[Illustration: Franklin's Printing Office and Book Shop
Benjamin Franklin, printer, was one of the greatest men of his time. He
wrote philosophical essays and some doggerel verse, published “Poor
Richard’s Almanac,” and became a great inventor. The painting shows
Christ Church in the background.]
HERO TALES
FROM HISTORY
BY
SMITH BURNHAM, A.M.
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, WESTERN
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
CHICAGO PHILADELPHIA TORONTO
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
PREFACE
An interest in history and a love of historical reading will be most
readily acquired by those children who approach this rich field of
literature through the medium of stories of the great figures of the
past. Such stories, if properly selected and told, give children those
vivid concrete pictures of men and of events which are vitally essential
to any real understanding of bygone days. At the same time such history
stories may be so selected as to hold up right ideals of conduct and of
character. Moreover, by their appeal to the emotions, which lie very
near to the springs of conduct, they move to action. Tales of
gentleness, of honor, of justice, of courage, of fortitude in suffering,
of intrepidity in danger, of dauntless resolution, of iron will, inspire
children to an emulation of those virtues. These “Hero Tales from
History” have been written in the faith set forth in this paragraph.
Through these stories the author aims to inculcate the fundamental
virtues just named and at the same time to acquaint children with the
names and achievements of some of those great men and women whose lives
and characters are a part of our racial and national inheritance.
In the selection of the tales in this book the author has drawn upon all
ages. Here are mighty men of the ancient world and makers of modern
America. Some of the characters chosen as the heroes of these stories
are great figures in world history, but the greater part of them were
selected because they are among the foremost heroes of our own country
and of our own culture. Of course in a book of this size many valuable
stories had to be omitted. But it is believed that all the tales
included are typical and representative.
These “Hero Tales” are not biographies of the men about whom they are
told, neither has any attempt been made to join them into a connected
historical narrative. They are just stories from the past told with
constant thought of the stage of mental development of the children for
whom they are intended. Each story has a hero, each is full of action,
and the author has tried to tell each one in clear and simple language.
The author has also tried to make each story teach its intended lesson
without any moralizing on his part.
The history of the past can never become a vital thing to us until the
men of the past are live, flesh and blood men. It is the author’s hope
that these “Hero Tales from History” will help to make threescore great
figures from our past something more than names to the children who may
enjoy this book.
SMITH BURNHAM.
CONTENTS
PAGE
MIGHTY MEN OF LONG AGO
MOSES, THE GREATEST LAW-GIVER, AND THE MEEKEST MAN 1
DAVID, THE GIANT-KILLER KING 6
HOMER, THE HERO POET OF ANCIENT GREECE 10
SOCRATES, THE “GRAND OLD MAN” OF GREECE 15
ALEXANDER, THE BOY WHO CONQUERED THE WORLD 20
FOUR FAMILIAR SAYINGS OF JULIUS CÆSAR 24
HEROES OF THE MIDDLE AGES
THE CHRISTMAS CROWNING OF CHARLEMAGNE 32
ALFRED, THE GREATEST OF THE SAXON KINGS 37
HOW WILLIAM OF NORMANDY CONQUERED A KINGDOM 42
LION-HEARTED RICHARD AND WOLF-HEARTED JOHN 47
JOAN OF ARC AND THE LILIES OF FRANCE 52
FOUR LEADERS IN THE OLD WORLD
SHAKESPEARE, THE GREATEST MAKER OF PLAYS 58
HOW CROMWELL CHANGED PLACES WITH THE KING 61
NAPOLEON, THE CORSICAN BOY WHO RULED EUROPE 65
NELSON, THE HERO OF TRAFALGAR 72
DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS
COLUMBUS, THE MAP-MAKER WHO FOUND A NEW WORLD 78
MAGELLAN, THE MAN OF THE STRAITS 84
CORTES, THE CONQUEROR 89
DE SOTO, A GOLD HUNTER IN SOUTHERN SWAMPS 96
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, ENGLAND’S FIRST GREAT SAILOR 102
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, THE FAVORITE OF GOOD QUEEN BESS 109
HENRY HUDSON, THE MAN WHO PUT HIMSELF ON THE MAP 115
LA SALLE AND THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI 120
LIVINGSTONE, THE WHITE MAN OF THE DARK CONTINENT 126
PEARY, A HERO OF THE GREAT WHITE NORTH 137
COLONISTS AND PIONEERS
JOHN SMITH, THE CAPTAIN OF MANY ADVENTURES 145
CHAMPLAIN, THE FATHER OF NEW FRANCE 151
MYLES STANDISH, THE BRAVE LITTLE CAPTAIN OF PLYMOUTH 160
JOHN WINTHROP, A PURITAN MAKER OF MASSACHUSETTS 170
ROGER WILLIAMS, A MINISTER WHO LIVED THE GOLDEN RULE 176
LORD BALTIMORE, CALVERT AND CLAIBORNE,
THE THREE FATHERS OF MARYLAND 180
WILLIAM PENN, THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA 185
PATRIOTS OF THE REVOLUTION
PATRICK HENRY, THE “FIREBRAND OF THE REVOLUTION” 190
NATHAN HALE, WHO SPOKE THE BRAVEST WORDS IN HISTORY 194
LAFAYETTE, THE BOY HERO OF TWO WORLDS 201
THE IMMORTAL REPLY OF JOHN PAUL JONES 208
GENERAL MARION, THE CAROLINA “SWAMP FOX” 217
WINNERS OF THE WEST
WOLFE AND MONTCALM, THE RIVAL HEROES OF QUEBEC 224
DANIEL BOONE, THE GREAT INDIAN FIGHTER OF KENTUCKY 232
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, THE YOUNG HERO WITH A GREAT IDEA 240
LEWIS AND CLARK, TWO ADVENTURERS IN THE FAR WEST 247
DAVID CROCKETT, THE HERO OF THE ALAMO 258
FAMOUS INVENTORS
HOW ELI WHITNEY MADE COTTON KING 266
