TORY 
 
 OCRACV 
 
THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO . DALLAS 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
THE STORY 
 
 OF 
 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 TOLD FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 By 
 
 SYDNEY ELEANOR JNGRAHAM 
 
 gorfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1922 
 
 A II rights reserved 
 
Printed in the United States of A merica 
 
 J~C V 33 
 
 JTv 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1922. 
 
FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 
 
 THIS little book approaches the study of civics through the 
 medium of a group of stories for children. Such an at- 
 tempt, and such an approach to a difficult subject must 
 necessarily meet with many dilemmas and limitations. But a 
 great need has been felt for a reader which would render the study 
 of civics not only attractive, but simple and easy to children. Chil- 
 dren, still in the imaginal stage, find it very hard to concentrate 
 upon the generalized facts which fill textbooks in civics. So there 
 has been a tendency among teachers to regard the subject as suit- 
 able only for high-school students. But a large proportion of our 
 school children never enter high school. They should not leave the 
 public schools without having received some training in citizenship. 
 It is believed that the study of democracy in evolution is the 
 most attractive to children and the most scientific method of 
 study. As citizens, the children must learn to think in terms of 
 the past and of the future. 
 
 The title of this book, The Story of Democracy, is not entirely 
 satisfactory, because it might perhaps be misunderstood to imply 
 that there is only one story of democracy, and that a child's reader 
 is endeavoring to tell it all, which would be most absurd. But 
 it suggests, at least, the purpose to which the book is dedicated: 
 that every American child should be able to picture the long 
 journey of mankind towards democracy as the story of the struggle 
 for a great cause in which he himself, or she herself, will finally take 
 an active part. " It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
 task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take 
 increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
 measure of devotion." 
 
 Our laws of to-day, our principles of democratic citizenship, 
 and our governmental machinery in the United States form a com- 
 
vi FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 
 
 plex political organism which has been built up out of the ex- 
 perience of centuries. It cannot be properly studied merely in 
 the light of the immediate present, or as an abstraction removed 
 from time and space. It is a growth, like the life of a great tree, 
 and it is useless to attempt to sever the leaves and branches from 
 the trunk, and from the roots that lie under the soil. 
 
 To follow democracy through its evolution is, after all, the 
 easiest way to understanding for children, because it proceeds 
 naturally from simple ideas to more complex. The discovering 
 and historical accumulation of democratic principles have been 
 slow and irregular. Often the gain of one century has been lost in 
 the next. But there has been a gradual, fumbling progress, and 
 the possibility of still greater progress lies unlimited in the future. 
 
 A choice had to be made out of the quantity of possible ma- 
 terial, and so the earlier stories, with the exception of the first, 
 have all been drawn from significant phases in the history of the 
 Western races and of the United States, because these have a 
 direct bearing upon the development of our American democracy, 
 through racial inheritance and education. The last five chapters 
 treat of citizenship in the United States of to-day. 
 
 It should be explained to children, however, that social progress 
 is by no means the result merely of time. The development of 
 civilization has been most irregular, and there are to-day, scat- 
 tered over the world, races still living in savage or primitive 
 in half-civilized or mediaeval conditions, representing various 
 layers of social evolution and many different types of government, 
 which are, in some cases, not unlike those described in the earlier 
 chapters of this book. 
 
 This will make clear why the book, otherwise chronological in 
 order, starts with an account of Indian affairs which did not 
 occur until after the events described in Chapter VI. Many 
 thousands of years have elapsed since our own ancestors (the 
 Aryans, so-called) lived as tribal savages, and almost no records 
 or stories of their life have come down to us through the ages. To 
 fill the gap caused by our ignorance of our prehistoric ancestors, 
 
FOREWORD TO TEACHERS vii 
 
 an Indian story has been chosen, because the habits of all primi- 
 tive peoples are similar and typical in many essentials, and be- 
 cause we have trustworthy records of the tribal organization of 
 the Indians. 
 
 It is believed that the story method is valuable in awakening 
 the sympathetic interest of the children, in giving them a sense 
 of the fullness of life, and of the measure of human forces and 
 sacrifices involved in each phase of the struggle. As it is an 
 indirect method of teaching, however, it may be helpful to teachers 
 if the main points to be developed in each of the stories are here 
 briefly indicated. A retrospect is also given in the last chapter, to 
 be read by the children themselves. 
 
 The first chapter develops a legend of tribal organization in 
 what may be called the Stone Age of the American Indians. The 
 character of At-o-tar-ho typifies the barbarian, with his supersti- 
 tions and brutish cruelties. Hi-a-wa-tha is a forerunner of civiliza- 
 tion, order, and progress. The spirit of purest democracy, simple 
 and primeval, and the spirit of blind tyranny are woven together 
 in the symbolism of the legend. That the Indians were a belated 
 race, doomed to fail before they could develop their own culture, 
 adds tragedy to the beauty of Hi-a-wa-tha's genius. The reform 
 which he introduced in regard to the social control of murder is 
 significant as a first foundation of law and order. Incidents in 
 the first part of the story illustrating the state of barbaric anarchy 
 and confusion should be noted. The later control of the Iroquois 
 chiefs (whose authority became hereditary on the maternal side) 
 shows a tendency towards aristocratic government in the tribe; 
 but the Indians had little personal property and their social life 
 was largely communistic, so that essential equality was preserved. 
 The story gives no opportunity to describe the savage methods 
 of warfare and torture. Most children, however, are familiar 
 with the life of the Indians, and have read of their grisly customs 
 of torturing and killing prisoners of war. 
 
 The second chapter gives a picture of mankind at the next 
 stage, the dawn of civilization. -The Homeric Greeks know how to 
 
viii FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 
 
 tame animals, how to cultivate the earth by ploughing, and how 
 to forge metals. They are living in the Age of Bronze, like the 
 Hebrews of the Old Testament. The authority of the tribal chiefs 
 has now passed into the hands of the tribal king, an hereditary 
 ruler. At this early stage, mankind has not yet learned the science 
 of self-government, but is learning the necessity of obedience to 
 a central authority. Authority vested in a leader, the king, is at 
 first more easily recognized than authority vested in an abstraction, 
 such as the State. The king is like the father of a great family, 
 and his palace is the center of social life. The people trade 
 with each other and live together in little towns, controlled by 
 simple laws of conduct instituted by the king. 
 
 To study the first developments of law at this stage, it 
 might be very interesting to read with the children the story 
 of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Early laws like the 
 Commandments, which deal with the social relations of men, 
 are still the basis of our modern laws, because they answer 
 to the fundamental needs of human nature. It should be noted, 
 in the story of Achilles, that Briseis is made a slave after her 
 capture. The institution of slavery is established, and will last 
 for thousands of years as an obstacle in the path of democracy 
 and as a great social evil. At its very beginning, however, it 
 is actually a sign of progress. Prisoners of war, instead of 
 being tortured and put to death, are merely enslaved. The 
 development of slavery and of personal property has brought with 
 it the problem of riches and poverty, an apple of discord; and the 
 simple equality of primitive life has vanished. The story of 
 Alcinous shows that class distinctions are now made, and there is 
 danger that a less generous king, rich and powerful, might become 
 a tyrant and oppress the poor by exacting too much tribute. 
 
 Chapter III describes life in Athens during the Age of Peri- 
 cles. A Greek city-state has conquered tyranny and developed 
 the science of democracy, the self-government of the many. The 
 story leads up to the Funeral Speech of Pericles, which ranks with 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as one of the greatest tributes ever 
 
FOREWORD TO TEACHERS ix 
 
 paid to democracy. The children should learn to revere the 
 Hellenic spirit, as revealed in such words, and to admire Greece 
 for its great forward movement not only in the science of govern- 
 ment, but also in natural science, philosophy, art, and literature. 
 It should be impressed on the children that Athenian democracy 
 was direct, not representative. The story shows that the citizens 
 themselves attended the Assembly and the courts of law, giving 
 up about one fourth of their time to the public service. At the 
 same time it must be admitted that the Athenian democracy was 
 a very limited one according to modern ideals, since women and 
 slaves were not considered citizens in Athens. They were treated 
 as inferiors, and suffered many hardships in consequence. 
 
 Under the Roman Empire the principles of Athenian democracy 
 seem forgotten, although the Romans have otherwise borrowed 
 much from Greek civilization. The two stories in Chapter IV 
 should be contrasted. In the first, The Triumph of Titus, des- 
 potism, militarism, and materialism appear ironically victorious 
 and triumphant, trampling upon the symbols of a great spiritual 
 religion. The degradation of the Roman mob, as a result of 
 autocracy, should be explained. In The Martyrdom of Lawrence, 
 the love of the Christians for poverty and their attitude toward 
 slavery, presage a new spirit of humanity, which will also find 
 expression in the development of Roman law. The underlying 
 principle of Roman justice in the last years of the Empire is far 
 more advanced and democratic than the principle of Athenian law. 
 Even slaves are beginning to receive consideration as human 
 beings, and all men and women, including slaves and foreigners, 
 are recognized as equals under the law of nature. Through the 
 Middle Ages and down to the present time, the great body of 
 codified Roman law will be studied and will endure as our most 
 valuable heritage from the civilization of Rome. Thus democracy 
 gains a permanent victory in one branch of government, while 
 suffering defeat in the other. 
 
 In the folk tale of Gunnar and Hallgerda, we return to semi- 
 barbarism, and read of the daily life and customs of the Icelanders, 
 
x FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 
 
 a people closely related to the primitive ancestors of the Germanic 
 tribes. We may well feel proud of the native democracy of the 
 folkmeet which produced such sturdy, brave, brisk men as Gunnar 
 and Nyal. Hallgerda and Bergthora, too, stand up for their 
 rights in word and in deed. For all her wickedness, there is 
 something in Hallgerda that we admire. Though she kills and 
 steals, she never tells a lie. But she is barbaric, and there are 
 many customs among the Norsemen which must seem ruthless 
 and cruel to modern civilized people; witness the treatment of 
 thralls, the disregard of manslaughter, and the frequency of 
 private combat as a settlement of legal quarrels. The story is 
 one of the classics of ancient Norse literature and is deeply inter- 
 esting because it describes that turning point in the development 
 of the great Nordic race when the rule of justice w-as beginning 
 to replace the rule of force in personal relations. The custom of 
 paying blood money for a manslaughter closely resembles the 
 custom of wampum giving among the Indians. What originally 
 arose as a reform, and the foundation of law and order, now ap- 
 pears at a more advanced stage as an inadequate punishment 
 for such a crime as murder. Soon, when the Norsemen become 
 Christians and begin to study the classic literature of Greece and 
 Rome, blood feuds and blood money will disappear. 
 
 In the Chapter on the Middle Ages, the chief facts to be em- 
 phasized are the development of Parliament in England, the rise of 
 the gilds, the end of serfdom, and the beginnings of representative 
 government. In Richard Cceur de Lion, the position of the feudal 
 king as military leader and his dependence upon Parliament for 
 money are significant; as are, in Leofric and Godiua, the relation of a 
 feudal lord to his tenants, the exaction of tolls and taxes, the miser- 
 able state of the serf, and the mitigating influence of the Christian 
 religion; in Robin Hood and the Butchers 3 Gild, the duties of the 
 Sheriff and the prosperity of the gildsmen; in The Shire Meeting, 
 the revolt of the serfs and the conditions of an early election. In 
 spite of feudal monarchy and its many confusions, this age is an 
 age of progress. The end of serfdom in Europe and the develop- 
 
FOREWORD TO TEACHERS xi 
 
 ment of representative government prepare the way for a future 
 democracy purer and greater than that of Athens. 
 
 At the conclusion of The Settlement of Virginia, it is told how 
 representative government was established in the first English 
 colony of North America, not owing to the will of the settlers, but 
 owing to the chance advent of a liberal ministry in England. 
 " In the unfolding of these events/' says the historian John Fiske, 
 "there is poetic beauty and grandeur, as the purpose of Infinite 
 Wisdom reveals 'itself slowly . . . hasting not but resting not, 
 heedless of the clashing aims and discordant cries of shortsighted 
 mortals, sweeping their tiny efforts into its majestic current." 
 
 The Story of the Pilgrims tells how the Pilgrim Fathers struggle 
 for liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, and freedom of the 
 press. They flee from England, and migrate to America for the 
 sake of religious and democratic ideals. It should be explained 
 why the government of New England was at first a direct 
 democracy, like the Athenian, and later a representative democ- 
 racy. The Pilgrims' ideal of democracy is a part of their religion, 
 bound up with their charity, their poverty, and their strict 
 morality. All men have equal rights in the colony, but no one 
 dreams, at this time, that women may ever have a vote in 
 government. 
 
 The Building of the Nation, as related in Chapter IX, explains 
 the causes of the Revolutionary War, the nature of federalism, 
 and the relation of our state governments to the National Govern- 
 ment. A New England boy fights through the Revolution and 
 witnesses the failure of the weak Continental Congress in the years 
 that follow. He becomes a Western pioneer and the money he 
 pays down for his plot of land in the Western Territory goes to 
 strengthen the finances of the new National Government. 
 
 In connection with The Winning of the West, allusion should 
 be made to the history of the particular state to which the 
 children belong. The extract from Roosevelt's autobiography is 
 intended to show how Roosevelt applied the principles of true 
 Americanism in the bringing up of his children. 
 
xii FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 
 
 The three following chapters are directly concerned with the 
 workings of our machinery of government, and they explain 
 themselves. 
 
 The National Government, describes the work of the President, 
 of the National Congress, and of the Departments at Washing- 
 ton. The content of the leaflet issued by the Children's Welfare 
 Bureau should be studied sentence by sentence, because child wel- 
 fare and education in hygiene concern all our children, and are 
 fundamental elements in our modern citizenship: 
 
 In connection with the chapter on State and County Govern- 
 ment, references should be made to the particular state and county 
 in which the school is situated. A Visit to a State University reveals 
 the possibilities of public education in a democracy. The children 
 may talk over their own plans in regard to future education. 
 
 In connection with City Government, if the book is being read 
 in cities other than New York, comparison should be made between 
 the services rendered by the New York City government and the 
 services rendered by the particular city government under which 
 the children are living. The bad results of overcrowding might be 
 discussed. 
 
 In the concluding chapter, a sketch is drawn of an American 
 child John, a typical schoolboy in his relations to the problems 
 of citizenship that are awaiting him. When this book was first 
 written, it was planned to include here a number of stories by 
 various authors, dealing with all sorts and conditions of children 
 in America stories of farm children, mountain children, negro 
 children, city children, and immigrant children. Unfortunately 
 these had to be omitted for lack of space. Conditions in America, 
 however, are so varied that any choice of stories must seem in- 
 complete. Each classroom full of children presents its own 
 problems, and the teacher should compare John's outlook with that 
 of the children before her, remembering the ideal of equal oppor- 
 tunity, and remembering that every child who reads the book 
 should become the hero or heroine of this last chapter. The 
 realities of our American social life should not be glossed over and 
 
FOREWORD TO TEACHERS xiii 
 
 idealized, because such sentimentality leads to stagnation or 
 retrogression. If the child can gain a sense of his own responsibility 
 as a citizen, and the significance of his place of vantage in the 
 long upward climb of mankind towards democracy and justice, 
 the purpose of this book will have been accomplished. 
 
 Some of the earlier stories in the book are imaginary, but the 
 descriptions of social life have all been based upon historical 
 sources. Because it is not customary to fill a child's book with 
 bristling footnotes, I should like here to acknowledge my indebted- 
 ness to numerous authors whose past labors have supplied me 
 with materials for my stories. 
 
 At the close of the book will be found a pronouncing vocabulary 
 of all difficult names used in the text. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 1 
 
 1. At-o-tar-ho, the Head Chief and Wizard 5 
 
 2. The Journey of Hi-a-wa-tha 9 
 
 3. The Meeting of the Chiefs 14 
 
 4. The Founding of the League of the Iroquois 17 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY MONARCHY 23 
 
 1. The Homeric Assembly 24 
 
 2. The King's Palace 29 
 
 3. Generous Alcinous 36 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 41 
 
 1. The Feast 42 
 
 2. A Schoolboy in Athens 51 
 
 3. The Trial 57 
 
 4. The Funeral Speech of Pericles 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE , 69 
 
 1. The Triumph of Titus , 70 
 
 2. The Martyrdom of Lawrence 82 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ICELAND; THE NEIGHBORHOOD THING AND THE ALL-THING 93 
 
 1. Gunnar and Hallgerda 95 
 
 2. Hallgerda Steals Cheese and Butter 101 
 
 3. The Lawsuit 106 
 
 4. The Death of Gunnar 109 
 
 xv 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 114 
 
 1. Richard Coeur de Lion 117 
 
 2. Leofric and Godiva 125 
 
 3. Robin Hood and the Butchers' Gild 133 
 
 4. The Shire Meeting . . . 140 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 146 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 161 
 
 1. The Puritans in England 161 
 
 2. Holland 167 
 
 3. The Arrival in America 172 
 
 4. The Indians 175 
 
 5. The Pilgrims Give up Communism 184 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 190 
 
 1. A New England Village in 1775 . . 190 
 
 2. The First Years of the Revolutionary War 201 
 
 3. A Stagecoach Journey 205 
 
 4. The Yorktown Campaign . / 209 
 
 5. The Northwest Territory 215 
 
 6. The Federal Constitution 221 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 AMERICA TO-DAY 227 
 
 1. The Winning of the West . . . 227 
 
 2. The Home Life of Theodore Roosevelt 233 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 243 
 
 1. Washington A Visit to the White House 243 
 
 2. The Capitol . 251 
 
 3. The Government Departments 257 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PAGE 
 STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 263 
 
 1. A Visit to a State Capitol 263 
 
 2. A State University .269 
 
 3. A County Court House 277 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CITY GOVERNMENT 286 
 
 1. A Visit to New York City 286 
 
 2. The City Hall 296 
 
 3. The Work of City Government 298 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 306 
 
 1. John and Lucy 306 
 
 2. The Past and the Future . .316 
 
THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 1. AT-O-TAR-HO, THE HEAD CHIEF AND WIZARD 
 
 2. THE JOURNEY OF HI-A-WA-THA 
 
 3. THE MEETING OF THE CHIEFS 
 
 4. THE FOUNDING OF THE LEAGUE OF THE IROQUOIS 
 
 While we are reading the story of democracy, we must 
 make great imaginary journeys. To picture the very 
 beginnings and the growth of government, we must let 
 our thoughts go back through hundreds and thousands 
 of years and move from one distant period to another as 
 quickly as the wish comes to us. We must imagine, too, 
 that we can see the life of whole peoples and countries 
 stretched out before us like a map. 
 
 We first travel back over five thousand years to the 
 time when our ancestors were savage tribesmen roaming 
 westward across Europe. 
 
 The sky opens and we see the whole continent of Europe 
 lying beneath us. It is covered with unending forests 
 and vast stretches of waste land, edged with the shining 
 silver of water. The dark, gloomy forests are drenched 
 with rain, and grey mists hang over the tree tops. 
 
 Dimly we see below us, scattered through the forests, 
 little villages of miserable huts where tribes of wild hunters 
 
 1 
 
2 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 are moving to and fro. Because these half -savage creatures 
 are our own forefathers of the distant past, we wish to 
 see them more clearly, and in thought we sink down 
 through space until we are close to the surface of the 
 earth. 
 
 A shaft of light breaks through the mist and our eyes 
 follow it as it pierces the gloom of the forest. It shows 
 us a savage hunter at work, sitting under a tree. He 
 is cutting up a deer and ripping the skin with a stone 
 knife. A fly buzzing around him torments him; he 
 grunts, and his scalp twitches like the skin of an animal. 
 While he is working, a woman takes a prepared skin 
 and begins to sew it into a rude garment, using a little 
 piece of polished bone as a needle. There is afire burning 
 near her, on which food is being cooked. Around the 
 fire lie a jew rough pots, and tools made of stones care- 
 fully chipped and edged. But it is only for a moment 
 that we are able to see these objects clearly. The ray of 
 light dies out, and the mist of the past once more lies 
 before our eyes, blotting out the life below us. We can 
 only imagine very dimly and vaguely how our ancestors 
 lived in their tribal villages, and what were their habits 
 and customs. 
 
 But though we cannot see them clearly, because of our 
 ignorance, we can find out more about the life of other 
 savage tribes, whose habits were much the same as theirs. 
 As quickly as this thought occurs to us, we come back 
 over the centuries, and move across the Atlantic Ocean, 
 reaching the continent of America when it was inhabited 
 only by Indians, 
 
[N. American Indian method of 
 mounting] 
 
 Axe-hammers 
 
 of* polished sisme. 
 
 T. H. 
 
 TOOLS AND WEAPONS SUCH AS WERE USED BY OUR ANCESTORS AND 
 BY THE INDIANS 
 
THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Far inland there are great bare prairies, over which 
 herds of buffalo are slowly drifting, cropping the dry 
 grass. Between the prairie and the ocean lie hundreds 
 of miles of wild green forest land, broken by rivers and 
 lakes that mirror the sky. Gazing down through bright 
 
 
 STORY-TELLING IN THE HUT 
 
 patches of sunlight between black thunder clouds we 
 see here and there the villages of the Indians. These 
 little clusters of huts are like the villages of our tribesmen 
 ancestors, and as we watch the Indians hunting in the 
 woods, we can see that they also are using stone hatchets 
 and stone arrowheads. 
 
 The sun sets, and the sky with its great red clouds shines, 
 then darkens. Indian squaws come in from the corn- 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT S 
 
 fields, and a band of warriors return from the woods. 
 Soon the people gather together in the biggest hut of the 
 village. They feast on beaver meat and green corn, then 
 they lie in a great circle around the fire, roasting wild 
 fruits and nuts. 
 
 Now an old Indian begins to pace up and down the 
 hut. He talks, almost sings, in short sentences that rise 
 and fall suddenly. He is telling the story of Hi-a-wa-tha, 
 the Iroquois chief who founded the Great Peace, or Great 
 League of the Iroquois. 1 
 
 AT-O-TAR-HO, THE HEAD CHIEF, MURDERER, 
 AND WIZARD 
 
 Before the Great Peace of the Five Nations was 
 made, hatchets were crossed, and men were killing 
 each other. The Five Nations of the Iroquois, the 
 Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, 
 and the Senecas, were hated by all the other tribes of 
 Natural Man. 
 
 But an Onondaga chief named Hi-a-wa-tha began to 
 work for the good of his people. He was weary of 
 
 1 This story is built up from a legend taken down by J. N. B. Hewitt 
 in the original Onondaga-Iroquoian language from the dictation of 
 Ska-na-wa-ti (John Buck), chief and firekeeper of the Reserve of the 
 Six Nations, Ontario, Canada, in the year 1888. It has no connection 
 with the story of Hiawatha as told by Longfellow. Longfellow follows a 
 collection of legends edited by Schoolcraft, in which Schoolcraft confuses 
 the story of Hiawatha with the legends of Manabozho, an Ojibway 
 divinity. The real Hiawatha was an Iroquoian lawgiver, who helped to 
 found the League of the Iroquois, probably in the year 1459. 
 
6 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 fighting and killing and burning and torturing, and 
 disgusted with it all. He sat down on a log with his 
 head bent low, thinking, and gathered his thoughts 
 into a great pile. He said to himself: 
 
 "Now then, we will gather all the causes of war 
 into a bundle and throw them away from the earth. 
 We will make a Great Peace between the Five Na- 
 tions of the Iroquois. The Great Peace will grow 
 like a pine tree, and we will rest in the shadow of its 
 leaves, because their shadow will be pleasant and beau- 
 tiful. Other nations also, when they see the Great 
 Peace, will like it and desire it, so that at last all the 
 nations of Natural Man will live together in peace and 
 happiness, undisturbed by the shedding of blood." 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha wished to talk over this matter with 
 his people at a council fire, but though the Onondagas 
 unbanked many council fires, they failed utterly to do 
 any business. At-o-tar-ho, the old head chief, murderer 
 and witch doctor, brought all their plans to nothing. 
 
 At-o-tar-ho was the enemy of Hi-a-wa-tha, and had 
 killed the two sons of Hi-a-wa-tha. The Onondagas 
 lived in terror of him because he was a great war chief 
 and witch doctor, but the truth was that he had gone 
 quite mad. His name means "the Entangled." He 
 was crazy. He put living snakes into his hair, and a 
 big serpent was twisted around his naked body. 
 
 The people said to Hi-a-wa-tha: "If we make At-o- 
 tar-ho angry, and he flies into a temper, he will work 
 all kinds of horrible spells upon us. You speak to him 
 privately." 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 7 
 
 "I cannot speak to him privately," said Hi-a-wa-tha. 
 "He hates me and is my enemy." 
 
 So Hi-a-wa-tha sent his messengers running through 
 all the villages of the Onondagas, calling all the people 
 to a council fire. The people came together paddling 
 their canoes along the creeks from all parts. The old 
 men came, the warriors, and the women. The women 
 brought with them their children. The lake of the 
 Onondagas was filled with canoes bumping into each 
 other, so great was the crowd of the people. 
 
 But At-o-tar-ho came to the chosen place of meeting 
 before all the others. He sat down facing the lake. 
 There he sat. He wished to frighten the poor fools in 
 some way and prevent the council-meeting. Suddenly 
 he saw a big black thunder cloud rising up over the lake, 
 and it was a stroke of luck for him. He shouted out in 
 a loud voice: 
 
 "Now then, hasten. Hurry, or you will all soon be 
 destroyed. See, a wind is coming. I prayed for it. A 
 great storm is going to burst. It is my medicine, and 
 it will cause you all to be drowned." 
 
 The people looked up and saw the black cloud hang- 
 ing over them, and a hurricane of wind arose. The 
 lake began to boil with white waves. The people all 
 believed in black magic, and they grew very nervous 
 and timid. The men paddled too fast in their excite- 
 ment, the women trembled, and the little children 
 jumped about and screamed in terror at the pitching 
 and tossing of the boats. Many of those who had not 
 landed upset their canoes and were drowned. The rest 
 
8 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 returned in a panic to their villages, with their hair 
 standing on end, and saying that the storm had been 
 caused by the powerful medicine of At-o-tar-ho. The 
 chiefs turned pale and said to themselves: 
 
 "At-o-tar-ho is in a bad temper. Again he has 
 defeated our plans." 
 
 By and by Hi-a-wa-tha appointed another place 
 and another time for a council. 
 
 When the time had come for the meeting, a great 
 crowd of people met together at the chosen place, and 
 they set up little huts to sleep in, for the council fire 
 was to burn for many days. Hi-a-wa-tha came to the 
 meeting with his daughter, a beautiful young red 
 squaw, the only child that was left to him. When the 
 women began to gather wood for their fires, the daugh- 
 ter of Hi-a-wa-tha went into the forest with them. 
 As she was coming out of the forest, laden with wood, 
 At-o-tar-ho appeared, and looked at her. But she 
 would have nothing at all to do with him, and this 
 drove him wild, mad as he was. 
 
 "Now then, look up," he shouted in a loud voice. 
 All eyes now looked up, and the people gazed with 
 curiosity at a strange and beautiful bird that was flying 
 down, to the place where Hi-a-wa-tha's daughter was 
 gathering wood. At-o-tar-ho told one of his men to 
 shoot at the bird with an arrow, and the bird fell. 
 The people all ran together towards it, and in the 
 stampede and confusion, At-o-tar-ho's spies threw down 
 the daughter of Hi-a-wa-tha and trampled on her. 
 She lay still, and blood came out of her mouth. Then 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 9 
 
 her face became twisted, and she was dead. The 
 people around her jumped up and cried, but she re- 
 mained dead. 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha in his great sorrow cried out, "It 
 has gone badly with me; all my children are now gone 
 from me. They have been destroyed by At-o-tar-ho, 
 and he has defeated my plans." 
 
 Again, in their fear, the people left the place of coun- 
 cil. Hi-a-wa-tha seated himself on the ground, and 
 wrapped his head in a cloak of skins. After a long time, 
 he rose up and said: 
 
 " My children are gone from me now and I am lonely 
 here. I must go abroad among other peoples. I will 
 start now. I will split-the-sky." (He meant that he 
 would go south.) 
 
 THE JOURNEY OF HI-A-WA-THA 
 
 And so Hi-a-wa-tha set out on his journey. He 
 went into the forest, and going directly south, he 
 crossed the Onondaga Mountain. As he traveled he 
 came to a lake and saw a flock of ducks floating on the 
 water. The ducks, quacking loudly, rose from the 
 water and flew across to the opposite shore of the lake. 
 All animals were brothers to Hi-a-wa-tha, and he 
 thought the ducks were talking to him in their magic 
 language. He cried out to them, "You floating boats, 
 what are you saying to me?" He followed the ducks, 
 and began to dig in the mud of the lake shore. There he 
 found a store of little bright-colored shells, which took 
 
10 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 his fancy. 1 "These little things are very beautiful," 
 he said to himself, "and they must be magic since I 
 found them with the help of the ducks." So he put 
 them in his bag. 
 
 Now he built for himself a white canoe of birch bark, 
 and followed a river towards the rising sun. Early 
 one morning he reached a village of the Mohawks 
 and went into the long-house where Dek-a-na-wi-dah, 
 one of the chiefs of the Mohawks, lived with his seven 
 brothers and his sisters and their families. The long- 
 house was made of poles covered with bark. All these 
 Indians lived in large family parties, and though there 
 was some disputing among the women, and a good deal 
 of squabbling among the children, yet it was a lively, 
 companionable sort of life, and it seemed very natural 
 in those days. 
 
 Dek-a-na-wi-dah, the man of the long-house, came 
 out and said to Hi-a-wa-tha: "My poor younger 
 brother, Hi-a-wa-tha, what bad thing has happened 
 to you, that you, a great chief, should have to travel 
 and run like this?" 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha said : "At-o-tar-ho is mad. He is angry 
 and crazy. He destroyed my three children, and then 
 I came away, for I was troubled. I split-the-sky in my 
 journey." 
 
 Dek-a-na-wi-dah said kindly to Hi-a-wa-tha, "Now 
 then, you must stay here. You must live in this 
 house, and everything we have will be yours also." 
 
 1 Little shells, called wampum, were considered very precious by the 
 Indians. 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 11 
 
 In the house there were long couches built around the 
 walls, where the many relations of Dek-a-na-wi-dah 
 spread their mats of skins. Along the middle of the 
 hut from one end to 
 the other there were 
 seven fires, and each 
 fire was used by two 
 families. Dek-a-na- 
 wi-dah took in Hi-a- 
 wa-tha, spread a mat 
 for him, and let him 
 lie down, for he was 
 tired out. Then he 
 set a wooden bowl of 
 delicious beaver meat 
 before him, saying, 
 "If you are hungry, 
 here is meat for you, 
 which you may eat 
 if you like." 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha told 
 Dek-a-na-wi-dah that 
 he was weary of killing and fighting, and disgusted with 
 it all, and that he wanted to make a Great Peace be- 
 tween the five nations of the Iroquois. So Dek-a-na-wi- 
 dah called a council of the Mohawks, and the chiefs 
 talked over the matter for several days. They said, yes, 
 they were willing to join in a Great Peace, but only if 
 all the other nations of the Iroquois would join too. 
 Messengers were sent running to the Oneidas, the 
 
 A CHIEF WEARING THE HORNS OF POWER 
 
 These were the sign of his position. 
 
12 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Cayugas, and the Senecas, and after the passing of 
 several winters, all these nations gave their consent to 
 the plan. Their chiefs came to visit Dek-a-na-wi-dah, 
 and took counsel with him. In the end, at a council- 
 meeting, Dek-a-na-wi-dah asked Hi-a-wa-tha: 
 
 "Have you anything that might help us in our 
 work?" 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha lifted up his finger and said, "Aha, I 
 have some very precious magic shells. We must con- 
 quer At-o-tar-ho's medicine with stronger medicine 
 of our own." And he brought out his wampum strings. 
 He had thirteen strings of white wampum hung on a 
 pole. Each string, so he explained, was a thought, or 
 matter, concerning the Great Peace. He gave the 
 Thirteen Thoughts to the chiefs. They gazed at this 
 wealth of wampum and were greatly pleased over it, 
 saying, "Ah, we will use these Thirteen Thoughts in 
 our work. They will be of great help to us." 
 
 Then Dek-a-na-wi-dah said: "Now then, it remains 
 for us to visit At-o-tar-ho, for the Onondagas must be 
 persuaded to join in the Great Peace. A Great Peace is 
 of no use unless everyone joins in; that is clear. First, 
 we must cure At-o-tar-ho of his madness. His mind is 
 crazy and twisted. We must straighten out his mind, so 
 that he may have again the mind of a human being." 
 
