a crowd had gathered to see her as she turned against the current, in order to come up to the landing-place. An old negro stood watching the boat. It looked as if in spite of all the captain could do she would be carried down stream, but at last steam conquered, and the boat came up to the shore. Then the old negro could hold in no longer: he threw up his ragged straw hat and shouted, 'Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! the old Mississippi's just got her master this time, sure!'

Soon steamboats began to run regularly on the Mississippi, and in the course of a few years they began to move up and down the Great Lakes and the Missouri River. Emigrants could now go to the west and the far west quickly and easily: they had to thank Robert Fulton for that.

Robert Fulton lies buried in New York, in the shadow of the tower of Trinity Church. There is no monument or mark over his grave, but he has a monument in every steamboat on every great river and lake in America.



200. Summary.—In 1807 Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania built the first steamboat which ran on the Hudson River, and four years later he built the first one which navigated the rivers of the west. His boats helped to fill the whole western country with settlers.

What did Mr. Livingston say about Louisiana? What did such people think we were like? What would a traveller going west then find? What is said of the country west of the Mississippi? Who helped emigration to the west? What did he find? Tell about Robert Fulton as a boy. Tell about his paddle-wheel scow. What did Robert do for his mother? Where did he go? How long did he stay abroad? Tell about his diving-boat. What did he do with it in France? What in England? What did the English people offer him? What did Fulton say? Where did Fulton make and try his first steamboat? Tell about the steamboat he made in New York. How far up the Hudson did it go? Tell about the first steamboat at the west. What did the Indians call it? What happened on the way down the Ohio River? Tell about the steamboat on the Mississippi River. What is said of steamboats at the west? What about emigrants? Where is Fulton buried? Where is his monument?



GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1773-1841).

201. War with the Indians; how the Indians felt about being forced to leave their homes; the story of the log.—The year 1811, in which the first steamboat went west, a great battle was fought with the Indians. The battle-ground was on the Tippecanoe[1] River, in what is now the state of Indiana.



The Indians fought because they wanted to keep the west for themselves. They felt as an old chief did, who had been forced to move many times by the white men. One day a military officer came to his wigwam to tell him that he and his tribe must go still further west. The chief said, General, let's sit down on this log and talk it over. So they both sat down. After they had talked a short time, the chief said, Please move a little further that way; I haven't room enough. The officer moved along. In a few minutes the chief asked him to move again, and he did so. Presently the chief gave him a push and said, Do move further on, won't you? I can't, said the general. Why not? asked the chief. Because I've got to the end of the log, replied the officer. Well, said the Indian, now you see how it is with us. You white men have kept pushing us on until you have pushed us clear to the end of our country, and yet you come now and say, Move on, move on.



[Footnote 1: Tippecanoe (Tip-pe-ka-noo'): see map in this paragraph.]

202. What Tecumseh[2] and his brother, the "Prophet,"[3] tried to do.—A famous Indian warrior named Tecumseh determined to band the different Indian tribes together, and drive out the white men from the west.

Tecumseh had a brother called the "Prophet," who pretended he could tell what would happen in the future. He said, The white traders come here, give the Indians whiskey, get them drunk, and then cheat them out of their lands. Once we owned this whole country; now, if an Indian strips a little bark off of a tree to shelter him when it rains, a white man steps up, with a gun in his hand, and says, That's my tree; let it alone, or I'll shoot you.

Then the "Prophet" said to the red men, Stop drinking "fire-water,"[4] and you will have strength to kill off the "pale-faces" and get your land back again. When you have killed them off, I will bless the earth. I will make pumpkins[5] grow to be as big as wigwams, and the corn shall be so large that one ear will be enough for a dinner for a dozen hungry Indians. The Indians liked to hear these things; they wanted to taste those pumpkins and that corn, and so they got ready to fight.

[Footnote 2: Tecumseh (Te-kum'seh).]

[Footnote 3: Prophet (prof'et): one who tells what will happen in the future.]

[Footnote 4: Fire-water: the Indian name for whiskey.]

[Footnote 5: Pumpkins (pump'kins).]