“FULTON’S FOLLY” 270
HOW MORSE SENT LETTERS BY LIGHTNING 274
CYRUS H. MCCORMICK AND THE STORY OF THE REAPER 279
ELIAS HOWE AND HIS SEWING MACHINE 282
EDISON, THE WIZARD OF MANY INVENTIONS 285
THE GREATEST AMERICANS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE BOY WHO WAS DILIGENT IN BUSINESS 292
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER 296
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE ORPHAN BOY FROM THE WEST INDIES 301
THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE FATHER OF DEMOCRACY 309
ANDREW JACKSON, AMERICA’S MOST POPULAR HERO 315
WEBSTER, CLAY, CALHOUN, THREE GREAT CHAMPIONS IN CONGRESS 320
THE KIND HEART OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 327
ULYSSES S. GRANT, THE GENERAL WHO HATED WAR 332
THE NOBLE SOUL OF ROBERT E. LEE 341
DAVID FARRAGUT, THE HERO OF MOBILE BAY 346
THE STRENUOUS LIFE OF ROOSEVELT 352
CLARA BARTON, “THE ANGEL OF THE BATTLE-FIELD” 358
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, THE AMERICAN CHILDREN’S POET 365
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FRANKLIN’S BOOKSHOP IN PHILADELPHIA _Frontispiece_
MOSES PRAYING ON MOUNT SINAI 5
DAVID PLAYING HIS HARP BEFORE KING SAUL 9
HOMER, THE BLIND POET 11
SOCRATES TAKES THE CUP OF POISON FROM HIS JUDGES 18
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AT ONE OF HIS LUXURIOUS BANQUETS 23
THE ASSASSINATION OF CÆSAR 28
CHARLEMAGNE IS CROWNED EMPEROR OF THE WESTERN WORLD AT ROME 35
KING ALFRED DIVIDES HIS LAST LOAF OF BREAD WITH THE POOR BEGGAR 39
KING WILLIAM WOUNDED IN SINGLE COMBAT 45
KING RICHARD FORGIVES BERTRAND DE GURDUN 48
THE VICTORIOUS RETURN OF JOAN OF ARC TO ORLEANS 55
SHAKESPEARE AMONG HIS FRIENDS IN LONDON 59
OLIVER CROMWELL VISITING THE POET MILTON 63
EMPEROR NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO 70
NELSON RECEIVING THE SWORD OF THE SPANISH ADMIRAL 74
COLUMBUS PLEADING HIS CAUSE BEFORE KING FERDINAND AND QUEEN ISABELLA 81
FERDINAND MAGELLAN 85
HERNANDO CORTES 90
THE CAPTURE OF THE CITY OF MEXICO BY CORTES 93
DE SOTO ON THE BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI 100
QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE ON BOARD THE “GOLDEN HIND” 107
THE BOYHOOD OF RALEIGH 110
THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER 117
THE SHIPS OF FRANCE AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI 124
DAVID LIVINGSTONE, THE BRAVE SCOTCH MISSIONARY 127
PEARY IN ARCTIC DRESS WITH HIS ESKIMO DOGS 138
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 145
THE MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS 149
WHEN BRAVE AND COURTEOUS CHAMPLAIN SURRENDERED QUEBEC 158
THE MARCH OF MYLES STANDISH 163
GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP 170
THE LANDING OF ROGER WILLIAMS 179
GEORGE CALVERT, LORD BALTIMORE 181
WILLIAM PENN 185
PENN’S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS 189
PATRICK HENRY DELIVERING HIS CELEBRATED SPEECH 191
THE LAST WORDS OF CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE 199
GENERAL LAFAYETTE WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE 204
JOHN PAUL JONES COMMANDING THE “BON HOMME RICHARD” 215
GENERAL MARION, THE CAROLINA “SWAMP FOX” 218
THE MARQUIS DE MONTCALM 225
THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE 231
DANIEL BOONE, THE GREAT INDIAN FIGHTER OF KENTUCKY 233
COLONEL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 241
LEWIS AND CLARK ON THEIR EXPEDITION INTO THE FAR WEST 249
DAVID CROCKETT, HERO OF THE ALAMO 259
ELI WHITNEY, INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN 267
WHITNEY’S FIRST COTTON GIN 268
ROBERT FULTON, INVENTOR OF THE STEAMBOAT 270
THE “CLERMONT,” FULTON’S FIRST STEAMBOAT 273
S. F. B. MORSE, INVENTOR OF THE TELEGRAPH 275
MORSE’S FIRST TELEGRAPH SOUNDER 277
CYRUS H. MCCORMICK, INVENTOR OF THE REAPER 280
MCCORMICK’S FIRST REAPER 281
ELIAS HOWE 283
HOWE’S FIRST SEWING MACHINE 284
THOMAS A. EDISON AND ONE OF HIS EARLY DYNAMOS 287
WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL TO HIS MOTHER 299
THE FIRST MEETING BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND HAMILTON 305
THE SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 312
GENERAL JACKSON AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS 319
CLAY, CALHOUN AND WEBSTER, “THE STATESMEN OF THE COMPROMISE” 321
THE BOY LINCOLN READING BY THE FIRELIGHT 328
GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT 333
LEE’S INVASION OF THE NORTH 343
FARRAGUT IN THE RIGGING AT THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 351
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS COLONEL OF THE ROUGH RIDERS 353
CLARA BARTON, “THE ANGEL OF THE BATTLEFIELD” 360
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 366
MIGHTY MEN OF LONG AGO
MOSES, THE GREATEST LAW-GIVER, AND THE MEEKEST MAN
Long ago in the land of Egypt there lived as slaves to the Egyptians a
race of white people called the Hebrews. There were so many of them that
the Egyptians began to be afraid that they would over-run the land. So
the cruel king, or the Pharaoh, as he was called, commanded that all the
baby boys of the slave race should be thrown into the River Nile. But
one little child escaped this fate, for his poor slave mother disobeyed
the king and hid her baby in her hut. When he was three months old, his
mother was afraid she could not keep him quiet any longer. So she made a
basket, and plastered it inside with pitch, so that it would be
water-tight and float like a boat. Into this basket-boat she put her
baby.
