D. H. Montgomery

“ Providence was the first settlement made in America which set its doors wide open to every one who wished to come and live there. Not only all Christians, but Jews, and even men who went to no church whatever, could go there and be at peace. This great and good work was done by Roger Williams. Providence grew in time to be the chief city in the state of Rhode Island. When the Revolution began, every man and boy in the state, from sixteen to sixty, stood ready to fight for liberty. ”

“ Europe, Asia, and a small part of Africa were the chief countries known. The maps of Columbus may have shown the earth shaped like a ball, but he supposed it to be much smaller than it really is. No one then had sailed round the globe. No one then knew what lands lay west of the broad Atlantic; for this reason we should look in vain, on one of the maps drawn by Columbus, for the great continents of North and South America or for Australia or the Pacific Ocean. ”

“ How King Philip felt; signs of the coming war; the "Praying Indians"; the murder.—King Philip was a very proud man—quite as proud, in fact, as the king of England. He could not bear to see his people losing power. He said to himself, if the Indians do not rise and drive out the white men, then the white men will certainly drive out the Indians. Most of the Indians now had guns, and could use them quite as well as the whites could; so Philip thought that it was best to fight.
The settlers felt that the war was coming. ”

“ Then the rush for Coloma began. Every man had a spade and a pick-axe. In a little while the beautiful valley was dug so full of holes that it looked like an empty honeycomb. The next year a hundred thousand people poured into California from all parts of the United States; so the discovery of gold filled up that part of the country with emigrants years before they would have gone if no gold had been found there.
Captain Sutter lost all his property. He would have died poor if the people of California had not given him money to live on. ”

“ How the North and the South have grown since the war; the great West.—Since the war the united North and South have grown and prospered [1] as never before. At the South many new and flourishing towns and cities have sprung up. Mines of coal and iron have been opened, hundreds of cotton-mills and factories have been built, and long lines of railroads have been constructed.
At the West changes equally great have taken place. Cities have risen up in the wilderness, mines of silver and gold have been opened, and immense farms and cattle ranches [2] produce food enough to feed all America. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Summary.—Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, became President of the United States in 1861. He was elected by a party in the North that was determined that slaves should not be taken into free states or territories, and that no more slave states should be made. On this account most of the slave-holding states of the South resolved to withdraw from the Union. A great war followed, and President Lincoln gave the slaves their freedom. The North succeeded in the war, and the Union was made stronger than ever, because the North and the South could no longer have any dispute over slavery. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ After the battle was over, Captain Church begged the men not to burn the wigwams inside the fort, for there were a great number of old men and women and little Indian children in the wigwams. But the men were very mad against the savages, and would not listen to him. They set the wigwams on fire, and burned many of these poor creatures to death.
Canonchet, the chief of the tribe, was taken prisoner. The settlers told him they would spare his life if he would try to make peace. "No," said he, "we will all fight to the last man rather than become slaves to the white men." ”

“ 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. ”