203. Who William Henry Harrison was; the march to Tippecanoe; the "Prophet's" sacred beans; the battle of Tippecanoe.—At this time William Henry Harrison[6] was governor of Indiana territory. He had fought under General Wayne[7] in his war with the Indians in Ohio. Everybody knew Governor Harrison's courage, and the Indians all respected him; but he tried in vain to prevent the Indians from going to war. The "Prophet" urged them on at the north, and Tecumseh had gone south to persuade the Indians there to join the northern tribes.



Governor Harrison saw that a battle must soon be fought; so he started with his soldiers to meet the Indians. He marched to the Tippecanoe River, and there he stopped.

While Harrison's men were asleep in the woods, the "Prophet" told the Indians not to wait, but to attack the soldiers at once. In his hand he held up a string of beans. These beans, said he to the Indians, are sacred.[8] Come and touch them, and you are safe; no white man's bullet can hit you. The Indians hurried up in crowds to touch the wonderful beans.

Now, said the "Prophet," let each one take his hatchet in one hand and his gun in the other, and creep through the tall grass till he gets to the edge of the woods. The soldiers lie there fast asleep; when you get close to them, spring up and at them like a wild-cat at a rabbit.

The Indians started to do this, but a soldier on guard saw the tall grass moving as though a great snake was gliding through it. He fired his gun at the moving grass; with a yell up sprang the whole band of Indians, and rushed forward: in a moment the battle began.

Harrison won the victory. He not only killed many of the Indians, but he marched against their village, set fire to it, and burned it to ashes.



After that the Indians in that part of the country would not listen to the "Prophet." They said, He is a liar; his beans didn't save us.

The battle of Tippecanoe did much good, because it prevented the Indian tribes from uniting and beginning a great war all through the west. Governor Harrison received high praise for what he had done, and was made a general in the United States army.

[Footnote 6: William Henry Harrison was born in Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia, about twenty-five miles below Richmond. His father, Governor Harrison of Virginia, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.]

[Footnote 7: See paragraph 173.]

[Footnote 8: Sacred: something holy, or set apart for religious uses.]

204. Tecumseh takes the "Prophet" by the hair; the War of 1812; General Harrison's battle in Canada; President Harrison.—When Tecumseh came back from the south, he was terribly angry with his brother for fighting before he was ready to have him begin. He seized the "Prophet" by his long hair, and shook him as a terrier[9] shakes a rat. Tecumseh then left the United States and went to Canada to help the British, who were getting ready to fight us.

The next year (1812) we began our second war with England. It is called the War of 1812. One of the chief reasons why we fought was that the British would not let our merchant ships alone; they stopped them at sea, took thousands of our sailors out of them, and forced the men to serve in their war-ships in their battles against the French.



In the course of the War of 1812 the British burned the Capitol at Washington; but a grander building rose from its ashes. General Harrison fought a battle in Canada in which he defeated the British and killed Tecumseh, who was fighting on the side of the English.



Many years after this battle, the people of the west said, We must have the "Hero of Tippecanoe" for President of the United States. They went to vote for him with songs and shouts, and he was elected. A month after he had gone to Washington, President Harrison died (1841), and the whole country was filled with sorrow.

[Footnote 9: Terrier (ter'ri-er): a kind of small hunting-dog.]

205. Summary.—In 1811 General Harrison gained a great victory over the Indians at Tippecanoe, in Indiana. By that victory he saved the west from a terrible Indian war. In the War of 1812 with England General Harrison beat the British in a battle in Canada, and killed Tecumseh, the Indian chief who had made us so much trouble. Many years later General Harrison was elected President of the United States.

Where was a great battle fought with the Indians in 1811? How did the Indians feel about the west? Tell the story of the log. What did Tecumseh determine to do? Tell about the "Prophet." Who was William Henry Harrison? Tell about the battle of Tippecanoe. Tell about the sacred beans. What did the Indians say about the "Prophet" after the battle? What good did the battle of Tippecanoe do? What did Tecumseh do when he got back? Where did he then go? What happened in 1812? Why did we fight the British? What did General Harrison do in Canada? What did the people of the west say? How long did General Harrison live after he became President?



GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON (1767-1845).