The mother set the strange little boat on the edge of the River Nile,
among the tall reeds called bulrushes, very near the place where she
knew the king’s daughter came every day to bathe. It was a cool spot,
well guarded and safe from the terrible crocodiles that lived in the
Nile. After making sure that the little boat would not sink, the mother
went back to her work, leaving her daughter Miriam to see what became of
her baby brother.
Just as the wise mother had planned, the princess soon came with her
ladies-in-waiting, and spied the cradle basket rocking on the waves near
the shore. She told one of her maidens to bring it to her. The king’s
daughter knew too well of her father’s command to drown or kill all the
boy babies of the Hebrew slaves. So when she found a baby crying there,
she pitied the poor mother who had obeyed the king by putting him in the
river, still fondly hoping to save his life.
When the Pharaoh’s daughter saw the babe, she said, “This is one of the
Hebrews’ children!” There was a pleading look in the face of the little
child. He seemed to ask the princess to take him in her arms. The
princess herself was married but she had no children. That baby, smiling
through his tears, touched her mother-heart. How could she help saving
his little life from her father’s cruel law by claiming him as her own?
Just then Sister Miriam bowed before the princess and said, “Shall I go
and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the
child for thee?”
The king’s daughter was, pleased and said, “Yes, go.” So the happy
sister ran and brought her mother to the great stone palace of the
Pharaohs. Then the princess said, as if the mother were only a child’s
nurse, “Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee
thy wages.”
So, besides saving his life, that mother was royally paid for taking
care of her own son instead of working as a slave out in the hot sun.
Besides, she had a good chance to tell him, as he grew up, of the one
true God. What if her boy should save his father’s people from slavery,
when he became a man in the palace of the Pharaohs?
In due time the daughter of the king adopted the young Hebrew as her own
son, and named him Moses, which means “Saved,” because she had rescued
him out of the river. When Moses was old enough he went to live with
his royal mother, where he was educated in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, who at that time, nearly four thousand years ago, were the
most learned people in the world. Although he studied in the college of
the priests, who believed in the Sun, the Moon and many other gods,
Moses never forgot what his mother had taught him about the true God.
Young Prince Moses had a great deal to do while he was growing to
manhood. He is said to have become commander-in-chief of the Egyptian
army that conquered the black and savage race living a thousand miles up
the Nile.
In the Bible story are these words:
“And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he
went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he
spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
“And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no
man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
“Now when Pharaoh heard this, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses
fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian.”
This Pharaoh was not the father of Moses’ foster mother, who was now
dead. It is said that this king was afraid Moses would drive him from
the throne and become Pharaoh himself.
For forty long years the exiled prince lived in Midian, studying,
planning, and writing. It was during this time that he made the great
decision of his life. He resolved to save his own people, the million
Hebrews who were slaves to the Egyptians.
At last, Moses and his brother Aaron appeared before the Pharaoh, and
announced that God had demanded that the king should let the children of
Israel go free. It was a hard thing to ask, for the Egyptians still
needed the great army of slave men to build great pyramids and temples.
The king refused, and consented, and refused again, until plague after
plague was sent upon the land of Egypt. At last, when the king’s son,
and the oldest child of every Egyptian family in the whole country had
died in one night, the terrified and heartbroken king called for Moses
and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up and get you forth from among my
people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go.”
“And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their
kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their
shoulders.”
This going out of the Hebrew people bound for the Promised Land, nearly
four thousand years ago, is called “the Exodus.” To this day it is
celebrated by the Jews every year as the Passover.
When the Pharaoh realized that the great stone temples and pyramids of
Egypt might never be finished, he was afraid because he had let the
slave people go. So he ordered out his horses and chariots and drove
hard after them till he caught them in camp beside the Red Sea. The
frightened Hebrews began to cry and accuse Moses of deceiving them and
leading them out into a great trap, to be killed like a million helpless
sheep, by Pharaoh’s army.