 The chiefs took counsel together, and Hi-a-wa-tha 
 warned them that if they wished At-o-tar-ho to join 
 in the Great Peace, they must offer to make him the 
 head chief of the league, and the Onondagas the leading 
 nation. "At-o-tar-ho is a very masterful man," said 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 13 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha, "and he will never join in a Great Peace 
 unless he can be the head of it." 
 
 "Well, if there is nothing else to be done/' said the 
 chiefs, who were one and all afraid of a madman, "let 
 us decide to do this." 
 
 When this had been decided, Dek-a-na-wi-dah 
 asked, "Who will come with me to seek the smoke of 
 At-o-tar-ho?" 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha said, "I will come," and one of the 
 Oneida chiefs said, "I place myself like a great tree 
 trunk in the path of Dek-a-na-wi-dah, so that what- 
 ever he intends to do, he will find me in his path, 
 lying there, so that he must take me with him on his 
 journey." 
 
 No one else spoke, and so the three chiefs started 
 off on their journey to the mountain of the Onondagas. 
 
 After a long journey, they came to a village and saw 
 smoke rising like a pillar to the sky. Hi-a-wa-tha said 
 to his companions, "We are now at our journey's 
 end, for that smoke is the smoke of At-o-tar-ho's long- 
 house." 
 
 The three men went towards the house, and upon 
 entering the door they asked the people who were 
 gathered there if they might speak with At-o-tar-ho. 
 The people in amazement put their fingers to their 
 lips and whispered, "tch, tch, tch" meaning that the 
 visitors should be silent, for no one was allowed to 
 speak. Then they pointed towards At-o-tar-ho. The 
 three chiefs looked, and at first they saw nothing but 
 darkness in the long-house. Then they were struck 
 
14 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 dumb by the sight of At-o-tar-ho, for he hardly seemed 
 a man. His madness had grown on him, and he looked 
 like a beast. His head was bent low, like the head of a 
 bull buffalo, and his eyes were rolling. The nails of his 
 fingers were long like the claws of a turtle, and the nails 
 of his toes were like bear's claws. There were snakes 
 entangling his hair, and a big serpent was twisted round 
 his naked body. 
 
 The sight of him was so horrifying that the chiefs 
 quickly left the house, saying, "At-o-tar-ho is not hu- 
 man. He is a wizard and bestial." 
 
 When they were outside, they wondered how they 
 could deal with him. Dek-a-na-wi-dah thought over 
 the matter and said: "We must straighten out his 
 mind, so that he may have again the mind of a 
 human being. Perhaps the sound of our voices sing- 
 ing old songs will cure his madness. Let us prepare 
 a council fire and sing the old song that is called 
 At-the-Wood's-Edgc." 
 
 THE MEETING OF THE CHIEFS 
 
 So the three chiefs walked a little distance from 
 At-o-tar-ho's house, to the edge of the forest, and there 
 they kindled a council fire and sang the song that was 
 sung when chiefs visited each other: 
 
 Here we shall kindle a council fire, 
 Here at the wood's edge. 
 Here we shall comfort each other 
 With very few words. 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 15 
 
 We still see their footprints, 
 Those of our forefathers, and even now 
 Almost might the smoke have been seen 
 Where together we smoked. 
 
 When they had sung this, they returned to At-o- 
 tar-ho's house, and the people who were standing at 
 the door said that a change had come over At-o- 
 tar-ho's face when he heard the singing. It became 
 untwisted. 
 
 So the three chiefs plucked up courage and again 
 entered the long-house. The people whispered, "tch, 
 tch, tch," to silence them, but Dek-a-na-wi-dah went 
 forward carrying the wampum pole, and saying: 
 
 "We are here now, looking for At-o-tar-ho, and 
 bringing with us Thirteen Thoughts, that we wish to 
 give him." 
 
 Then Dek-a-na-wi-dah sang an old song of greeting 
 which was called the Six Songs: 
 
 The war chiefs, I come to greet them again, 
 
 The body of warriors, I come to greet them again, 
 
 The body of women, I come to greet them again, 
 
 And the little children that are running around, 
 
 Also the little ones that are creeping on the ground, 
 
 And those that are tied to the cradle-boards, 
 
 I come to greet them again. 
 
 At-o-tar-ho seemed to listen to this song, and even 
 raised his head. Dek-a-na-wi-dah cried out loudly, 
 "We are looking for At-o-tar-ho, the real mind of 
 At-o-tar-ho! The mind that is now in his body is not 
 the mind of a human being/' 
 
16 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 At the sound of his name called out, At-o-tar-ho 
 shuddered and his eyes turned white and empty. 
 
 Dek-a-na-wi-dah went up and stood very close to 
 him, saying, "We wish to remake and straighten out 
 your mind; and your body, too, we should like to make 
 it natural." 
 
 Passing his hands over At-o-tar-ho's feet, Dek-a- 
 na-wi-dah cut off the long toenails. Then he gave 
 At-o-tar-ho a string of wampum, which seemed to 
 please him. Passing his hands over At-o-tar-ho's 
 hands, he cut off the long finger nails. Then he said, 
 "Your head shall be like that of a human being," and 
 he killed the snakes that entangled At-o-tar-ho's hair. 
 "One thing remains," he cried, "and that is to kill 
 the serpent that is twisted round your body, the root 
 of your madness," and he cut off the big serpent. As 
 he did these things, Dek-a-na-wi-dah gave strings of 
 wampum to At-o-tar-ho, until he had given him the 
 thirteen strings which were Hi-a-wa-tha's Thirteen 
 Thoughts concerning the Great Peace. After this he 
 made signs as if he were washing the couch on which 
 At-o-tar-ho was sitting, and he sang: 
 
 Every day you are losing your men, 
 The warriors, the women and the children, 
 So that in the midst of blood you are sitting. 
 Let us wash off the blood marks from your seat. 
 
 Slowly the face of At-o-tar-ho became untwisted, he 
 sat upright and it was clear that a change had come 
 over him. He looked once more like a human being. 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 17 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF THE LEAGUE OF THE IROQUOIS 
 
 Then Dek-a-na-wi-dah called to Hi-a-wa-tha and 
 the Oneida chief, and the three chiefs sat with At-o-tar- 
 ho. They gathered their thoughts into a big heap of 
 thought-stuff, and laid the heap in front of At-o-tar-ho. 
 Hi-a-wa-tha said: 
 
 " Now then, 1 are there not nights when there is danger 
 that one man may kill another, and so cause warfare 
 between nations? It is this matter of killing and 
 shedding blood that we must set right, so that all the 
 nations of Natural Man on the earth may live together 
 in peace, undisturbed by the shedding of blood. 
 
 "Now then, when a man has been killed, the body 
 should be hidden away among fallen trees. If a dead 
 body is left out so that all our people can see it, they 
 will be surprised and startled; and they will ask what 
 has happened, and they will keep on asking until they 
 have found out. And they will at once be upset and 
 disturbed in mind. Perhaps they will get excited and 
 go out on the warpath. To prevent this trouble, when 
 a dead body is found, it should be hidden away. And 
 when this has been done, we should choose some 
 men as mourners for the tribe. These men will go to 
 the house of the dead man's relations carrying presents 
 of wampum some short strings. These men will 
 enter the house, stand by the fire, and speak a few 
 words of comfort to the relations of the dead man. 
 When the relations have received presents of wampum, 
 
 1<< Now then" is a common introductory expression in Indian speeches. 
 
18 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 they will feel comforted. They will not think of revenge 
 any more, but will go on quietly as if nothing had hap- 
 pened. We should give twenty presents for a dead man, 
 and more for a woman, because women are helpless. In 
 this way, by comforting the relatives of the injured, we 
 shall gather up the causes of war and throw them away. 
 
 "Now then, when we have done this, we must make 
 a Great Peace, or a Great League, between the nations 
 of the Iroquois, and a council fire will be lit which will 
 be the council fire of the Great Peace. 
 
 'The five nations of the Iroquois will form them- 
 selves into one body. They will take one another by 
 the hands and arms, they will have their minds in one 
 place, and they will have but one head, one tongue, and 
 one blood in their bodies. They will live together in 
 peace. Council fires will be lit for other nations also 
 for the Cherokees, the Hurons, and the Wyandots 
 for all the people of the earth. In the end all the na- 
 tions of Natural Man will live together in peace and 
 happiness, undisturbed by the shedding of blood. 
 
 " We will gather up the causes of war and tie them 
 into a bundle. Then we will uproot a tall pine tree, 
 making a very deep hole in the earth, and at the bottom 
 of this hole there will be a swift underground current of 
 water. Into the current we will throw all the causes of 
 war. And when we have done this, we will set back 
 the great tall pine tree in its place. 
 
 "The pine tree will grow and grow, and it will be the 
 Great Peace. We will rest in the shadow of its leaves, 
 because their shadow will be pleasant and beautiful. All 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 19 
 
 the nations will look at 
 the Great Peace, and 
 they will like it and 
 desire it. Never again 
 shall we have to live 
 in fear. 
 
 "The great tree will 
 put forth a Great 
 White Root, going to- 
 wards the sunrising 
 and the sunsetting, 
 and splitting-the-sky. 
 This Great White 
 Root will be the law 
 of Natural Man. It 
 may be that after the 
 passing of time, some 
 man may come who 
 will see this root, and 
 then lift his hatchet 
 and strike at it. If he 
 does that, blood will 
 flow from the root 
 and we shall all feel 
 it. We shall know 
 that the man who has 
 struck his hatchet 
 into the Root does not 
 
 SPECIMENS OF AMERICAN INDIAN PICTURE- 
 WRITING (after Schoolcraft) 
 
 No. 1, painted on a rock on the shore 
 of Lake Superior, records an expedition 
 across the lake, in which five canoes took 
 part. The upright strokes in each indi- 
 cate the number of the crew, and the bird 
 represents a chief, " The Kingfisher." 
 The three circles (suns) under the arch (of 
 heaven) indicate that the voyage lasted 
 three days, and the tortoise, a symbol of 
 land, denotes a safe arrival. No. 2 is a 
 petition sent to the United States Con- 
 gress by a group of Indian tribes, asking 
 for fishing rights in certain small lakes. 
 The tribes are represented by their to- 
 tems, martens, bear, manfish, and cat- 
 fish, led by the crane. Lines running from 
 the heart and eye of each animal to the 
 heart and eye of the crane denote that 
 they are all of one mind; and a line runs 
 from the eye of the crane to the lakes, 
 shown in the crude little "map" in the 
 lower left-hand corner. 
 
 1 Picture and legend from page 225 of The Outline of History by 
 H. G. Wells; The Macmillan Company. 
 
20 THE STORY OP DEMOCRACY 
 
 desire to receive the Great Law. We will look and see 
 the back of this evil man as he runs away, and before 
 he has gone very far, some bad thing will happen to him. 
 There is no doubt about that. 
 
 "There must be only one blood in us. If one of us has 
 to bleed on account of some deed, it must happen to all 
 alike, we must all likewise bleed. This is a part of our 
 Great Law. Again we must share the animals on which 
 we need to live. This is another part of the Great Law. 1 
 
 "The Great Law and the Great Peace will be upheld 
 by the chiefs, and the chiefs will wear their horns. 
 Each nation of the Iroquois will send a number of 
 chiefs to sit round the council fire of the Great Peace. 
 The Mohawks will send nine chiefs; the Oneidas, nine; 
 the Cayugas, ten; the Senecas, eight; and the Onon- 
 dagas, fourteen. The head chief of the Onondagas, 
 At-o-tar-ho, will be the fire keeper. When the chiefs 
 are wearing their horns, they will be different from 
 other men, so that people can say, 'These are chiefs.' 
 
 "Now then, this will be the roll call of the chiefs of 
 the Great Peace: 2 
 
 1 The hunting grounds of an Iroquois tribe were shared equally by all 
 the warriors, and the cornfields which belonged to the tribe as a whole 
 were cultivated by the women as a group. 
 
 2 The Great League of the Iroquois did not bring universal peace 
 among all the Indians, as its founder hoped. However, for three hundred 
 years it bound together the tribes of the Iroquois in perfect friendship, 
 making them far stronger than any other tribes because of their united 
 government. Some treaties of peace were made with other tribes, but 
 after the coming of the white man, the Indians fought bitterly among them- 
 selves; and the League of the Iroquois, by its very strength and union, was 
 a terrible instrument of war, dealing death anc* destruction to its enemies. 
 
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 21 
 
 Hail, hail, hail, hail! Now listen, 
 
 You who completed the work. Hail, hail, 
 
 The Great Peace! 
 
 Now then, 
 
 You who are rulers, 
 
 You, At-o-tar-ho, 
 
 Continue to listen; 
 
 And you, Dek-a-na-wi-dah, 
 
 Continue to listen, 
 
 Hail, hail, 
 
 You who are rulers; 
 
 And you, Hai-yo-went-ha, [Hi-a-wa-tha] 
 
 Continue to listen, 
 
 You who are ruler; [and so on till all the chiefs are 
 
 named] 
 
 That is the roll of you, 
 You who were joined in the work, 
 You who completed the Great Peace, 
 Continue to listen." 
 
 The story is ended. The hunters grunt approval, then 
 they yawn, and lie down to sleep on their low couches, 
 wrapping themselves in skins. The fire has sunk very 
 low. We pass out into the night and move eastward. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: At-o-tar-ho represents the barbarism 
 of the past; Hi-a-wa-tha is a forerunner of civilization. Tell why 
 each of these statements is true. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. What are the chief differences between our life of to-day 
 and the life of savages? 
 
 2. What incidents in the first part of the story illustrate the 
 lack of law and order among the Indians? 
 
22 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 3. What would happen nowadays to a man who acted like 
 At-o-tar-ho ? 
 
 4. What was the difference of attitude between At-o-tar-ho 
 and Hi-a-wa-tha as chiefs of the tribe? 
 
 5. Who attended the council fires of the Onondagas ? 
 
 6. How was an Iroquois long-house built? 
 
 7. How did the family of Dek-a-na-wi-dah live? 
 
 8. Explain why there were no poor men or rich men among 
 the Indians. 
 
 9. How did Hi-a-wa-tha propose to put an end to warfare? 
 
 10. What reform did Hi-a-wa-tha suggest in regard to murder? 
 What is done nowadays when a murder has been committed? 
 
 11. Repeat sayings of Hi-a-wa-tha which reveal a spirit of 
 good fellowship and democracy. 
 
 12. Tell anything you have read about the Indian tribes 
 mentioned that will show whether they made any attempt to 
 carry out Hi-a-wa-tha's plan. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY MONARCHY 
 
 1. THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY 
 
 2. THE KING'S PALACE 
 
 3. GENEROUS ALCINOUS 
 
 At sunrise we come to a little island, lying like a shin- 
 ing jewel in the mist of the blue sea beneath us. It is one 
 of the islands of Greece, in the Mediterranean, and we 
 are seeing it as the poet Homer described it ten centuries 
 before Christ, or almost three thousand years ago. 
 
 Near the seashore there is a harbor filled with ships, 
 and a little town with a market place. In the market the 
 islanders are exchanging raw wool and weapons of 
 bronze for purple dyes and bars of silver which seafaring 
 men have brought from foreign countries. Sometimes a 
 Greek puts down a bar of solid gold as payment for a 
 heavy weight of silver. 
 
 Outside the little town, not very far away, there is a big 
 palace surrounded with gardens and beautiful orchards. 
 Here the king of the island dwells. Evidently the king is 
 a rich man compared with the rest of the people. Beyond 
 the kings palace lie fields of black earth, cultivated with 
 ox-driven ploughs, and beyond the fields are green pastures 
 where great herds of cattle, sheep, and swine are browsing. 
 
 This life that Homer described is sometimes called the 
 Age of Bronze. The great races of Europe from which 
 
 '23 
 
24 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the people of America are descended the Germanic tribes, 
 the Irish, the Romans, the Greeks all passed at one time 
 or another through a stage of early civilization which we may 
 call the Age of Bronze, and a stage of government which we 
 may call early monarchy, or kingship, the rule of one man. 
 
 THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY 
 
 A boy named Dicon, the son of a bronzesmith, lived 
 in a little Greek island town ruled over by a king who 
 was always called by his subjects "Generous Alcinous." 
 
 Dicon's father, Strato, was a farmer as well as a 
 bronzesmith. He had orchards and grainfields of his 
 own, and also herds of cattle and goats grazing on 
 those rough pastures of the island that were open 
 land and free to all. But Strato the bronzesmith, 
 whenever he could, left his farm work and labored in 
 his smithy, for he was a great craftsman. 
 
 One morning, Dicon went into the smithy to watch 
 his father make a shield. 
 
 Strato was a big, strong man with tawny hair that 
 clustered around his head in tight curls, like the blos- 
 soms of the hyacinth. He was standing in the fiery 
 blast of the furnace, stripped to the waist, and sweat- 
 ing. First he blew on the fire with his blower to make 
 it blaze up, then he threw some bronze into the melting 
 pot. When the bronze was red-hot and soft, he pulled 
 it out with a pair of tongs, placed it on the anvil, 
 and began to hammer with a mighty hammer, till the 
 sparks flew round him in a whirling circle. 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 
 
 25 
 
 While this great hammering was going on, Dicon 
 heard his mother, Heliodora, calling out aloud to him. 
 He ran into the house, and she said: "The King's 
 heralds have been going through the streets calling 
 all the people to 
 the Assembly. 
 A Stranger has 
 come to the is- 
 land, and King 
 Alcinous wishes 
 to give him a ship, 
 so that he may 
 sail back in safety 
 to his own coun- 
 try. When the 
 heralds passed by 
 this house, they 
 entered, bringing 
 a message. They 
 said the generous 
 King desired al- 
 so to make the 
 Stranger a present of a bronze tripod, and that he bade 
 your father bring one to the palace." 
 
 A tripod was a big bronze pot with three legs, used 
 for heating water over a fire, and Strato had many 
 richly carved tripods lying in his smithy. 
 
 "One of the heralds," Heliodora went on, "remained 
 and spoke a few words with me, telling me all that is 
 known about the Stranger at the palace, and how he met 
 
 THE BRONZESMITH 
 
26 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the young Princess Nausicaa. Yesterday morning, the 
 young Princess rode down in her mule wagon to wash 
 clothes at the place where the river meets the sea. 
 When she and her maidens had finished their work 
 of treading and wringing the linen, they spread it out 
 on the shore where the waves had washed the pebbles 
 cleanest, and left it to bleach in the hot sun. Then 
 they ate some cakes and began to play ball together. 
 The young Princess threw a ball to one of her hand- 
 maidens, but it went wide, and missed her, and fell 
 into a deep eddy of the river. Whereat the girls broke 
 out into a shrill cry. A moment later they screamed 
 yet again, still more startled, because they saw a wild- 
 looking man, clad in nothing but leaves and clotted 
 seaweed, creeping out toward them from a bushy 
 thicket. All the maidens ran away except the noble 
 young Princess, who remained bravely to meet the 
 Stranger and talk with him. She learned that he had 
 suffered shipwreck and had been thrown up by the 
 waves on the shore of the island. So she spoke to him 
 kindly, offered him food and clothing, and welcomed 
 him to the palace. It is true that they did not return 
 together to the town, and yet it is in everyone's mouth 
 that the proud Princess has found a husband at last. 
 No one knows the Stranger's name, but all think from 
 his looks, so tall and gay, that he must be some great 
 hero or chieftain." 
 
 Now Heliodora filled a golden pitcher with olive oil. 
 Then she slung the bath cauldron over the fire, filled 
 it with fair water, and kindled logs to make the water 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 27 
 
 hot. While the flames were curling about the bellied 
 pot, and the water was heating, she said: "Quickly, 
 Dicon, beg your father to come into the house and 
 make himself ready for the Assembly. He should wear 
 clothing that is fresh and stainless, and you, too, 
 should put on a clean tunic/' 
 
 So Dicon and his father washed themselves, and then 
 rubbed olive oil over their faces and their bodies, for 
 the Greeks imagined that they looked more beautiful 
 when their skins were glistening with golden oil. 
 Dicon put on a white tunic made of soft, shining wool, 
 threw a cloak over his shoulder, and slipped his bare 
 feet into a pair of sandals. Now he was well-clothed 
 and ready to go out with his father and mother to the 
 market place. 
 
 As they made their way through the streets of the 
 town they could see from afar the blue-purple water 
 of the harbor shining under the deep blue sky, and they 
 could see the great ships that were anchored there- 
 ships with black prows and white sails. When they 
 reached the market place, they found a crowd of 
 people assembled around the King. 
 
 King Alcinous, the Stranger, and twelve chieftains 
 of the island, the King's advisers and counselors, were 
 sitting together on seats of polished stone. King 
 Alcinous, taking his scepter in his hand, rose and 
 thus addressed the Council: 
 
 "A stranger who has suffered shipwreck has come to 
 my palace, asking me for a ship and a safe conduct 
 home. I do not know him; I do not know whether he 
 
28 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 comes from the sunrising or the sunsetting; but it has 
 always been our custom to help any strangers that 
 are driven to our shore. Let us, therefore, give him 
 a ship one of our best ships. Let us choose a crew 
 from among our people fifty-two of our best seamen. 
 When this is done, and when the ship is ready, come 
 all of you to my palace, and I will spread a feast for 
 you. And let the minstrel come also, for there is 
 nothing better than song to gladden the hearts of 
 
 men." 
 
 While he listened to this speech, Strato, the father 
 of Dicon, asked himself, "Will the people be ready to 
 obey the King in all his wishes, or will there be some 
 confusion over the choosing of the fifty-two seamen?" 
 But his thought was answered by a great shout from 
 the people, praising Alcinous for his generosity. One 
 man, however, muttered, "We shall have to pay for 
 this feast. A few days hence there will be a call for 
 tribute, and every one of us will have to bring his 
 fowls and fruits to the king." However, most of the 
 people were ready to obey without a murmur, and the 
 chieftains agreed to choose a ship and a crew of fifty- 
 two seamen. 
 
 Then the crowd began to move toward the palace. 
 They were merry at the prospect of a feast, and all 
 around him Dicon heard more praise of the King's 
 generosity. 
 
 Dicon and his father and mother went back to the 
 smithy to fetch the tripod. They left Heliodora in the 
 house, for it was not the custom for a woman to go to 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 29 
 
 a feast in the King's palace. Young boys might at- 
 tend, however, so Dicon went with his father. On his 
 shoulder Strato bore the heavy bronze tripod, richly 
 ornamented with many beautiful images. 
 
 THE KING'S PALACE 
 
 Together they walked through a stately grove of 
 poplar trees. Presently they came to the King's 
 fair orchard of pear and pomegranate and apple trees 
 laden with shining fruit. Beyond that was a beau- 
 tiful garden, with scattering fountains, blown by 
 the wind, and with bright flower-beds. At the end of 
 the garden they passed through a big gate into the 
 courtyard of the palace, where pigs and geese and chick- 
 ens were running about. Here they saw King Alcinous, 
 himself, unharnessing the horses of his chariot. In 
 those ancient days kings were not ashamed to labor 
 with their hands. They were shepherds and tillers of 
 the soil as well as rulers of the people. 
 
 But if the courtyard was simple and rude, the inside 
 of the palace was splendid. Dicon's eyes opened wide 
 and round with wonder as he entered the great hall 
 where the feast was to be served. It was all gleaming 
 with gold and silver. The walls were of bronze, the 
 doors were of solid gold, beautifully carved, and the 
 ceiling, too, was of shining metal bordered with silver. 
 At that hour the sun was setting, and the slanting rays 
 of red-gold light played upon the sheen of the metals 
 with a glorious blur of richness and splendor. Along 
 
30 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the walls there were rows of silver-studded seats, over 
 which had been thrown soft rugs, woven in bright, 
 pure colors. 
 
 At the far end of the hall, the Queen was standing 
 near her throne. She was clothed in flowing garments 
 that left bare her white arms, and she was weaving 
 threads of dim sea-purple into a great purple web. 
 Near her stood the young Princess, taller than any of 
 her handmaidens, and as beautiful as a goddess in face 
 and form, with bright, shining eyes and hair the color 
 of golden amber. 
 
 "A fair cattle-bringing girl!" said Strato to his son. 
 
 A young girl in those days was called "cattle-bring- 
 ing" when she was old enough to marry. A chief- 
 tain who married a princess was expected to give a 
 large herd of cattle to her father as a payment for 
 his bride. 
 
 In the middle of the hall there was a great open 
 hearth where the meat was roasting, and at first Strato 
 and his son sat down near the ashes of the hearth, for 
 this was the humble place where common folk were 
 accustomed to sit; but when the feast was ready, a 
 slave girl beckoned them to one of the seats by the 
 wall. She set before them a little table of polished 
 wood and this served as a plate as well as a table. 
 Dicon put out his hands, and ate with his fingers a 
 large piece of dripping fat pork and some peas and 
 wheat bread, with an onion for relish. Then he had 
 fruit and nuts and cakes and other dainties, and drank 
 a warm drink made of honey and wine and cheese. 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 
 
 31 
 
 When he had finished the good meal he felt happy, 
 and began to lick his fingers carefully, but his father 
 said, "Wait, remember you are in the King's palace." 
 
 In a few minutes the slave girl brought a pitcher and 
 poured fair water 
 into a beautiful 
 gold basin, so that 
 he might wash his 
 fingers. Then the 
 table was washed 
 by another slave 
 girl. 
 
 When all had 
 eaten and drunk 
 their fill, Dicon 
 heard the sound of 
 a harp, and turned 
 his eyes to where 
 the minstrel was 
 seated. The min- 
 strel had a place 
 of honor near the 
 King and the Stranger, on a high seat. He was an 
 old man, and blind, and the story he sang was from 
 the Iliad, the song of the Trojan War. Every now and 
 again he touched the soft strings of his harp, and the 
 sound of his voice rose and fell like waves, sometimes 
 smooth, sometimes loud and thunderous like the sea 
 in a storm. He told of the siege of Troy and of the 
 great quarrel between King Agamemnon and the chief- 
 
 THE KING 
 
32 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 tain Achilles. In the story of this quarrel it is shown 
 that the Greek heroes were never the slaves of their 
 king. 
 
 THE QUARREL 
 
 Now the Greek warriors were laying siege to the city of Troy. 
 King Agamemnon was the overlord of the Greeks, Achilles was 
 the bravest warrior of all the Greek chieftains, and Patroclus was 
 his dear friend. 
 
 At this time the Greeks had not yet taken the city, but they 
 had captured much booty gold and silver and cattle and women. 
 All the girls who were captured in war were made slaves, and 
 were given to the heroes as part of the spoils. When it came 
 to dividing the spoils, King Agamemnon and Achilles had a 
 bitter quarrel. 
 
 King Agamemnon, the overlord, was obliged to give up the 
 girl who had fallen to his lot, because she had been a priest- 
 ess, serving the gods in a temple before her capture, and the 
 chieftains were afraid that her slavery might be displeasing to 
 the gods. 
 
 So Agamemnon rose up in council with the chieftains, and said: 
 
 "If I must lose my slave girl, I will take in her stead Briseis 
 of the Fair Cheeks, the girl who has fallen to the lot of Achilles." 
 
 This angered Achilles, and the two quarrelled bitterly over the 
 slave girl. In the end, Achilles stood up and flung biting words of 
 abuse at the king: "You drunkard with the eyes of a dog and the 
 heart of a deer, if you do me this wrong, you will be sorry for it 
 some day." 
 
 But Agamemnon was the king, and what he wished was done. 
 Briseis of the Fair Cheeks was led away from the tent of Achilles, 
 and she went sorrowfully, often looking behind her. 
 
 Achilles swore that he would no longer fight for Agamemnon, 
 and from that time on he stayed idle in his tent, sulking. 
 
 The battle of the siege continued bitter and seemingly unend- 
 ing, but the fortune of war now turned against the Greeks. They 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 33 
 
 were driven back over the plain toward the seashore, and they were 
 so hard-pressed that they feared the men of Troy might come 
 even to their tents and finally set fire to their ships. 
 
 Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, watched the deadly struggle, 
 and his heart was moved with pity for his countrymen. He came 
 to Achilles and pleaded with him. He begged him to forget his 
 quarrel with the King and go out and fight, for he believed that 
 the great strength and courage of Achilles would turn the tide 
 of the battle. 
 
 But Achilles would not be persuaded, and Patroclus said in 
 despair, "Achilles, you are without pity. To me you seem so 
 pitiless that I think the grey sea must have been your mother, 
 and a frowning, rocky cliff your father." 
 
 Then Patroclus himself put on the armor of Achilles and went 
 out to fight for the Greeks. On that very first day he was slain, 
 and the shadow of death lay over his body. 
 
 When the news was brought to Achilles a black cloud of grief 
 fell over him, for he loved Patroclus more than any other man. 
 He cried aloud: "Would that I might die, for I sent my friend 
 to his death. Cursed be the anger that causes quarrelling among 
 men and made me quarrel with Agamemnon. I was not there 
 to help my friend, I who am the strongest of all the Greeks. 
 Now let me forget my quarrel, let me go out to battle and avenge 
 Patroclus!" 
 
 So Achilles went now out to battle, shining like the sun; and 
 he fought like a god, pressing hard on the men that he slew until 
 the black earth ran with blood. He raged through the ranks 
 of the enemy like a forest fire on some parched mountainside, 
 whirling his spear like the wind driving the flames. From this 
 time on the tide of the battle was turned, and the victory was 
 to the Greeks. 
 
 So ended the minstrel, and all were silent, lost in 
 wonder. But Dicon's eyes fell upon the Stranger, in 
 whom the song seemed to awaken bitter memories, 
 
ACHILLES IN BATTLE 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 35 
 
 for he caught up his purple cloak, and hid his face 
 behind it, so that others might not see his grief. 
 
 Then the minstrel sang another famous song of 
 Troy, this time the story of subtle-souled Odysseus 
 and the plot of the Wooden Horse. When the Stran- 
 ger heard the praise of glorious Odysseus, his heart 
 melted within him altogether; the tears broke from 
 his eyelids, and stole down his cheeks. 
 
 The princes were calling on the minstrel to sing yet 
 again, but King Alcinous said suddenly, "Let the min- 
 strel cease, for there is one here to whom his song gives 
 no joy, awakening, perhaps, sad memories instead." 
 Then the King turned to the Stranger, and begged 
 him to make himself known. 
 
 'Tell us your name, your land, and your city. Tell 
 us of the many places where your ship has carried you 
 in your wanderings. And tell us, like a brother, why 
 you weep and mourn in spirit when you listen to the 
 great songs of the Trojan War." 
 
 Thereupon the Stranger took up the harp, and 
 sang a loud and beautiful song. First he made known 
 to all that he himself was Odysseus, King of Ithaka, 
 though now fallen so low from his former state. Then 
 he told of his sorrows and misfortunes, and his wan- 
 derings over the barren sea. 
 
 After the fall of Troy, he had set sail homeward, 
 but he had been swept out of his course by terrible 
 winds and driven to one far country after another. 
 He had seen the Land of the Lotus Eaters and 
 the Land of the Winds, he had visited the Cave of 
 
36 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the Giant Cyclops and the Isle of the Witch Circe. 
 Escaping from Circe, the beautiful witch, he had passed 
 by the dangerous rocks called the Rocks Wandering, 
 and had listened to the Song of the Sirens. Then he 
 had steered his course between the great reefs called 
 Scylla and Charybdis, and had reached the Far Isle 
 of the Nymph Calypso. Calypso had sheltered him 
 and loved him; and she had held him, unwilling, in her 
 sway for seven long years. In the eighth year she 
 had given him his freedom. 
 
 For seventeen days and nights he had travelled over 
 the sea-foam on a raft, and then, on the eighteenth 
 day, a great storm had arisen, and a monstrous sobbing 
 wave had dashed him from the raft, and shattered it, 
 and aided by wind and tide, had swept him up to the 
 shore of Alcinous's island. All these adventures he 
 told at length with many beautiful and winged words. 
 
 GENEROUS ALCINOUS 
 
 So ended the singer, and all were silent in the 
 shadowy hall, stock-still like men enchanted. Then 
 Alcinous rose up and spoke: 
 
 " Since you have come to my roof, King Odysseus, 
 no more shall you have to wander and go astray. 
 To-morrow we will give you a ship and a safe-conduct 
 home, and we will land you in Ithaka, your own 
 country." 
 
 Then the King turned to the chieftains of the island 
 and said, "Now that we have shared the feast to- 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 37 
 
 gether, and listened to the harp, let us speak of the 
 gifts that we would give to Odysseus before he 
 leaves us." 
 
 The Queen's maidens brought out a polished chest 
 full of rich garments that the Queen herself had woven, 
 and Odysseus thanked her. King Alcinous called out 
 to Strato to bring forth the tripod, and Odysseus 
 thanked the King and honored Strato with words of 
 praise. 
 
 "Marvellous," he said to Strato, "are the images 
 that you have hammered into the bronze. Truly 
 the deathless gods themselves must have taught you 
 your craft." 
 