206. Andrew Jackson and the War of 1812; his birthplace; his school; wrestling-matches;[1] firing off the gun.—The greatest battle of our second war with England—the War of 1812—was fought by General Andrew Jackson.

He was the son of a poor emigrant who came from the North of Ireland and settled in North Carolina.[2] When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Andrew was nine years old, and his father had long been dead. He was a tall, slender, freckled-faced, barefooted boy, with eyes full of fun; the neighbors called him "Mischievous little Andy."

He went to school in a log hut in the pine woods; but he learned more things from what he saw in the woods than from the books he studied in school.

He was not a very strong boy, and in wrestling some of his companions could throw him three times out of four; but though they could get him down without much trouble, it was quite another thing to keep him down. No sooner was he laid flat on his back, than he bounded up like a steel spring, and stood ready to try again.

He had a violent[3] temper, and when, as the boys said, "Andy got mad all over," not many cared to face him. Once some of his playmates secretly loaded an old gun almost up to the muzzle, and then dared him to fire it. They wanted to see what he would say when it kicked him over. Andrew fired the gun. It knocked him sprawling; he jumped up with eyes blazing with anger, and shaking his fist, cried out, "If one of you boys laughs, I'll kill him." He looked as though he meant exactly what he said, and the boys thought that perhaps it would be just as well to wait and laugh some other day.



[Footnote 1: Wrestling (res'ling).]

[Footnote 2: He settled in Union County, North Carolina, very near the South Carolina line. See map in paragraph 140. Mecklenburg Court House is in the next county west of Union County.]

[Footnote 3: Violent: fierce, furious.]

207. Tarleton's[4] attack on the Americans; how Andrew helped his mother.—When Andrew was thirteen, he learned what war means. The country was then fighting the battles of the Revolution. A British officer named Tarleton came suddenly upon some American soldiers near the place where young Jackson lived. Tarleton had so many men that the Americans saw that it was useless to try to fight, and they made no attempt to do so. The British should have taken them all prisoners; but, instead of that, they attacked them furiously, and hacked and hewed them with their swords. More than a hundred of our men were left dead, and a still larger number were so horribly wounded that they could not be moved any distance. Such an attack was not war, for war means a fair, stand-up fight; it was murder: and when the people in England heard what Tarleton had done, many cried Shame!

There was a little log meeting-house near Andrew's home, and it was turned into a hospital for the wounded men. Mrs. Jackson, with other kind-hearted women, did all she could for the poor fellows who lay there groaning and helpless. Andrew carried food and water to them. He had forgotten most of the lessons he learned at school, but here was something he would never forget.

[Footnote 4: Tarleton (Tarl'ton).]

208. Andrew's hatred of the "red-coats";[5] Tarleton's soldiers meet their match.—From that time, when young Jackson went to the blacksmith's shop to get a hoe or a spade mended, he was sure to come back with a rude spear, or with some other weapon, which he had hammered out to fight the "red-coats" with.

Tarleton said that no people in America hated the British so much as those who lived where Andrew Jackson did. The reason was that no other British officer was so cruel as "Butcher Tarleton," as he was called. Once, however, his men met their match. They were robbing a farm of its pigs and chickens and corn and hay. When they got through carrying things off, they were going to burn down the farm-house; but one of the "red-coats," in his haste, ran against a big hive of bees and upset it. The bees were mad enough. They swarmed down on the soldiers, got into their ears and eyes, and stung them so terribly that at last the robbers were glad to drop everything and run. If Andrew could have seen that battle, he would have laughed till he cried.



[Footnote 5: Red-coats: this nickname was given by the Americans to the British soldiers because they wore bright red coats.]

209. Dangerous state of the country; the roving bands.—Andrew knew that he and his mother lived in constant danger. Part of the people in his state were in favor of the king, and part were for liberty. Bands of armed men, belonging sometimes to one side, and sometimes to the other, went roving about the country. When they met a farmer, they would stop him and ask, 'Which side are you for?' If he did not answer to suit them, the leader of the party would cry out, Hang him up! In an instant one of the band would cut down a long piece of wild grapevine, twist it into a noose, and throw it over the man's head; the next moment he would be dangling from the limb of a tree. Sometimes the band would let him down again; sometimes they would ride on and leave him hanging there.