But Moses told the wailing crowds not to be afraid. Before the king’s
horses and men caught up with them a strong east wind came up and kept
the tide from running in, thus leaving a bare sand bar right in front of
them across that arm of the Red Sea. Moses commanded the people to march
over as on dry land, an order which they lost no time in obeying. Then
the Pharaoh and his horsemen came up behind and drove hard after them
upon the sand bar. But the heavy chariots stuck in the mud beneath the
sand, and when the Egyptians reached the middle the wind changed, and
the tide, which had been held back so long, rushed in and drowned
Pharaoh and his army. Then Miriam and Moses and Aaron led these million
freed slaves in a grand victory chorus of song about their hairbreadth
escape.
[Illustration: MOSES PRAYING ON MOUNT SINAI.
_From an old print_]
But the people were always scolding and complaining against Moses, the
dear, gentle leader who had saved them from their cruel bondage. It was
his patient love for his thankless people, while through forty years
they wandered in the wilderness, that gave Moses the name of being the
meekest man that ever lived.
At Mount Sinai Moses received from God and gave to the people the Ten
Commandments, written on two tablets of stone. He spent his time during
the long years of wandering in the wilderness in planning the laws and
religion for his beloved people. He himself never entered the Promised
Land, but died in the wilderness, somewhere on a mountain called Nebo.
The Bible makes this statement of his death:
“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there. And he buried him in a
valley, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”
DAVID, THE GIANT-KILLER KING
Nearly three thousand years ago a bright, handsome Hebrew lad was
playing a harp while watching his father’s sheep on the hills of
Bethlehem.
One dark night there was a great stir among the sheep, and David saw a
bear making off with one of the lambs. There were no guns in those days,
but David had a sling, and he could fling a pebble almost as swift and
straight as a boy can shoot a bullet to-day. So David ran and killed the
bear by driving a stone through the big brute’s eye into its brain. When
he took the trembling lamb back to its mother, what should he see but a
lion starting off with a sheep in his huge jaws. There was no time to
gather pebbles. Grabbing a jagged rock in one hand, David seized the
great beast by the mane with the other, and aimed quick blows at the
lion’s eyes, breaking his skull before the lion could drop his prey and
fight back.
That was a great night’s work for one lone lad. After quieting his
frightened flock, David took his harp and made up a song of thanks to
the God of Israel for saving him alive from the jaws of the lion and the
paws of the bear.
Not long after this, David’s old father sent out to the hills for him.
When the youth came down to the house, he found Samuel, Prophet of God
and Judge of Israel, waiting for him. David’s seven older brothers stood
around eyeing him strangely, as the prophet said, “This is he,” and
baptized him by pouring oil on his head.
“What did the prophet anoint me for?” David asked his father.
“To be king of Israel instead of Saul.”
“But I am only a boy, and King Saul is so big and strong--head and
shoulders taller than other men. Why did not the prophet anoint our
Eliab? He is almost as tall as the king himself.”
“The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
After that David went back and herded his father’s sheep, but his
brothers were jealous of him because he had been anointed to be king.
As had often happened in the days of the Judges, the heathen Philistines
came up and made war against the people of Israel, and the eldest three
of David’s brothers were in the king’s army. Many weeks went by, but no
word came from the camp. So the father sent David down with provisions
for the brothers and a present for their captain.
The shepherd boy found the two armies in camps opposite each other,
across a narrow valley. Every one was excited over Goliath, a giant who
came down every day into the valley from the army of the Philistines and
challenged the king of Israel and all his men. Goliath was nearly eleven
feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet about as big as a bushel measure, and
his spear was like a weaver’s beam. Even King Saul and David’s tall
brother Eliab were much too small to fight with the Philistine giant.
David could not bear to hear Goliath calling the king and his soldiers
cowards and repeating wicked words about the God of Israel. So he went
and told Saul he would like the chance to go down and fight the
insulting giant.
The soldiers laughed at this, and Eliab told his young brother to go
home and mind his “few sheep in the wilderness.” But David would not be
put off. He told how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear in one
night. The lad was so earnest that the king consented to let him try.
The only weapons David took were his staff and his sling. On his way to
meet the giant he stopped at the brook and picked up five smooth
pebbles. Both armies looked on breathless at the strange combat. Great
Goliath laughed at little David, as if the king of Israel were playing a
joke on him. He cursed David by all the gods of the Philistines, and
yelled:
“Am I a dog, that thou shouldst come to fight me with a stick? For this
I will feed thy little carcass to the birds.”
Then David shouted back to Goliath, “I come in the name of the God of
Israel whom thou hast defied.”
All the Israelites and Philistines saw the boy make a quick motion with
his sling, and heard a thud. The giant dropped his heavy spear, threw up
his huge hands and fell, with a groan and a great clatter of armor, face
downward on the ground.
David’s first pebble had done the work. It had gone swift and straight
through the eye-hole in Goliath’s brass helmet and sunk deep into his
low, brutal forehead, killing him almost instantly.
“And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead they arose and
fled. The children of Israel returned from chasing after the
Philistines, and they spoiled (looted) their tents.”
[Illustration: DAVID PLAYING HIS HARP BEFORE KING SAUL.
_From the painting by Schopin_]
King Saul was so thankful that his own life had been saved, and that the
people were spared from being slaves to the Philistines, that he made
David come and live in his palace as a younger brother to his son,
Jonathan. This prince was not jealous like David’s own brothers. David
and Jonathan became such good friends that, though this happened nearly
three thousand years ago, people say yet that two boys or men who are
very friendly with each other are “like David and Jonathan.”