 Then Alcinous waved his hand with a generous ges- 
 ture and said to Strato, "Go out into the courtyard 
 and choose from among my herds two oxen and three 
 cows as a reward for your labor." 
 
 So Strato went out into the courtyard while Dicon 
 stayed in the hall, watching the young princes as they 
 stood up to dance, beating time, to the music, on the 
 ground with their feet. One of the young boys took a 
 red ball and flung it almost to the roof, and another, 
 springing up easily, grasped it before he touched the 
 ground again; then they danced awhile, changing places 
 with each other, and those who stood around in a circle 
 applauded and filled the air with noise. As Dicon was 
 waiting there, the King passed by, and Dicon heard him 
 say to the chieftains who were with him, "Let each 
 man here give also a great cauldron and a stand, then 
 by collecting tribute from the people at the Assembly, 
 
38 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 we will repay ourselves, since otherwise the burden 
 that each would have to bear would be too great." 
 
 Dicon wondered whether the people would obey the 
 King, and willingly pay him tribute. But those who 
 
 were present made 
 no complaint. On 
 this island the 
 folk were obedient 
 to their ruler be- 
 cause he was gen- 
 erous and just, 
 and because, with- 
 out him, they 
 would not have 
 known how to 
 keep order among 
 themselves. 
 
 Now Dicon saw 
 Nausicaa, the 
 young Princess, 
 go up to Odys- 
 seus. 
 
 "Farewell," said she sadly, "and when you go home- 
 ward may you remember me, and be mindful that you 
 first owed your welcome to me." 
 
 And subtle-souled Odysseus made answer, "Nausicaa, 
 
 if Zeus allows me to reach Ithaka, then will I always 
 
 pray to you as to the maiden who gave me back my life." 
 
 When the dance was ended, the guests began to 
 
 leave, and Dicon went out into the courtyard, where he 
 
 ODYSSEUS AND NAUSICAA 
 
EARLY MONARCHY 39 
 
 found his father with two oxen and three cows. They 
 walked home together in the moonlight, driving their 
 cattle before them. 
 
 Odysseus, too, passed through the gate of the King's 
 courtyard, and went down to the ship on the seashore. 
 Straightway the seamen hoisted their sails and took 
 their oars, and the ship sped over the sea like a strong 
 sea bird. Odysseus fell into a deep sleep, and at dawn 
 he was brought to his own home, the rugged island of 
 Ithaka. Here he found his kingdom all in riotous dis- 
 order and confusion, for his subjects, like those of 
 Alcinous, needed a strong ruler to keep peace among 
 them. Without a king, they were like silly sheep that 
 had lost their shepherd. But the story of the home- 
 coming of King Odysseus is yet another story, which 
 here we must leave untold. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: In the Age of Bronze, men have not 
 yet learned how to rule themselves, but they are learning the 
 social necessity of law and order, and obedience to authority. 
 One man, the king, is the source of authority, and his palace is 
 the center of social life. What difficulties probably arose if a 
 king was unjust and selfish? 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. Describe the first arts of civilization which men learned 
 in the Age of Bronze. 
 
 2. What part was taken by the King at the Assembly? By 
 the chieftains? By the people? 
 
 3. Where did the bronzesmith and his son sit when they 
 first entered the palace? 
 
40 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 4. Explain how the holding of personal property (in place 
 of having property common to all) would change the relations 
 of a tribal chieftain to his people. 
 
 5. How did King Alcinous pay for the tripod ? 
 
 6. What is the exact meaning of the word ''monarchy" ? 
 
 7. Describe the feast at the palace, and the good and pleas- 
 ing effects of kingly rule at this stage. 
 
 8. Was King Alcinous's kingdom big or small, as compared 
 with the chief nations of to-day? 
 
 9. What might be the disadvantages of monarchy to the poor 
 at this stage of the world's growth ? 
 
 10. Many of our most beautiful fairy stories are very, very old. 
 Though they have been changed in some details to suit modern 
 readers, they date back thousands of years to the early monarchies 
 of the world. Can you remember any fairy stories about kings and 
 queens, or princesses and country boys, which remind you of the 
 conditions described in this story? 
 
 11. Was the method of eating at the time of this story a hygi- 
 enic one ? Give reasons for your opinion. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 
 
 1. THE FEAST 
 
 2. A SCHOOLBOY IN ATHENS 
 
 3. THE TRIAL 
 
 4. THE FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES 
 
 The Age of Bronze, so bright and beautiful as pictured 
 for us in Homer's poems, fades out of our thoughts, and 
 five hundred years pass, during which time the Greek peoples 
 develop their civilization until they have become a model to 
 the rest of the world, in art, in wisdom, and in government. 
 
 We look down over the Greek city-state of Athens as it 
 was in the fifth century before Christ. 
 
 The town is built around a rocky hill rising out of -a 
 plain that slopes back toward a chain of mountains. The 
 mountains are well-watered and covered with woods, and 
 the plain around the city is fertile, with small vineyards, 
 olive groves, and wheat fields belonging to the citizens. 
 
 Within the city walls, crowning the high places, there 
 are great buildings made of dazzling white marble, that 
 turns to rose and orange at sunset. The little dwelling 
 houses below them are plainly built, but these great 
 buildings are grand and beautiful.- They are not palaces 
 for the people of Athens bow down to no king they 
 are public buildings, or state buildings, used freely by all 
 the people and belonging to the citizens as a whole. 
 
 41 
 
42 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The people of Athens now rule themselves ', meeting in 
 great assemblies held for that purpose. Their government 
 is called a democracy, because it is in the hands of the 
 many, not of the few. All the citizens can attend the great 
 Assembly, and any question of government is decided by 
 the opinion of the greatest number of the citizens. Women 
 and slaves, however, are not considered citizens, and do 
 not attend the Assembly. 
 
 Athens has reached the time of its greatest power and pros- 
 perity under the leadership of a democratic statesman called 
 Pericles. The Athenians are devoted to their city and very 
 proud of their government. An Athenian citizen generally 
 spends about one day in four working for his government. 
 
 The state of Athens consists only of one city and the 
 surrounding countryside. It is so small that every citizen 
 is able to attend the Assembly and himself directly vote 
 for or against a new law. And so the Athenian democracy 
 is called a "direct" democracy. To-day we citizens of 
 America, because our country is so large, could not pos- 
 sibly all meet together in one big assembly and hear each 
 other speak. So we vote for special lawmakers, or rep- 
 resentatives, to act for us, or represent us, and it is only 
 the representatives who go to Congress. Therefore our 
 democracy is called a ''representative" democracy. 
 
 THE FEAST 
 
 One evening in the year 430 B. C., a vase painter 
 named Cleandros was walking through the streets of 
 Athens with his wife Theodora and his boy Cleon, on 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 43 
 
 the way to the house of a kinsman. A son had been 
 born to this kinsman, and a family feast was to be 
 held to welcome the newborn child into the tribe. 
 
 The white city, with its pillared temples and flat- 
 roofed dwellings, lay shadowed under the dim light of 
 the moon, and the trembling rays of the stars. Cleon's 
 mother, Theodora, was frightened at the darkness of 
 the streets, for she seldom left her own home. So 
 Cleon was carrying a lantern, and at one corner, near 
 a public fountain, he flashed its golden light upon a 
 policeman, a huge Scythian slave carrying a long bow 
 and a sheaf of arrows. 
 
 To avoid the pools of water in the streets for there 
 had been a shower of spring rain Theodora was skirt- 
 ing close to the walls of the houses, when she heard the 
 sudden warning :- 
 
 "Out of the way!" 
 
 Cleon skipped like a young goat and turned his 
 light toward the voice. Theodora moved away only 
 just in time. A slave boy poking his head out of an 
 upper-story window, poured a bucket of dirty water 
 into the gutter, laughing at the big splash that he 
 was making. 
 
 "Zeus! What a merciful escape!" panted Theodora. 
 
 Although glorious Athens was at this time the most 
 beautiful and the most civilized city in the world, yet 
 it had no drains, so that dirty water and garbage had 
 to be thrown out upon the streets. 
 
 Soon they reached the kinsman's house, a low stone 
 building with no windows on the first floor. Here they 
 
44 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 saw hanging over the doorway a wreath of olive 
 branches, the soft grey crown that was the joyous sign 
 of the birth of a son. If a girl-child, less welcome, had 
 been born, a homelier sign would have been set out- 
 two tufts of wool for spinning. 
 
 They passed through the doorway into the men's 
 courtyard, and beyond that they came into the dining 
 hall, where they found the kinsfolk gathered together, 
 talking and laughing. The pillars were hung with gay 
 garlands of flowers, white narcissus and crimson hy- 
 acinths, and the hall was illumined with flashing 
 torches, the light of which was reflected in the smiling 
 eyes of the guests and in the goblets, gkaming with 
 wine, upon the richly spread table. 
 
 Theodora, meek and silent, was led away into an 
 inner room, the women's apartment, for the women of 
 the family took no part in the feast. 
 
 The men were clothed in flowing garments of fine 
 white wool, bordered with scarlet and purple. They 
 lay on couches around the table while the food was 
 served to them in shapely vessels by slaves. But the 
 little boy Cleon sat patiently upright on a bench. He 
 did not share the food, nor did he take any part in the 
 conversation. 
 
 For the first course there were golden roasted pigeons, 
 a great delicacy; after this came radishes in oil, then 
 figs and almonds and cakes, with honeycombs, fruit 
 of the toil of murmuring bees. The guests ate with 
 their fingers, which they wiped on lumps of soft white 
 dough, provided for this purpose. 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 45 
 
 Cleon, as a well-bred Athenian boy, listened in 
 silence to the talk of his elders. There had been a 
 meeting of the Assembly that morning, and Cleon 
 heard his father praising Pericles, the great statesman. 
 
 "To my mind," said Cleandros, "Pericles has a 
 gravity and a purity of spirit that lift him far above the 
 common herd. And yet he remains a democrat and 
 believes that the greatness of Athens is due to our 
 democracy." 
 
 But, as it often happens, the guests were not all of 
 one mind on political questions. A kinsman named 
 Lysias exclaimed sharply: 
 
 "I cannot say that I share his faith in the people. 
 We have to put up with a good deal nowadays, on 
 account of our democracy. I came late to the Assembly 
 this morning, and had to sit next to a sausage seller. 
 Oh, how the fellow smelled of onions! At the end I 
 voted no, and the sausage seller voted aye. The ayes 
 were in the majority and carried the Assembly. What 
 are we coming to, in these modern times, that the city 
 of Athens should be governed by sausage sellers! I 
 cannot understand what the people want meddling in 
 public affairs. They are very extravagant with other 
 men's money, and so is Pericles." 
 
 There was a short silence, because most of the 
 kinsmen believed in democratic government. Then 
 Cleandros returned: 
 
 "One day Pericles was blamed in the Assembly for 
 being too extravagant with the city's money, but he 
 answered gravely, putting us all to shame: 'If too 
 
46 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 much has been spent on public buildings, then let it 
 be charged to my private account, not yours, only 
 let the new buildings be inscribed with my poor 
 name, not that of the people of Athens.' At this, we 
 voted, after all, that the taxes should be spent as he 
 wished." 
 
 "But Cleandros," cried Lysias indignantly, "if this 
 goes on, we shall be ruined with high taxes! There's no 
 living in Athens these days. Foreigners who come to 
 Athens say that the city is ornamented with public 
 buildings like a vain woman tricked out with jewels." 
 
 The little boy Cleon now looked intently at Lysias. 
 Cleon admired his father greatly, and was ready to 
 mistrust any man who disagreed openly with Cleandros. 
 He noted, with disfavor, that Lysias's hair was very 
 glossy and black. 
 
 Lysias was saying, "We ought to meet and discuss 
 all these matters privately, and get rid of the crowd and 
 the rabble," when the conversation was interrupted by 
 the entrance of dancers and flute players. 
 
 The dancers were young girls clad in flowing, fine- 
 spun robes, the color of saffron. For a while Cleon 
 watched them weaving out the pattern of the dance 
 with gleaming white feet, as light as air. Then the 
 slaves cleared away the dishes and brought in more 
 garlands of flowers and cups of wine for the guests. 
 Cleon was sent into the women's apartment to eat 
 there a simple supper of milk and honey cakes. 
 
 He found the tiny baby lying curled, like a flower yet 
 to be, in the lap of its nurse, an old slave woman. The 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 
 
 47 
 
 child had already been water-sprinkled and named after 
 its grandfather. 
 
 Cleon's mother, Theodora, was sitting chatting with 
 her kinswomen, among whom was a little girl named 
 Chrysilla. Chrysilla was an orphan and the heiress to 
 a large fortune, her father having been killed a year 
 before in the first battle of the war between Athens and 
 
 ATHENIAN WOMEN AT HOME 
 
 Sparta and their allies. To-day she was dressed for 
 the feast and surrounded with fine toys, but she looked 
 pale and weak and tearful. 
 
 For a few minutes Cleon listened to the light chatter 
 of the kinswomen, which ran on like the purring of 
 looms. Some of them had saucy tongues and were full 
 of gibes at their husbands. This is not to be wondered 
 at, as they had been given in marriage by their fathers, 
 regardless of their own wishes. They asked Cleon 
 what he had heard at the feast. 
 
 "Most of the talking was done by Lysias," he said, 
 "but I could see that my father and some of the others 
 grew rather weary of listening to his airing of his views 
 on political questions." 
 
48 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 "I can understand that very well," said one of the 
 women. "Lysias and my husband both belong to the 
 party of the oligarchs. They believe that government 
 should be carried on by a small group, and of course 
 they think of themselves as belonging to that small 
 group, and better than everybody else. Sometimes 
 when I am busy at my housekeeping, I hear my 
 husband solemnly giving out some opinion on politics. 
 I say to him gayly, 'Well, how are the great affairs of 
 state going to-day? If you amend the laws of Athens 
 as well as you mended my little warming pan yesterday, 
 then I can only say that I am sorry for our poor city!' 
 He answers gruffly, 'How can a stay-at-home woman 
 understand anything about city affairs?' So I have to 
 keep still." 
 
 " That's one thing I never will do," said another. 
 "We are as helpless as babies, and our lungs are our 
 only defense. I sometimes ask my husband why he 
 has voted in favor of some stupid law, and all that he 
 answers is, 'Stick to your spinning, my dear; govern- 
 ment is the business of men.' But I don't keep still; 
 I never stop complaining at my bad luck in being 
 born a woman." 1 
 
 A third began to repeat a speech that she had heard 
 at the theater: "Of all things that have life and sense, 
 we Athenian women are the most unfortunate crea- 
 tures. First we have to buy a bridegroom at a great 
 price, and set over ourselves a new master stricter than 
 
 1 Conversation of this sort is found in plays by the Greek writers, 
 Aristophanes and Euripides. 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 49 
 
 a father. Then, coming to an entirely new household, 
 we have to guess at the best way of humoring an 
 unknown husband. It needs extraordinary cleverness. 
 If by chance we succeed in it, our life is happy; if not, 
 it were best to die." 
 
 Cleon's mother, Theodora, sat silent during this 
 interesting conversation. She had been married when 
 she was a mere child of fourteen. She could remember 
 taking her dolls and her other toys and offering them 
 up on the altar of the maiden goddess Artemis only 
 the day before her wedding. From the first, her 
 husband Cleandros had treated her very kindly, and 
 she soon became "accustomed to his hand," as he put 
 it. She loved him and was entirely obedient to 
 him, a gentle, patient woman, wrapped up in her 
 household cares. 
 
 But even Theodora felt indignation when the kins- 
 women began to describe the unhappy situation of 
 poor Chrysilla, the little orphan. Indeed, an Athenian 
 heiress was more to be pitied than a beggar maid. 
 
 According to the law, Chrysilla's fortune was in the 
 hands of her guardian, Lysias the oligarch. Half of it 
 was legally his. Lysias was her uncle, and she was 
 expected to marry him as soon as she became of age, 
 in order that none of the fortune should be lost to the 
 family. The heiress shall marry the eldest living brother 
 of her father, so ran the law. But the kinswomen 
 suspected that Lysias had no intention of marrying 
 his little niece, as he had already chosen a bride with a 
 large marriage portion. At the same time, he was 
 
SO THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 rapidly spending Chrysilla's money, and there seemed 
 to be no hope of removing it from his control. 
 
 One of the kinswomen remarked with great em- 
 phasis, "You never can trust a man with such glossy 
 black hair as his. As soon as I first set eyes on Lysias's 
 hair, I felt there was something about him that I did 
 not like." 
 
 While the women were talking over this matter, Cleon 
 played games with Chrysilla and the other children of 
 the household. They had toys of all kinds dolls, balls, 
 hoops, wooden horses, and little chariots, including 
 one that could be harnessed to a dog. They drove each 
 other up and down in this chariot, as fast as possible, 
 cracking their whips, and so the evening passed. 
 
 On the way home, Theodora spoke to her husband 
 about Lysias and the suspicions of the kinswomen. 
 
 'This is what they said, 'men with shining black hair 
 are never to be trusted." 
 
 "My dear wife, what old wives' tales do you kins- 
 women repeat to each other?" 
 
 "But," hesitated Theodora with gentle persistence, 
 "they may be speaking the truth. I do not like the 
 look of him myself." 
 
 "Nor do I," put in Cleon, "and I saw how his hair 
 was polished, too." 
 
 Cleandros said very firmly that Lysias's hair was of 
 no importance in the matter, but he agreed that 
 Lysias was not to be trusted as a guardian. 
 
 "Whenever I see her wan little face," he said, "I 
 feel sorry for poor Chrysilla. The child weeps like 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 51 
 
 Niobe, she is a fountain of tears. If he treats her ill, 
 perhaps we can bring a lawsuit against him, and ask for 
 the protection of the state. At the next Assembly we 
 are to discuss the matter of the war orphans, and decide 
 how much money is to be put aside for them. This 
 will be an excellent time to arouse the sympathy of a 
 big jury for poor little Chrysilla. The children of 
 needy soldiers who have died in battle will be supported 
 by the state, and the fortunes of the richer children 
 should be protected against selfish guardians. It would 
 amuse me to see Lysias standing up in a law court, 
 explaining to a big jury that his actions ought not to be 
 judged by the ordinary laws of a democracy." 
 
 A SCHOOLBOY IN ATHENS 
 
 A few days later, a meeting of the Assembly was 
 held to discuss the matter of the war orphans. 
 Cleandros, the vase painter, attended with the rest of 
 the citizens. 
 
 The Assembly met very early in the morning, at 
 sunrise, and was held out in the open air, on Pnyx Hill, 
 at a huge meeting place provided with stone seats 
 for six or eight thousand men. 
 
 At dawn, the streets were filled with the rumbling 
 wooden carts of countrymen who had left their farms 
 for the day. Great crowds flocked up the hill. Towns- 
 folk, shepherds from the mountains, cowherds from 
 the plains, and traders and wealthy men were all 
 jostled together in the great stream. Workmen like 
 
52 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Cleandros abandoned their tools and their work- 
 benches, and the small shopkeepers left their stalls 
 in the charge of slaves, or of foreigners who, like the 
 slaves, had no rights as citizens and therefore might 
 not attend the Assembly. 
 
 Cleon, too, rose up early, for he was a schoolboy, 
 and the schools of Athens, like the Assembly, opened at 
 
 sunrise. He started off 
 to school followed by 
 the slave Xanthias, 
 who was his pedagogue. 
 Pedagogue is a Greek 
 word meaning boy- 
 WRITING MATE S RIALS L USED BY A GREEK leader, and almost 
 
 every Athenian boy, 
 
 even the son of a poor man, had a pedagogue who was 
 both tutor and servant. Xanthias carried Cleon's wax 
 tablet and his stylus, which was an ivory pen pointed 
 at one end and flattened at the other. Cleon wrote with 
 the pointed end on his wax tablet, and afterwards, 
 with the flat end, rubbed out the letters and smoothed 
 over the wax. 
 
 At the door of the schoolhouse, the schoolmaster 
 met Xanthias and asked him if Cleon had been a 
 good boy. 
 
 "Well," answered Xanthias doubtfully, "he has been 
 good and I may also say he has not been good. Cleon 
 is quick at arithmetic, but he is a poor speller, and 
 poor in recitation. When he is out playing with his 
 little friends in the market place, he talks fast enough, 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS S3 
 
 nineteen to the dozen; but when his mother asks him to 
 recite some childish poem at home, the words come out 
 like water dripping through a crack: 'Apollo 1 long 
 pause then 'hunter/ and so on. His father has bought 
 him a new stylus and I constantly put fresh wax on his 
 tablet; but he does not keep his hands clean! If he 
 makes a spelling mistake, and has to rewrite a simple 
 word like Achilles, he smears all over the wax with his 
 grubby little fingers and makes such a mess." 1 
 
 "Sometimes," suggested the master, "a good flogging 
 will improve a boy's spelling wonderfully." 
 
 "Oh, no," said Xanthias hastily, feeling that he had 
 gone too far. "Cleon is a good boy, and we must 
 
 SCHOOL SCENE IN ANCIENT ATHENS 
 
 always remember that he is beyond his age in arith- 
 metic. Well now, sir, I must be returning home, but 
 I have here the school fee to hand over to you. The 
 
 1 A description like this of an Athenian schoolboy is to be found in 
 the writings of the Greek, Herondas, 
 
54 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 last day of the month has come round, there is no 
 escaping that." 
 
 The master taught the boys grammar, arithmetic, 
 and geometry, and he also gave them lessons in music 
 and elocution. That morning Cleon learned by heart 
 some of the poetry of Homer. 
 
 At noon he went home for the midday meal. His 
 father told what had happened at the Assembly, and 
 was pleased at the outcome. The Council of Five 
 Hundred had brought forward a resolution to support 
 the war orphans at the expense of the state, and the 
 Assembly had voted favorably on this measure. The 
 Assembly had also voted to give to the heroes who had 
 fallen in battle a public funeral at a state burial ground 
 outside the city. 
 
 It was considered a high honor for a citizen to be 
 buried there. The statesman Pericles had been chosen 
 to make the funeral speech, and Cleandros thought 
 there would be great crowds of people to hear him. 
 Cleandros had met several of his kinsfolk at the 
 Assembly, and they had decided that all the fam- 
 ily, both men and women, should meet together 
 and attend the funeral with Chrysilla, in memory 
 of her father. 
 
 After the midday meal, Cleandros went out to his 
 workshop. Two slaves whom he had trained as potters 
 were busy at their wheels and he himself began to 
 paint a large bowl. The Greeks were lovers of the 
 beautiful, and even the pots and pans and bowls which 
 they used every day for their cooking and their meals 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 
 
 55 
 
 were hand-painted with beautiful designs and figures, 
 each one a work of art in itself. 
 
 Cleon, however, interrupted his father's painting, 
 and begged him to leave his work, and come out 
 to the Academy. 
 
 "Well/' said Cleandros, "it is a fine day; perhaps 
 we could hardly do better than go to the Academy," 
 
 VASE PAINTERS OF ANCIENT ATHENS 
 
 and he laid down his tools, repeating an old Greek 
 proverb: "Why pile up riches? A man wastes time 
 making money, he cannot pile up extra days of pre- 
 cious life as he piles up coins." 
 
 So they went out together, followed by Xanthias 
 the pedagogue, and they came first to the market 
 place, a great open square surrounded with beautiful 
 marble public buildings. The streets were crowded 
 with men and boys, but there were hardly any women 
 to be seen. Cleandros, as usual, did the marketing for 
 
56 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 his family, choosing the food; and Xanthias produced 
 the necessary coins out of his mouth, having no other 
 purse. Xanthias, too, bargained with the shopkeepers, 
 many of whom spoke a curious broken Greek and made 
 signs with their hands. 
 
 Cleandros bought flour for cakes, freshly curded 
 cheese, curly lettuce, and thick-clustered purple grapes. 
 Such simple fare was not satisfying to Xanthias. He 
 was a Persian, fat and short-winded, and accustomed to 
 rich food, and long heavy meals. To-day he looked at the 
 lettuce, and said to himself sadly, as he carried it home, 
 "A Persian never rises satisfied from a Greek meal!" 
 
 Cleon and his father went on together toward the 
 walls of the city, then passed through a big gate and 
 walked along a country road, pleasantly, shaded with 
 young sweet laurels and with olive-trees, grey-leaved 
 and glimmering. Soon they reached the Academy, a 
 public gymnasium which Pericles had urged the people 
 to build with money from the taxes. 
 
 The Academy was a fine stone building set in a 
 garden with grassy lawns and shade trees and beautiful 
 fountains. Here were race courses, and stretches of 
 sand for wrestling, and sheltered walks where the older 
 men could meet together and listen to the talk of 
 philosophers, the lovers of wisdom. The place was a 
 paradise to Cleon, for he liked to watch the great 
 chariot races that were held here, and the wrestling 
 matches of the famous athletes. 
 
 To-day he stripped and ran several races with other 
 boys of his own age, and also joined in a wrestling 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 57 
 
 match. After this he was oiled and rubbed by the 
 professional rubber, whose services were paid by the 
 state; then he took a warm bath. The rubbing was 
 very soothing to his limp exhausted body, and he 
 knew it would prevent his muscles from growing stiff. 
 Cleandros was glad to see his son taking so much 
 exercise, for he wished him to have ruddy cheeks, a 
 broad chest, and strong muscles. 
 
 Meanwhile Cleon's little kinswoman, Chrysilla, had 
 spent the whole day indoors, shut up in the dim rooms 
 of the women's apartment. She was learning to spin. 
 
 THE TRIAL 
 
 Some days later one of the kinsmen visited Cleandros, 
 and told him that he had been invited to the wedding of 
 Lysias, who was marrying a young girl outside the 
 tribe. According to the law, he would now lose his 
 right to half of Chrysilla's fortune, through failing to 
 marry her, but he still refused to give up anything but 
 a few jewels and a small amount of cash. 
 
 Cleandros and the kinsman talked over the matter 
 very seriously, and they decided to bring a lawsuit 
 against Lysias. They waited until the wedding festiv- 
 ities were over, then they sent out a legal summons, 
 and laid the case before the officials of the city. Soon 
 the day was set for the trial. 
 
 It was usual for the Athenians to bring their families 
 with them as witnesses to a lawsuit, so on the day of 
 the trial, Theodora, Cleon, and several of the kinsfolk 
 
58 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 were present with Chrysilla in the court room. There 
 was a platform at one end of the court room, and rows 
 of seats below for the jurymen, who numbered nearly 
 four hundred. The city official, or magistrate, sat on 
 the platform in the center, with Lysias and his friends 
 on his right, and Cleandros and the kinsfolk on his left. 
 Cleandros, speaking for Chrysilla, was the plaintiff in 
 the case; Lysias was the defendant. 
 
 Below the platform stood two big jars, a bronze jar 
 and a wooden jar. As the jurymen filed in, each one 
 was given two little round disks, one solid, the other 
 pierced with a hole. These were to be used for voting; 
 the solid disk was to be used if the defendant was 
 considered innocent, the pierced one if he was con- 
 sidered guilty. At the end of the trial each juryman 
 would drop into the bronze jar the disk that he 
 wished to have counted. The other disk was dropped 
 into the wooden jar, and was not counted. 
 
 Cleandros was glad to see that nearly four hundred 
 men were present as jurymen, for he felt that there 
 was safety in numbers. "Lysias's riches will not help 
 him in this trial," he thought to himself, "for he cannot 
 have given bribes to four hundred men." 
 
 The trial began with a short sacrifice to the gods, 
 then Cleandros and Lysias both swore a solemn oath 
 that they would tell the truth. After this, Cleandros 
 was asked by the magistrate to state his case. He rose 
 up and said: 
 
 "Citizens of Athens, the father of my kinswoman, 
 Chrysilla, was killed in the first month of the war. 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 59 
 
 Her mother being already dead, he thus left his only 
 child an orphan at the age of eleven. He possessed 
 a large fortune of nearly fourteen talents. In his will 
 he gave his daughter in marriage, with all her fortune, 
 her household, and her jewels, to his brother Lysias, 
 according to the law. Lysias therefore took over the 
 management of the fortune immediately, and has 
 continued it for the last twelve months. Now at the 
 close of the year he has taken another for his wife, and 
 he refuses to hand over anything more than the house, 
 a few jewels, and a small amount in money. According 
 to the law, having failed to marry the heiress, he 
 should hand over half of her fortune, that is, the sum 
 of seven talents. 
 
 "Citizens of Athens, the father of my kinswoman 
 left two workshops, each with a large trade. One is a 
 sword factory, employing thirty-two or thirty-three 
 slaves, the other is a chair factory, employing twenty 
 chair makers. These factories together should bring 
 in a yearly profit of about forty minas. Besides these 
 factories he left ivory, iron, and bronze, which they 
 are using in the shops, and also wood for the chairs. In 
 addition, he left a house, with furniture and plate and 
 gold ornaments. He also left sums of money placed in 
 various banks and invested in foreign trade. I have a 
 list here giving the exact amounts. During the last 
 year my kinswoman has received almost no payments. 
 And now Lysias has failed to marry her, so that, 
 according to the law, he should give up half her fortune, 
 also paying interest for one year. I ask you, jurymen, 
 
60 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 to uphold the rights of an orphan, who is too young 
 to defend herself. Her hapless father lies in dust and 
 nothingness. He gave up his life in defense of Athens. 
 To give justice to his child is the least that you, 
 citizens of Athens, can do in return." 
 
 So saying, Cleandros ended his speech, and was 
 applauded by the jurymen. 
 
 Lysias now arose and said that Cleandros had 
 greatly exaggerated the whole matter. 
 
 "It is true that I have a little dispute with my niece 
 regarding her gold trinkets, but as soon as that is 
 settled, I shall be ready to go into the question of her 
 support, in such a manner as may be agreeable to her. 
 It is extremely distasteful to a man of my position to 
 have to discuss in public such private, intimate family 
 affairs as these. However, I will say that my niece's 
 fortune is not nearly so large as Cleandros pretends. 
 Gentlemen of the jury, this man is playing on your 
 feelings of reverence for the dead soldiers, in order that 
 he may selfishly enrich himself, in order that he may 
 take my place as legal guardian of my kinswoman, and 
 so control her money. You see how he has brought 
 the children with him into this law court, where no 
 young children should be allowed. There they sit with 
 bent heads, poor, timid, shrinking little lambs! Soon 
 they'll be bleating for mercy!" 
 
 The jurymen looked toward Chrysilla, who im- 
 mediately burst into a flood of tears. Her little droop- 
 ing figure and her white, tearful face made, indeed, an 
 appealing picture. 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 61 
 
 The magistrate asked Cleandros to answer these 
 charges. Cleandros replied: 
 
 "In answer to the last charge, I will say that I have 
 made no request to become the legal guardian of the 
 heiress. This matter is for the jury to decide. Then 
 as regards the property, I have state papers here prov- 
 ing'that the fortune is worth fully fourteen talents, be- 
 cause the taxable value is three talents.' Such a tax 
 is paid only by wealthy men. The fortune, in fact, is 
 so large that it cannot be hidden from the state, 
 even by Lysias." 
 
 Again the jurymen applauded. 
 
 Lysias now said that the factories had formerly been 
 of great value, but that almost no profits had been 
 made during the last twelve months. He, too, produced 
 accounts, and laid them before the magistrate. 
 
 At this Cleandros brought out a bill signed by sev- 
 eral well-known merchants, proving that the foremen 
 of the factories had purchased not only food for 
 the workmen, but also large quantities of material for 
 the trade; that is, ivory, iron, bronze, and wood. He 
 appealed to the jurymen: "It is unbelievable," he 
 said, "that a sword factory should not bring in large 
 profits during a war/' 
 
 The jurymen applauded again loudly, like the 
 audience at a theater, and it was clear that most of 
 them were convinced of Lysias's dishonesty. One man 
 whispered to his neighbor, "I don't like the looks of 
 that fellow." However, Lysias made a long speech that 
 had been written out for him by a professional writer 
 
62 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 of legal speeches. It bored the jurymen and they 
 hardly listened to it. Then some of the kinsmen sitting 
 with Cleandros stated that Cleandros would be, in 
 their opinion, the best possible guardian for the heiress, 
 and they set aside their own claims. 
 
 When all the speeches were finished, the magistrate 
 said, "The case is ended. Let justice shine out like a 
 star upon its foes." 
 
 Thereupon the jurymen filed out of the court room, 
 dropping their disks into the two jars as they went. 
 The votes were now counted, and the bronze jar was 
 found to be filled with pierced disks. The jurymen had 
 voted, almost to a man, against Lysias. 
 