210. Playing at battle; what Tarleton heard about himself.—Even the children saw and heard so much of the war that was going on that they played at war, and fought battles with red and white corn,—red for the British and white for the Americans.

At the battle of Cowpens[6] Colonel William Washington[7] fought on the American side, and Tarleton got badly whipped and had to run. Not long afterward he happened to see some boys squatting on the ground, with a lot of corn instead of marbles. They were playing the battle of Cowpens. A red kernel stood for Tarleton, and a white one for Colonel Washington. The boys shoved the corn this way and that; sometimes the red would win, sometimes the white. At last the white kernel gained the victory, and the boys shouted, "Hurrah for Washington—Tarleton runs!"

Tarleton had been quietly looking on without their knowing it. When he saw how the game ended, he turned angrily away. He had seen enough of "the little rebels,"[8] as he called them.

[Footnote 6: Cowpens: see paragraph 140.]

[Footnote 7: Colonel William Washington was a relative of General George Washington.]

[Footnote 8: Rebels: this was the name which the British gave to the Americans because we had been forced to take up arms to overthrow the authority of the English king, who was still lawfully, but not justly, the ruler of this country. Had he been a just and upright ruler, there would probably have been no rebellion against his authority at that time.]

211. Andrew is taken prisoner by the British; "Here, boy, clean those boots"; the two scars.—Not long after our victory at Cowpens, Andrew Jackson was taken prisoner by the British. The officer in command of the soldiers had just taken off his boots, splashed with mud. Pointing to them, he said to Andrew, Here, boy, clean those boots. Andrew replied, Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and it is not my place to clean boots. The officer, in a great passion, whipped out his sword and struck a blow at the boy. It cut a gash on his head and another on his hand. Andrew Jackson lived to be an old man, but the marks of that blow never disappeared: he carried the scars to his grave.



212. The prisoners in the yard of Camden jail; seeing a battle through a knot-hole.—Andrew was sent with other prisoners to Camden, South Carolina,[9] and shut up in the jail-yard. There many fell sick and died of small-pox.

One day some of the prisoners heard that General Greene—the greatest American general in the Revolution, next to Washington—was coming to fight the British at Camden. Andrew's heart leaped for joy, for he knew that if General Greene should win he would set all the prisoners at liberty.

General Greene, with his little army, was on a hill in sight Of the jail, but there was a high, tight board fence round the jail-yard, and the prisoners could not see them. With the help of an old razor Andrew managed to dig out a knot from one of the boards. Through that knot-hole he watched the battle.

Our men were beaten in the fight, and Andrew saw their horses, with empty saddles, running wildly about. Then the boy turned away, sick at heart. Soon after that he was seized with the small-pox, and would have died of it if his mother had not succeeded in getting him set free.

[Footnote 9: Camden: see map in paragraph 140.]

213. Mrs. Jackson goes to visit the American prisoners at Charleston; Andrew loses his best friend; what he said of her.—In the summer Mrs. Jackson made a journey on horseback to Charleston, a hundred and sixty miles away. She went to carry some little comforts to the poor American prisoners, who were starving and dying of disease in the crowded and filthy British prison-ships in the harbor. While visiting these unfortunate men she caught the fever which raged among them. Two weeks later she was in her grave, and Andrew, then a lad of fourteen, stood alone in the world.

Years afterward, when he had risen to be a noted man, people would sometimes praise him because he was never afraid to say and do what he believed to be right; then Jackson would answer, "That I learned from my good old mother."

214. Andrew begins to learn a trade; he studies law and goes west; Judge Jackson; General Jackson.—Andrew set to work to learn the saddler's trade, but gave it up and began to study law. After he became a lawyer he went across the mountains to Nashville, Tennessee. There he was made a judge. There were plenty of rough men in that part of the country who meant to have their own way in all things; but they soon found that they must respect and obey Judge Jackson. They could frighten other judges, but it was no use to try to frighten him. Seeing what sort of stuff Jackson was made of, they thought that they should like to have such a man to lead them in battle. And so Judge Andrew Jackson became General Andrew Jackson. When trouble came with the Indians, Jackson proved to be the very man they needed.