After a time Saul and Jonathan were both killed in a battle with the
Philistines. Then David became king of Israel. He proved to be one of
the best of rulers. He wrote many of the Bible Psalms and played on his
harp as he sang them. He planned to build a great house of worship for
the God of Israel in Jerusalem, but, because he had been a man of war,
he felt unworthy to do such sacred work. So he left the temple to be
built by his son Solomon, the wisest king that ever ruled over Israel.
HOMER, THE HERO POET OF ANCIENT GREECE
Long, long ago, when the world was young, and before men began to write
books, a kind of men called “bards” used to wander about the land of
Greece, from town to town and from court to court, playing the harp and
singing of the deeds of the heroes of Greece. As years went on there
came to be very many such tales sung by the bards, and handed down from
father to son. At last, there came a day when men learned to write. Then
the person whom we call Homer, the earliest and greatest poet in the
history of the world, gathered together these hero tales and wrote them
in beautiful poetry. This work of collecting these scattered stories of
the exploits and adventures of the
[Illustration: HOMER, THE BLIND POET, WAS LED FROM PLACE TO PLACE BY A
YOUNG BOY WHEN HE WENT TO SING HIS SONGS AND RECITE HIS WONDERFUL POEMS
OF ANCIENT GREECE.]
Greek gods and heroes and making them into one great hero poem, called
an “epic,” was done nearly three thousand years ago.
Although nobody really knows anything surely about the life of this
ancient Homer, the story goes that he was blind, and that he was very
poor, as poets often are. After his death, when his two great poems had
made him famous, seven different cities in Greece claimed each to have
been his home. But the facts of his life matter very little when
compared with the wonderful stories that he left for all the world to
read. His epics were imitated by the greatest poets of Rome, Italy, and
England, and have been translated many times into both poetry and prose.
There were two of these epics--the “Iliad,” picturing the siege and
downfall of ancient Ilium, or Troy; and the “Odyssey,” describing the
ten years’ wanderings of Odysseus, or Ulysses, on his way back home
after the destroying of Troy by the Greeks.
The war against Troy, which lasted ten years, was started because Paris,
son of Priam, the old king of Troy, carried off from her home, Helen,
the lovely wife of one of the Grecian kings. The “Iliad” tells of the
bold deeds of many heroes on both sides. The strongest fighter in Troy
was Hector, another son of King Priam. Achilles was the greatest hero on
the side of the Greeks. One of the most beautiful scenes in art as well
as in poetry is that of Hector saying good-bye to his wife and baby boy,
and one of the best known examples of friendship is that of Achilles for
his friend Patroclus.
The great gods and goddesses--for the early Greeks believed in many
gods--all took sides in the struggle for Troy. Apollo, Minerva, and Juno
helped the Greeks; Mars and Venus helped the Trojans. They chose the
side of the people who had especially served and worshiped them, using
their mighty power to help and direct in the long war.
After nine years the Greeks pretended that they were going to give up
the struggle and sail away to their homes. They built a huge wooden
horse to leave as a peace offering, telling the Trojans that it was a
gift for them to offer to their gods. The Trojans were only too willing
to think that the Greeks were giving up the fight. They would not listen
to the princess Cassandra, who warned them of danger, saying, “I fear
the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.” In spite of her words the city
fathers accepted the strange present and trundled the big horse within
their walls. That night some Greek soldiers who were hidden inside the
hollow wooden figure jumped out of their hiding place, opened the six
gates of Troy, and let in the Grecian army. The great warriors waiting
outside swarmed in and soon captured the city.
Helen, the stolen queen, sailed back home and lived there in her little
Grecian kingdom for many years after her rescue by her royal husband and
his brother, another king, with the help of the Greek heroes and the
gods who sided with them.
Among the Greeks who fought at Troy was Ulysses. His journeyings on the
way from Troy to Ithaca, the rocky island where he was king, form a
wonder story of ancient life and travel. Ulysses’ ships were driven
about to many strange places. First he came to the land of the lotus
eaters, where some of his men ate the lotus flowers and forgot their
homes and friends. The rest of them came next to the country of the
Cyclops, giant monsters with only one eye in the middle of their
foreheads. The chief Cyclops caught the Greeks, shut them up in the cave
where he kept his sheep, and ate two of them for his supper every day.
Ulysses was clever enough to think of a way by which he and his men
might escape. While the giant was out of the cave he sharpened a stake
by burning it in the coals, and when the Cyclops fell asleep after his
hearty supper, Ulysses and four of his men drove this sharp stake into
his one eye, blinding him. Then the leader tied each of his men under
one of the Cyclops’ sheep, and himself clung to the long hair beneath
the largest ram. When the sheep crowded out of the cave the giant did
not know that they were carrying his prisoners with them. Before he
discovered the trick the Greeks were safe on their ship.
After another voyage, Ulysses and his men landed on the island of Circe,
a beautiful witch who turned the men all into swine and made them stay
with her a long time. But Apollo and Minerva helped Ulysses undo the
spell of the charmer. Circe warned Ulysses against the Sirens, who would
tempt them by their singing only to destroy them all, and against Scylla
and Charybdis--a risky place for a ship to pass, between a great rock
and a dangerous whirlpool.
The wife of Ulysses also was beset with many trials and dangers. She was
surrounded by neighboring princes, each of whom wished to marry her and
become king of Ithaca. She kept on with her weaving, putting these
suitors off by telling them she would give them her answer when she
finished her weaving--but each night she unraveled all the weaving she
had done in the daytime.