 The magistrate now quoted the words with which 
 the Athenian Assembly was always opened: "When 
 the laws are written, then the weak and the wealthy are 
 both equals. Armed with right, the less overcomes the 
 great. Thus freedom speaks." Then he told Lysias 
 that he had been judged a dishonest guardian. He 
 would have to pay a fine to the state, and also give up 
 to Chrysilla the sword factory, which was worth seven 
 talents. From this time on Cleandros would be the 
 legal guardian of the heiress, who would be free to 
 marry whom she pleased. 
 
 Chrysilla was greatly relieved at the outcome of the 
 trial, and when she was asked whether she would be 
 glad to live in the household of her new guardian, a 
 smile flitted across her pale little face, and she whis- 
 pered that she would be very willing, and would try her 
 best to take the place of a daughter. Cleandros and 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 63 
 
 Theodora, on their side, promised that they would 
 love and protect her like a father and mother. So the 
 trial ended happily for them. 
 
 THE FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES 
 
 In the next winter, following the law of their fathers, 
 the Athenians held the public funeral of those who had 
 fallen in the war. It was their custom to burn the 
 bodies of their dead, and then bury the ashes and the 
 bones in marble tombs. 
 
 The bones of the dead soldiers were exposed on a 
 covered platform for three days, during which time 
 many Athenians brought offerings of wine and oil and 
 set them beside their dead kinsfolk. On the third day, 
 the bodies were laid in ten coffins of cypress wood, one 
 for each tribe. These were put on carriages and driven 
 to the burial ground. One empty couch covered 
 with a winding sheet was also borne for the missing 
 soldiers whose bodies had not been found on the battle 
 field. It was beside the chariot bearing this empty 
 couch that Chrysilla walked, accompanied by Clean- 
 dros, Theodora, Cleon, and many more of her kinsfolk. 
 There was a long procession and a great crowd of 
 people were present. All kept silence until the public 
 burial ground, a beautiful meadow outside the city, was 
 reached. There, a sacrifice was offered to the gods, 
 after which the coffins were let down into the tombs. 
 
 The solemn hush was broken only by the sobbing of 
 some mother of the dead. Out of the great audience 
 
64 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 of thousands of people rose up Pericles, to make the 
 funeral speech. He wore the helmet of a general. His 
 voice was grave and quiet. 
 
 1 " Before I praise the dead, the soldiers of Athens, I 
 should like to show how Athens has risen to power; 
 
 under what government 
 and through what man- 
 ner of life our city has 
 become great. 
 
 "Our form of govern- 
 ment, democracy, does 
 not enter into rivalry 
 with the governments of 
 other nations. We do not 
 copy our neighbors, but 
 are an example to them. 
 It is true that we should 
 be called a democracy, a 
 government of the peo- 
 ple, because our govern- 
 ment is in the hands of the many, not of the few. But 
 while the law gives equal justice to all in their private 
 disputes, still the special claim of excellence is also recog- 
 nized. When a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is 
 given a high position in the public service as the reward 
 of special merit. Poverty is no bar, for a man may help 
 his country however poor he may be. Our public life 
 is open to all and in our private life there is freedom 
 and independence. If our neighbor thinks differently 
 
 1 Adapted. 
 
 PERICLES 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 65 
 
 from us, and does what he likes, we are not suspicious 
 of him, and we do not put on sour looks at him, which, 
 though harmless, are not pleasant. While we are thus 
 free and easy in our private life, there is a spirit of 
 reverence in our public acts. We are prevented from 
 doing wrong by respect for authority and for the laws, 
 especially those which protect the injured. 
 
 "And we have not forgotten to provide recreation for 
 our weary spirits and rest from toil. We have regular 
 games and sacrifices throughout the year. At home 
 the style of our life is simple and beautiful, and the de- 
 light which we daily feel in the beautiful things that 
 surround us helps to banish sadness. Because of the 
 greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow 
 in upon us, so that we enjoy the goods of other coun- 
 tries as freely as our own. 
 
 'Then again, our military training is in many ways 
 better than that of our enemies, 1 because we depend, 
 not on discipline or trickery, but upon our own hearts 
 and hands. In the matter of education, while they 
 from early youth are always undergoing difficult, 
 wearisome military exercises which are to make them 
 brave, we live at ease; and yet, when the time comes, 
 we are equally ready to face the dangers that they 
 face. We prefer to meet danger with a light heart. 
 
 'Thus our city is equally admirable in peace and 
 war. We are lovers of the beautiful, and we cultivate 
 the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ 
 not for show, but when there is a real use for it. For 
 
 1 The Spartans. 
 
66 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 a man to admit that he is poor is no disgrace with us; 
 the true disgrace is in doing no work to avoid poverty. 
 An Athenian does not neglect the state because he 
 takes care of his own household, and even those of us 
 who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of 
 politics. We alone among nations look upon a man 
 who takes no interest in public affairs as a useless 
 person. To sum up, I say that Athens is the school 
 of Greece. 
 
 "Such is the city for whose sake these soldiers nobly 
 fought and died. They could not bear the thought 
 that Athens might be taken from them. Every one of 
 us who lives should also gladly work and toil for her 
 as they have done. They who gave their bodies to 
 Athens receive praise that will never die, and with it 
 the grandest of all tombs, a place in the memories of 
 men. For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men, 
 and their story is written not only in stone over their 
 tombs, but lives on, for always, in memory, woven into 
 the stuff of other men's lives. 
 
 "We have now paid our debt of gratitude to our 
 soldiers only in part, by giving honor to them at this 
 public funeral. It remains for us to support, at public 
 expense, until they are grown up, such of their orphans 
 as are poor and needy. This is the prize with which, 
 as with a wreath, Athens crowns her sons living 
 and dead. 
 
 "And now, when you have paid reverence, every one 
 to his own dead, you may depart." 
 
 So Pericles ended his speech. 
 
THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 67 
 
 The kinsfolk of Chrysilla stood for a while with her 
 near her father's tomb; then they all returned home, 
 still silent, remembering the words of Pericles, and 
 filled with reverence for the greatness of their city. 
 
 That same night Cleandros repeated to his son the 
 oath that he would have to swear when he gained his 
 full rights as a citizen. All Athenian youths at the age 
 of eighteen were given a sword and a shield by the 
 state, and they took this oath of citizenship before 
 beginning their military training: 
 
 I swear I will never disgrace my holy armor, and never forsake 
 my comrades in the ranks, but I will fight for the holy temples, 
 and for the welfare of all. When I die I will leave my city not 
 lessened, but greater and better than I found it. I will obey those 
 who from time to time are in authority, and I will obey the laws 
 which have been passed by the people. If anyone should try to 
 destroy these laws, I will defend them against attack. Further- 
 more, I will honor the religion of my country. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: "The people of Athens bow down to 
 no ruler; in this city the folk themselves are king." In what 
 way were the people king? Does this method seem better than 
 the rule of a king like Alcinous? 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. What is meant by a "public" fountain, or a "public" 
 building? 
 
 2. In what ways were the people of Athens more civilized 
 than the Homeric Greeks? 
 
 3. What is the exact meaning of "oligarchy"? Of "democ- 
 racy"? 
 
 4. Describe the point of view of an Athenian oligarch. 
 
68 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 5. What three classes of people were not allowed to attend 
 the Assembly? 
 
 6. What do you think of the treatment of Athenian women 
 at the time of this story? Compare the life of these Athenian 
 women with the life of American women of to-day. 
 
 7. Read the description of the Athenian Assembly; compare 
 with our modern Congress in Washington, and explain the differ- 
 ence between direct and representative democracy. 
 
 8. Were the schools in Athens public or private ? Were the 
 gymnasiums public or private? 
 
 9. Describe the Academy. 
 
 10. How many jurymen attended the trial of Lysias? 
 
 11. How was the vote of the jurymen taken? Do you know 
 how a jury's vote is taken nowadays in the United States? 
 
 12. Read Pericles's praise of Athenian democracy, and com- 
 pare it with our modern ideals of American citizenship. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 1. THE TRIUMPH OF TITUS 
 
 2. THE MARTYRDOM OF LAWRENCE 
 
 After the death of Pericles, the citizens of Athens vote 
 for bad leaders and unwise policies, so that the power 
 and glory of the Athenian democracy are lessened. 
 
 We now move westward across the Mediterranean Sea, 
 from Greece to Rome, and across another gulf of time- 
 five hundred years. 
 
 While the years are rapidly passing, we see first, very 
 dimly, the Roman people as savage tribes, living together 
 in villages of huts, like the Indians, under a simple 
 tribal government. The tribal chiefs become kings, then 
 the kings of Rome give way to a republic, and the people 
 share in the power of government. But the later history 
 of the Roman republic, or democracy, is a continual 
 fierce struggle for power, which results finally in the 
 greatest of all despotisms the Roman Empire. The 
 Roman Emperor has absolute power. During the republic, 
 an assembly of noble Romans, called the Senate, had great 
 authority, but now the authority of the Senate has become 
 a mere shadow, because the Emperor is not obliged to 
 take advice from anyone. 
 
 The Romans are great soldiers, and they have conquered 
 all the countries around them. 
 
 69 
 
70 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Our sight widens, and the blue Mediterranean Sea 
 lies beneath us like a lake, glittering with white foam in 
 a strong wind, under a fiercely hot midsummer sun. The 
 Mediterranean is now a Roman lake, because the Romans 
 have conquered all the countries that border it, includ- 
 ing Greece, and many others beyond. To the north lie 
 gloomy forests inhabited by tribes roaming westward or 
 southward Germans, Gauls, Britons, and Norsemen. 
 Roman soldiers in lonely distant outposts on the fringe 
 of their Empire are fighting with these savages, and con- 
 quering them, stemming and pushing back the barbarian 
 tide that will later swallow up the civilization of Greece 
 and Rome. 
 
 Now the Roman armies have conquered Jerusalem in 
 Asia Minor. It is the year 70 A. D., and the people of 
 Rome are giving a triumph, or public welcome, to their 
 Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. 
 
 The buildings of Rome resemble in many details the 
 Athenian buildings, but are larger and not so beautiful. 
 In fact, Roman civilization seems to us in many ways 
 an imitation of Greek civilization, bigger but not so fine. 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF TITUS 1 
 
 All the people of Rome are pouring out through the 
 gates of their city the mother city of the world to 
 welcome Vespasian, and his son Titus, the conqueror 
 of Jerusalem. 
 
 1 An account of this occasion has been written by Josephus, an eye- 
 witness. 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 71 
 
 The rabble and mob of the people, all moving in the 
 same direction, flow like a great wave through the 
 streets. In the richer quarters, the crowds are stream- 
 ing down broad avenues, planted with plane trees, and 
 passing under covered walks with pillars of rose- 
 colored marble brightly hung with gold-embroidered 
 curtains. In the narrow alleys of the poorer quarters, 
 dirty slaves and foreigners are elbowing each other. 
 Men pushing little carts are blocking the traffic. They 
 are selling sausages, fried fish, smoky cooked meats, 
 cakes, toys, and other trifles, and are gathering in a 
 harvest of small money. 
 
 One man in the crowd is saying to another, "This is 
 to be a great show. First the Senate decided to give a 
 separate triumph for Caesar 1 and each of his sons, but 
 finally it was decided to give one huge triumph for the 
 three of them, a celebration more costly than anything 
 that has ever before been given in Rome." 
 
 The other answers, with discontent in his voice, "It 
 is high time, too. Rome has been very dull lately. At 
 the last celebration that Caesar gave us, some fifth-rate 
 gladiators were brought out, so feeble you could have 
 knocked them over with a feather. And the feast after- 
 ward was very poor. The Emperor was trying to 
 save money." 
 
 A third man, overhearing this talk as he passes by, 
 mutters to a friend, "Listen to that. The people are 
 never satisfied. They want free bread, free baths, and 
 
 1 The eleven Roman rulers who followed Julius Caesar were all called 
 
 Casar. 
 
72 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 free shows. So much is given to them that they have 
 forgotten how to work they're as lazy as slaves. 
 Everyone in Rome is repeating the new catchword : 
 
 Baths, wine, and amusements, 
 They ruin our health, 
 But they make up our life. 
 
 It's true enough." 
 
 Now the crowds pass out through the gates of the 
 
 city to the temple of Isis. The temples and the public 
 
 buildings of Rome are huge in size, stretching out their 
 
 thick walls in wide circles. The heavy weight of them 
 sinking into the earth is like the 
 power of Rome that is crushing all 
 the countries round her, making 
 them carry for hundreds of years 
 the heavy weight of her conquest. 
 Outside the gates, the soldiers of 
 the conquering legions are camped, 
 ready to take their part in the 
 triumph. They are hardy men, 
 bronzed by the sun, toughened by 
 stinging sea winds, muscular from 
 their long marches. They wear 
 short tunics, leggings and sandals, 
 and helmets with blood-red plumes. 
 
 Now they are playing dice and drinking and singing 
 
 together while they wait. 
 
 In a beautiful villa, on a hill near Rome, a Senator 
 
 is being arrayed in his white and purple robes, for the 
 
 A ROMAN SOLDIER 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 73 
 
 Senate, too, is to play its part in the triumph. The 
 walls of the Senator's house are gilded over and 
 painted, the floors are made of colored stones, and in 
 the courtyard there is a beautiful fountain playing 
 into a pool of fresh water stocked with water lilies and 
 goldfish. In the planning of the villa, no money was 
 spared to provide for the Senator the most luxurious 
 of bodily comforts. There are three marble swimming 
 baths, filled with clear green water, a hot bath, a 
 lukewarm bath, and a cold bath, where the Senator 
 and his visitors can swim and float at their ease, their 
 eyes resting on beautiful views through the low 
 windows views of the distant sea, and of the country- 
 side. Around the villa there are flower gardens, orange 
 groves, and fruit orchards, tilled by hundreds of slaves, 
 and alive with the twittering of rare song birds and 
 the babbling of scented fountains. 
 
 The Senator's wife, too, is making her toilet in her 
 apartment, waited on by a dozen slave women. When 
 at last the lady is ready, the Senator calls for his litter, 
 and as he stands for a moment in the marble hallway 
 of the villa, looks at a row of marble busts showing the 
 stern, cold faces of Roman Senators of earlier days. 
 
 The Senator says gravely and bitterly to his son, 
 
 'These men, who were your ancestors, thought highly 
 
 of themselves; and you, therefore, must never do 
 
 anything that is unworthy of them. But what real 
 
 dignity or pride is left to us Senators of to-day?" 
 
 While he was making himself ready for the triumph 
 of Titus, the Senator had been thinking of the shameful 
 
THE SENATOR RIDING IN HIS LITTER 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 75 
 
 condition to which the Roman Senate had fallen under 
 the Empire. He had been saying to himself: "In the 
 days of the republic, the Senate of Rome was an 
 assembly of kings. Now its power is a mere shadow. 
 Why should we call ourselves Senators? We are merely 
 the puppets of the Emperor. To-day we shall wear 
 our white and purple robes, but our part in the show 
 will be only play-acting, a solemn farce. We shall have 
 to bend our stiff necks and bow low before Caesar 
 with the other officials of the city, because that is all 
 that is left for us to do." 
 
 The Senator's litter is carried along rapidly on the 
 shoulders of huge black slaves. When it reaches the 
 city, the crowds of the common people make way for 
 it, and it rides like a ship on the surface of the waves. 
 Near the temple of Isis, the Senator leaves his wife 
 and son. They are given high seats from which they 
 can view the triumph. 
 
 Now Vespasian, the great Emperor, and his sons, 
 Titus and Domitian, come out of the temple. They are 
 clothed in robes of purple silk, and crowned with 
 laurel wreaths. The people greet them with a great 
 shout. "Hail, Caesar, god-like Caesar! Hail Titus, 
 Conqueror of Judea! lo triumphe!" l A high platform 
 has been built and ivory chairs set upon it. As 
 Vespasian and his sons take their seats, the Senators, 
 clad in white and purple, come forward to greet them 
 and bow down before them, followed by all the officials 
 
 1 A Roman shout of triumph, equivalent to our Hurrah. There is no 
 exact translation. 
 
76 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 A ROMAN TRIUMPH IN 
 
 of the city and all the knights of Rome. After the 
 greeting of the Senate, Vespasian rises and makes a 
 sign with his hand which puts an end to all the shouting 
 of the people. Then he covers his head with his cloak 
 and utters a solemn prayer. 
 
 When the prayer is finished, the triumph is set 
 forward, and the great procession begins to wind its 
 way into the city through the Gate of Pomp, like the 
 parade of a mighty circus. 
 
 A menagerie of wild animals leads the procession: 
 tigers, lions, zebras, giraffes, leopards, wolves, and 
 camels, each one covered with hangings of silk and 
 velvet, embroidered with gold and silver and many- 
 colored jewels. The animals are driven by strange- 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 77 
 
 THE TIME OF VESPASIAN 
 
 looking men from all parts of the earth. In a few minutes 
 there pass by, before the curious gaze of the Roman 
 crowd, wild horsemen from the plains of northern 
 Asia, yellow-bearded Germans from the Rhine, blue- 
 painted barbarians from the island of Britain, majestic 
 Arabs from the desert, black giants and pygmies from 
 the forests of central Africa, together with Persians 
 and Egyptians and Greeks, savage men and civilized, 
 all more or less under the dominion of Rome, and bring- 
 ing to Rome the wealth of the whole world pearls and 
 rubies from India, wolfskins from Britain, cedar wood 
 from Lebanon, silk from China, and ivory from Africa. 
 "See that spotted camel with a long neck and no 
 hump!" 
 
78 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 "Look at the elephant picking up a brown man with 
 its nose!" 
 
 'The soldier driving a wolf is a Briton. The Britons 
 seem to act like human beings when they are in Rome; 
 but I've heard that those savages from up north are 
 no more than animals they're in the habit of running 
 about on all fours when they are at home!" 
 
 The mob is closely packed, like a herd of sheep, and 
 the people all strain forward in order to see as much as 
 possible. 
 
 "Oh, how tiresome!" complains a woman. 'There, 
 the fringe of my cloak is all torn. For heaven's sake, 
 sir, try to be more careful." 
 
 "I can hardly help myself," answers the man behind 
 her, "but I will be as careful as I can." 
 
 After the animals, come the captives and the spoils 
 of Judea. Simon, the leader of the Jews, is dragged 
 along with a rope round his neck, and he is followed by 
 seven hundred Jewish captives, loaded with chains, 
 but dressed in silken garments. 
 
 Then come a number of great wagons, some of them 
 four stories high, carrying pictures and theatrical 
 representations of the war with the Jews. There are 
 pictures of the burning of cities, the laying waste of a 
 fair country, the destroying and pillaging of rich 
 temples. Everywhere there is a great use of silver 
 and gold and ivory, many-colored jewels, and costly 
 materials. 
 
 In their turn, the theatrical representations pass out 
 of sight. Next appear the spoils of the temple at 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 79 
 
 Jerusalem. The most sacred treasures of the Jews, 
 guarded by them for centuries in the innermost shrine 
 of their dim temple, the Holy of Holies, are now car- 
 ried along in mockery and triumph, under the blazing 
 sunlight of Rome the Golden Table for the Shew- 
 Bread, the Silver Trumpets, the Seven-Branched 
 Candlesticks, and the Tables of the Ten Command- 
 ments of Moses. 
 
 For a moment the Roman crowd is silent, witnessing 
 the shame of a great religion. Then the silence is 
 broken with a great roar, " lo triumphe!" 
 
 The sacred symbols pass by, and the procession 
 flows on like a great river. 
 
 One woman murmurs to another, "The Jews have a 
 strange religion, so I am told. Whatever is held sacred 
 by the Romans is scorned by the Jews. The God of 
 the Jews is said to be a great, governing mind, that 
 guides and directs the whole of nature, a mind without 
 a body, and so the Jews bow down to no idols or statues, 
 as we do. Their religious services are very different from 
 our own gloomy and full of an absurd seriousness." 
 
 Now, at the sight of the Roman soldiers marching 
 shoulder to shoulder, there rises another great burst of 
 shouting. 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp, the Victorious Legion marches 
 by, the Indomitable Legion and the Spanish Legion. 
 " lo triumphe! lo triumphe!" The applause is a con- 
 tinuous roar, for the people of Rome are wild with 
 enthusiasm for their army. They know that the whole 
 Empire rests on the strength of the Roman army. 
 
80 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 As the soldiers march by, they sing an old Roman 
 chant: 
 
 We as one man have killed thousands upon thousands upon 
 
 thousands. 
 
 Thousands of times may he drink who kills a thousand, 
 Nor yet will he drink as much wine as the blood he has shed! 
 
 Behind the ranks of the Imperial Guard appear two 
 golden chariots. The Emperor Vespasian stands in the 
 one, and his son Titus stands in the other. Domitian, 
 the second son, rides on a horse alongside, making a 
 glorious appearance in his triumphal robes. 
 
 "Hail, Caesar!" shouts the crowd. "Hail, divine 
 Caesar, god-like Caesar! Hail, Titus, Conqueror of 
 Judea!" 
 
 The procession ends with the chariot of the Emperor, 
 and the mob breaks up and streams behind it, in 
 disorder, into the city. When the golden chariot 
 reaches the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol Hill, the 
 people stand still and wait, for it is the custom at a 
 Roman triumph for the crowd to wait here until the 
 news is brought of the killing of a conquered general. 
 Soon a messenger arrives, blowing a silver trumpet. 
 
 " Simon, the leader of the Jews, is dead. He has been 
 hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock into the river 
 Tiber, as a human sacrifice to the gods of Rome." 
 
 The people set up a shout of joy, and begin to offer 
 sacrifices on the altars of Jupiter. 
 
 When the sacrifices are ended, the Emperor goes into 
 his palace, and entertains great numbers of the people 
 at a feast. 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 81 
 
 The Senator and his wife pass through the forecourt 
 of the palace, where there is a gigantic statue of the 
 Emperor Nero, a hundred feet high. Then they are 
 led into a vast dining hall, gilded over and studded 
 with jewels and mother-of-pearl, and lighted with a 
 multitude of bright lamps. The walls and the ceiling 
 are fitted with ivory panels that can be shifted so 
 as to shower down flowers and sprays of fragrant scent 
 upon the guests. 
 
 No money has been spared to make the feast a mag- 
 nificent one. For the first course there are peahens' eggs, 
 roasted quails, and sows' breasts. Then slaves carry 
 in a huge tray, on which is set a boar of great size. 
 Hanging on the boar's tusks are two little palm-leaf 
 baskets, full of nut-shaped dates. All around the boar 
 lie little pigs made of pastry. A slave slashes open the 
 side of the boar vigorously with a hunting knife, and 
 a flock of live thrushes fly out through the opening. 
 The birds are tame, and are soon caught as they flut- 
 ter around the dining hall. One is given to each guest 
 as a pet. 
 
 Now appears another huge tray, with a centerpiece 
 on it of colored pastry fashioned like a garden with 
 trees hung with apples, grapes, and every sort of fruit. 
 The guests snatch eagerly at the fruit, and then laugh, 
 discovering the trick, for all the cakes and all the 
 apples, when pressed the least bit, squirt saffron water 
 into their faces. 1 
 
 1 A dinner like this is described in a Latin story called Trimalckio'j 
 
 Feast. 
 
82 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Course after course is brought in, and so the feast 
 goes on, until the guests have eaten so much that they 
 are sickened by the sight of more food. 
 
 The Senator says to his wife, "The spoils of Judea 
 will more than pay for this entertainment. And from 
 now on, the Jews will pay greater tribute to Rome, 
 so that the Emperor's treasury will be richer than 
 ever. Caesar dips his hands deeply into the golden 
 stream of tribute which pours into Rome from all the 
 conquered countries." 
 
 THE MARTYRDOM OF LAWRENCE 
 
 Two centuries later, the pride and wealth of the 
 Roman Empire were fighting against the spreading 
 influence of the Christian religion. 
 
 One evening in the year 258, during the reign of the 
 Emperor Valerian, two young boys were walking over 
 the great bare plain that surrounds Rome. It was 
 growing dark, when a strange sight caught their eyes. 
 In the distance, out on the plain, there was a stream of 
 shadowy forms slipping through the twilight, which, 
 when they reached a certain point, suddenly disap- 
 peared as if by magic. 
 
 Out of curiosity, the boys walked up to this place, 
 and found a hole in the earth leading into a dark, 
 underground passage. They climbed down and dis- 
 covered a network of underground corridors, dimly 
 lit here and there by lanterns on the walls. After 
 they had crept along some distance, they began to 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 83 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE CATACOMBS 
 
 be afraid that they might lose their way. Looking 
 around them, they saw that there were stone tablets 
 on the walls, carved with rough, uneven letters. 
 Peering up in the flickering, uncertain light of an oil 
 lamp, the elder boy read, 
 
 Genella Sleeps in Christ 
 Aselus Sleeps in Christ 
 
 Martyrs in Peace 
 Sweet Souls in the Place of Refreshment 
 
 With sudden fear in his voice, he cried out, "We 
 must be in the tombs. We must be in the Catacombs 
 among dead bodies." 
 
84 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The younger brother was reading, 
 
 Marcella and Five Hundred and Fifty 
 Martyrs in Christ 
 
 All was silent around them, and dark and still as the 
 dead. 
 
 The boys crept back, but they found themselves in 
 another strange passage, and here they read the epi- 
 taphs of Romans who were not Christians. One was, 
 
 A Mother to Her Little Son 
 Heartless Fortune Who Delights in Cruel 
 
 Death 
 
 Why is Maximus so Early Snatched From Me 
 He Who Lately Used to Lie Beloved on My Bosom 
 
 Another ran thus, 
 
 Baths, Wine, and Amusements, 
 
 They Ruin Our Health 
 
 But They Make Up Our Life 
 
 Farewell Farewell 
 
 Among these epitaphs there was one very old one, 
 dating back to the days of the republic: 
 
 Stranger, what I have to say is short; stand near and read it 
 through. Here is the not beautiful tomb of a beautiful woman. Her 
 parents gave her the name of Claudia. She loved her husband with her 
 whole heart. Two sons she bore, one of whom she left above the earth, 
 the other she placed under the sod. Soft-voiced, and with a gentle 
 spirit, she preserved her household and spun her flax. I have spoken. 
 
 Walking hither and thither, the boys tried one 
 passage after another, but came no closer to the 
 entrance. At last through the darkness, they heard a 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 85 
 
 faint echo, and following it there reached them strains 
 of music and the sound of voices singing together in 
 unison. It led them on to a little chapel brilliantly lit 
 with candles and filled with kneeling figures shrouded 
 in veils. These, then, were the shadowy forms they 
 had seen slipping through the twilight. As they stood 
 and watched from the door of the chapel, the singing 
 ceased, and an old man standing at the altar stretched 
 out his hands and blessed the congregation, dismissing 
 them with these words: 
 
 "You have gathered together, O Christians, in 
 these caverns, to sing hymns in honor of the martyrs 
 and the saints that lie buried here, having died in the 
 Lord; to sing psalms for those that are now dying in 
 the faith! There is light in this darkness; there is 
 music in these tombs." 
 
 Upon these words, the congregation arose and began 
 to file out of one of the passages; the two boys, mixing 
 with the crowd, followed. They soon reached the open 
 air and came out at a place which was unfamiliar to 
 them, but they made their way back to the city by 
 following the stream of people. 
 
 When the boys' father heard where they had been, 
 he told them that they were fortunate to have escaped 
 without harm, because the Emperor had ordered a 
 persecution of the Christians, and soldiers were hunt- 
 ing them. 
 
 "The Christians have many strange beliefs/' he 
 told them, "and some people will have it that they 
 practice horrible ceremonies as a part of their religious 
 
86 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 service. However, this may not be true, since you say 
 that you saw nothing of the kind. But one thing is 
 certain, they are traitors to the Empire, because they 
 refuse to burn incense on our altars as a sign of their 
 good faith to Rome and to Caesar. In their refusal they 
 are stiff-necked and stubborn beyond reason, willing 
 to suffer any torture or martyrdom." 
 
 A few days later, the news was spread throughout 
 Rome that the soldiers of the Emperor had found out 
 the hiding place of the Christians, in the Catacombs, 
 coming upon them while they were holding a service 
 and singing. The bishop, an old man with a white 
 beard, had been killed then and there; but a certain 
 deacon of the Christian church, named Lawrence, had 
 been taken prisoner, and was to be given a trial. It 
 was believed that Lawrence, in the name of his church, 
 had been collecting great quantities of money and other 
 valuables from wealthy persons in Rome who were 
 secretly Christians. The soldiers had taken Lawrence 
 prisoner instead of killing him outright, because they 
 wanted him to deliver up this money to the Emperor. 
 Lawrence had asked for three days in which to collect 
 the treasures of the church, and this time had been 
 granted. The trial was set for the fourth day. 
 
 The Roman judge who tried Lawrence knew that the 
 trial was to be only a mock trial, because the Christians 
 were persecuted under a special order of the Emperor. 
 Any judge would be forced to find Lawrence guilty, 
 and worthy of death, if he refused to burn incense on 
 a Roman altar. 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 87 
 
 A small crowd assembled to witness the trial, 
 including the two boys who had lost their way in the 
 Catacombs and stumbled unawares on the hiding 
 place of the Christians. 
 
 Lawrence was standing on a high platform, and 
 around him was a great multitude of poor beggars, 
 aged men and women in rags, lame and crooked, 
 diseased and blind. Lawrence pointed to the beggars 
 and said, "I have collected my treasures; behold 
 them. All the money that was given me, I gave 
 straightway to the poor. The poor and the sick are 
 the riches of the Christian church; they are our gold 
 and silver. And I add to them the widows and the 
 orphans; these are our pearls and rubies and pre- 
 cious stones. Take this wealth for Rome and for the 
 Emperor." 
 
 "Are you a Christian?" asked the judge, 
 
 Lawrence replied, "I am a Christian. I am a deacon 
 of the Christian church." 
 
 'You were a deacon. In confessing yourself a 
 Christian, you have spoken your own sentence of 
 death. Have you any defense to make?" 
 
 And Lawrence answered, "My defense is that I 
 am useful to men, because I teach even unto slaves 
 the value of the human soul. In our church all men 
 are equal, and it is among the poor and despised of 
 Rome that our faith is spreading most rapidly. Some 
 of the high offices of our church we have given to 
 slaves, for in the eyes of God a slave is the equal of 
 a free man/' 
 
88 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Then the judge asked Lawrence if he would be 
 willing to burn incense on a Roman altar, as a sign of 
 his good faith to Caesar and to Rome. 
 
 Lawrence refused to do this, and then repeated the 
 words of Jesus Christ to his followers: 
 
 "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise 
 dominion over them, and they that are great exercise 
 authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; 
 but whosoever will be great among you let him be 
 your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, 
 let him be your servant." 
 
 Whereupon the judge read out the sentence, that 
 Lawrence, a Christian, was condemned to be roasted to 
 death on a gridiron, as an example to the people. 
 
 At this Lawrence fell into a deep swoon. His body 
 was carried away and roasted to death on a gridiron, 
 but those that were with him said that the flames could 
 not hurt his spirit. 
 
 When the two boys returned home after the trial of 
 Lawrence, their father repeated his opinion that the 
 Christians were traitors, and worthy of punishment, 
 but still he believed that Lawrence should have been 
 given a fair trial. 
 
 " Such mock trials as these of the Christians," he said 
 in indignation, "should not be allowed in an age like our 
 own. They are a dark blot on our Roman civilization." 
 
 He told his sons, too, that he agreed with the teach- 
 ings of Lawrence concerning the rights of slaves. 
 
 " Some of the leading judges of Rome have now come 
 to believe, like the Christians, that all men, including 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 89 
 
 slaves, have equal rights as human beings. With the 
 Christians, this belief is a part of their religion. With 
 the Romans it is the result of practical experience in 
 the law courts." 
 
 Again our view widens, and we see the Roman Empire 
 in all its vastness. 
 
 We look down over a changed Europe. Wherever the 
 Roman soldiers have marched and conquered, they have 
 carried with them the civilization of Rome. The thick 
 green veil of the ancient forests has been torn down and 
 broken in places by the axe of the woodman. In the con- 
 quered lands, or Roman provinces, big cities have been 
 built on the plan of Rome, and they are surrounded with 
 cultivated fields and pastures. Connecting the cities there 
 are long white lines running over hundreds and hundreds 
 of miles, from north to south and crossing each other, 
 carving up the continent. These are the Roman roads, 
 built of great blocks of stone, so solid that some of them 
 are to last two thousand years. 
 
 Time passes, and we visit, in thought, a city of the 
 Roman provinces in the fourth century after Christ. It is 
 well-built and ft) ell-drained, like a modern city. We 
 learn that the Romans have educated their subjects, and 
 given them the full rights of Roman citizenship. Even 
 slaves are beginning to receive consideration as human 
 beings. For a moment we enter a law court, and we hear 
 a Roman lawyer saying that " all men, enslaved or free, 
 should be recognized as equals under the law of nature, 
 or the law of humanity" This is one of the great prin- 
 
90 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ciples of democracy which we owe to Rome. Those who 
 to-day believe in lynch law are setting back the progress 
 of democracy and justice by almost two thousand years. 
 