215. Tecumseh and the Indians of Alabama; Tecumseh threatens to stamp his foot on the ground; the earthquake; war begins.—We have already seen how the Indian chief Tecumseh[10] went south to stir up the red men to make war on the white settlers in the west. In Alabama he told the Indians that if they fought they would gain a great victory. I see, said Tecumseh to them, that you don't believe what I say, and that you don't mean to fight. Well, I am now going north to Detroit. When I get there I shall stamp my foot on the ground, and shake down every wigwam you have. It so happened that, shortly after Tecumseh had gone north, a sharp shock of earthquake was felt in Alabama, and the wigwams were actually shaken down by it. When the terrified Indians felt their houses falling to pieces, they ran out of them, shouting, "Tecumseh has got to Detroit!"

These Indians now believed all that Tecumseh had said; they began to attack the white people, and they killed a great number of them.

[Footnote 10: Tecumseh: see paragraph 203.]

216. Jackson conquers the Indians; the "Holy Ground"; Weathersford and Jackson; feeding the starving.—General Jackson marched against the Indians and beat them in battle. The Indians that escaped fled to a place they called the "Holy Ground.", They believed that if a white man dared to set his foot on that ground he would be struck dead as if by a flash of lightning. General Jackson and his men marched on to the "Holy Ground," and the Indians found that unless they made peace they would be the ones who would be struck dead by his bullets.



Not long after this, a noted leader of the Indians, named Weathersford, rode boldly up to Jackson's tent. "Kill him! kill him!" cried Jackson's men; but the general asked Weathersford into his tent. "You can kill me if you want to," said he to Jackson, "but I came to tell you that the Indian women and children are starving in the woods, and to ask you to help them, for they never did you any harm." General Jackson sent away Weathersford in safety, and ordered that corn should be given to feed the starving women and children. That act showed that he was as merciful as he was brave.

217. The British send war-ships to take New Orleans; the great battle and the great victory.—These things happened during our second war with England, or the War of 1812. About a year after Jackson's victory over the Indians the British sent an army in ships to take New Orleans.

General Jackson now went to New Orleans, to prevent the enemy from getting possession of the city.

About four miles below the city, which stands on the Mississippi River,[11] there was a broad, deep ditch, running from the river into a swamp. Jackson saw that the British would have to cross that ditch when they marched against the city. For that reason he built a high bank on the upper side of the ditch, and placed cannon along the top of the bank.

Early on Sunday morning, January 8th, 1815, the British sent a rocket whizzing up into the sky; a few minutes afterward they sent up a second one. It was the signal that they were about to march to attack us.



Just before the fight began General Jackson walked along among his men, who were getting ready to defend the ditch. He said to them, "Stand to your guns; see that every shot tells: give it to them, boys!" The "boys" did give it to them. The British soldiers were brave men; they had been in many terrible battles, and they were not afraid to die. They fought desperately; they tried again and again to cross that ditch and climb the bank, but they could not do it. The fire of our guns cut them down just as a mower cuts down the tall grain with his scythe.[12] In less than half an hour the great battle was over; Jackson had won the victory and saved New Orleans. We lost only eight killed; the enemy lost over two thousand.[13] We have never had a battle since with England; it is to be hoped that we never shall have another, for two great nations[14] like England and America, that speak the same language, ought to be firm and true friends.



[Footnote 11: See map in paragraph 218.]

[Footnote 12: Scythe (sithe).]

[Footnote 13: Killed and wounded.]

[Footnote 14: Nations: a nation is a people born in the same country and living under the same government; as the American nation, the French nation, the English nation.]

218. We buy Florida; General Jackson made President of the United States; the first railroad.—After the battle of New Orleans General Jackson conquered the Indians in Florida, and in 1819 we bought that country of Spain, and so made the United States much larger on the south.[15] This was our second great land purchase.[16]



Ten years after we got Florida General Jackson became President of the United States. He had fought his way up. Here are the four steps: first the boy, "Andy Jackson"; then "Judge Jackson"; then "General Jackson"; last of all, "President Jackson."