During the twenty long years of Ulysses’ absence, Penelope’s young son
grew to manhood and started out to find his father. He reached home,
after a vain search, just at the time when Ulysses came back. The king
of Ithaca was disguised by the goddess Minerva as an old beggar, so that
no one recognized him but his good old dog.
Ulysses arrived at his palace at the very moment when, the suitors
having become too urgent, Penelope brought out Ulysses’ bow and agreed
to marry the man who could bend it and shoot an arrow through six rings
placed in a long line, as her heroic husband had been known to do. The
feeble looking beggar was allowed to look on while the princes tried
frantically to win the hand and the throne of the fair Penelope. One
after another failed in the desperate attempt. Then the seemingly aged
stranger asked them to let him try to bend the great, stiff bow and
shoot the heavy arrow. They laughed at and insulted him, but he took the
bow, bent it with ease, and shot the long arrow straight through all the
rings, just as Ulysses used to do.
Penelope gave a cry of joy, for she knew then that the stranger was none
other than her long-lost husband. Ulysses’s disguise suddenly
disappeared, and with his son’s aid he shot the impudent suitors who had
tormented his wife all those years.
SOCRATES, THE “GRAND OLD MAN” OF GREECE
Socrates was the son of a sculptor of Athens in the days of Pericles, a
ruler who encouraged art and culture and made his city famous for its
learning and beauty. As a boy, Socrates was taught by his father to
carve statues. Nearly a thousand years afterward, a traveler in Greece
described a group of figures, called “The Graces,” carved by the
youthful Socrates. But the young man was not satisfied with being a
sculptor. While he was working at his carving, his active mind kept
trying to find out the reason for everything.
In Athens at this time there were not only many painters and sculptors,
but numbers of men called philosophers, who gave all their time to
thinking out the meaning of what they saw in the world around them, and
trying to teach that meaning to such people as would listen to them.
These philosophers differed widely from one another in their views. Some
of the things they thought would seem very queer to us to-day, but they
were doing their best to find out the truth.
A group of philosophers who held the same views was called a “school.”
The schools of philosophy were not like the schools of to-day. They were
simply gathering places, in some one’s house, or on a street corner, or
in a public porch, or in a grove, where men who liked to think came
together for talk and debate. Instead of children sitting quietly at
desks, a school was made up of grown men walking about and talking a
great deal.
Socrates found that he was much more interested in listening to what the
philosophers thought than he was in carving statues. So he gave up his
work with his father and went out to visit the schools. But as he went
from one school to another, he could see that no one of them was right
in every way. He decided that he could not learn the real truth from
them. So he resolved to walk the streets and ask questions of the people
he met there. He was so anxious to know that he could learn from anyone
he talked with, whether man, woman, or child. He met many men who
thought they were philosophers when they were not, for it was
considered a great thing to be known as a famous thinker, and all men
aimed at it.
When Socrates met a man who claimed to be wise, he would ask questions
as if he himself did not know anything, and he would thus lead on from
one thing to another till sometimes he made the man say the very
opposite of what he had said before, making him ashamed of himself. This
way of drawing out the truth by questions and proving the wrongness of
some ways of reasoning is known to-day as the “Socratic method.”
The Greeks were great believers in beauty. They thought whatever is
beautiful must be right. But Socrates saw handsome men and beautiful
women leading wrong lives, and he made such people angry by saying so.
Socrates himself was far from handsome. He was short and thick-set. His
head was bald and his eyes bulged out in a comical way. His nose was
broad and flat; his lips were thick and his ears stood out, making him
look like the clowns the Greeks laughed at in their great out-door
theaters.
More than this, Socrates was poor. He had learned, while a young man,
that those who had most of the so-called good things of life were the
most unhappy. So he made up his mind that the best kind of wealth lay in
not wanting much. He did not care for good things to eat. He went
barefoot, and wore the same thin garment both summer and winter.
The Greeks were fond of art for the sake of art. But Socrates believed
in right living, and loved art only for heart’s sake--for the sake of
doing good and making people happy. He also believed that to know is to
live, and that in order to live right one must first know what is right.
He claimed to have a certain force or voice within which showed him
what was right. He was the first of all the wise men of the heathen
world to believe that this inner light should be a correct moral guide
to right living.
Even the gods the Greeks worshiped did things of the worst kind; they
were spiteful, cruel, and wicked. So the people did not think it wrong
to act as their gods did. They did not understand what Socrates meant
when he said he had a voice within himself which told him what he should
or should not do. So they thought he was trying to make them believe in
a strange god, when they had too many already.
[Illustration: SOCRATES TAKES THE CUP OF POISON FROM HIS JUDGES.]
Socrates was a great lover of his country. When the Greeks went to war
he went in the ranks as a private soldier, and fought like a hero. In
one battle he saved the life of a rich, handsome, brilliant young man
who was very popular in Athens. This youth soon learned to love the
homely old philosopher and studied with him. Two other great men were
pupils of Socrates. One of these became one of the greatest historians
and the other a great philosopher. They were both authors, and they
wrote all that is known to-day about Socrates, who did not leave any
writings to show what he believed and taught.
Of course, most people failed to understand Socrates, and so they made
him the laughing stock of the town. Yet many young men, led by the youth
whose life Socrates had saved, came to him to learn how to live and be
useful and happy.