 The Roman spirit has become more kindly, but there 
 are signs of weakness in this fine city of the provinces. 
 A taxgatherer is trying to collect taxes for the Emperor. 
 He loudly complains that the citizens are giving him too 
 little. He says that the conquered peoples have borrowed 
 the Roman desire for ease and luxury, but that they have 
 become lazy and sluggish like slaves. Out in the fields 
 the countrymen are working against their will, without 
 energy and without ambition. Though Roman law has 
 discovered one of the great principles of democracy, there 
 is very little democracy or freedom in the government 
 as a whole. 
 
 Now a Roman camp comes into our sight. We see the 
 soldiers of the late Empire, and many of them are pale 
 and flabby, very different from the fierce, hardy fighters 
 who were their forefathers. Nor are they so brave. They 
 know that it is becoming more and more difficult to pro- 
 tect the Empire against the attacks of the northern tribes. 
 
 Then our vision sweeps once more over the whole con- 
 tinent of Europe. 
 
 The tribes of fair-haired, blue-eyed northerners, strong 
 and restless, are migrating from one country to another, 
 fighting, plundering, and pillaging. Some of them have 
 become civilized, like the Romans; others,. far off in the 
 wilds and backlands, are still half-savage. 
 
 In wave -after wave of invasion, the northerners beat 
 against the resistance of the Roman armies. Finally the 
 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 91 
 
 tide rises and breaks through, and the barbarians sweep 
 down through the Empire. In the year 4.55, the city of 
 Rome is sacked by Vandals. We see the great civilization 
 of Greece and Rome crumbling. Heavy mists and clouds 
 gather before our eyes, and there passes below us the con- 
 fusion that is known as the Dark Ages. 
 
 Centuries go by. Gradually the mists of our ignorance 
 rise, and we see the life below us becoming more settled. 
 The northerners have intermarried with the subjects 
 of Rome, and the descendants of these mixed races 
 begin, slowly and feebly, to build up a new civiliza- 
 tion in Europe. 
 
 We begin to wonder what are the habits and customs 
 of these northern tribes, from whom so many of the 
 civilized people of to-day are directly descended. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: During the Roman Empire, democ- 
 racy suffered defeat in one branch of government but gained a 
 lasting victory in another. Show how this was so. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. What is the meaning of the word despotism? 
 
 2. What were the effects of despotism upon the character and 
 morals of the Roman mob? 
 
 3. Describe the luxuries of Rome. 
 
 4. What was the Roman Senate? 
 
 5. What words did the people use when they hailed Caesar? 
 
 6. Was the Senator's wife allowed to attend the Emperor's 
 feast? 
 
 7. Do you believe it is good for a man to live in such great 
 luxury as that of the Roman Emperor? Why? 
 
92 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 8. Compare the different epitaphs in the Catacombs, and say 
 which you consider the most beautiful. 
 
 9. What did the Romans think of the early Christians? 
 
 10. What was the attitude of the early Christians toward the 
 poor and the slaves? 
 
 11. Why was the new justice of Rome called the Law of 
 Humanity? 
 
 12. What do you think of the practice of lynching? Give 
 reasons for your opinion. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ICELAND; THE NEIGHBORHOOD THING AND THE 
 ALL-THING 
 
 1. GUNNAR AND HALLGERDA 
 
 2. HALLGERDA STEALS CHEESE AND BUTTER 
 
 3. THE LAWSUIT 
 
 4. THE DEATH OF GUNNAR 
 
 The people from whom we can learn the most about the 
 ancient customs of the northerners are the Icelanders of the 
 tenth century, living on the remote island of Iceland, far 
 up in the northern seas, near the Arctic Zone. 
 
 The language of these Icelanders resembles Old English 
 and Old German. The Icelanders, the Norwegians, the 
 Swedes, the Germans, and the English are all descended 
 from the same ancient tribe called the Germanic tribe, and 
 their ancient customs are very much alike. 
 
 Let us imagine that we are journeying from Rome to 
 the far north, passing over Europe and over the British 
 Isles. We see great icebergs floating in the northern seas, 
 and there rises up to us the song of Icelandic seamen, 
 pulling at their oars: 
 
 Magnus, listen to our mighty song! 
 Your warship dashed over big sea waves! 
 Little did you fear, though the masts were quivering, 
 Though the planks of the boat, ice-sprinkled, cracked, 
 Though the figurehead rattled in the rolling waves! 
 The ocean boiled and the billows were tossing! 
 
 93 
 
94 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The prow of the wooden Viking boat curls high up 
 out of the water. It is carved with a strange figurehead 
 from which icicles hang. 
 
 It is night, and the dead of winter. The island of Ice- 
 land appears to us, covered with ice and snow glittering 
 blue-white in the dazzling light of the moon which is 
 shining out of a steel-blue sky. 
 
 On a lonely farm, we see an old Icelandic house that 
 looks something like a polar bear sitting on its haunches. 
 The prickly thatch of the roof is laden with deep snow, 
 like soft white fur, and in front there is a doorway below 
 two pointed gables, like a bear s snout and ears. Long 
 icicles reach from the roof almost to the ground. 
 
 Inside the house, the trunk of a live tree is growing in 
 the middle of the hall, as a framework to the whole build- 
 ing. There is an open fireplace in a corner, where huge 
 logs of wood are flaming and roaring. A little boy, with 
 fair hair, blue eyes, and a snub nose, is sitting in the fire- 
 light, listening to a long story that is being told to him by 
 an old man. 
 
 As we, too, listen, we learn that our ancestors of the 
 Germanic tribes had many strange, half-savage customs. 
 
 The Norsemen knew nothing of the Roman Law of 
 Humanity, that ""all men should be recognized as equals}' 
 On the contrary, the lives of Norse freemen and slaves 
 were considered of very unequal value. On most of the 
 farms in Iceland there were a number of poor servants, or 
 slaves, called "thralls." These miserable men were much 
 to be pitied, because their lives were held so cheap. There 
 was no punishment for the murder of a thrall beyond the 
 
ICELAND 95 
 
 payment of a small fine, called blood money. According 
 to Icelandic law, twelve ounces in silver was considered a 
 fair price for a thrall, but when a freeman had been 
 killed, the price of the blood money was from one hundred 
 to two hundred ounces in silver. Killing was considered 
 no great crime, and murders were very common. 
 
 Women and thralls took no part in the government of 
 Iceland, which was a direct democracy of the freemen. 
 The Icelanders had no king or emperor. The freemen gov- 
 erned themselves, meeting together for that purpose in 
 assemblies that they called " Things." The entire island 
 was divided into many different neighborhoods, and each 
 neighborhood had its own meeting, but besides all the 
 neighborhood " Things," there was one big meeting called 
 the " All- Thing," attended by all the freemen of Iceland. 
 Here laws were passed concerning the whole island, and 
 here important lawsuits were tried. 
 
 The story that the old Icelander is telling is the story of 
 a blood feud, part of an old Icelandic neighborhood tale. 
 
 GUNNAR AND HALLGERDA 1 
 
 Once a man named Hauskuld asked his friends to a 
 feast, and his brother Hrut was there and sat next to 
 him. Hauskuld's daughter Hallgerda was playing on 
 the floor with some other girls. She was fair of face, 
 and tall of growth, and her hair was as soft as silk. 
 
 1 Adapted from The Saga of Burnt Nyal, translated by Sir George 
 Webbe Dasent. The pictures in this chapter are taken from a book of 
 old Scandinavian sagas, or legends. 
 
96 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 It was so long, too, that it came down to her knees. 
 Hauskuld said to Hrut, "What do you think of my 
 girl?" Hrut was silent. Hauskuld said the same thing 
 to him a second time, and then Hrut answered, "The 
 
 girl is fair enough, 
 and many will suffer 
 for her beauty; but 
 this I know not, 
 whence thief's eyes 
 have come into our 
 race." 
 
 Hallgerda grew up, 
 and became most 
 beautiful to look up- 
 on. She was so tall, 
 too, that she was 
 called "Longcoat." 
 Her hair was so long 
 that she could hide 
 herself in it. But she 
 had a bad temper, 
 and she was wasteful 
 and hard-hearted. 
 The next person who comes into the story is 
 Gunnar. 
 
 Gunnar was a tall man in growth and a strong man 
 best skilled in fighting of all Icelanders. He could cut 
 or thrust or shoot if he chose as well with his left hand 
 as with his right hand, and he cut so swiftly with his 
 sword that three swords seemed to flash through the 
 
 HALLGERDA 
 
ICELAND 97 
 
 air at once. He could leap higher than his own height, 
 and he could swim like a seal. His nose was straight, 
 but a little turned up at the tip. His hair was fair, he 
 was blue-eyed, and bright-eyed, and ruddy-cheeked. 
 The most gentle of men was he, but of sturdy body and 
 strong will a fast friend, but hard to please when 
 making friends. He was wealthy in goods. He had 
 been the captain of a ship, but now he lived on his own 
 land as a farmer. The farms in Iceland were lonely and 
 far apart, so that men saw little of each other, stay- 
 ing on their farms, snow-bound, through the wintry 
 months, but in the summer they all came together at 
 the Things, and there they formed their friendships. 
 
 Nyal was the name of Gunnar's greatest friend. 
 Nyal, too, was a farmer, wealthy in goods and hand- 
 some of face, but no beard grew on his chin. In Ice- 
 land at that time it was thought shameful and woman- 
 ish for a man to have a smooth cheek. But Nyal was 
 so great a lawyer that his equal was not to be found. 
 Wise, too, was he, and fore-knowing and foresighted. 
 Bergthora was the name of his wife. Bergthora was a 
 very high-spirited, brave-hearted woman, but some- 
 what hard-tempered. 
 
 One summer Gunnar and Nyal rode to the All- 
 Thing together. The All-Thing was held every sum- 
 mer out in an open field, called the Thing-Field. It 
 lasted several days, and so the men who attended it 
 put up little huts where they could sleep. 
 
 Gunnar and Nyal set up their huts and stayed to- 
 gether for perhaps a week. In the daytime they went 
 
98 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 up with the other freemen on the Hill of Laws, for 
 there they made their laws and settled their lawsuits; 
 and in the evenings they gathered together with their 
 friends and feasted, and listened to neighborhood 
 stories. Some women were at the All-Thing, but not 
 very many. 
 
 It happened one day that Gunnar came down from 
 the Hill of Laws, and passed by many huts. Presently 
 he saw a woman coming to meet him. She was well- 
 dressed and very beautiful. She told him that she 
 was Hallgerda, Hauskuld's daughter. They sat them 
 down and talked. Hallgerda was so clad that she had 
 on a red dress, with a scarlet cloak thrown about her 
 that was trimmed with needlework down to the waist. 
 Gunnar was also clad in scarlet clothes, and he had a 
 great gold ring on his arm. 
 
 So they talked long together, until at last it came 
 about that he asked whether she were unmarried. She 
 said, "Yes, so it is; I am unmarried, but I fancy 
 there are not many men who would dare run the risk 
 of marrying me!" 
 
 "Do you think no man is good enough for you?" 
 
 "Not that," she answered, "but still I am said to be 
 hard to please in husbands." 
 
 "How would you answer, if I were to ask for you?" 
 
 "If you have any mind that way, go and see my 
 father." 
 
 Gunnar went to see Hauskuld and Hrut in their hut, 
 and they told him all unasked about Hallgerda's 
 temper, and Gunnar at first thought there was more 
 
ICELAND 99 
 
 than enough that was wanting, but at last it came about 
 that they struck a bargain, and the marriage took 
 place. Hallgerda took the housekeeping of Gunnar's 
 house in her charge, and she stood up for her rights in 
 word and deed. 
 
 Now it was the custom between Gunnar and his 
 friend Nyal that each invited the other to a feast, 
 winter and winter about, for friendship's sake; and it 
 was Gunnar's turn to go and feast at Nyal's. So Gun- 
 nar and Hallgerda set off for Nyal's farm, where Nyal 
 gave them a hearty welcome. 
 
 Down the length of Nyal's hall were seats where the 
 men folk sat, but the women folk always sat on a cross- 
 bench upon a platform at the upper end. Bergthora, 
 Nyal's wife, went up to the cross-bench with one of 
 her daughters-in-law, and said to Hallgerda, <; 'You 
 must give up your place to my daughter-in-law." 
 
 Hallgerda answered, "To no one shall I give up 
 my place! I will not be driven into the corner for 
 anyone!" 
 
 From this time on there was bad feeling between 
 Hallgerda and Bergthora, though their husbands re- 
 mained fast friends. 
 
 After Hallgerda came home from the feast, she began 
 to wonder how she might pay back Bergthora for her 
 rudeness. She wanted to spite Bergthora and she also 
 wanted to make trouble between Gunnar and Nyal. 
 In the end she decided to send one of her thralls to kill 
 one of Nyal's thralls. She knew that Gunnar was so 
 wealthy that he could easily afford to pay Nyal the 
 
100 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 blood money for a thrall, but she hoped that some 
 dispute might arise over the payment. 
 
 So she waited until the next summer, when Gunnar 
 and Nyal rode away as usual to the neighborhood 
 Thing together. As soon as their backs were turned, 
 she told one of her housefolk to kill one of the thralls 
 who worked for Bergthora; then later she sent word to 
 Gunnar, at the Thing, to tell him of the killing. Gunnar 
 said no hard words of Hallgerda to the messengers, 
 and those around him did not know at first whether 
 he thought well of it, or ill. A little later, he stood up 
 and asked his men to go with him to Nyal's booth. 
 
 Nyal held his tongue while Gunnar told him the whole 
 story. Then he said, "You must not let her have her 
 way in everything. But I will not push- this matter 
 very far. We can settle it privately between us here. 
 You shall pay me twelve ounces in silver, a fair price 
 for a thrall, but I will add this condition, that if any- 
 thing happens from our farm later on, for which you 
 will have to ask a payment, you will not be less easy 
 as to terms." 
 
 Gunnar paid the money out of hand, and rode home. 
 
 In Iceland the law of revenge ruled: an eye for an 
 eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. The next 
 summer, Bergthora had her revenge, and sent a man to 
 kill one of Hallgerda's thralls. When Nyal heard of 
 the deed, at the Thing, he took a purse holding twelve 
 ounces in silver and handed it to Gunnar. Gunnar 
 looked at the money and saw that it was the very 
 same that he had paid to Nyal the year before. 
 
ICELAND ; 101 
 
 And so the blood feud went on between the .C 
 women until six men had been killed, three on either 
 side. The blood money passed back and forth between 
 Gunnar and Nyal. But they remained fast friends, 
 for nothing could shake their friendship. 
 
 Gunnar was troubled over the death of the thralls. 
 "I should like to know," he said to himself, "whether 
 I am less brave and less brisk than other men because 
 I think more of the killing of a thrall than others do ? " 
 
 HALLGERDA STEALS CHEESE AND BUTTER 
 
 In the next winter, which was very cold, there came 
 a great scarcity of food, so that men fell short of both 
 meat and hay, and the scarcity spread over all parts of 
 Iceland. Gunnar shared out his hay and meat with 
 many men, and all got them who came to his farm, 
 so long as his stores lasted. Finally it came about that 
 Gunnar himself fell short of both hay and meat. 
 
 So he went to see a wealthy man named Otkell, and 
 said to him, "It so happens that I am come to deal 
 with you for hay and meat." 
 
 Otkell answered, '"I have good store of both, but I 
 will sell you neither." 
 
 Gunnar turned away without saying a word, and in 
 the end he got all the hay and meat he wanted from 
 Nyal. But Hallgerda held a spite against Otkell for 
 his rude answer. In the summer, when Gunnar had 
 ridden off to the Thing, as soon as his back was turned, 
 she sent one of her thralls to OtkelPs farm, bidding 
 
1C2 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 'him 'steal ".all the cheese and butter he could lay hands 
 on, and then set fire to Otkell's storehouse. When 
 Gunnar and his friends came back from the Thing, 
 Hallgerda set food on the table, and in came cheese 
 and butter. Cheese and butter were thought delicate 
 food in Iceland at that time, and Gunnar knew that 
 such delicate food was not to be looked for in his house. 
 He asked Hallgerda whence it came. 
 
 "From a good place," said she. 'You may well eat 
 of it. Besides, it is no man's business to trouble him- 
 self with the housekeeping." 
 
 Gunnar became angry, and said, "It is a bad thing 
 if I am a partner with a thief," and with that he gave 
 her a slap on the cheek. 
 
 Hallgerda said she would bear that slap in mind 
 and repay it if she could. 
 
 So she went off and he went with her, and then the 
 cheese and butter that were on the table were cleared 
 away, and flesh-meat was brought in instead. All 
 thought it was because the flesh-meat had been got 
 in a better way. 
 
 By and by one of Otkell's men told him there was no 
 doubt in his mind but that Hallgerda was the thief, so 
 Otkell followed out this plan. He told some women to 
 go about from house to house with small things to sell, 
 and give them to the housewives, and mark what was 
 given them in return. 
 
 "For," said he to himself, " 'tis the turn of mind of 
 all men first to give away what has been stolen, if they 
 have it in their keeping; and so it will be here also." 
 
ICELAND 103 
 
 The women went about the country, and they were 
 away half a month. When they came back they had 
 big bundles. They said Hallgerda had been most 
 generous to them. 
 
 He asked what she had given them. 
 
 "Cheese," said they. 
 
 He begged to see it, and they showed it to him. It 
 was in great slices. These he took and kept. 
 
 Shortly after this, Gunnar's brother, Kolskegg, fell 
 to talking with Gunnar and said, "I hate to tell you, 
 but the story is in every man's mouth that Hallgerda 
 must have stolen, and that she was at the bottom of all 
 that great fire at Otkell's." 
 
 Gunnar said that he too thought that must be so. 
 "But what is to be done now?" 
 
 Kolskegg answered, "You will think it your duty to 
 make payment for your wife's wrong, and settle this mat- 
 ter privately, as between you and Otkell alone. You 
 should go to see Otkell and make him a handsome offer." 
 
 Accordingly Gunnar went to see Otkell and made him 
 several handsome offers, being willing to pay twice the 
 worth of what was lost, but Otkell refused them all 
 and would have none of them and would not settle the 
 matter in a friendly way. He was angry, and nothing 
 would satisfy him but to have it settled openly at the 
 All-Thing in front of all the neighbors. He wanted to 
 summon Gunnar according to the law, and bring a 
 lawsuit against him. 
 
 And so the time went on until the last of the sum- 
 moning days before the All-Thing. 
 
104 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Otkell and his men, twelve of them, rode to Gunnar's 
 farm. Gunnar was out-of-doors and knew nothing of 
 their coming until they had ridden right up to the 
 house. Otkell did not go in, but thundered out the lawful 
 summons then and there. He said he accused Gunnar's 
 wife of stealing his cheese and butter, and of setting 
 fire to his storehouse, and he called upon Gunnar to 
 attend the All-Thing and make lawful payment. His 
 summons was all correctly worded according to the law. 
 
 Now Gunnar was angry because Otkell had refused 
 to settle the matter in a friendly way, and had wished 
 to put him to shame before all the neighbors. He made 
 up his mind not to give any money payment fixed by 
 Otkell, but to stand up for himself and fight the quarrel 
 out in a duel. It was an ancient custom in Iceland 
 that a man might always challenge his enemy to fight 
 a duel if he did not wish to make a money payment in 
 a lawsuit. 
 
 So when Gunnar arrived at the All-Thing, he chal- 
 lenged Otkell to fight a duel. Otkell knew he had no 
 chance in a fight against Gunnar, so he gave in at once. 
 Gunnar fixed the payment to suit himself, and lost 
 nothing by the lawsuit, indeed he had the greatest 
 honor from it; but Otkell was bitter, and felt very 
 angry with him. 
 
 It happened the next spring that Otkell was riding 
 in the direction of Gunnar's farm, and his horse began 
 to gallop. Now Gunnar was in his seed field, sowing his 
 corn there, and presently he laid his cloak of fine stuff 
 and his axe down by his side, stooping low to do so. 
 
ICELAND 105 
 
 Now it must be told that Otkell was riding faster 
 than he wanted to ride because his horse was frisky. 
 He had spurs on his feet, and he galloped down over 
 the ploughed field, and neither he nor Gunnar saw the 
 other. Just as Gunnar stood upright, Otkell rode down 
 upon him and drove one of his spurs into Gunnar' s 
 ear, giving him a great gash which bled at once freely. 
 Then Otkell's companions rode up. 
 
 "You may see, all of you," said Gunnar, "that 
 Otkell has drawn my blood, and it is unworthy to go 
 on so. First he summoned me, and now he treads me 
 under foot and rides over me." 
 
 Gunnar went home, and never said a word to any- 
 one about what had happened, and no one thought 
 that this wound could have come by man's doing. But 
 soon after this Gunnar and Kolskegg met Otkell and 
 his men, eight of them together, in a lonely place. 
 Then and there they fought out their quarrel, until 
 Otkell and all his men were killed, Gunnar and Kolskegg 
 being unhurt. 
 
 "I should like to know," said Gunnar again to him- 
 self, as he rode home, "whether I am less brave and 
 less brisk than other men, because I think with more 
 regret of killing men than they do?" 
 
 The news of the killing was spread far and wide and 
 a message was sent to the nearest relations of Otkell, 
 who were called Gizur the White and Geir the Priest. 
 It was the duty of these men, as his nearest relations, 
 to revenge Otkell; for they had the blood feud after 
 him, as the saying went. 
 
106 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 THE SLAYING OF OTKELL 
 
 A little later, they rode up to the spot where the 
 fight had been, dug up the bodies, and took witness as 
 to the number of the wounds. After that they gave 
 lawful notice, and summoned nine neighbors to bear 
 witness in the suit. 
 
 Then they rode back home. The news that the law- 
 suit was set on foot was spread all over the country, 
 and the saying ran that the Thing would be very noisy 
 and stormy. 
 
 THE LAWSUIT 
 
 Now all the people came to the Thing and fitted up 
 their huts. Men went up to the Hill of Laws, and then 
 Geir the Priest stood up and gave notice that he had a 
 
ICELAND 107 
 
 suit of manslaughter against Gunnar for the killing 
 of Otkell. Other suits were brought against Gunnar 
 and Kolskegg for the slaying of Otkell's followers. 
 After that, the men went down from the Hill of Laws, 
 and so the Thing went on till the day when the courts 
 were to be set to try lawsuits. Then both sides 
 gathered their men together in great strength. Geir 
 the Priest and Gizur the White stood looking to the 
 north, while Gunnar and Nyal stood looking toward 
 the south. 
 
 Geir the Priest told Gunnar to listen to his oath, 
 and then he took the oath and afterwards declared 
 his suit. After this the nine neighbors who had borne 
 witness to the number of wounds on the dead bodies 
 told exactly what they had seen. These nine neigh- 
 bors were called the inquest. Questions were asked 
 on both sides. In the end a priest who was one 
 of the wisest of lawyers said, "It seems as though 
 the most satisfactory way of ending the suit would 
 be a peaceful settlement by the payment of blood 
 money/' 
 
 So it was decided, by the counsel of the wisest men, 
 that all the suits should be decided by a jury; that is, 
 twelve men were to make a judgment on the matter. 
 The men were soon chosen, and their judgment was 
 uttered then and there at the Thing. 
 
 The judgment was that the blood money for Otkell's 
 death was to be set off against the hurt Gunnar got 
 from the spur, and as for the rest of the manslaughters, 
 they were to be paid for after the worth of the men. 
 
THE THING 
 
ICELAND 109 
 
 Gunnar's relations contributed money so that all the 
 fines might be paid up at once. 
 
 Gunnar rode home from the Thing, and thanked the 
 men for their help, and gave gifts to many. He got the 
 greatest honor from the suit. After this he stayed at 
 home. 
 
 THE DEATH OF GUNNAR 
 
 Otkell's relations could not stand this settlement of 
 the matter, so they thought out a plan and laid it deep. 
 Gunnar was too strong a fighter for them to meet in 
 the open, so they plotted a secret murder. One night 
 when Gunnar was sleeping in his bed, they came in a 
 large company to kill him secretly Geir the Priest, 
 Gizur the White, and many others. 
 
 Gunnar's house was made all of wood, and roofed 
 with big logs cut into shape, and there were window 
 openings under the logs that carried the roof, and 
 the windows were fitted with shutters. Gunnar slept 
 in a loft above the hall, and so did his mother and 
 Hallgerda. 
 
 Now when the murderers came near the house, they 
 knew not whether Gunnar was at home, so they sent 
 one man ahead to find out. This man crept forward 
 and began to climb up on the house. Gunnar awoke 
 and saw a red cloak passing across the window open- 
 ing. He quickly thrust out his bill and hit the man 
 in the middle. The bill was a weapon much used in 
 those days, a sort of hook-shaped blade at the end 
 of a long stick. The man's feet slipped from under 
 
110 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 him, and he dropped his shield. Down he toppled 
 from the roof. 
 
 Then the others made for the outhouses. Gunnar 
 shot arrows at them and made a stout defense, and 
 they could get nothing done. 
 
 Some ropes lay on the ground which were often 
 used to strengthen the roof. Geir the Priest said, 
 "Let us take these ropes and throw one end over the 
 logs that support the roof, and let us fasten the other 
 end to these rocks and twist them tight, and so pull 
 the whole roof off the hall." 
 
 So they took the ropes and all lent a hand to carry 
 this out, and before Gunnar was aware of it, they had 
 pulled the whole roof off the hall. 
 
 Just then one of the men sprang up on the open wall 
 and cut in two Gunnar's bowstring. Gunnar clutched 
 his bill with both hands, and turning on the man quick- 
 ly, drove it through him and hurled him down to the 
 ground. Then up sprang another man. Gunnar thrust 
 at him with his bill and he threw his shield before 
 the blow, but the bill passed clean through the shield, 
 and broke both the man's arms. Down he fell from 
 the wall. 
 
 Thus Gunnar wounded eight more men and killed 
 two. By that time he himself had received two wounds, 
 and all men said he never once winced either at wounds 
 or death. Then he said to Hallgerda, "Woman, cut 
 me two locks of your long hair; and you two, my 
 mother and you, twist them together into a bowstring 
 for me." 
 
ICELAND 
 
 111 
 
 "Does anything depend on it?" Hallgerda asked. 
 
 "My life depends on it," he said, "for they will 
 never come to close quarters with me if I can keep 
 them off with my bow." 
 
 "Well," said she, "I'll not do it now I will recall 
 to your mind that slap on the face which you gave me, 
 
 THE FIGHT AROUND GUNNAR'S HOUSE 
 
 and I don't care a whit whether you hold out a long 
 while or a short." 
 
 "Everyone has something to boast of," said Gunnar, 
 "and I will not ask you twice for a favor." 
 
 Gunnar made a stout and bold defense, and now 
 wounded eight other men with such sore wounds that 
 many of them lay at death's door. Gunnar kept them 
 all off until at last he fell, worn out with toil. They 
 wounded him with great and many wounds, and he 
 held his own against them a little while longer, but in 
 the end it came about that they killed him. 
 
112 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Then Gizur spoke and said, "We have laid to earth 
 a mighty chief, and hard work has it been. The fame 
 of this defense of his shall last as long as men live in 
 this land." 
 
 Gunnar's death was a great grief to many a man, and 
 it was very hard for Nyal to bear. 
 
 The story is ended. The old Icelander leaves his chair 
 to bank the fire for the night. The little fair-haired boy 
 nods, already half asleep. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: In this story we return to a state of 
 half-barbarism, a turning point in the early history of a great 
 western race when the rule of law and justice is beginning to 
 replace the rule of might and bloodshed in the settlement of 
 personal quarrels. Mention happenings in the story that show 
 the truth of the various parts of this statement. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. Describe a meeting of the Thing. 
 
 2. In what ways did the democracy of Iceland resemble that 
 of Athens. 
 
 3. Which were the classes of people that were not allowed to 
 take part in the government of Iceland ? 
 
 4. What was a blood feud? 
 
 5. Does the payment of blood money for a murder remind 
 you of any other barbaric custom described earlier in this book? 
 
 6. How much blood money was asked for the life of a thrall ? 
 How much for the life of a freeman? 
 
 7. How were thralls treated in Iceland? 
 
 8. What was the position of women in Iceland as compared 
 with that of Greek women? As compared with that of American 
 women to-day? 
 
ICELAND 113 
 
 9. At the All-Thing, Gunnar offers to settle his legal quarrel 
 with Otkell by fighting a duel. Should we to-day consider that a 
 just method of settling a personal dispute? Why? 
 
 10. Do you consider that the old custom of duelling is any 
 worse than the modern custom of settling disputes between nations 
 by warfare ? Give reasons for your opinion. 
 
 11. Of the Icelandic customs described in this story, which 
 were the most cruel and barbaric? On the other hand, which were 
 the most progressive, tending toward future civilization and order ? 
 
 12. Do you think that democracy, or self-government, had any 
 effect on the character of the freemen of Iceland? What qualities 
 of character were shown by Gunnar and Nyal? 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 1. RICHARD CCEUR DE LION 
 
 2. LEOFRIC AND GODIVA 
 
 3. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHERS' GILD 
 
 4. THE SHIRE MEETING 
 
 Now we fare southward from Iceland and cross the 
 northern seas to England in the British Isles. 
 
 Rain clouds, fogs, and chilly droughts wrap them- 
 selves around this little island, clinging to it as though 
 they were unwilling to leave it. But a warm breeze blows 
 up from the south. The clouds part for a moment and a 
 patch of blue sky appears. In the watery sunlight we see 
 green woods and rich grassy slopes washed in the 
 recent rain, and fields of wet spring flowers, refreshing 
 to our eyes. 
 
 The people of this island are to spread around the 
 whole earth, and become the rulers of one of the great 
 empires of history. North America will be settled by 
 them as a colony, and thus English men and women 
 will be among the first founders of our country. But 
 before we come to the story of the Settlement of Virginia, 
 and the story of the Pilgrims who leave England in the 
 Mayflower in 1620, we wish to see the mother country 
 as it was in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Our thoughts pass over many centuries. 
 
 114 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 115 
 
 The half-savage early Britons are first conquered 
 by the Romans, and later Britain is invaded by many 
 tribes of Northerners, whose customs, are like those of 
 the Icelanders. 
 
 All over Europe during the Dark Ages, power and 
 authority are falling into the hands of rough leaders who 
 are skilled in warfare and able to surround themselves 
 with bands of strong fighters looking for adventure. 
 These leaders are given various titles which become 
 hereditary, that is to say, they are handed down from 
 father to son. The highest title is that of emperor, or 
 king, and below the king come the nobles the dukes, the 
 earls, and the barons. 
 
 In 1066, England is conquered by a great fighter called 
 William the Norman (or Northerner), Duke of Normandy, 
 who 'makes himself king of England and gives large 
 estates of land to his Norman followers dukes, earls, 
 and barons. 
 
 Rich from conquest and plunder, the fighting earls and 
 barons build strong castles in which they can defend 
 themselves in their private wars. In the neighborhood of 
 these strong castles live poor country folk in villages of 
 miserable little huts, made of wood and straw. The com- 
 mon people are weak and defenseless in this age of con- 
 fusion and fighting, and they are obliged to seek the 
 protection of the nobles. 
 
 In return for his protection a nobleman forces the 
 country j oik to become his "tenants"; he makes them work 
 in his fields under the oversight of a "bailiff" ; and he 
 makes them pay tribute. The poorest countrymen are 
 
116 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 called "serfs" and the serfs are little better off than 
 slaves or thralls, because they are not free to leave their 
 master's service. 
 
 As hundreds of years pass, some of the larger villages, 
 or towns, become rich centers of trade, and the citizens 
 manage to shake off their duties to the noblemen, owing 
 duty to the king only, which they pay in the form of money 
 taxes. The citizens are allowed to govern their own cities, 
 and they come to be much more independent than the 
 country folk. 
 
 The king is the chief ruler of England, but he does not 
 have absolute power, like the Roman Emperor. The 
 power of government is shared by a group of men called 
 the "Parliament" The men meeting in this Parliament, 
 and not the king, decide how much money shall be raised 
 by taxes. At first, only bishops and noblemen sit in Parlia- 
 ment, but later it is attended by knights and townsfolk 
 from every county (or shire), and from every city in 
 England. These knights and townsfolk are true represent- 
 atives of the people, and it is their duty to stand up for 
 the rights of the people in Parliament. They are elected 
 by the vote of the people of every shire and town at meetings 
 called "shire meetings." Their election marks the begin- 
 ning of what is known as representative government in 
 England, that is, government by elected representatives, 
 such as we have in the United States. 
 