Shortly after he became the chief ruler of the nation the first steam railroad in the United States was built (1830). From that time such roads kept creeping further and further west. The Indians had frightened the white settlers with their terrible war-whoop. Now it was their turn to be frightened, for the locomotive whistle[17] could beat their wildest yell. They saw that the white man was coming as fast as steam could carry him, and that he was determined to get possession of the whole land. The greater part of the Indians moved across the Mississippi; but the white man kept following them and following the buffalo further and further across the country, toward the Pacific Ocean; and the railroad followed in the white man's track.



[Footnote 15: See map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 16: For our first land purchase see paragraph 188.]

[Footnote 17: The first steam railroad built in the United States extended from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, a distance of twelve miles. It was opened in 1830. It forms a part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.]

219. Summary.—Andrew Jackson of North Carolina gained a great victory over the Indians in Alabama and also in Florida. In 1815, in our second war with England, General Jackson whipped the British at New Orleans, and so prevented their getting possession of that city. A few years later we bought Florida of Spain.

After General Jackson became President of the United States the first steam-railroad was built in this country. Railroads helped to settle the west and build up states beyond the Mississippi.

Who fought the greatest battle of the War of 1812? Tell about Andrew Jackson's boyhood. Tell the story of the gun. Tell about Tarleton. What did Mrs. Jackson do? What did Andrew do? What did Andrew use to do at the blacksmith shop?

Tell about Tarleton's men and the bees. What did bands of armed men use to do in the country where Andrew lived? Tell about playing at battle. What did Tarleton say? Tell about Andrew and the boots. Tell how he saw a battle through a knot-hole. Tell how Andrew's mother died. What did he say about her? Tell about Andrew Jackson as a judge. Why was he made a general? Tell about Tecumseh and the Alabama Indians. After General Jackson had beaten the Indians, where did they go? What is said about the "Holy Ground." What about Jackson and Weathersford? Tell about the great battle of New Orleans. Who gained the victory? When did we buy Florida? What were the four steps in Andrew Jackson's life? What is said about railroads?



PROFESSOR MORSE (1791-1872).

220. How they sent the news of the completion of the Erie Canal to New York City; Franklin and Morse.—The Erie Canal, in the state of New York, connects the Hudson River at Albany with Lake Erie at Buffalo. It is the greatest work of the kind in America, and was completed many years ago. When the water was let into the canal from the lake, the news was flashed from Buffalo to New York City by a row of cannon, about five miles apart, which were fired as rapidly as possible one after the other. The first cannon was fired at Buffalo at ten o'clock in the morning; the last was fired at New York at half-past eleven. In an hour and a half the sound had travelled over five hundred miles. Everybody said that was wonderfully quick work; but to-day we could send the news in less than a minute. The man who found out how to do this was Samuel F. B. Morse.



We have seen how Benjamin Franklin[1] discovered, by means of his kite, that lightning and electricity are the same. Samuel Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, about a mile from Franklin's birthplace, the year after that great man died. He began his work where Franklin left off. He said to himself, Dr. Franklin found out what lightning is; I will find out how to harness it and make it carry news and deliver messages.[2]

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 119.]

[Footnote 2: Messages: a message is any word sent by one person to another.]

221. Morse becomes a painter; what he thought might be done about sending messages.—When Samuel Morse was a little boy, he was fond of drawing pictures, particularly faces; if he could not get a pencil, he would scratch them with a pin on the furniture at school: the only pay he got for making such pictures was some smart raps from the teacher. After he became a man he learned to paint. At one time he lived in France with several other American artists. One day they were talking of how long it took to get letters from America, and they were wishing the time could be shortened. Somebody spoke of how cannon had been used at the time of the opening of the Erie Canal. Morse was familiar with all that; he had been educated at Yale College, and he knew that the sound of a gun will travel a mile while you are counting five; but quick as that is, he wanted to find something better and quicker still. He said, Why not try lightning or electricity? That will beat sound, for that will go more than a thousand miles while you are counting one.

222. What a telegraph[3] is; a wire telegraph; Professor Morse invents the electric telegraph.—Some time after that, Mr. Morse set sail for America. On the way across the Atlantic he was constantly talking about electricity and how a telegraph—that is, a machine which would write at a distance—might be invented. He thought about this so much that he could not sleep nights. At last he believed that he saw how he could make such a machine.