But the people who were jealous of his influence over the young men of
the city accused the old philosopher of teaching them of other gods and
thus corrupting their minds. They had him arrested, but his students
followed him to the prison, where he kept on teaching them the right way
to live. Socrates was tried by a law-court of citizen judges and
defended himself very ably. The story of his bold defense is told in a
book called the “Apology of Socrates,” by a famous Greek writer named
Plato. He spoke of his aim to show people how little they knew so that
they might learn more, and told his judges that he intended to go on in
the same way if they spared his life. He was condemned to die, however,
and thirty days after the trial they gave him a cup of poison called
hemlock to drink. After he had taken this he went on talking to his
students of the hope of a happier life beyond the grave. This was four
hundred years before the birth of Christ. Socrates came nearer the
Christian belief than any other philosopher of that ancient time who had
no knowledge of the Bible and its teachings.
ALEXANDER, THE BOY WHO CONQUERED THE WORLD
Alexander was the son of Philip, king of Macedon, a country to the north
of Greece. His father was a great general as well as a king. Young
Alexander was a strong, active, handsome lad. A story is told of his
“breaking” a wild horse which had been presented to Philip by a
neighboring king. This horse was named Bucephalus--the Greek word for
“Bullheaded.” He reared, bit, snorted, and pawed the air, if any one
tried to mount him. King Philip was indignant at being given such a
present, and was about to send back the “bullheaded beast,” as too
dangerous to the life or limb of anyone who attempted to ride him. But
Alexander noticed that the horse was frightened even at his own shadow.
He begged his father to let him conquer such a splendid animal. The lad
was so much in earnest that the king decided to let him try.
The young prince showed no fear as he walked up beside Bucephalus and
patted him on the neck. He wanted to keep the horse from being
frightened, as his fright was the cause of his wildness. By degrees the
boy managed to turn the great brute’s head toward the sun so that he
could not see his shadow. Throwing off his velvet mantle, Alexander
suddenly sprang on the horse’s back. Instead of trying to restrain or
guide the frightened steed, the boy let him go as fast as he would
across the plain. When Bucephalus grew tired, the shrewd rider began to
turn his head this way and that, while speaking kindly and patting him
soothingly. When they returned from their long run, Bucephalus obeyed
the prince’s word and touch as a gentle, well-trained horse should. It
is said that the huge beast learned to kneel for Prince Alexander to
mount, and that he carried his young master proudly through many a
battle.
The king was so pleased with the courage and wisdom Alexander displayed
in conquering Bucephalus that he said to his son, “You should have a
larger kingdom than Macedon to rule.”
As if to fulfill this wish, Philip went to war with several of the
neighboring kings and left his sixteen-year-old son to rule over Macedon
while he was absent. Then Alexander was allowed to command certain
companies of the Macedonian army; in this he showed wonderful courage
and wisdom.
Philip was murdered when Alexander was twenty. Then the kings whom the
father had conquered tried to throw off the rule of Macedon. They said,
“This new king is only a boy.” But Alexander answered when he heard it,
“They think I am a boy; I will show them that I am a man.” And he
did--not only by defeating the kings and armies his father had beaten,
but by conquering the other states around Macedon whose kings had turned
in to help Alexander’s enemies.
At this time the greatest monarch in Asia was Darius, king of the
Persians. He sent several nobles of his realm to seek the friendship of
Alexander, king of Macedon. These men were surprised when they saw that
the young ruler was not interested in their stories of the wealth and
splendor of the vast countries of Darius. Instead, Alexander wished to
hear about the extent of their kingdom, about its different peoples, and
about the location of the rivers, roads, and cities. The men from Persia
said to members of the court of Macedon, “Our old king is _rich_; but
your young king is _great_.”
Alexander, both king and general, had a strange thirst for power. He
left a true friend to control his kingdom in Europe and started east,
with only a small army, to conquer the vast countries on the continent
of Asia. King Darius laughed at the very idea of “a mere boy,” with so
few soldiers, coming to conquer him and the greatest and richest empire
in the world. He came to meet the Macedonian army with an armed host
about ten times as large as Alexander’s. “That boy” soon routed and
scattered the hosts of the Persians, and King Darius had to fly for his
life, leaving his wife and her mother behind, as Alexander’s prisoners.
The young conqueror was kind to these and to all other prisoners of war.
This was wholly different from the custom then; for ancient conquerors
killed or made slaves of those whom they defeated in battle. Alexander
gained two great victories over Darius and captured other kingdoms and
walled cities after long sieges and hard-fought battles.
While in Asia he came to a temple where there was a puzzle which no one
had solved. This was a strange knot in a long leather strip. This knot,
it had been prophesied for centuries, could never be undone except by
the one who was to conquer Asia. Alexander felt that he must unloose
this terrible tangle in some way or other. So, when he was brought into
the temple, which was at a place named Gordium, he took his sword and
cut the strangely knotted thong in pieces! Ever since then when any one
meets and solves in a surprising way what seems to be an impossible
problem, he is said to have “cut the Gordian knot,” as Alexander did in
the temple at Gordium.
The young conqueror marched down into Africa, and not only took
possession of Egypt, the greatest kingdom of
[Illustration: ALEXANDER THE GREAT AT ONE OF HIS LUXURIOUS BANQUETS.]
that vast region, but built, near one of the mouths of the wide river
Nile, a city to which he gave his own name. That city, Alexandria, is
still one of the largest cities on the continent of Africa.
It became necessary for Alexander to lead his army farther eastward into
Asia. After his great successes he began to indulge his appetites, in
eating and drinking and in other harmful ways. Once, in a fit of drunken
anger, he killed his best friend. This made him ashamed and sad when he
came to himself and realized what he had done.