 The story of Richard Cceur de Lion and that of Leofric 
 and Godiva are both based on old English histories written 
 in the early Middle Ages. The story of Robin Hood and 
 the Butchers' Gild, probably fanciful, is based on an 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 117 
 
 old English tale. As to " The Shire Meeting" no exact 
 description of an early shire meeting written by an eye- 
 witness has come down to us, so this account merely 
 describes what historians believe to have been the condi- 
 tions of an election. 
 
 RICHARD CCEUR DE LION 
 
 King Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lion- 
 hearted, was a brave king and the very flower of 
 knighthood. He was tall, his hair was between red 
 and gold, his legs were straight and graceful, and 
 his arms were long. He was very skillful in the use 
 of a sword. 
 
 From boyhood up, fighting had been his favorite 
 pastime. In games and tournaments of knights, he 
 did marvellous deeds of arms, and so, when he came 
 to the throne, his first thought was not of the duties of 
 kingship, but of warfare. 
 
 Soon after he was crowned king, Richard summoned 
 a meeting of Parliament. Parliament was held in the 
 King's Great Hall at Westminster. King Richard 
 himself, wearing his crown, sat on a richly decorated 
 throne, on a platform at one end of the hall. His fa- 
 vorite barons and bishops sat on benches close to the 
 King, while the lesser barons and bishops filled the 
 body of the hall. The meeting was opened with a 
 flourish of trumpets. 1 
 
 1 This description is based on an account of a meeting of the Common 
 Council which actually took place, though a few years later. 
 
A MEETING OF PARLIAMENT 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 119 
 
 The King's Chancellor, or chief adviser, rose up and 
 said to the barons: 
 
 "My Lord the King wishes you to know that he is 
 in need of money. He plans to raise a great army, and 
 build many ships, and he asks you earnestly to help 
 him in this matter by filling the treasury with gold." 
 
 To this request, the barons listened with their usual 
 indignation. A murmur mingled with groans and grief 
 sounded through the hall, and several of the more 
 miserly barons were heard to complain that money 
 was always being dragged out of them without their 
 getting the slightest profit from it, just as if they had 
 been slaves of the lowest class. 
 
 King Richard, seeing that his request had not been 
 well received, now rose up and made an eloquent 
 speech. 
 
 "The City of the Cross," he said, "the Holy City 
 of Jerusalem, is in the hands of the heathen Turks. 
 Together with the King of France, I have taken the 
 vow of the Cross, and I am burning with desire to run, 
 yea, to fly to the Holy Land, to avenge the wrongs of 
 Christ. It is for no selfish war, but for a holy Crusade 
 that I am needing men-at-arms, ships, and gold." 
 
 With such words and many others, King Richard 
 won over the hearts of his barons, and in the end, after 
 some complaint, they decided to give him a large sum 
 of money and goods, and also provide men for an army. 
 
 When King Richard had collected from his sub- 
 jects a great multitude of soldiers, and a large sum of 
 money, he sailed away to the Holy Land, leaving his 
 
120 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 kingdom in the hands of his Chancellor, who was his 
 chief minister. 
 
 The black wooden ships of the English, which carried 
 the King and his armies, flew like crows over the curl- 
 ing waves, and at last put in at the island of Cyprus, 
 where King Richard celebrated his marriage with a fair 
 lady named Berengaria. For a long time he had been 
 charmed with the beauty and graces of this princess. 
 Her father, the King of Navarre, was willing to give 
 her over to King Richard's care, and accordingly 
 sent Berengaria across the sea to accompany him 
 upon his crusade. 
 
 King Richard, it was said, was glorious upon this 
 happy occasion of his marriage, and cheerful to all. 
 He was magnificent to look at, and worthy of his 
 beautiful lady. Upon his head was a crown of gold, 
 his feet were decorated with golden spurs, and he was 
 clothed in a tunic of rose-colored stuff, ornamented 
 with crescent moons of solid silver. He wore a cloak 
 of white velvet, and around his shoulders was a cape 
 of figured silk. It was always his habit to be richly 
 dressed, because he felt that the appearance of a 
 king should be equal to his fame for glory, might, 
 and authority. 
 
 The marriage was celebrated in a great castle built on 
 a rocky hill. The castle seemed to grow out of the hill, 
 being like a rock itself. It was a great fortress of stone, 
 with high towers and thick walls. 
 
 When the marriage guests came into the huge, dark 
 hall of the castle, which was lighted with rushlights, 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 121 
 
 each one was placed according to his rank. Who could 
 count the number of dishes that were brought in, or the 
 different kinds of cups, or the crowds of servants in 
 splendid garments? At the end of the feast, King 
 Richard gave to each one of the nobles present, accord- 
 ing to his rank, a beautiful gold or silver cup, adorned 
 with precious stones. Richard was generous with his 
 wealth, and he thought that the day was lost on which 
 he gave nothing away. 
 
 Then he called for minstrels and musicians, for he 
 was himself a poet and a musician, and the musi- 
 cians made great music, and with them came the 
 tumblers and the jugglers and the dancers, until the 
 whole castle was filled with the din and noise of 
 merrymaking. 
 
 On the day following their marriage, King Richard 
 and his lady, together with their great armies of 
 knights and soldiers, sailed away from Cyprus to the 
 Holy Land. The city of Acre, in the Holy Land, was 
 held by the Turks, and was already being besieged by 
 the King of France. 
 
 On the high seas, the English met with a big ship 
 manned by the Turks, which, so they said, was bigger 
 than any other ship ever described, with the exception 
 of Noah's Ark. They attacked this ship and sank it. 
 Then King Richard and his men landed at Acre and 
 pitched their tents under the walls of that city. How 
 splendidly they were prepared for battle! They had 
 on costly armor and many-colored garments, and they 
 rode on great war horses and beautiful mules. They 
 
122 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 marched to and fro ready for battle, with flags and 
 gorgeous banners floating in the breeze. 
 
 Queen Berengaria now had to separate from King 
 Richard, and return home, because the camp of 
 the Crusaders under the walls of Acre lay open to 
 many dangers. 
 
 The first task of the English was the building of war 
 machines, for the tearing down of the high walls of the 
 
 city. Of these machines, 
 the most remarkable 
 were the cats and the 
 stone-throwers. The cats 
 were a kind of ladder, 
 used for scaling the 
 walls, and the stone- 
 throwers were huge ma- 
 chines which pounded 
 the city day and night 
 with large stones. The 
 King of France had a 
 stone-thrower which he 
 called Bad Neighbor, 
 and there was another 
 called Bad Kinsman. It 
 was said that a stone from Bad Neighbor, falling within 
 the city walls, would kill twelve Turks at a blow. The 
 chief weapon of the Turks, on the other hand, apart 
 from their arrows, was a kind of burning oil, called 
 Greek fire, which they poured down in flaming streams 
 upon the Crusaders. 
 
 A CRUSADER 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 123 
 
 After a long struggle, the Crusaders battered down 
 the walls of Acre, and the keys of the city were given 
 over to them. But now came an unexpected mis- 
 fortune. With Jerusalem still in the hands of the 
 Turks, and his crusade only begun, the King of France 
 broke his vow! Amid the wonder, the disapproval, 
 and the disgust of all the English, he suddenly left 
 Acre and returned to his own country. A great num- 
 ber of the French soldiers went back with him, and 
 King Richard and his men were left to carry on the 
 crusade alone. 
 
 Leaving Acre, the English marched through the 
 plains of the Holy Land, and engaged in many battles 
 with the armies of the Turks led by Saladin. Saladin 
 was a great warrior and a noble enemy, worthy of 
 Richard himself. Richard fought in the hottest and 
 thickest part of the battles, and he could always open 
 out a wide pathway for himself, cutting down Turks 
 right and left with his sword like lightning. 
 
 But ill luck was in store for the English. Before they 
 came near Jerusalem, winter set in with its floods of 
 rain, and the soldiers had to toil through deep mud, un- 
 til their once shining armor had become dull and rusty. 
 It is no wonder that they felt sad and disheartened. 
 In order to encourage them, King Richard, every night 
 before he lay down to rest, sent a messenger round 
 the camp crying in a loud voice, "Help! Help! for 
 the Holy Sepulchre!" The soldiers took up the cry 
 and repeated the words, stretching out their hands in 
 prayer to heaven. Nevertheless, good luck was not 
 
124 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 granted them. They were attacked with sickness and 
 famine and despair. 
 
 King Richard himself fell ill of a high fever. Saladin, 
 his generous enemy, heard of his sickness and sent him 
 snow from the mountain tops and fresh fruits. Then 
 Richard, not to be outdone in kindness and generosity, 
 sent for Saladin's nephew, and with his own hands 
 honored this young Turk with the belt of knighthood. 
 In the end a peace was made, and the Christians under 
 the protection of Saladin were allowed to visit the 
 Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But the Holy City still 
 remained in the hands of the Turks. 
 
 Such was the end of the Crusade that had been 
 undertaken so gloriously and in such high hope. 
 
 Many of the English had fallen in battle, and many 
 had died from famine and sickness. With the small 
 force that was left him, King Richard boarded a ship 
 and started homewards. But he was shipwrecked in 
 the Adriatic Sea, and had to travel home alone by 
 land, under a false name. On his way through Ger- 
 many he was recognized, and the Emperor of Germany 
 treacherously took him prisoner, and locked him up 
 in the dungeon of a big castle. The Emperor of 
 Germany knew that he could demand a large sum 
 of money from the people of England as a ransom for 
 their king. 
 
 For a long time the English did not know what had 
 become of Richard. It is said that he was at last 
 rescued by his favorite minstrel, a boy named Blondel. 
 Blondel wandered through many countries singing a 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 125 
 
 song that Richard had taught him, and finally he 
 traveled through Germany, visiting many of the 
 gloomy prison castles and fortresses of that country. 
 One day it chanced that he came to the castle where 
 Richard was imprisoned, and he heard his song echoed 
 from the depths of a dungeon. Whereupon he cried 
 out in joy, "O Richard, O my King!" 
 
 Soon after this, a great sum of gold to pay the 
 ransom was collected from Richard's subjects in 
 England, so that the King might return in happiness 
 to his own people and his own country. 
 
 LEOFRIC AND GODIVA 
 
 Once upon a time there was an earl of Chester called 
 Leofric, who lived with his wife, the noble countess 
 Godiva, near the town of Coventry in England. 
 
 This earl was a great warrior, broad of chest, bold 
 as a lion, fierce as a leopard, and quick to turn red 
 with anger. 
 
 His wife, the Lady Godiva, was a gracious lady, and 
 a great lover of the Virgin Mary. She was very good 
 and kind, and she did great deeds of charity, but she 
 had one fault, and that was that she talked too much. 
 
 Now this lord and lady of Chester lived in a manor 
 house, around which was dug a deep moat. Beyond the 
 moat were the fairest meadowlands in the world, be- 
 longing to the earl. Beyond the meadowlands lay the 
 little village, the ploughed strips and the common 
 pastures of the country folk of Chester, and beyond 
 
126 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 these was a fair forest in which the deer passed in 
 great herds. 
 
 The Earl Leofric left all the oversight of his manor 
 to his bailiff, and passed his time with his men-at- 
 arms, a-hunting deer and rabbits and wild swine, which 
 they would bring back to the manor and joyfully feast 
 upon together. 
 
 The Lady Godiva, for her part, sat at home working 
 with her needle and making robes and rich tapestries. 
 One of her fairest robes, which she wore on Easter 
 Sunday and other feast days, was skillfully embroidered 
 all over with little stars, in different colors, blue, 
 red, and green, and it was studded with jewels that 
 flashed more brightly than burning candles. 
 
 But it was not only upon her own robes that the 
 Lady Godiva spent her riches. She was known far 
 and wide for her great deeds of charity. Above all 
 things it was her fond desire to build a monastery. 
 
 At first, when she pleaded with her husband to build 
 a monastery, he would not hear of such a thing; but 
 she, with a woman's persistence and untiring tongue, 
 talked and talked and talked and talked of the mon- 
 astery until at last he gave in. A monastery was built 
 in Coventry big enough to house a prior and four and 
 twenty monks. The earl gave lands and goods to the 
 monastery, so that the prior became as rich and 
 powerful as any lord. The town was divided into 
 two halves, the EarPs half and the Prior's half, and the 
 men of Coventry were called Earl's men or Prior's 
 men, according as to where they lived. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 127 
 
 To complete their pious deed, Earl Leofric and his 
 lady also built a church in Coventry, which was one 
 of the glories of the age, and too narrow to hold all 
 the treasures within its walls. The Lady Godiva paid 
 down one hundred talents of silver and one talent of 
 gold for a famous relic, the arm of Saint Augustine; 
 moreover, she gave a necklace of jewels to hang around 
 the neck of an image of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Now, one morning in the gay month of May, it so 
 happened that the Lady Godiva was walking through 
 the meadows of the manor, listening to the song of 
 the lark over the cornfields. Around the manor house 
 there were pleasant gardens and cornfields, green 
 meadows shaded with oak trees, and orchards shower- 
 ing their white blossoms on the grass. The Lady 
 Godiva walked on and on, beyond the earl's land, 
 and beyond the ploughed strips, until she came to 
 the green pasture land of the country folk which 
 was called the Common. Here she saw little white 
 lambs feeding on the soft young grass, and a herd 
 of sleepy red and white cows guarded by the village 
 cowherd. 
 
 The Lady Godiva looked around her, and all seemed 
 pleasant in the sunshine. But suddenly her ears caught 
 a dreadful sound of groans and sobs, and turning 
 around, she saw, at a short distance, a poor serf seated 
 on a bank under a white hawthorn hedge. This poor 
 serf was one of the earl's shepherds and was known 
 in the village as "Simple Tim." He had laid down 
 his stick and was crying and sobbing and blubbering 
 
BUILDING A CHURCH 
 
 1. The architect; 2. Builders at work; 3. The prior; 4. Offering 
 up of the foundation charter; 5. The relics. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 129 
 
 aloud like a big child. He was homely to look at, with 
 a great red face and a shock of red hair, and his clothes 
 all made of leather. 
 
 When the Lady Godiva spoke and asked this poor 
 boy what troubled him, he blurted out his sorrow 
 between great sobs and sniffs: "O gracious lady, a 
 terrible misfortune has come upon me! I have lost 
 one of the earl's rams in the forest Joseph, the best 
 ram in the herd. O-o-o-oh! For this, Simon the bailiff 
 will drag me up before my lord at the Manorial Court 
 and have me thrown into the dungeon. O-o-o-oh! 
 And I have a poor mother, whose back is bent crooked 
 with age and hard toil. When I am in the dungeon 
 what will become of her? Boo-hoo! A few poor 
 cocks and hens, three geese, and an old milk cow named 
 Marion, these are all that she has left. (Sniff.) At 
 Easter time we had to give up a goose, as payment 
 to my lord; that was a sad business. (Sniff.) Simon 
 the bailiff makes life very hard for us serfs, and I 
 have to work more than half of my time guarding 
 the earl's sheep. And then, even if I should have 
 the good luck to find Joseph, there's more trouble 
 lying in store for all us poor country folk. O-o-oh! 
 Boo-hoo!" The big boy burst out again into sobs and 
 groans, and the Lady Godiva, famous throughout the 
 'countryside for her kind heart and charity, prayed him 
 and begged him to unburden all his sorrows to her. So 
 he spoke on: 
 
 "Simon the Cursed, that is the name we have for the 
 lord's bailiff, for the reason that he scrapes us down to 
 
OLD ENGLISH SCENES 
 
 May: Watching sheep. July: Haymaking 
 
 June: Cutting wood. August: Harvesting. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 131 
 
 the last penny. The tenants and serfs of the manor 
 are all against him, likewise the townsfolk of Coventry. 
 We can no longer call our common land our own, 
 because of his dishonesty and meanness. He tells me 
 to let the lord's sheep browse on our common pasture 
 land, and he tells the ploughman to drive the lord's 
 plough into the strips of ploughed land that we have 
 for our own use. The strips that fell to my lot this 
 year were so narrow that I could hardly turn my 
 plough around. We poor country folk chose a good 
 sturdy reeve to stand up for our rights, and the village 
 reeve is a stout man who always carries our complaints 
 and grievances to the bailiff, but it is no use, Simon the 
 Cursed has a heart of stone. And now comes the last 
 bit of news, that we must pay a tax to the earl when we 
 put up our goods for sale in Coventry market! Take 
 my word for it, this is the last straw that will break 
 the camel's back." 
 
 The Lady Godiva knew very well that the folk of 
 Coventry had their ancient rights to uphold, so she 
 went at once to the reeve, and heard his complaints; 
 then she went to her husband and said, "Hearken, 
 my lord, and listen carefully to what I have to tell 
 you," and she repeated over and over again every 
 word that the serf and the reeve had spoken. 
 
 But the Earl Leofric swore loudly and answered 
 rudely that nothing would induce him to meddle 
 with the oversight of his manor. He said that he left 
 all his business to Simon the bailiff. And he said also 
 that Simon the bailiff was a faithful, excellent bailiff, 
 
132 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and had it not been for Simon's care and forethought, 
 he, the earl, would never have found the riches for 
 building the church in Coventry. 
 
 But the Lady Godiva did not rest content with this 
 answer. She begged and prayed her lord again and 
 again to free the town of Coventry of its tax. He 
 answered sharply with bad language and bitter words, 
 and told her not to ask so foolishly for what was so 
 much to his damage. Finally he forbade her ever to 
 mention the subject again. 
 
 But she, with a woman's persistence and untiring 
 tongue, never ceased to talk of it, until at last it hap- 
 pened one day that he turned red with rage, and 
 struck the ground with his sword. 
 
 "By God's Tooth," he swore, "if you want to free 
 the folk of Coventry of their tax, you will have to 
 mount your horse and ride naked before all the people 
 through the market of the town, from one end of it 
 to the other! Until you have done that, I will not 
 listen to you!" 
 
 Whereupon Godiva was silent for a moment. Then 
 she asked gently, "But would you give me permis- 
 sion to do such a thing if I were willing?" 
 
 "I would! "he roared. 
 
 Soon after this, the countess, beloved of all, loosed 
 her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the 
 whole of her body like a veil, except her fair feet, and 
 then, mounting on a milk-white horse, she rode toward 
 the town. The townsfolk, who had been warned by 
 her in advance, of her coming, and of the reason for it, 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 133 
 
 retired into their houses and drew down their shutters 
 and shades. So she rode through the empty market 
 place without being seen, and, having ended her 
 journey, she returned with gladness to her husband, 
 and obtained of him what she had asked. The Earl 
 Leofric freed the town of its tax, and he gave the town 
 a Charter of Freedom, sealing the parchment docu- 
 ment with his own red seal. 
 
 To this day in Coventry there is a wooden statue 
 of a man called Peeping Tom, which still looks out 
 of the northeast top window of the King's Head Inn. 
 Peeping Tom is said to have lifted up his shutter 
 when the Lady Godiva passed through the market 
 place, and it is generally believed that he was struck 
 blind on the spot. 
 
 ROBIN HOOD AND THE BUTCHERS' GILD 
 
 This is one of the many stories of Robin Hood the 
 Outlaw, who lived in Sherwood Forest with his band of 
 men all clad in lincoln green. 
 
 Now Sherwood Forest lay in Nottinghamshire. In 
 Robin Hood's day, England was divided into counties, 
 called shires, and in every shire there was an officer 
 of the king, called a shire reeve, or sheriff, for short. 
 The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire had to journey up and 
 down the shire collecting taxes for the king, and it was 
 also his duty to bring outlaws to justice. There was 
 a price on Robin Hood's head, and the Sheriff was a 
 man who loved money, so he was always plotting and 
 
134 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 scheming as to how he might catch Robin Hood and 
 serve him a summons. 
 
 Robin and his jolly men never paid any taxes to the 
 Sheriff. On the contrary, they liked to collect gold 
 pieces for themselves. If a fat bishop, or a nobleman, 
 or a rich merchant traveled through Sherwood Forest, 
 Robin Hood would blow his horn and call his men in 
 lincoln green, and they would carry off the traveler 
 and give him a venison pie for which he would have 
 to pay with all the gold in his purse. Robin Hood and 
 his men lived merrily in Sherwood Forest, and they 
 tasted the King's venison whenever they wished, which 
 was every day. At that time the wild deer were called 
 the King's deer, and it was unlawful for any man to go 
 a-hunting in the King's forests. 
 
 Whenever the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire thought 
 of Robin Hood and his bold defiance of the law, 
 he swelled with anger and turned red and purple 
 for shame. 
 
 Twice a year the Sheriff journeyed to Westminster, 
 near London town, carrying all the gold pieces that he 
 had collected in taxes to the Barons of the King's 
 Exchequer, or treasury. The Barons of the Exchequer 
 were so called, because they sat at a table which was 
 marked out in black and white squares like a checker- 
 board. Men were not very quick at arithmetic in 
 those good old days, and the Barons of the Exchequer, 
 to help them in their adding up and subtracting, 
 laid their gold pieces in piles on the squares of their 
 checker table. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 135 
 
 On one of his journeys to Westminster, the Sheriff 
 visited the King, and told him that Robin Hood and 
 his men were still hunting in Sherwood Forest. 
 
 "Send a Hue and Cry after them," said the King. 
 
 In those days there were no policemen, and outlaws 
 were sometimes hunted down by a mob of citizens. 
 
 OFFICIALS RECEIVING AND WEIGHING GOLD AT THE EXCHEQUER 
 
 Such a mob of citizens, shouting and crying, and car- 
 rying sticks, pitchforks, and bows and arrows, was 
 called a Hue and Cry. 
 
 The Sheriff had to shake his head and answer that 
 he could never persuade the folk of Nottingham to go 
 in a pack and hunt Robin Hood with a Hue and Cry. 
 
 "Robin Hood," he said, "is loved by the common 
 folk and feared by the rich. Often he gives to the 
 poor a purse of gold that he has stolen from the rich. 
 Not in a hundred years could I persuade the folk of 
 Nottingham to hunt him down." 
 
136 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 "Well then," said the King, "I'll set a big price of 
 two hundred pounds on his head. That should make 
 your task easy enough." 
 
 So the Sheriff journeyed back to Nottingham, plot- 
 ting and scheming as to how he might capture Robin 
 Hood and gain the two hundred pounds that the King 
 had set on his head, for the Sheriff was a man who 
 loved money. 
 
 He laid three plots, but these plots failed one after 
 the other, and each of them is a separate story by 
 itself. Then it came to Robin's ears that a price of 
 two hundred pounds had been set on his head, and he 
 thought it was high time to play a trick on the Sheriff. 
 
 One midsummer day, Robin was walking through the 
 green forest, when he saw a butcher riding along the 
 highway, with a good pile of meat on his mare's back. 
 
 "Good morrow, good fellow," said Robin to the 
 butcher. 
 
 "Good morrow," replied the butcher, eyeing him, 
 "and Heaven keep me safe from Robin Hood, for if 
 I were to meet him, I might lose all my meat!" 
 
 "I like your company very well," said Robin cheer- 
 fully. "What have you got to sell?" 
 
 "Flesh-meat, master," said the butcher, "with which 
 I am going to Nottingham market." 
 
 "What is the price of your flesh-meat," said Robin 
 Hood, "and of your mare that carries it? Tell me, 
 for if you treat me well, I may buy both." 
 
 "Four marks," said the butcher. "I cannot make it 
 less." 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 137 
 
 "Sit down then, and count out my money/' said 
 Robin Hood. "I will try for once and see if I make a 
 success as a butcher." 
 
 When the four marks were counted out, Robin Hood 
 got up on the mare, and away he rode to Nottingham 
 market, where he offered such good pennyworths that 
 he had sold all his meat by ten o'clock in the morning. 
 
 When the market was over, a butcher, stepping up 
 to Robin Hood, said: "Brother, you are the freest 
 butcher that ever came to this market. We be all of 
 one trade, and all of one gild, come let us dine together. 
 The Butchers' Gild is to give a dinner to-night, and all 
 the butchers of Nottingham will be there." 
 
 In those days, the tradesmen and workmen of the 
 towns all belonged to gilds. In Nottingham there were 
 the Butchers' Gild, the Cobblers' Gild, the Black- 
 smiths' Gild, the Carpenters' Gild, the Weavers' Gild, 
 and many others. The gildsmen had no masters out- 
 side the gild, and they controlled all the money of their 
 trade, so they were often wealthy enough to give 
 each other big dinners, at which they ate huge rounds 
 of roast beef, and drank barrels of brown ale. 
 
 Robin accepted the invitation of the butcher, and 
 went out to dine at the feast of the Butchers' Gild, in 
 one of the inns of Nottingham. 
 
 Robin had no sooner sat down, than he called for 
 a cup of ale and drank to the Butchers' Gild, telling 
 all the gildsmen to be merry, for if there were five 
 pounds to pay for the feast, he would pay it down, 
 every penny. 
 
138 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ''You're the bravest blade/' said the butchers, 
 "that ever came to Nottingham market!" and they 
 called for great quantities of food and drink. 
 
 Now the Sheriff of Nottingham was a great visitor 
 of inns, for he was always on the road, raking in 
 taxes from one end of the shire to the other. It so 
 happened that he alighted at the selfsame inn where 
 Robin was so bravely entertaining the Butchers' Gild. 
 He heard the great noise of laughter and singing that 
 was coming out of the dining room, and he saw the cups 
 of wine that were being trolled up and down the table. 
 Robin had let out his name to no one, and the Sheriff 
 thought to himself, "This is some poor simple, young 
 fool who has sold his land, and now wants to spend all 
 his money at once." And after the dinner, the Sheriff 
 took opportunity to speak with Robin. 
 
 "What," said he, "good fellow, have you made a 
 good market to-day? And have you any more horned 
 beasts to sell?" 
 
 "Yes, that I have," said Robin Hood to Master 
 Sheriff, speaking like a simpleton and a fool. "I have 
 two or three hundred horned beasts, and a hundred 
 acres of good land to keep them on, as good as ever 
 crow flew over." 
 
 The Sheriff, being a man who loved money, asked 
 Robin, "Will you sell me your three hundred beasts 
 for three hundred pounds?" He knew very well that 
 cattle were worth much more money. 
 
 'Yes, that I will," answered Robin, with his mouth 
 open like a simpleton and a fool. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 139 
 
 So the Sheriff commanded his horse to be brought 
 out, and taking with him the three hundred pounds 
 in gold for the purchase, he rode out with Robin 
 Hood. Robin led him for miles and miles into the 
 depths of the forest, which was dark and lonesome 
 and wild. 
 
 The Sheriff, carrying a good sum of gold, and being 
 surprised at the wildness and loneliness of the place, 
 began to say that he wished himself back in Notting- 
 ham town. 
 
 "Why so?" asked Robin Hood. 
 
 "I'll tell you plainly," said the Sheriff, "I do not 
 like your company." 
 
 "No?" said Robin, "Then I'll provide better com- 
 pany for you." 
 
 "God keep me from Robin Hood," muttered the 
 Sheriff, eyeing him, "for this is the very forest he 
 lives in." 
 
 Here Robin smilingly pointed to a herd of three 
 hundred wild deer passing swiftly through the forest, 
 and he asked the Sheriff how he liked those horned 
 beasts, telling him they were the very best he could 
 show him. With that he blew his horn, whereupon 
 Little John and fifty men in lincoln green came up. 
 
 Robin Hood told them he had brought the Sheriff 
 of Nottingham to dine with them. 
 
 "He is welcome," said Little John, who was so 
 called because he was very tall, "for I know he will 
 pay honestly and handsomely for his dinner," 
 
 "I never doubted it," said Robin Hood. 
 
140 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 They had their merry feast of venison out in an 
 open glade of the forest, roasting their meat over huge 
 wood fires, and washing it down with drinks of ale stolen 
 from rich merchants. After all had eaten, Robin Hood 
 took the Sheriff's purse, containing the three hundred 
 pounds of gold, to pay for the dinner. Then, leading 
 him back through the forest toward Nottingham town, 
 he asked to be remembered kindly to the Sheriff's 
 wife, and ran laughing away. 
 
 When he rejoined his company, Robin took Little 
 John by the hand and they danced together round an 
 old oak tree, with a song upon their lips and joy 
 in their hearts. 
 
 THE SHIRE MEETING 
 
 As the towns of England grew bigger and richer, the 
 serfs and tenants who worked on the country estates 
 of great noblemen soon began to see that the townsfolk 
 were better off than they were. The townsfolk were 
 free; the country folk were little better than slaves. 
 
 The workmen in the towns had strengthened them- 
 selves by joining together in gilds, and they managed 
 their own affairs entirely. They controlled the money 
 of their trade, and they controlled the conditions of 
 their work. On the other hand, the country folk were 
 the servants of rich lords. They had to work con- 
 tinually under the management of the lords' bailiffs, 
 and they owed many duties to the lords. They had, 
 at different times of the year, to give payments of 
 money and goods such as geese, chickens, hay, milk, 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 141 
 
 or butter. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
 serfs became discontented. Many of them ran away 
 to the towns, and thus gained their freedom. 
 
 This caused great trouble and confusion. At the 
 end of the fourteenth century, so many serfs had run 
 away and escaped from the country estates that the 
 lords of the manors could not find enough men to 
 work on the land. They were highly indignant, and 
 accordingly set a movement on foot to bring back 
 serfage, or half-slavery, and thus force the country 
 people to work for them. 
 
 Thereupon the serfs in the southeast of England 
 decided that they would fight for their freedom. They 
 collected weapons of all kinds hunting knives, pitch- 
 forks, reaping hooks, bills, and bows and they marched 
 along the country roads, planning to journey to Lon- 
 don and lay their case before the King. 
 
 It so happened that one of these bands of serfs passed 
 through a little country town where a shire meeting was 
 being held. 
 
 Knights and squires had come riding into the town 
 from all over the shire and every little village had sent 
 its reeve and four assistants chosen by the villagers. 
 All the townsfolk and all the country folk were pouring 
 out of the gates of the town towards a big meadow 
 where the shire meeting was to be held. They were led 
 by the Sheriff and the Judge, both riding along on horse- 
 back, in great pomp. 
 
 The serfs hid their weapons and mingled with the 
 crowd, curious to see what was going to happen. 
 
142 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 When the crowd had collected in the meadow, it was 
 divided up into two parts, the townsfolk in the one 
 part, the country folk in the other part. 
 
 Then the Sheriff stood up. He was a great, heavy, 
 strong man, with a face that was brown, like a nut, and 
 a nose that was red and purple, like a plum. He called 
 out in a loud, thick voice: 
 
 "Quiet, good people! Cease your talking and 
 shuffling and coughing and listen to me. It is the 
 business of this meeting to choose four good men to 
 be sent to Westminster, near London town, to sit with 
 the King in Parliament, the Common Council of the 
 Kingdom. The townsfolk must choose two good 
 townsmen, and the country folk must choose two dis- 
 creet knights good, honest men who will look after 
 our interests with the King, and stand up sturdily 
 for our rights. Silence there! The townsmen who 
 are chosen will be paid two shillings a day, for the cost 
 of the journey to London and their food and lodging 
 in that town while Parliament is sitting, and the knights 
 will be paid four shillings a day. This money is to come 
 out of the taxes." 
 
 After he had made this solemn speech, the Sheriff 
 brought forward several men and called out their names 
 in his loud, deep voice. The people standing around 
 him in the crowd shouted "Aye," or "Nay." When 
 the ayes were loud and strong, the man whose name 
 had been called was chosen, or elected, but when the 
 nays were louder, then another man was brought for- 
 ward instead, and so on, until two townsmen and two 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 143 
 
 knights had been chosen by the voice of the crowd. 
 The noblemen in clanking armor shouted, the gildsmen 
 of the towns sang out lustily, the yeomen farmers in 
 their woolen tunics roared, and the ploughmen bel- 
 lowed, ?.ll making their ayes and nays as loud and 
 brassy as possible. 
 
 When the business of the election was finished, and 
 men were beginning to move away to the place where 
 the lawsuits were to be tried, one of the men who had 
 hidden his knife and his bow and arrows jumped up on 
 to a barrel and began to make a speech to the crowd. 
 
 "Good sirs," he cried, "you have been standing up 
 for your ancient rights and liberties as Englishmen, and 
 all of you were as equals in this shire meeting. The 
 voices of the ploughmen who shouted aye or nay were 
 as loud as the voices of the noblemen. Now by what 
 right do the noblemen hold us poor ploughmen who 
 are serfs in serfage, which is little better than slavery? 
 By what right are they whom we call nobles greater 
 folk than we ? If we are all come of the same father and 
 mother, Adam and Eve, as the Holy Church teaches us, 
 by what right can they prove that they are more noble 
 than we? They make us gain for them by our work 
 what they spend in their pride. They are clothed in 
 silk and velvet, and we are covered with leather or 
 rags. They have wine and spices and fair white bread, 
 while we have oatcake or straw. They have comfort 
 and merriment and fine castles; we have pain and labor, 
 and the wind and the rain in the fields. And yet we 
 are all come of the same father and mother, Adam and 
 
144 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Eve. We are all men together. What is the difference 
 between a gentleman and a serf? When Adam digged 
 and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" 
 This rime ran from lip to lip in the crowd: 
 
 When Adam digged and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman ? 
 