Suppose you take a straight and stiff piece of wire as long as your desk and fasten it in the middle so that the ends will swing easily. Next tie a pencil tight to each end; then put a sheet of paper under the point of each pencil. Now, if you make a mark with the pencil nearest to you, you will find that the pencil at the other end of the wire will make the same kind of mark. Such a wire would be a kind of telegraph, because it would make marks or signs at a distance. Mr. Morse said: I will have a wire a mile long with a pencil, or something sharp-pointed like a pencil, fastened to the further end; the wire itself shall not move at all, but the pencil shall, for I will make electricity run along the wire and move it. Mr. Morse was then a professor or teacher in the University of the City of New York. He put up such a wire in one of the rooms of the building, sent the electricity through it, and found that it made the pencil make just the marks he wanted it should; that meant that he had invented the electric telegraph; for if he could do this over a mile of wire, then what was to hinder his doing it over a hundred or even a thousand miles?



[Footnote 3: Telegraph (tel'e-graf): this name is made up of two Greek words, the first of which means far off, and the second to write.]

223. How Professor Morse lived while he was making his telegraph.—But all this was not done in a day, for this invention cost years of patient labor. At first, Mr. Morse lived in a little room by himself: there he worked and ate, when he could get anything to eat; and slept, if he wasn't too tired to sleep. Later, he had a room in the university. While he was there he painted pictures to get money enough to buy food; there, too (1839), he took the first photograph ever made in America. Yet with all his hard work there were times when he had to go hungry, and once he told a young man that if he did not get some money he should be dead in a week—dead of starvation.



224. Professor Morse gets help about his telegraph; what Alfred Vail did.—But better times were coming. A young man named Alfred Vail[4] happened to see Professor Morse's telegraph. He believed it would be successful. He persuaded his father, Judge Vail, to lend him two thousand dollars, and he became Professor Morse's partner in the work. Mr. Vail was an excellent mechanic, and he made many improvements in the telegraph. He then made a model[5] of it at his own expense, and took it to Washington and got a patent[6] for it in Professor Morse's name. The invention was now safe in one way, for no one else had the right to make a telegraph like his. Yet, though he had this help, Professor Morse did not get on very fast, for a few years later he said, "I have not a cent in the world; I am crushed for want of means."

[Footnote 4: Alfred Vail: he was the son of Stephen Vail (commonly known as Judge Vail), owner of the Speedwell iron-works, near Morristown, New Jersey. Judge Vail built the engines of the Savannah, the first steamship which crossed the Atlantic.]

[Footnote 5: Model: a small copy or representation of something. Professor Morse made a small telegraph and sent it to Washington, to show what his large telegraph would be like.]

[Footnote 6: Patent: a written or printed right given by the government at Washington to an inventor to make something; as, for instance, a telegraph or a sewing-machine. The patent forbids any one except the inventor, or holder of the patent, from making such a machine, and so he gets whatever money comes from his work. In order to get a patent, a man must send a model of his invention to be placed in the Patent Office at Washington.]

225. Professor Morse asks Congress to help him build a telegraph line; what Congress thought.—Professor Morse now asked Congress to let him have thirty thousand dollars to construct a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. He felt sure that business men would be glad to send messages by telegraph, and to pay him for his work. But many members of Congress laughed at it, and said they might as well give Professor Morse the money to build "a railroad to the moon."

Week after week went by, and the last day that Congress would sit was reached, but still no money had been granted. Then came the last night of the last day (March 3d, 1843). Professor Morse stayed in the Senate Chamber[7] of Congress until after ten o'clock; then, tired and disappointed he went back to his hotel, thinking that he must give up trying to build his telegraph line.

[Footnote 7: Senate Chamber: Congress (or the body of persons chosen to make the laws of the United States) is divided into two classes,—Representatives and Senators; they meet in different rooms or chambers in the Capitol at Washington.]

226. Miss Annie Ellsworth brings good news.—The next morning Miss Annie G. Ellsworth met him as he was coming down to breakfast. She was the daughter of his friend who had charge of the Patent Office in Washington. She came forward with a smile, grasped his hand, and said that she had good news for him, that Congress had decided to let him have the money. Surely you must be mistaken, said the professor, for I waited last night until nearly midnight, and came away because nothing had been done. But, said the young lady, my father stayed until it was quite midnight, and a few minutes before the clock struck twelve Congress voted[8] the money; it was the very last thing that was done.