Because of his many victories Alexander is called “the Great.” When he
was only twenty-six, he had conquered all the important nations in the
world of his day. It was because he had now nothing to strive after that
he gave way to evil passions. He is said to have “wept because there
were no more worlds to conquer.” He became ill and died as a result of
his excesses, leaving no child or relative to rule over the great
kingdoms he had acquired.
Although Alexander the Great had conquered the world, he could not
govern himself. Hundreds of years before his day, Solomon, the wise,
rich king, wrote in his Proverbs:
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth
his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
FOUR FAMILIAR SAYINGS OF JULIUS CÆSAR
Julius Cæsar was born at Rome more than two thousand years ago, about
one hundred years before Christ. His family belonged to a noble clan of
the patricians. The people of Rome were divided into three classes. Of
these the patricians were highest in rank and fewest in number. There
were many more in the middle class, which at that time was largely made
up of free men who could vote and hold office. The lowest class and by
far the largest number were the slaves.
More than half of the Roman slaves were white, many having blonde hair
and blue eyes. These had been brought as captives from the northern
countries and sold in Rome. Some of the slaves, especially those who
came from the Greek lands in the East, were more refined than the
ignorant, brutal Roman masters for whom they had to do the hardest and
dirtiest kinds of work. Worse than this, the Roman law allowed cruel
masters to whip, torture, and even kill these educated men and women.
By right of the might of her wonderful armies, Rome made herself
“Mistress of the World.” So the patricians and the freemen looked with
contempt upon other nations and said to themselves, “To be a Roman is
greater than to be a king.” The patricians were the proudest Romans, and
the Cæsars were among the haughtiest patricians. Their family belonged
to the rich, ruling class when little Julius was born.
Of course, there was no such thing as the Christian religion in Julius
Cæsar’s day. The only believers in the one true God were the Jews, who
lived in the little, far-off country now called the Holy Land. The best
educated Romans believed in Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Venus, and many other
deities who, they imagined, were ruling over them, and who were as
selfish and cruel as the Romans themselves.
There were no public schools for children in Rome. Instead of millions
of printed books, there were a few rolls of parchment on which Latin
words were printed very slowly by hand. Instead of using paper to write
on, the Romans scratched their letters and messages on tablets of wax
with large needles. As there were no newspapers then, the people learned
what was going on in the world by word of mouth from speakers in the
Forum, an open city square with a stone platform, around which crowded
thousands of listeners.
The highest ambition of the youthful Julius Cæsar was to speak well to
the people in the Forum and to win their friendship. He grew to be a
tall, handsome, brilliant young man. He was not rich, and while his
friends led lives of ease and pleasure, this young Cæsar studied hard.
He learned to read and speak Greek, because then the greatest poems,
orations, and plays were in that language. He traveled thousands of
miles, to Greece and Asia Minor, to learn to be a good speaker and
writer. And though he was a patrician, his real sympathy lay with the
poor and the middle class, whose side he took almost from boyhood.
The Romans governed themselves, in some ways, as the people of the
United States do to-day. That is, their consuls, or governors, were
elected by the patricians and the free men. Sometimes the patricians
were in power; at other times, the people of the middle class succeeded
in electing their leaders. But in those cruel times the winning party
sometimes killed the chiefs on the other side, and treated them all as
if they were enemies at war. The uncle of Julius Cæsar had been one of
the chiefs overthrown in such a civil war, and the young man inherited
his uncle’s love for the cause of the common people.
The first deed of Cæsar that brought him into public notice took place
while he was traveling in the East. A crew of pirates, or sea robbers,
captured him and held him prisoner until a large sum of money, or a
ransom, should be paid. Julius Cæsar succeeded in raising the amount and
paid it to them to set him free. But before he left the pirates he told
them that if he ever caught them he would have his revenge. Then he went
and collected men and ships, caught his former captors, won back his
ransom money, and ordered the ring-leaders crucified. Crucifixion was
the Roman penalty for pirates and other thieves.
From the time Julius Cæsar was thirty years old, he was constantly in
one office or another in the Roman republic. One early position was that
of director of shows and sports. The Romans had theaters, with seats of
stone rising one behind another from the central space, like the seats
in a circus or college stadium. Here thousands of people could see and
hear actors, poets, orators, and debaters. One of these theaters was so
large that eighty thousand people could witness the games at one time.
Instead of football and baseball, the Romans had running races and
wrestling matches by athletes and fighters who came from all parts of
the world. Most of them were slaves. Among them were men called
gladiators, who fought each other with swords until one or the other was
killed. The cruel Romans liked this part of the sport best.
Julius Cæsar provided such splendid shows and games that he made himself
very popular with the people. He was elected to one office after
another; and finally, after being sent as a kind of governor to Spain,
was chosen one of the two consuls. The office of consul was the highest
in Rome, and was somewhat similar to our president. When his term
expired, Cæsar was made governor over the Gauls, a half savage people
who lived in the country that is now northern Italy, Switzerland, and
France.
During the nine years while Cæsar was in Gaul, he had to fight many
battles and conquer many dangerous tribes. Besides that, he crossed to
the island of Britain, now called England. But Cæsar was kind to his
enemies and prisoners. His “Journal,” which tells of his wars in Gaul,
is read to-day as one of the simplest and best books ever written.
[Illustration: THE ASSASSINATION OF CÆSAR.]