 Some of the poorer folk in the crowd shouted ap- 
 plause; but a nobleman rode up to the man who had 
 made the speech and knocked him off the barrel with a 
 blow from his sword, saying: 
 
 "Ho, my good fellow, who gave you the right to 
 make such a speech as that, stirring up the people to 
 fighting and rebellion ? By the looks of you I take you 
 to be a runaway serf. Mark my words, serfage must 
 come back, or the people of England will starve. We 
 nobles can find no one to work on our lands. You de- 
 serve a good whacking, and I am the man to give it to 
 you. Take that, and that, and that!" 
 
 Whack, whack, whack, the nobleman began to rain 
 blows on the man's head and back and shoulders. At 
 this, many of the runaway serfs in the crowd produced 
 their weapons, in defence of their comrade, and there 
 was soon a free-for-all fight, very noisy and stormy. 
 The knights and squires and men-at-arms in the crowd 
 took sides with the nobleman, while the reeves and 
 their assistants took sides with the serfs. The Sheriff 
 now appeared on the scene and the fighting died down. 
 None were killed, but many were bruised and bleeding, 
 and several serfs were marched off to prison. 
 
ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 145 
 
 Such disturbances and riots were going on all over 
 England. The country folk finally gathered them- 
 selves together in such great armies that the lords 
 grew frightened, and they gave up their plan to bring 
 back serfage. So it came about that all Englishmen 
 became free men, and were proud of their liberty. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: In England, during the Middle Ages, 
 there was great inequality and injustice in the social life of the 
 people. Nevertheless, in spite of its many confusions, this was 
 an age of progress. The beginnings of representative govern- 
 ment, and the end of serfdom paved the way for a democracy 
 less limited than that of Athens. What have you read that 
 proves or disproves any of these statements? 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. Describe the English Parliament of the Middle Ages. 
 
 2. Had the King of England complete control over money 
 raised by taxes in the time of Richard the Lion-hearted ? 
 
 3. Describe the condition of the country folk in England in 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 4. What was a serf? 
 
 5. Compare an American farm of to-day with the mediaeval 
 manor. 
 
 6. What were the duties of a sheriff? 
 
 7. Describe the condition of the townspeople in England in 
 the later Middle Ages as compared with that of the country folk. 
 
 8. What was a gild? 
 
 9. How was an election carried on at a shire meeting? 
 
 10. What is the chief advantage of representative government ? 
 
 11. What arguments were used in "The Shire Meeting" by 
 the serfs who desired freedom? 
 
 12. What arguments were used by the lords who wished to 
 bring back serfage? 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 
 
 The century that followed the discovery of America 
 by Columbus was a century of great sea voyages and dis- 
 coveries and explorations. Many romantic tales were 
 told in England of the beauties and riches of America, 
 so that adventurous Englishmen were eager to found 
 English colonies in the new Western continent. 
 
 During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 
 1584, a wealthy gentleman named Sir Walter Raleigh 
 sent two sailing vessels westward, commanded by 
 Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. On the fourth of 
 July, Amidas and Barlow reached America and landed 
 on the coast of what is now North Carolina. The 
 weather was fair, and their experience ashore was very 
 pleasant. They wandered through a beautiful forest 
 of pine trees and cedars, and met with some friendly 
 Indians who were ready to exchange valuable furs for 
 English knives. 
 
 When these sailors came back to England they said 
 that the flowers in the forests of America were so 
 fragrant that to live in that beautiful land would be 
 like living "in the midst of some delicate garden/' 
 Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen of England, was 
 much interested to hear of this beautiful region that 
 
 146 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 147 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH 
 
 When his servant first saw Sir Walter smoking, he thought his master on fire and threw a tankard 
 
 of ale over him. 
 
 had been discovered by English sailors during her 
 reign, and she decided that it should be called Virginia, 
 in honor of herself. 
 
 All kinds of fanciful stories concerning America be- 
 gan to spread through England. The wonders of the 
 East, as well as of the West, were heaped together 
 in these stories. Ignorant folk, hearing them, im- 
 agined that all the fruits of the earth grew in America. 
 They had visions of bright oranges, glowing like 
 golden lamps in a green night, and of pomegranates 
 
148 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 bursting with scarlet seeds. They fancied that the 
 Indian chiefs lived like the great Emperors of the 
 East, wearing crowns of jewels and garments studded 
 with pearls. 
 
 "I tell thee," one ignorant sailor would explain to 
 another, "gold in that country is as plentiful as iron 
 in this. The commonest frying pans there are made of 
 solid gold, because the savages see naught of value 
 in it. Why man, there is no labor in that country, 
 and no poverty; but of prowling lions and tigers there's 
 a good plenty. The great trees in the forests have 
 stayed even as God planted them hundreds of years 
 ago, and all the country is wondrous pretty, like the 
 Garden of Eden/' 
 
 The common folk of England told each other such 
 simple tales as these; and even educated men were 
 convinced that great mines of gold and silver were 
 only waiting to be discovered all along the coast of 
 North America. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh made several further attempts to 
 colonize Virginia. He sent many ships westward filled 
 with men, but poorly supplied with provisions. All 
 these early expeditions ended in disaster. Food was 
 scarce, and the Indians were unfriendly to the new 
 white settlers. 
 
 Then in the year 1606, a trading company, called the 
 "London Company" was formed, and three small 
 ships sailed from London carrying the group of men 
 who were to establish the first permanent English col- 
 ony in America. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 149 
 
 High hopes were held of this expedition, and Michael 
 Drayton wrote a poem about it: 
 
 To THE VIRGINIAN VOYAGE 
 
 Britons, you stay too long; 
 Quickly aboard bestow you, 
 And with a merry gale 
 Swell your stretched sail, 
 With vows as strong 
 
 As the winds that blow you. 
 
 And cheerfully at sea 
 Success you still entice 
 To get the pearl and gold 
 And ours to hold 
 Virginia, 
 
 Earth's only Paradise. 
 
 Where nature hath in store 
 Fowl, venison, and fish, 
 And the fruitful'st soil 
 Without your toil, 
 Three harvests more, 
 
 All greater than you wish. 
 
 Most of the men of this expedition belonged to the 
 class of gentlemen, and were not used to working with 
 their hands. If those who organized the new colony 
 had known more about the hardships of a rough life 
 in the wilderness, they would surely have chosen as 
 settlers fewer fine gentlemen, and more farmers and 
 skilled workmen. As it was, the company was a band 
 of adventurers, made up of bold, bad men as well as 
 of good and brave. Some of the gentlemen were leaving 
 
ISO THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 England to escape paying their debts, and they were 
 an unruly set. Before the ships had gone very far out 
 to sea, there was a quarrel among the passengers. 
 
 Now King James, who had succeeded Queen Eliz- 
 abeth, had taken an interest in the proposed colony, 
 and had given instructions for its government. He had 
 said that the colonists should be ruled by a council of 
 six men, and that one of these six councilors should 
 be chosen President. Then he had written out a list of 
 the names of the six councilors. But, for some foolish 
 reason, he placed this list in a sealed box, and gave strict 
 orders that this box was not to be opened until 
 America was reached. 
 
 During the voyage, therefore, there was no one 
 to direct and keep order. Soon the question arose, 
 Who was to be President? As the result of a seri- 
 ous dispute and quarrel, a young man named John 
 Smith was accused of plotting mutiny and was thrown 
 into irons. 
 
 John Smith was young, good-looking, strong, and 
 brave. Of late years his life had been one thrilling ad- 
 venture after another. To amuse his fellow passengers 
 on the tedious journey, he told them wonderful tales 
 about himself: how he had fought against the Turks 
 in single combat, and had cut off three Turks' heads 
 in succession; how he had been taken prisoner and sold 
 into slavery; how a beautiful foreign princess had 
 fallen in love with him; how he had finally escaped 
 from captivity and had travelled on horseback through 
 Russia, Poland, and Germany . . . 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 151 
 
 These stories were probably 1 true, because Smith was 
 the kind of man who is born for adventure, but some of 
 those who listened to him were jealous. They them- 
 selves wished to be the 
 leaders of the colony. No 
 doubt they said to them- 
 selves, "This Smith is a 
 boaster and a braggart 
 and a dangerous fellow." 
 
 After the shores of Vir- 
 ginia were sighted, King 
 James's box was opened, 
 and it was found that the 
 name of Captain John 
 Smith was on the list of 
 councilors. So he was 
 taken out of chains, and 
 before long his natural 
 leadership made itself 
 felt. Later he became the 
 President of the Council. 
 
 The first act of the settlers was to search for a suit- 
 able place where they might build a town. After 
 seventeen days a site was chosen, and it was decided 
 to call the town Jamestown, in honor of the King. 
 
 Now came the work of cutting down trees in the 
 forest and shaping planks for houses. The fifty-four 
 gentlemen in the party did not know how to cut down 
 
 1 Many historians have doubted the truthfulness of Smith. Fiske, 
 however, maintains that his stories were not exaggerated. 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 
 
152 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 trees or make clapboards, so they had to be conducted 
 through the forests in parties under the leadership of 
 the more capable men, such as John Smith. It seemed 
 very strange to these gentlemen that they should 
 have to perform humble labor. After a week or so, 
 
 THE LANDING AT JAMESTOWN 
 
 however, they felt that they were learning their new 
 trade, and they began to enjoy their work. It was a 
 delight to them to swing their axes and hear the great 
 trees thunder as they fell. But one trouble developed: 
 their tender fingers soon became covered with blisters, 
 and after a few days these blisters proved so annoying 
 that the echo of every third blow of the axes was 
 drowned in a loud oath from one of the gentlemen. 
 Captain Smith, to cure this bad habit, later had all the 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 153 
 
 oaths counted up, and at night a can of water for every 
 oath was poured down the sleeve of every offender. 
 After a week or so of such washings, scarcely an oath 
 was to be heard. 
 
 "Nevertheless/* said Captain Smith to himself, 
 "twenty good workmen had been better than hundreds 
 of such gentlemen/' 
 
 After the ships had returned to England, the settlers 
 found it difficult to procure enough food. They all 
 worked for the common store, and were given food out 
 of a common kettle nothing but wheat and barley 
 boiled in water. Then summer came on, and these 
 Englishmen accustomed to the cool damp climate of 
 their native island began to suffer from the intense 
 heat. No doubt in former years, in England, they had 
 often complained of the damp weather, but now they 
 gazed up at the scorching sun and sighed to them- 
 selves, "Oh, for a cool grey sky!" Many fell sick, and 
 some died. It was most pitiful to hear the groaning 
 of the sufferers in every corner of the settlement. 
 
 John Smith knew that the Indians had plentiful 
 harvests of corn; and, seeing the desperate condition 
 of his companions, he decided to explore the country 
 and trade with the Indians. 
 
 His first journey was successful. In return for beads, 
 copper, and hatchets, the Indians gave him venison 
 and corn. When the weather turned cooler with the 
 approach of winter, the rivers around Jamestown 
 were covered with swans, geese, ducks, and cranes, so 
 that the colonists could at last feast royally every day. 
 
154 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 In the month of December, Smith decided to under- 
 take another journey of exploration. 
 
 With two white companions and two Indians, he 
 went up the Chickahominy River in a canoe. Before 
 this little party had proceeded very far, it was sud- 
 denly surrounded and attacked by a band of two 
 hundred Indian warriors. Smith's two companions 
 were killed, and he himself was taken prisoner, but 
 not before he had shot down two redskins with his 
 pistol. He soon found out that his captors intended to 
 put him to death. Casting about in his mind, desper- 
 ately, for some means of distracting them, an idea came 
 to him, and he pulled out his ivory compass. Then, 
 showing the magnetic needle to the savages, he began 
 to play upon their simple wonders and fears. Using 
 sign language, and a few Indian words that he had 
 picked up, he began to discourse, like a man inspired, 
 on the marvels of science and astronomy. He described 
 to them the movements of the sun, the moon and the 
 stars, the roundness of the earth, the immensity of land 
 and sea, and the multitude of nations and races. The 
 Indians gazed at him open-mouthed, and though 
 they understood very little of what he was saying, they 
 soon believed that they must be dealing with some kind 
 of wizard. They were amazed to find that they could 
 see the needle in the compass, but not touch it, on 
 account of the glass cover. Their leader took the com- 
 pass in his hand, and turned it around in different 
 directions. Finally he decided that there must be 
 magic in the needle. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 155 
 
 Fearing to kill a powerful white medicine man, the 
 redskins loosened Smith from the tree to which he had 
 been tied, and took him to an Indian village. Here 
 the Indian women stared at him, for he was the first 
 white man they had ever seen. Perhaps some of them 
 thought that the "paleface" was very handsome. 
 Warriors collected around him; he was put in the center 
 of a ring, and the Indians danced a buffalo dance, 
 singing, and yelling out hellish screeches. Their faces 
 and shoulders were painted bright red and they carried 
 in their hands the rattles that grow on the tails of some 
 poisonous snakes. Poor Smith felt as though he were 
 seeing devils in the midst of a horrid nightmare. 
 
 That night he was guarded in a long-house, and 
 plentiful food was placed near him. He wondered 
 whether the savages were trying to fatten him up before 
 eating him. Several days passed, and finally he was 
 led into the presence of Powhatan, the head chief of 
 the tribe. 
 
 In front of a fire, upon a seat like a bedstead, sat 
 Powhatan, a great, grim man, covered with a long robe 
 made of raccoon skins. On either side of him were two 
 young girls, and behind him rows of men and women, 
 with their heads and shoulders painted red, and with 
 white rings around their eyes. 
 
 A great shout went up as Smith entered the chief's 
 long-house. He was treated to a feast of good food for 
 which he had little appetite; then two huge stones 
 were dragged out and placed in front of Powhatan. 
 Smith was carried forward and stretched out on the 
 
156 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ground with his head resting on the stones. The 
 warriors lifted their clubs, ready to beat out his brains, 
 when suddenly Pocahontas, the chief's dearest daugh- 
 ter, sprang from her seat. She ran to John Smith, 
 
 put her arms around his 
 neck, and laid her head 
 close to his, entreating 
 her father to save him. 
 Pocahontas, at this 
 time, was only thirteen 
 years old. Powhatan 
 loved his little daugh- 
 ter, and it was not un- 
 usual among the Indians 
 to spare, a prisoner if 
 someone in the tribe 
 took a fancy to him. 
 Pocahontas had thrown 
 herself down on the 
 ground, and lay there, 
 trembling with her kind impulse, her eyes wide open 
 and beseeching. The warriors let fall their clubs, and 
 Powhatan's heart was moved. He gave orders that 
 Smith should be let free, and allowed to travel back to 
 Jamestown unhurt. 
 
 After this, Pocahontas often came to Jamestown to 
 visit Captain Smith and bring him presents of corn and 
 turkeys. He became very fond of her and used to call 
 her his dearest little jewel. She loved him like a father 
 and wished him to call her "daughter." 
 
 POCAHONTAS IN ENGLISH DRESS 
 
 This is a copy of the original painting at Barton 
 Rectory, Norfolk, England. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 157 
 
 Later Pocahontas married an Englishman named 
 John Rolfe. She was baptized in the Christian faith 
 and was given the name Rebecca. Rolfe brought 
 his wife to London, where her quaint and charming 
 ways made her a center of attraction. Balls and 
 entertainments were given in her honor, and she was 
 always treated as a royal princess, being called either 
 the Lady Rebecca, or the Princess Pocahontas. King 
 James was inclined to blame Rolfe for having married 
 into a royal family without first consulting him! 
 
 Powhatan sent to England in Pocahontas's train a 
 chief named Tomocomo, instructed to make a report 
 on the number of warriors in the English tribe. He 
 gave Tomocomo a bundle of sticks and told him to cut 
 a notch for every white man he should meet. After 
 Tomocomo had landed at Plymouth he was kept very 
 busy cutting notches, but when he arrived in London, 
 the poor chief gave a grunt of despair and threw 
 away his sticks. He asked to see King James and was 
 very much surprised that the chief of the great English 
 tribe should be such a small, weak-looking man. 
 
 Let us return to Captain John Smith in Virginia. 
 Soon after his adventure with Powhatan, Smith was 
 chosen President of the Council. He worked very hard 
 to improve the conditions of the colony, but he had to 
 contend with great difficulties. One difficulty was the 
 treachery of many of the Indian tribes. In spite of 
 great danger, however, Smith made long voyages of 
 exploration inland. Another difficulty was the laziness 
 of the settlers. Every man in the colony was supposed 
 
158 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 to work not for himself but for the common store, and 
 this system of communism encouraged the idlers to 
 leave all the work to the industrious. Finally things 
 had come to such a pass that thirty or forty hard- 
 working and unselfish men were supporting the whole 
 colony, now increased to two hundred. As soon as 
 Smith was made President, he handled the situation 
 firmly. He roundly told the lazy men that they 
 would get nothing to eat if they did not work, and 
 that they would be punished for idleness according 
 to a strict rule. The colony might have gone to pieces 
 at this time, had it not been for the fine example 
 set by Smith himself for hard work, courage, and 
 endurance. 
 
 In the year 1609, Smith was injured, by a gunpow- 
 der explosion, and was obliged to go back to England 
 for medical care, as there were no good doctors in Vir- 
 ginia. In the same year, the government of Virginia 
 was reorganized. The Council was done away with, 
 and from henceforth the colonists were ruled by gov- 
 ernors sent out from England. Several governors came 
 and went, some mild, some harsh. The first was Lord 
 Delaware, after whom the state of Delaware is named. 
 
 It was the fate of the colony to pass through many 
 times of hardship, narrowly escaping disaster. At one 
 terrible period, known as the Starving Time, the 
 settlers, tortured and driven frantic by hunger, be- 
 came cannibals. We can hardly describe here the worst 
 horrors of the crisis. Unable to bear the privations of 
 this time, so many died that only a few were left. But, 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 159 
 
 by a stroke of fortune, provisions came from England, 
 and the remnants of the colony were saved. 
 
 One of the governors, named Dale, put an end to 
 the communistic system, and gave each colonist three 
 acres of land to cultivate for his own use. The change 
 was magical, and industry and thrift took the place 
 of laziness and idleness. From this time on, the 
 colony began to prosper. Some of the settlers exper- 
 imented with tobacco crops, and it was found that the 
 growing of tobacco was exceedingly profitable because 
 a high price was paid for it in England. 
 
 With prosperity came the beginning of democracy. 
 Until now the government of Virginia had never been 
 democratic. At first, authority had been in the hands 
 of a small Council, then it had passed to governors 
 whose rule, whether harsh or mild, was despotism. But 
 now a party of liberal, democratic statesmen had come 
 into power in the English Parliament, and it was 
 recognized that the colonists of Virginia were ready for 
 self-government. In the year 1619, instructions were 
 sent to the people of Virginia to hold a general elec- 
 tion, and on the 30th of July the elected representa- 
 tives met in a general assembly at Jamestown, in 
 the little wooden church there. The representatives 
 were called burgesses, and the General Assembly of 
 Virginia came to be known as the House of Burgesses. 
 The governor and council of Virginia were still to be 
 appointed by the English government, but the House 
 of Burgesses was to have the full power of lawmaking 
 for the colony. 
 
160 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Such was the beginning of democratic government in 
 America. Out of Virginia later were to come some of 
 the great leaders of our nation: Washington , Jefferson, 
 Madison, Monroe, and Chief Justice Marshall. "In 
 the unfolding of these events," says the historian John 
 Fiske, "there is poetic beauty and grandeur, as the 
 purpose of Infinite Wisdom reveals itself slowly . . . 
 hasting not but resting not, heedless of the clashing aims 
 and discordant cries of short-sighted mortals, sweeping 
 their tiny efforts into its majestic current, and making 
 all contribute to the fulfilment of God's will." 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: Representative government was 
 established in the first English colony of North America, not 
 owing to the will of the settlers, but because a party of liberal, 
 democratic statesmen happened to come into power in the 
 English Parliament. "In the unfolding of these events," says 
 John Fiske, "there is poetic beauty and grandeur, as the purpose 
 of Infinite Wisdom reveals itself slowly." Can you trace earlier 
 events mentioned in this book that led up to this liberality on the 
 part of Parliament? 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. How was the Virginia Company governed at first? 
 
 2. Explain why "strenuousness, " or the will to work hard, 
 has always been considered a quality particularly necessary to the 
 American. 
 
 3. Describe the character of John Smith as a pioneer. 
 
 4. What is meant by communism ? 
 
 5. Explain why communism failed in the colony. 
 
 6. Describe the government that was established in Virginia 
 in 1619. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 1 
 
 1. THE PURITANS IN ENGLAND 
 
 2. HOLLAND 
 
 3. THE ARRIVAL IN AMERICA 
 
 4. THE INDIANS 
 
 5. THE PILGRIMS GIVE UP COMMUNISM 
 
 We now come to the story of the Pilgrims, who were the 
 first white men to settle in New England. They came to 
 America for the sake of religious and democratic ideals, 
 and for this reason they have been called the Fathers and 
 Mothers of our American Democracy. Their story was 
 written down by one of themselves, William Bradford, 
 who became Governor of the Plymouth Colony in America. 
 
 THE PURITANS IN ENGLAND 
 
 When James I was King of England in the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, there lived in the two little 
 English villages of Scrooby and Austerfield a company 
 of simple, honest people who were called Puritans. 
 Their leader was a man named William Brewster. He 
 was the bailiff of the Archbishop of York, and he lived 
 in Scrooby in an old tumble-down manor house which 
 
 1 This story is based on the records of the Pilgrims, and on The Story 
 of the Pilgrims for Children, by Roland Usher; The Macmillan Company. 
 
 161 
 
162 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 belonged to the Archbishop. Mr. Brewster had three 
 children, whose names were Jonathan, Patience, and 
 Fear. In Austerfield, nearby, lived Mr. William Brad- 
 ford, who was also a Puritan. 
 
 The religion of the Puritans differed in form from that 
 of their neighbors, so that often when Mr. Brewster's 
 children went out into the streets of Scrooby, the other 
 village children would point at them and shout " Pu- 
 ritan, Puritan," and laugh at them or throw stones. 
 Most of the people of England belonged to the Church 
 of England which was governed by archbishops and 
 bishops chosen by the King. There were many Puri- 
 tans in England and it was their wish, they said, to 
 purify the English Church; but this particular group 
 at Scrooby and Austerfield did not believe in the 
 Church of England. They wanted to worship accord- 
 ing to their own beliefs, and they wanted to choose 
 their own ministers. Because they wanted to separate 
 from the Church of England they were called Separat- 
 ists as well as Puritans. 
 
 In many other ways the Puritans were different from 
 their neighbors. They dressed simply, in grey and 
 brown and black, and they spoke quietly and seriously, 
 never swearing nor using coarse language. They were 
 strict and stern in their ways, and they set their faces 
 against all kinds of extravagance. At that time some of 
 the nobles of England had very loose and disgraceful 
 habits. They spent the greater part of their time in 
 amusing themselves; their clothes were very magnifi- 
 cent, their dinners long and heavy, and they drank 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 163 
 
 so much wine that drunkenness was not considered 
 shameful. The following story is told of the court of 
 King James. 
 
 When the King of Denmark came to London on a 
 visit, a play or pageant which represented the visit of 
 the Queqn of Sheba to King Solomon was prepared 
 especially for the occasion. A magnificent entertain- 
 ment was given by King James, and hundreds of grand 
 ladies and gentlemen attended. First there was a long 
 dinner, then came the play. But the play did not 
 prove a success. The noble lady who took the part of 
 the Queen of Sheba had to present a tray with a cup 
 of wine, a dish of custard, a pitcher of cream, and a 
 plate of cakes to the King of Denmark, who was play- 
 ing Solomon. But the Queen of Sheba was so drunk 
 that she fell and spilled all the wine, the custard, the 
 cream, and the cakes into the King's lap. Servants were 
 called at once, and they mopped up the mess as well 
 as they could with napkins. Then the King of Den- 
 mark himself stepped out on to the floor of the dance 
 hall and tried to dance, but he too was tipsy and, losing 
 his balance, toppled over. The three ladies who had the 
 parts of Faith, Hope, and Charity were quite unable 
 to speak their lines distinctly, and the one who was 
 dressed up as Victory had to be put out of the palace. 
 She was hopelessly drunk and created a disturbance by 
 slapping all the lords and ladies smartly in the face 
 with her olive branch of peace! 
 
 When we read this well-known story we can un- 
 derstand why the Puritans were driven to the other 
 
164 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 extreme of conduct, and why they brought up their 
 children according to very strict rules. 
 
 The little company of Puritans, or Separatists, who 
 lived in the village of Scrooby used to meet together 
 in Mr. Brewster's house every Sunday, and hold a 
 religious service. They had elected as their minister a 
 man named John Robinson. It was against the law 
 for them to choose their own minister in this way, 
 and they lived in constant danger of being arrested. 
 King James was the enemy of the Puritans. He said, 
 "I will make the Puritans conform to the Church of 
 England, or I will harry them out of the country, or 
 else worse." 
 
 And in the year 1607 the news came to Scrooby that 
 Puritans in other parts of the country were being 
 arrested and thrown into prison, and that a summons 
 had been given out to arrest Mr. Brewster and Mr. 
 Bradford. As soon as this news came, Mr. Brewster 
 sent messages to all the Puritans of Scrooby and 
 Austerfield, and called them to a secret meeting, at 
 night, in his old manor house. 
 
 Then he said to them: "Hard times and suffering are 
 now before us, because King James has sworn that he 
 will harry us out of the land. We must keep together 
 and bear our fate with cheerfulness and content. 
 But if we flee not from this country, we shall be cast 
 into prison. Whither shall we go? I would now de- 
 mand of any of you, is there a better country than 
 Holland? It is near the coast of England, and the 
 Dutch will allow us to worship as we please." 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 165 
 
 The Puritans talked over their flight, and it was 
 agreed that they should flee to Holland, because Hol- 
 land was then one of the most democratic countries in 
 the world. People there were allowed liberty of con- 
 science, v/hich means that they were allowed to worship 
 as they pleased. 
 
 After this meeting, the Puritans packed some of their 
 belongings into bundles, and hurried away from their 
 homes. They all made the journey together on foot, 
 and often had to hide behind hedges or in roadside 
 ditches, because the officers of the King had already 
 reached Scrooby and were out hunting for them. 
 
 Finally they came to the seacoast, near a town called 
 Boston, in Lincolnshire, after which Boston in Massa- 
 chusetts was later to be named. They did not actually 
 go into Boston, but turned aside to a stretch of lonely 
 beach, and waited for their ship. Arrangements had 
 been made with a Dutch shipmaster, and in the 
 middle of the night they saw the ship approaching, 
 with its headlights shining through the fog and dark- 
 ness. They put out in little rowboats, and clambered 
 on board the ship with all their belongings. At last 
 they thought they were safe from their pursuers. 
 
 But the next morning customs officers came on board 
 and arrested them, because it was not lawful to take 
 money or goods out of England without special per- 
 mission from the government. Men, women, and 
 children were pushed back roughly into the rowboats; 
 and their bundles were thrown after them, pell-mell. 
 They were taken to Boston and tried in a court of 
 
166 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 law; then they were put into prison, little Jonathan, 
 Patience, and Fear Brewster with the rest. It was 
 probably a gloomy experience, for prisons in those 
 days were dark, damp, dirty places infested with rats. 
 But in the end they were more kindly treated. They 
 were all released and sent back to Scrooby. 
 
 Then Mr. Brewster and Mr. Bradford had to lay 
 their plans for a second attempt. They made arrange- 
 ments with another Dutch shipmaster, and this time 
 only the men walked on foot toward the coast. The 
 women and children were sent in boats down the river 
 to where the ship awaited them. 
 
 The men reached the ship in safety and some went 
 on board, but the women and children were delayed 
 on account of the low tide, which left their boats 
 stranded high and dry on a mud flat. While they were 
 waiting for the high tide to float them out to the ship, 
 a mob of people carrying guns, bows, arrows, pitch- 
 forks, and clubs suddenly rushed upon the beach fol- 
 lowed by officers of the King. The sight of this crowd 
 so frightened the ship's captain that he set sail at once 
 without waiting for the boats, taking with him the 
 men who were on the ship. 
 
 The poor women and children had not only failed 
 for the second time in their escape, but they were now 
 separated from some of their men folk. The whole 
 group was arrested except for a few who ran away, 
 but the officers could find no good excuse for imprison- 
 ing them, so they were released after a few days. Plans 
 were again made for their journey to Holland which 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 167 
 
 were at last successful. They reached Holland in 
 safety, and when all were united again, the Puritans 
 held a meeting, and fell down on their knees to 
 thank God for having protected them. This was in 
 the year 1608. 
 
 HOLLAND 
 
 For twelve years the Puritans lived as a little colony 
 in Leyden, a pleasant Dutch town with houses that 
 seemed to shine with cleanliness. Canals wound in and 
 out among the streets. Surrounding the town were flat, 
 green, marshy fields, with big, towering windmills here 
 and there, and bright gardens of pink and red and 
 yellow tulips. 
 
 The Puritans bought a large house which had a big 
 garden. This they called the Great House, and it was 
 their chief meeting place. Mr. Robinson, the minister, 
 lived in the Great House, and many of the others built 
 themselves little homes in the garden behind it. Mr. 
 Brewster rented a house in the neighborhood for 
 himself and his family. None of the Puritans knew how 
 to speak Dutch, so they had great difficulty in earning 
 their living and remained very poor. Even the little 
 children had to go to work, for there was not enough 
 money to pay for their schooling. Soon their young 
 bodies were bent and bowed under the burden of their 
 labor. However, they learned all kinds of useful trades. 
 Many of them became weavers. Mr. Brewster found 
 that he could make some money by giving English les- 
 sons to young Dutch merchants. After a few years, he 
 
168 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 set up a printing press, and printed such religious books 
 as were forbidden to be printed in England. In this age 
 those who loved liberty were fighting for liberty of 
 conscience, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. 
 
 Many of the older Puritans never learned the Dutch 
 language, and though they felt great friendliness toward 
 the Dutch, yet they remained strangers in a strange 
 land. The struggle against poverty was very hard. As 
 they themselves have written, "they saw the grim and 
 grisly face of Poverty come on them like an armed 
 man, with whom they had to buckle and encounter, 
 and from whom they could not fly." But of all their 
 sorrows, the heaviest to be borne was their anxiety 
 over their children. Some of the children were pinched 
 and overworked, others were slipping away from their 
 parents and growing up into Dutch mynheers and 
 vrouws. Some became soldiers, others took long sea 
 voyages. Some mixed with the loose crowd of foreign 
 sailors that filled the Dutch seaports and broke away 
 from family ties altogether. 
 
 Therefore, the Puritans were not entirely content to 
 live in Holland, and so, when Mr. Brewster and Mr. 
 Bradford put forward the plan that the whole colony 
 should migrate to America, they accepted it very 
 readily. They looked forward with great happiness to 
 a new country, where they could govern themselves, 
 and where their children could develop healthily in a 
 pure, free atmosphere. 
 
 At first the plan came to nothing, because the Puri- 
 tans had not enough money to build a sailing vessel 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 169 
 
 and buy provisions. Then an English merchant named 
 Weston visited Mr. Brewster in Leyden and said: 
 " I belong to a company of merchants in London who 
 are very desirous that this new country of North 
 America be settled. We believe that it will in time 
 become very valuable to England as a colony. We 
 can help you and lend you money. If you and your 
 friends are willing to take the risk of being settlers, 
 we merchant-adventurers in London will be willing 
 to risk our money and pay for your ships and pro- 
 visions. We can arrange that the profits of the 
 enterprise be shared equally among us all. The new 
 country is rich in furs, and very fertile, so that you 
 will soon be able to trade with England and make 
 great profits." 
 
 The Puritans accepted this offer, and they promised 
 that when they landed in America they would stay to- 
 gether for seven years, and put all the produce of their 
 labor into a common store, which should belong not 
 only to them but also to the merchants in London, and 
 they promised that they would in time pay back the 
 money that was loaned to them. 
 
 Then Mr. Brewster, Mr. Bradford, and other leaders 
 wrote to many of their old friends in England and asked 
 them to join in the enterprise. About thirty-five of 
 the Leyden Puritans had decided to make the journey, 
 and they found that no less than sixty-five friends in 
 England were willing to come with them. It was 
 arranged that they should all meet together at the sea- 
 port, Southampton, in England. 
 