Professor Morse was then a gray-haired man over fifty. He had worked hard for years and got nothing for his labor. This was his first great success. He doesn't say whether he laughed or cried—perhaps he felt a little like doing both.

[Footnote 8: Voted: here this word means given or granted.]

227. The first telegraph line built; the first message sent; the telegraph and the telephone[9] now.—When, at length, Professor Morse did speak, he said to Miss Ellsworth, "Now, Annie, when my line is built from Washington to Baltimore, you shall send the first message over it." In the spring of 1844 the line was completed, and Miss Ellsworth sent these words over it (they are words taken from the Bible): "What hath God wrought!"[10]



For nearly a year after that the telegraph was free to all who wished to use it; then a small charge was made, a very short message costing only one cent. On the first of April, 1845, a man came into the office and bought a cent's worth of telegraphing. That was all the money which was taken that day for the use of forty miles of wire. Now there are about two hundred thousand miles of telegraph line in the United States, or more than enough to reach eight times round the earth, and the messages sent bring in over seventy thousand dollars every day; and we can telegraph not only clear across America, but clear across the Atlantic Ocean by a line laid under the sea. Professor Morse's invention made it possible for people to write by electricity; but now, by means of the telephone, a man in New York can talk with his friend in Philadelphia, Boston, and many other large cities, and his friend listening at the other end of the wire can hear every word he says. Professor Morse did not live long enough to see this wonderful invention, which, in some ways, is an improvement even on his telegraph.

]

[Footnote 9: Telephone (tel'e-fone): this name is made up of two Greek words, the first of which means far off, and the second, a voice or sound. The telephone was invented by Professor Alexander G. Bell of Boston; he completed it in 1876. Professor Bell now lives in Washington.]

[Footnote 10: See Num. xxiii. 23.]

[Footnote 11: When the button at Chicago is pressed down, the electricity passing over the wire to Denver presses the point there down on the paper, and so makes a dot or dash which stands for a letter on the roll of paper as it passes under it. In this way words and messages are spelled out. The message on the strip of paper above is the question, How is trade?]

228. Summary.—Professor Morse invented the Electric Telegraph. He received much help from Mr. Alfred Vail. In 1844 Professor Morse and Mr. Vail built the first line of telegraph in the United States, or in the world. It extended from Washington to Baltimore. The telegraph makes it possible for us to send a written message thousands of miles in a moment; by the telephone, which was invented after Professor Morse's death, we can talk with people who are several hundreds of miles away and hear what they say in reply.

Tell how they sent the news of the completion of the Erie Canal. What did Samuel Morse say to himself? Tell about Morse as a painter. What did he want to find? What was he talking about on his voyage back to America? What is a telegraph? How can you make a small wire telegraph? What did Professor Morse make? How did he live? What did he do in 1839? How did he get help about his telegraph? What did he ask Congress to do? What did some men in Congress say? What news did Miss Annie Ellsworth bring him? What was the first message sent by telegraph in 1844? How many miles of telegraph are there now in the United States? Is there a telegraph line under the sea? What is said about the telephone?



GENERAL SAM HOUSTON (1793-1863)

229. Sam Houston and the Indians; Houston goes to live with the Indians.—When General Jackson whipped the Indians in Alabama,[1] a young man named Sam Houston[2] fought under Jackson and was terribly wounded. It was thought that the brave fellow would certainly die, but his strong will carried him through, and he lived to make himself a great name in the southwest.

Although Houston fought the Indians, yet, when a boy, he was very fond of them, and spent much of his time with them in the woods of Tennessee.

Long after he became a man, this love of the wild life led by the red men in the forest came back to him. While Houston was governor of Tennessee (1829) he suddenly made up his mind to leave his home and his friends, go across the Mississippi River, and take up his abode with an Indian tribe in that part of the country. The chief, who had known him as a boy, gave him a hearty welcome. "Rest with us," he said; "my wigwam is yours." Houston stayed with the tribe three years.