In the first part of this book, you heard of a brave In-di-an fight-er,
whose name was Wil-liam Hen-ry Har-ri-son; and you saw this brave man
mount step by step to the pres-i-dent's chair. It is his grand-son,
Ben-ja-min Har-ri-son, whom we now see pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted
States. He was born in his grand-fa-ther's home at North-Bend,
In-di-an-a, on Au-gust 20th, 1833. There were no good schools near his
home; so in a small log house, in his grand-fa-ther's grounds, he first
went to school; he and a few oth-er boys and girls were taught here by
those whom the Har-ri-sons hired. In this school the seats were of
planks, laid on sticks that were stuck in holes in the floor; they had
no backs; and were so high that the small boys and girls could not touch
their feet to the floor. On-ly in the win-ter did this small boy go to
school; in the sum-mer he had work to do on the big farm; he did his
work well; but he also learned to shoot, to fish, to swim, and to ride.
He was much liked by all the boys, for he was full of sports and jokes.
In 1820 he went to Mi-a-mi Col-lege, and left in 1822, to stud-y law.
In one of his first cases, the light was so dim, that he could not see
the notes he had made with such care. What should he do? There was but
one thing he could do: fling to one side the notes and plead his case
without an-y. This was a hard thing to do; but he did it so well, that
he won his case; and the great men of the day gave him much praise for
his speech.
When the Civ-il War broke out he raised a troop of men, from his own
state, and was made the col-o-nel of this band, which was called the
"70th In-di-an-a."
He served for two years, and won fame in some of the great bat-tles of
the war; so brave was he at Re-sa-ca, that he was made a Brig-a-dier
Gen-er-al. Through the long years of war, he was kind and good to the
men in his care; they loved him well, and gave him the name of "Little
Ben."
Not till the war was at an end, did he leave the field; then with much
fame, he went back home, and took up his work at law. He took a high
place in his own state and made some great speech-es.
It was now the year 1889; just one hun-dred years had passed since
Wash-ing-ton, our first pres-i-dent, took his place as Pres-i-dent of
the U-nit-ed States; and the whole land thought it right to cel-e-brate
the date. So in New York Cit-y, on A-pril 29th and 30th, was held the
"Wash-ing-ton Cen-ten-ni-al." The cit-y was hung from end to end, with
red, white and blue; the grand, good face of Wash-ing-ton, framed in the
flag of the land, or wreathed in green, looked down on the gay scene.
Rank by rank, the troops filed by a-midst the shouts and cheers of the
dense crowds that filled the streets, and looked from the win-dows of
stores and hous-es. Rich and poor, great and small, kept this great day;
the pres-i-dent and oth-er great men from Wash-ing-ton were brought to
the foot of Wall Street, on a barge hung with flags; here all the ships
of war were drawn up on each side; and as the par-ty went to the spot
where Wash-ing-ton took his oath of of-fice, young girls, clad in white,
cast flow-ers be-fore them. As the troops filed past the pres-i-dent,
one saw, not just those from the North; but up from the South came
hosts of men, bearing the flags of their states; all glad to share in
this great day of the na-tion; and there were men from across the
seas too; the Ger-mans and the French marched side by side with the
A-mer-i-cans. By night, fire-works and bon-fires filled the streets with
light, and blazed in beau-ty; no such great time had ever been known in
this land; and this was as it should be; for it was all done for the
great, good man, who had led our troops so well in our first war, that
he had made us free; and had then, by a wise and just rule, helped us
to be the great, strong land that we are to-day.
While Har-ri-son was in of-fice, work was be-gun for the "World's Fair,"
which was held in Chi-ca-go, in 1892, just four hun-dred years since
Co-lum-bus first saw A-mer-i-ca. Har-ri-son went to Chi-ca-go and
o-pened the fair with a speech on Oc-to-ber 14th, 1892; but folks could
not go there till the next year. In 1893, Har-ri-son went home to
In-di-an-a, and took up his law work, once more; he is still a-live, is
well known as a good law-yer, and has many warm friends a-mong the great
men of our day.
We have seen that Gro-ver Cleve-land now be-came pres-i-dent; at the end
of his four years, the Re-pub-li-cans put Wil-liam Mc-Kin-ley in of-fice.