CHAPTER XXVI HOW THE CENTURY ENDED FOR THE UNITED STATES VERY likely many of my young readers live in the city of Philadelphia, which was founded by William Penn more than two hundred years ago on the banks of the broad Delaware River, and where now many more than a million people make their homes. And many of you who do not live there, but who love your country and are proud of its history, are likely to go there some time during your lives, to visit the birthplace of your noble nation.

Have you ever thought that the United States, as an independent nation, was born in Philadelphia? In that city stands the stately Independence Hall, in which the Declaration of Independence was made and signed. You may see there the famous old bell, which rang out "Liberty throughout the land!" And you may stand in the room in which our grand Constitution was formed. So Philadelphia should be a place of pilgrimage to all true-hearted Americans, who wish to see where their country was born.

It was such a place of pilgrimage in the year 1876. Then from every part of our country, from the North, the South, the West and the East, our people made their way in thousands towards that great city, which was then the proud center of all American thought. A hundred years had passed from the time the famous Declaration was signed, and the Centennial Anniversary which marked the one hundredth year after this great event was being celebrated in the city which may be called the cradle of the American nation.

A grand exhibition was held. It was called a "World's Fair," for splendid objects were sent to it from all parts of the world, and our own country sent the best of everything it had to show, from Maine to California. On the broad lawns of Fairmount Park many handsome buildings were erected, all filled with objects of use or beauty, and more than ten million people passed through the gates, glad to see what America and the world had to show.

If you wish to know what our own country showed, I may say that the most striking things were its inventions, machines that could do almost everything which the world wants done. And the newest and most wonderful of all these things was the telephone. This magical invention was shown there to the people for the first time, and the first voice shouted "Hallo!" over the talking wire.

In the years that followed centennial celebrations became common. In 1881 the centennial anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis was celebrated at Yorktown. In 1882 the bi-centennial (the two hundredth anniversary) of the landing of William Penn was celebrated at Philadelphia. A vessel that stood for the old ship "Welcome" sailed up the stream, and a man dressed like the famous old Quaker landed and was greeted by a number of men who took the part of Indian chiefs.

In 1887 Philadelphia had another grand anniversary, that of the signing of the Constitution of the United States, which was celebrated by magnificent parades and processions, while the whole city was dressed in the red, white and blue. In 1889 New York celebrated the next grand event in the history of the nation, the taking of the oath by Washington, our first President.

The next great anniversary was that of the discovery of America by Columbus, four hundred years before. This was celebrated by a wonderfully splendid exhibition at Chicago, the most beautiful that the world had ever seen. Columbus landed in October, 1492, and the buildings were dedicated in October, 1892, but the exhibition did not take place till the next year. Those who saw this exhibition will never forget it, and very likely some of my readers were among them. Its buildings were like fairy palaces, so white and grand and beautiful; and at night, when it was lit up by thousands of electric lights, the whole place looked like fairy land. The world will not soon see anything more beautiful.

I cannot tell of all the exhibitions. There were others, at New Orleans, Atlanta, and other cities, but I think you will be satisfied with hearing about the large ones. The Centennial at Philadelphia set the fashion. After that, cities all over the country wanted to have their great fairs, and many of the little towns had their centennial celebrations, with music and parades, speeches and fireworks.

During all this time the country kept growing. People crossed the ocean in millions. Our population went up, not like a tree growing, but like a deer jumping. In 1880 we had 50,000,000 people. In 1900 we had half as many more. Just think of that! Over 25,000,000 people added in twenty years! How many do you think we will have when the youngest readers of this book get to be old men and women? I am afraid to guess.

As our people increased in number they spread more widely over the country. Railroads were built everywhere, steamboats ran on all the streams, telegraphs and telephones came near to every man's front door, the post-offices spread until letters and newspapers and packages were carried to the smallest village in the land. Nobody wanted to stay at home, in the old fashion. People thought nothing of a journey across the continent or the ocean. Wherever they were, they could talk with their friends by letter or telegraph, and they could go nowhere that the newspaper could not follow them.

So the waste places of the country began rapidly to fill up. If you have ever seen an old-time map of our country you must have noticed places in the West marked "great desert," or "unknown territory," or by some such name. But people made their way into these unknown regions and filled them up. First they went with their families and household goods in great wagons. Then they went far more swiftly in railroad trains. Here they settled down and began farming; farther on, where there was not rain enough to farm, they raised cattle and sheep on the rich grasses; still farther, in the mountain regions, they set to work mining, getting gold, silver, copper, iron and coal from the hard rocks.

Cities grew up where the Indian and the buffalo had roamed. The factory followed the farmer; the engine began to puff its steam into the air, the wheels to turn, the machines to work, goods of all kinds to be made. The whole country became like a great hive of workers, where everybody was busy, and thousands of the people grew rich.

But all this great western country was not given up to the farmer, the miner and the wood-chopper. There were places which nature had made beautiful or wonderful or grand, and these were kept as places for all the people to visit. One of these was the beautiful Yosemite Valley, in California; another was the wonderful Yellowstone Park, with its marvelous spouting springs; others were the groves of giant trees; still others were great forests, from which the government told the wood-choppers to keep out, for the woods had been set aside for the good or the pleasure of all the people of the land.

Some of you may ask, what became of the old people of the country—the Indians, who were spread all over the West? There were hundreds of tribes of them, and many of them were bold and brave, and when they saw the white men pushing into their country they fought fiercely for their homes. But they could not stand before the guns of the pioneers and the cannon of the soldiers, and in time they were all forced to submit. Then places were set aside for them and they were made to live in them. The Indians were not always treated well. They were robbed and cheated in a hundred ways. But that, I hope, is all over now, for they are being well cared for and educated, and they seem likely, before many years, to become good and useful citizens of our country.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soon some of their ships were on fire and had to be run ashore. In an hour or two the chase was at an end and the fine Spanish fleet was sunk and burning, with hundreds of its crew killed, while on the American ships only one man had been killed. It was a wonderful flight and fight. I should tell you more about it, only that I have another story of the same kind to relate.

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

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

It was a great danger which Commodore Dewey and his bold followers faced. Before them lay the Spanish ships and the forts. There were torpedo boats which might rush out and sink them. There were torpedoes under the waters which might send the flagship itself to the bottom. Some men would have stopped and felt their way, but George Dewey was not that kind of a man. Without stopping for a minute after his long journey from China, he dashed on with the fleet and ordered his men to fire. Soon the great guns were roaring and the air was full of fire and smoke.

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

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

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

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

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

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