170 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 DEPARTURE OF THE PILGRIMS FROM DELFTSHAVEN 
 
 A ship named the Speedwell was built at the Dutch 
 port, Delftshaven, not far from Leyden. When the 
 Puritans were ready to depart in it from Holland they 
 had a day of solemn worship and thanksgiving. Mr. 
 Robinson, the minister, preached a long sermon. 
 Many were sorrowful at leaving the pleasant city that 
 had been their dwelling place for twelve years, and 
 they poured out fervent prayers mixed with floods of 
 tears. They were simple, soft-hearted folk. But, as 
 Mr. Bradford wrote in his History, they conquered 
 their sadness. "They knew they were pilgrims, and 
 logked not much on these things, but lifted up their 
 eyes to the heavens, their dearest country." 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 171 
 
 At Southampton, the Pilgrims found another ship 
 called the Mayflower, awaiting them. They met here 
 their friends from England who were going to sail to 
 America. Among these were a Captain Miles Standish, 
 a young man named John Alden, and a Mr. and Mrs. 
 Mullins, who had a daughter called Priscilla. Other 
 Pilgrims whose names are well known were John 
 Carver, Edward Winslow, and Stephen Hopkins. 
 
 The two ships sailed out together, but the Speedwell 
 soon had to turn back, because she had sprung a leak, 
 and all her passengers and baggage were crowded onto 
 the Mayflower. So the Mayflower sailed out alone 
 across the Atlantic. She was a little wooden sailing 
 vessel, only ninety feet long and twenty-four feet wide. 
 
 For two months the Pilgrims were crowded uncom- 
 fortably together on this little ship without sight of 
 land. Besides the hundred passengers and the crew, 
 we know there were two large dogs and one little dog. 
 Perhaps there were also some hens and chickens and 
 goats. The food provided was very simple, consisting 
 chiefly of dry biscuits and salt beef and smoked herring. 
 Small wood fires were used for cooking, but as fuel was 
 scarce, the meals that were given out twice a day were 
 mostly cold. Many passengers were seasick, and one 
 man died. One little baby was born, the son of Stephen 
 Hopkins, and was christened Oceanus Hopkins. 
 
 The Pilgrims gave very quaint Christian names to 
 their children. Mr. Brewster's two daughters were 
 named Patience and Fear, and he now had two younger 
 sons named Love and Wrestling. (Wrestling was gen- 
 
172 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 erally called "Wrastle" Brewster, for short.) Other 
 names were Resolved White, Humility Cooper, and 
 Remember Allerton. 
 
 Half way across the Atlantic, the Mayflower ran 
 into a heavy gale. The ship was tossed by rolling 
 waves, the skies darkened and lowered, and there were 
 thunder and lightning and torrents of rain. In the 
 midst of this storm, a big log holding the mast of the 
 ship cracked, and the sailors thought the mast would 
 fall down. But by making a great effort, they were 
 able to hold the log in place, and secure it with a long 
 iron screw. 
 
 In November, 1620, land was sighted, and the 
 Mayflower, to the great relief of the passengers, was 
 anchored in a safe harbor, near what is now Cape Cod, 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL IN AMERICA 
 
 Having safely reached the new country, the first act 
 of the Pilgrims was to hold a meeting on shipboard 
 and organize their government. They decided to gov- 
 ern themselves as a democracy. When the question 
 came up as to who was to be governor, the matter was 
 put to a vote. Every man in the company had a vote, 
 and by the vote of the majority, Mr. John Carver was 
 elected governor. Then all signed a paper by which 
 they agreed to obey any laws that the group might 
 make. By this simple act, the Pilgrims helped to lay 
 the foundation of American democracy. 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 173 
 
 A small party of men under the leadership of Cap- 
 tain Standish and Mr. Bradford were sent ashore to 
 explore the coast. 
 
 They found a pleasantly wooded country, with many 
 streams of clear, fresh water, which, after their long 
 imprisonment on shipboard tasted as pleasant to them 
 as the finest wine or beer would have tasted in former 
 times. At one place they saw some Indians and tried 
 to follow them; but the Indians ran away as fast as 
 they could, so that the Pilgrims were not able to catch 
 up with them. They followed the tracks, and dis- 
 covered a field which had been planted with corn that 
 year. Near this were the remains of a hut and several 
 heaps of sand, which looked as though they had been 
 newly piled up. Digging into these, they discovered a 
 number of baskets filled with corn, still fair and fresh. 
 This was to them a very goodly sight, for though they 
 had never seen Indian corn before, they were sure it 
 was good for food. 
 
 By the end of December, the explorers had found a 
 place which seemed favorable for a settlement, so all 
 the passengers of the Mayflower, including the women 
 and children, were landed, and the men set to work to 
 build a town. They named it Plymouth. First, with 
 great labor, they built a big plank house, which was to 
 be the common storehouse, for they had promised to 
 share all their goods in common. When the storehouse 
 was almost finished, a great wave of sickness swept 
 through the colony, and all work was interrupted for 
 the time being. The sickness was caused by insufficient 
 
174 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 food and exposure to the cold. Often the Pilgrims had 
 nothing to eat in the cold winter weather except clams 
 which they picked up on the seashore. Besides, they 
 were continually getting wet through, or frostbitten, 
 
 THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS 
 
 because they had no proper houses to shelter them. 
 Most of them had colds and coughs, and many had 
 quinsy and lung fever. In four months nearly half of 
 them had died, and at one time only six or seven were 
 well enough to nurse the dying and bury the dead. 
 
 Mr. Edward Winslow's wife died, and also Captain 
 Standish's wife, Rose. Mr. Mullins, his wife, his son, 
 and his servant all died, and only the daughter, Pris- 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 175 
 
 cilia, survived, who was later to marry John Alden. 
 There were a great many children among the Pilgrims 
 and they were better able to withstand the epidemic 
 of sickness than the old people. The men who worked 
 hardest for the colony during these first trying months 
 were Mr. Bradford, Mr. Brewster, Governor Carver, 
 Captain Standish, Edward Winslow, John Alden, Ste- 
 phen Hopkins, John Howland, John and Edward Til- 
 ley, Arthur Warren, and Edward Dotte. 
 
 The new country was a wild and savage place in the 
 winter. It was overgrown with woods and thickets and 
 bushes and tangles, and the bare trees had a dreary, 
 weather-beaten aspect, from being exposed to ice storms 
 and the lashing of great gales from the Atlantic. 
 
 But when the spring came, bringing with it green 
 grass, and warm fine days, and little song birds from 
 the south, which chirped and trilled most pleasantly in 
 the leafy trees, the condition of the distressed Pilgrims 
 became happier. 
 
 THE INDIANS 
 
 So far they had seen nothing more of the Indians, 
 and felt very curious about them. But one fine, warm 
 day in the spring, they were amazed to see an Indian 
 walk right up to the storehouse, apparently without 
 fear, and they were still more amazed to hear him call 
 out " Welcome " in English. He was a tall straight man, 
 with very long black hair, and he carried a bow and 
 two arrows. He was most friendly. He said that his 
 name was Samoset, and that he had learned a little 
 
176 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 English from some English sailors who had come to 
 fish in his country. He talked for many hours with 
 the Pilgrims, and when it grew dark, they would have 
 been glad to get rid of him, but he wished to remain 
 for the night, so they gave him a lodging. But several 
 men watched him carefully all night long. 
 
 The next morning he went away, but soon came back 
 with five other Indians, all tall, fine men, wearing deer- 
 skins and feathers stuck in their black hair. One of 
 them had a foxtail tied to his head. They began to sing 
 and dance a war dance, but the Pilgrims dismissed them 
 as soon as possible, because it was Sunday, and their 
 strict principles did not permit of dancing on Sundays. 
 
 A few days later Samoset appeared again in Ply- 
 mouth with another Indian whose name was Squanto. 
 Squanto spoke English very well indeed, for he had 
 actually been taken to England by a sea captain, and 
 had lived in London for some time. He stayed among 
 the Pilgrims and became a valuable friend to them. 
 It is doubtful whether they would have survived the 
 first year if it had not been for Squanto. Later in the 
 spring he taught them how to plant Indian corn, and 
 by so doing he provided them with their principal food. 
 But his first mission was to act as a friendly interpreter 
 between the English and the Indian tribes of the 
 neighborhood. He brought the news that a great chief 
 named Massasoit was coming to visit the colonists and 
 was willing to make a treaty of peace with them. 
 
 When Massasoit arrived in view on one of the hills 
 overlooking Plymouth, followed by a band of sixty 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 177 
 
 Indian braves, the Pilgrims shot a loud volley of blank 
 cartridges into the air, as a salute. The Indians were 
 shy, and at first would not venture down into the valley. 
 Then Mr. Edward Winslow offered himself as a hostage, 
 and walked up to them, after which Massasoit and 
 twenty of his followers marched down the hill and 
 were escorted into one of the half-finished houses of 
 the colony, hastily decorated for the occasion with a 
 green rug and four cushions. 
 
 There, with the help of Squanto, as interpreter, a 
 solemn treaty of peace was made. The Indians and the 
 English agreed not to injure each other, there was to 
 be no stealing and no warfare between them, and if 
 any trouble came to them from the outside, they were 
 to help each other as allies. When this treaty was con- 
 cluded, Governor Carver kissed Massasoit's hand, and 
 Massasoit kissed Governor Carver's hand, so that no 
 courtesy was withheld. After this, the Sachem returned 
 to his own village. He was a big strong man, grave 
 of countenance and spare of speech. His clothing 
 differed very little from that of his followers, except 
 that he wore a chain of white bones around his neck. 
 His face was painted a dull mulberry red, and both his 
 hair and face were carefully oiled, so that he looked 
 very greasy. 
 
 In the months that followed, the Pilgrims were busy 
 planting their corn and building their houses. Squanto 
 taught them to plant corn in this fashion: First he 
 took a stick and made a hole in the ground a few inches 
 deep, then he dropped a fish into the hole and kicked 
 
178 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 a little dirt over it, then he dropped in the corn seed 
 and filled up the hole with some more earth. 
 
 The houses of the Pilgrims were built along two 
 main streets, close to the common storehouse. Each 
 
 family had its 
 own house, and 
 some took in un- 
 married men and 
 boys as lodgers. 
 For instance, 
 Captain Miles 
 Standish and 
 John Alden lived 
 together in one 
 house, until the 
 time came when 
 John Alden mar- 
 ried Priscilla 
 Mullins. 
 
 Though they 
 had their own 
 homes, the Pil- 
 grims did not 
 have their own 
 cornfields at this time. They all worked together in 
 common fields, and their harvest was garnered in the 
 common storehouse, and then equally distributed 
 among them all. Likewise any turkeys shot in the 
 woods, or fish caught in the sea were brought to the 
 common storehouse. 
 
 JOHN ALDEN AND PRISCILLA 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 179 
 
 During the heat of the summer, Mr. Carver, the gov- 
 ernor, died of a sunstroke. One blazing hot day when 
 he had been working out in the fields with the rest, he 
 came in feeling very sick. He complained greatly of 
 his head, and within a few hours his senses failed and he 
 spoke no more. 
 
 A meeting of the whole colony was held, and Mr. 
 William Bradford was elected by vote to be the new 
 governor. He was a fine, strong man who had prob- 
 ably done more than anyone else to help the sick during 
 the winter epidemic. 
 
 Shortly after this, in June or July, Squanto informed 
 the Pilgrims that the Indians were expecting them to 
 return the visit paid by Massasoit. Accordingly, the 
 Governor appointed Edward Winslow and Stephen 
 Hopkins to undertake this adventure. Accompanied 
 by Squanto, these men started off on their two 
 days' journey, carrying with them a red coat trimmed 
 with lace, a copper chain, and various other small 
 presents which they were to give to Massasoit. They 
 also carried firearms for their own protection. 
 
 Following a rude trail through the woods, they 
 passed through a number of small Indian settlements 
 until they arrived, one Wednesday morning, in the 
 little village where Massasoit lived. This they found 
 to be made up of a few poor huts built of skin and bark. 
 As a salute to the Sachem, they fired a volley of blank 
 cartridges into the air, which startled the Indian 
 squaws and papooses, and made them very much 
 alarmed. But Massasoit himself was not frightened. 
 
180 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 He welcomed the three messengers very kindly and 
 took them into his hut. There Mr. Winslow delivered 
 the presents. Massasoit at once put on the red coat 
 and the copper chain, and was not a little proud of 
 them. He walked around among all his men that they 
 might see him so grandly dressed. 
 
 In answer to Mr. Winslow' s message, he said to them 
 in a friendly manner: "I will gladly continue peace 
 and friendship with the English, and I will also help 
 you with corn for seed, according to your request." 
 Then he lit a pipe of tobacco, and with Squanto as an 
 interpreter, he fell to discoursing on many subjects. 
 
 The hours passed, and it grew dark, and late, but no 
 food was offered to the travelers. This, they discovered, 
 was because the Indians themselves had nothing to eat. 
 It happened that their hunting for the last few days 
 had been unsuccessful. In the evening a fire was lit in 
 the Sachem's hut, and a number of Indians came 
 in and crouched around it, sitting on their heels 
 and smoking their pipes. Then Massasoit stood up and 
 made a speech. He said, looking at Mr. Winslow and 
 Mr. Hopkins, "You are welcome here, and I will keep 
 the treaty. But I am a very great chief." Then he 
 turned to the Indians and asked, "Am I not ruler of 
 this country?" 
 
 All the Indians grunted together and agreed that he 
 was. 
 
 "And am I not then ruler of this town?" 
 
 All the Indians grunted again, and said that he was, 
 indeed. 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 
 
 181 
 
 Then Massasoit marched up and down his hut and 
 repeated the same question about thirty or forty times, 
 in order to make it quite clear. 
 
 After this long speech, the Pilgrims asked if they 
 might go to rest, and Massasoit offered them his own 
 bed, which was made of planks a foot from the ground, 
 covered with a thin mat. Mr. Winslow and Mr. Hop- 
 
 SQUANTO AND THE PILGRIMS 
 
 kins and Squanto lay down at one end, and Massasoit 
 and his squaw lay at the other. By and by two more 
 Indian chiefs pressed in as well, and what with the 
 number of bedfellows, and the mosquitoes, and the 
 hard planks, the Pilgrims were more weary after their 
 night's rest than they had been at the end of their long 
 journey on foot. 
 
 The next morning Massasoit went out and caught 
 two big fish, but as at least forty Indians looked for a 
 share in them, the Pilgrims did not have a very hearty 
 
182 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 meal. It was the first they had eaten in two nights and 
 a day. On Friday morning, before sunrise, they took 
 their departure, and Massasoit, as he bade them fare- 
 well, said that he was both sorry and ashamed that he 
 had not been able to entertain them better. 
 
 In the autumn of the first year, the Pilgrims har- 
 vested the crop of corn which they had planted with 
 the aid of Squanto. They were now far more comfort- 
 able than they had been at first, for they had food and 
 shelter. They had built about seven or eight plank 
 houses, covered with thatch. Their windows were 
 made of oiled paper, and their furniture was rough 
 wooden furniture which they had made themselves, 
 but they had some pewter dishes and iron kettles which 
 they had brought with them from England. 
 
 To celebrate their first good harvest in November, 
 they decided to hold a day of Thanksgiving. The men 
 went out and shot some wild turkeys in the woods; then 
 they all met together and had a plentiful dinner of 
 roast turkey and corn bread. This was the first Thanks- 
 giving Day, and it is in memory of this dinner that 
 we still eat turkey at Thanksgiving every year. 
 
 The Pilgrims now had a supply of corn stored up in 
 the common storehouse, and they might have lived 
 comfortably until the next harvest. But a few days 
 after Thanksgiving, a ship came unexpectedly from 
 England bringing thirty-five new colonists, poor men 
 who were utterly unprovided with food, and had no 
 other clothing except what they wore on their backs. 
 Following their principles, the Pilgrims held a meeting 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 183 
 
 and decided to share their corn with the newcomers, 
 although they knew this would mean great privation. 
 It was too late in the season to increase the provisions, 
 and the number of mouths to be fed had doubled. 
 
 Before the winter was over, there was no more corn 
 left. The settlers were forced to live on clams and 
 oysters picked up on the beach, and the long contin- 
 uance of this diet made their faces look very pale. In 
 the spring, fresh boatloads of immigrants arrived from 
 England, and by May and June the people of Ply- 
 mouth were almost starving. The sea and the creeks 
 were full of fish, but there was a lack of proper fishing 
 nets and tackle. The newcomers were not so kind and 
 charitable as the Pilgrims of the Mayflower and they 
 caused much trouble. In the summer, when the corn 
 was ripening, some of them trampled down the fields 
 and stole the ears, being impelled by hunger and dis- 
 satisfied with their allotted share of food. Another dis- 
 turbance at this time was caused by two servants 
 belonging to Mr. Stephen Hopkins. These men fool- 
 ishly tried to settle a quarrel by fighting a duel with 
 swords, but they were separated, and Governor Brad- 
 ford called a general meeting of the whole community, 
 to act as a court. The two men were tried, and it was 
 decided by the vote of the majority that they should 
 be tied neck and heels together for twenty-four hours, 
 with nothing to eat or drink. 
 
 But after the offenders had been tied together for 
 the space of one hour, they declared that they were 
 now friends, and they promised earnestly to behave 
 
184 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 themselves, so Governor Bradford ordered their re- 
 lease. The Pilgrims were kind-hearted judges. 
 
 You will see by this story that the government of 
 Plymouth was at first very much like that of the 
 Athenians. It was a direct democracy. The colony 
 was still so small that all the men could gather together 
 in one big meeting. They did not have to vote for 
 representatives, like the people of England. They 
 themselves voted on all the questions that came up. 
 This lawsuit between the two servants was decided by 
 a vote of all the citizens, that is to say, by the vote of 
 the men, for no one dreamed at this time that women 
 might have votes. 
 
 THE PILGRIMS GIVE UP COMMUNISM 
 
 For several months, the Pilgrims were beset with 
 difficulties and suffered from sickness and weakness on 
 account of the lack of food. Then, in the spring of 
 1623, the third year of their settlement, they changed 
 their method of work, and their prospects began to 
 look much brighter. 
 
 They wished to plant a much bigger acreage of corn, 
 and it was necessary that everyone should work his 
 hardest. The common fields, where all had worked 
 together, had not proved a success. Some of the col- 
 onists were very industrious and some were lazy. Those 
 who were industrious did not like to see the fruit of 
 their hard work being enjoyed and wasted by the lazy. 
 So Governor Bradford called a meeting and suggested 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 185 
 
 that from now on each family should have its own corn- 
 field and enjoy the use of its own harvest. He thought 
 this would make all hands more industrious. 
 
 The people agreed with him, for there had been 
 a great deal of jealousy and quarrelling under the 
 old plan of communism. Accordingly a separate corn- 
 field was allotted to each family, and the results were 
 very good. Far more corn was planted than other- 
 wise would have been, and the new plan gave far 
 greater contentment than had existed before. Even 
 the women now went willingly into the fields, taking 
 their little ones with them to help plant the corn. 
 If the women had been forced to work in the common 
 fields, they would have thought it an act of great 
 tyranny and oppression. 
 
 Experience had proved to the Pilgrims that commu- 
 nism is not practical and efficient. From now on, no 
 further attempt was made to work in common corn- 
 fields. Yet it must not be thought that the Pilgrims 
 gave up communism entirely, for later when they had 
 herds of sheep and cattle, these were pastured on com- 
 mon fields and guarded by a village cowherd, as were 
 the cattle of the English country folk in the Middle 
 Ages. The common pastures of New England were 
 kept up for more than a hundred years, and it is be- 
 lieved that they fostered a good spirit of helpfulness 
 and democracy among the New Englanders. In many 
 New England villages you will find in the center of 
 the town to this day, a park or a large open space 
 the remnant of the old " common. " 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 187 
 
 After the people of Plymouth had harvested their 
 third and biggest crop of corn, they grew more 
 and more prosperous and felt firmly established in 
 the new country. Now there was no more danger 
 of starvation. Seeds were procured from England 
 and large vegetable gardens and fruit orchards were 
 planted as well as cornfields; cattle and sheep were 
 brought across the ocean and these provided a sup- 
 ply of meat, butter, and milk. By trading with the 
 Indians, the colonists were soon able to send back 
 to England valuable cargoes of beaver skins, and 
 the fishing trade was considerable. In 1624 there 
 were fifty English fishing vessels on the coast of 
 New England. 
 
 The story of their brave struggle is ended. The Pil- 
 grims of the Mayflower had stood every test. They had 
 been willing to sacrifice themselves for an ideal. They 
 had been kind and charitable to each other through 
 sickness and starvation, and there was not a selfish, 
 over-ambitious man amongst them. They were patient 
 workers, they were tender-hearted judges, and brave 
 soldiers. It is because they were such good, simple, 
 faithful men that their story has always been an inspira- 
 tion and an ideal to all Americans. The government 
 they founded was a pure democracy. 
 
 From that time, the New England colony grew and 
 grew rapidly until it had thousands of inhabitants. In 
 1628, a new company of Puritans settled in New England 
 and founded the town of Boston. Later the Pilgrims of 
 
188 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Plymouth joined with this new company, and formed 
 together one colony, the province of Massachusetts. 
 
 A great 'many new towns were built. Such numbers of 
 immigrants landed, that a town would soon become like 
 a beehive overstocked with bees. Part of the inhabitants 
 would want to "swarm," and move into new settlements 
 spreading further and further into the backwoods. Soon 
 the whole of Massachusetts was dotted over with little vil- 
 lages and towns that the Puritans called " infant colonies" 
 
 The central government of the whole of Massachusetts 
 was carried on in Boston, the largest town, by a governor, 
 and an assembly called the General Court. There were 
 now many little towns and villages a whole day's journey 
 away from Boston, and it was impossible for all the 
 country folk to make the journey to the General Court four 
 times a year. Accordingly every town held a Town Meet- 
 ing at which the people elected a representative to sit in 
 the General Court at Boston. These representatives passed 
 laws affecting the whole of Massachusetts. Thus the cen- 
 tral government of Massachusetts became a representa- 
 tive government. 
 
 Although the people of Massachusetts and New England 
 managed their own affairs, they still remained the subjects 
 of the King of England; for New England, like other settle- 
 ments of Englishmen to the south, was an English colony. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: The Pilgrim Fathers struggled for 
 liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. 
 They left England and migrated to America for the sake of re- 
 ligious and democratic ideals. 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 189 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. Describe the customs of the Puritans. 
 
 2. Who were the "Separatists"? Why were they called by 
 that name? 
 
 3. Why did the Puritans (Separatists) leave England? 
 
 4. What is the meaning of "liberty of conscience," "freedom 
 of the press," "freedom of speech"? 
 
 5. How did Mr. Brewster earn a living in Holland? 
 
 6. Describe the voyage of the Mayflower. 
 
 7. How did the Pilgrims organize their government on board 
 the Mayflower? 
 
 8. In what ways was Squanto useful to the Pilgrims? 
 
 9. Describe the trial of Mr. Hopkins's servants, and its results. 
 
 10. How is government carried on in a "direct" democracy? 
 
 11. What were the results of communism in the Plymouth 
 Colony ? 
 
 12. Describe the character of the Pilgrims. 
 
 13. Explain why the government of Massachusetts became a 
 "representative" democracy instead of a "direct" democracy. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 
 
 1. A NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE IN 1775 
 
 2. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 
 
 3. A STAGECOACH JOURNEY 
 
 4. THE YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN 
 
 5. THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 
 
 6. THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 The story of Jonathan Hale is the story of a plain New 
 England boy who fought in the Revolutionary War, and 
 afterwards took up a plot of land in the Northwest Territory. 
 Thousands of other American farmers ^ like him were 
 moving westward at this time, when all the land beyond the 
 Allegheny River was still a wilderness of forest, swamps, 
 and prairie. Together with the famous men of the Revolu- 
 tion, these pioneer farmers were the builders of the nation. 
 
 A NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE IN 1775 
 
 Jonathan Hale was born near Warrenton/ Massachu- 
 setts, in the year 1764. When Jonathan was only ten 
 years old, his father, Samuel Hale, died, leaving a wife 
 and three children with no other property but the house 
 in which they lived and the farm land surrounding it. 
 
 1 The character of Jonathan Hale, and the following descriptions of 
 life in a New England village are based on the diary of John Adams. 
 
 190 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 191 
 
 Jonathan was a tall boy, big-boned and thin. He 
 had to work very hard on the farm. The school in 
 Warrenton, supported by the town government, was 
 called a "moving school," which meant that the mas- 
 ter moved from one town to another, so that Jonathan 
 and his brother went to school only three days in the 
 week. On the other days they were busy digging 
 up stones from the farm land, for the soil around War- 
 renton was very stony, or tending to the cattle, or 
 ploughing acre after acre of land. Even on the days 
 when they went to school they had to rise very early 
 to do chores. 
 
 One April morning, in the year 1775, Jonathan came 
 in to breakfast red-cheeked and hungry, for he had 
 driven the cattle over a mile to water through a cold 
 wind. He found his mother, his younger brother 
 Samuel, and his little sister Abigail, who was called 
 "Nabby," sitting around the kitchen table. 
 
 "Here is your hasty pudding, Jonathan," said Mrs. 
 Hale, handing him an earthenware bowl and a pewter 
 spoon. "You and Samuel must remember to come 
 home as soon as school is over, because we are invited 
 to sup with Deacon Wibird and his lady this evening. 
 They have their little Quaker niece, Rachel Wibird, 
 from Philadelphia visiting them. Besides, Deacon 
 Wibird tells me that he has a copy of the Boston 
 Packet which he wishes me to read." 
 
 In those days there were no daily newspapers, but 
 the larger towns were beginning to publish small weekly 
 newspapers. 
 
192 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 A COLONIAL KITCHEN 
 
 When they had finished their hasty pudding, Jona- 
 than and Samuel set off to school. As they walked past 
 the Warrenton Common, they noticed a young tree 
 that had been newly planted. It was a likely young 
 button tree, and it had on it this inscription: 
 
 The Tree of Liberty 
 
 and Cursed is He 
 
 who Cuts this Tree 
 
 "I'll warrant that has been planted by the Sons of 
 Liberty," said Jonathan. "The feeling runs very high 
 against the British." 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 193 
 
 In the school that Jonathan and Samuel attended, 
 they were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and Latin, 
 but no science of any kind. This morning Jonathan 
 was called upon to read from a book of fables which 
 was the most popular children's book of the day. This 
 is the story he read, very slowly and in a loud voice : 
 
 THE BOY WHO STOLE THE APPLES 
 
 An old man found a rude boy upon one of his trees stealing 
 apples and desired him to come down, but the young saucebox 
 told him plainly he would not. "Won't you?" said the old man, 
 "then I'll fetch you down," so he pulled up some tufts of grass and 
 threw them at him, but this only made the youngster laugh, to 
 think the old man would pretend to beat him down from the tree 
 with grass only. "Well, well," said the old man, "if neither words 
 nor grass will do, I must try what virtue there is in stones." So 
 the old man pelted him heartily with stones, which soon made 
 the young chap hasten down from the tree and beg the old 
 man's pardon. 
 
 MORAL: If good words and gentle means will not reclaim the 
 wicked, they must be dealt with in a more severe manner. 
 
 At twelve o'clock Jonathan and Samuel came out of 
 school. As they were walking toward the Common to 
 watch the minutemen being drilled by Major Westcott, 
 the head of the Warrenton militia, they saw a horseman 
 gallop down the main street of Warrenton, and heard 
 him shout, 
 
 " Alarum! Alarum! Turn out, minutemen! Turn 
 out!" 
 
 He was riding at full speed and spurring his horse. 
 When he reached the Common, he drew in his reins 
 
194 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 sharply and thrust a sealed packet into the Major's 
 hands. Then he was off again. Major Westcott broke 
 the seal and read aloud: 
 
 "April 19, 1775. 
 
 "To All Friends of American Liberty: Be it known that this 
 morning before break of day a brigade of the British Army 
 marched to Lexington, where they found a company of colony 
 militia in arms, upon whom they fired, killing six men and wound- 
 ing four others. The bearer of this letter is charged to alarm the 
 country as far as Connecticut. All persons are desired to supply 
 him with fresh horses as they may be needed. I have spoken with 
 several who have seen the dead and the wounded. 
 
 J. Palmer, 
 One of the Committee of Safety." 
 
 Soon the boys heard the cracking of firearms to warn 
 and summon all the able-bodied men- of Warrenton. 
 The minutemen who were working in their fields went 
 into their houses and began to take down their guns, 
 their powderhorns, and their bullet pouches. The news 
 spread quickly through the town and a great many of 
 the townsfolk collected on the Common waiting for 
 further news. Then the long roll of the drums was 
 heard, and the men came running toward the Common 
 with their guns in their hands, and their knapsacks on 
 their backs. In a very short time they were mustered. 
 They kissed their wives and children good-by, and 
 marched off in the direction of Boston. 
 
 When Jonathan and Samuel came home, they found 
 their mother looking very grave, and she said, "God 
 grant us wisdom and courage. We know not whether 
 we have men fit for the times. I feel great anxiety." 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 195 
 
 Then she reminded them, "Mrs. Wibird will be 
 expecting us now. Run, Nabby, and put on the little 
 dress that you wear on the Lord's Day, and you boys 
 should put on your best clothes, too." 
 
 THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 
 
 This picture was drawn by two men who took part in the battle. 
 
 So Jonathan and Samuel put on their Sunday suits 
 which were made of rough, grey homespun woven by 
 their mother. They wore short breeches, knitted woolen 
 stockings, low shoes, and three-cornered hats. Little 
 Nabby put on a muslin frock with a handkerchief folded 
 around the neck, a bib apron, a Leghorn hat, and 
 a long blue cloak. Deacon Wibird's farm was some 
 
196 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 distance away, so the horses were brought out and 
 saddled with pillions. Nabby was perched up in front 
 of her mother on one horse, and the two boys straddled 
 the other. 
 
 It was a quiet evening; the wind had turned, and the 
 air was mild. The little farmhouses and fields of 
 Warrenton looked so peaceful and undisturbed that it 
 was hard to realize that fighting had been going on in 
 New England on that day. 
 
 Soon they reached the Wibird farm, which was large 
 and well cultivated. There were very few rich or really 
 poor people living in or near Warrenton, for most of 
 the folk were small farmers. But Deacon Wibird had 
 inherited some property and was counted a wealthy 
 man. Jonathan and Samuel knew they could be sure of 
 a very hearty and inviting meal whenever they went 
 to sup with him. 
 
 They found Mrs. Wibird awaiting them in the dining 
 room a big, handsome, comfortable room. The walls 
 were panelled with wild cherry wood, and the stone 
 floor had been freshly scoured and sanded. A wood 
 fire was burning in the open fireplace, and the gleams 
 of the curling blue flames were reflected in the shining 
 silver plate set out on the sideboard. In the middle of 
 the room stood a polished mahogany table laden with 
 cut glass and delftware and groaning with food. 
 
 After Mrs. Hale had remarked in a polite tone that a 
 fire in the evening was still very pleasant, although the 
 weather was so springlike, she asked if she might look 
 at the Boston Packet, for her thoughts were filled with 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 197 
 
 anxiety over the fighting at Lexington and she sought 
 for details leading up to it. While she was sitting by 
 the fire reading the paper, Mrs. Wibird remembered to 
 call for her niece Rachel. 
 
 The children had noticed the little girl standing 
 shyly in the half light of the doorway, afraid to come 
 in. Now, when called, she came and answered their 
 greetings in a low voice; but she was too shy to say 
 very much. She was dressed in grey, as she belonged 
 to a Quaker family. 
 
 As soon as Deacon Wibird appeared, they all sat down 
 to supper. The little girl served them, and she was as 
 helpful as she was shy. In those days good food was 
 very plentiful and cheap. First there was roast wild 
 turkey with cranberry sauce and a number of vege- 
 tables, then salt pork and cabbage, and a noble suet 
 pudding, washed down with grog and a glass of port. 
 After this, was to come whipped sillabub for dessert 
 and a fancy pudding called "floating island." 
 
 "Little Rachel helped me to make a most elegant 
 floating island from a recipe of her mother's," said 
 Mrs. Wibird. ' These quiet Philadelphia Friends, with 
 their thee's and thou's and their grey clothes, surely 
 know how to keep a good table." 
 
 All through the dinner, the talk was of the day's 
 battle, and it was earnest and serious, for all knew that 
 the colonists, if they went to war against England, 
 would have heavy odds against them. 
 
 "But our minutemen will fight hard," said Deacon 
 Wibird. "Now, my dear Mrs. Hale, I beg you, let me 
 
198 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 propose your venturing on some of this turkey." Then 
 the old gentleman spoke at great length on the causes 
 of discontent, while the ladies and the children listened 
 in respectful silence. "In the old days, England 
 allowed us colonists to do pretty much as we pleased. 
 But now she is trying to make us do as she pleases. 
 She is stopping us from trading with some of the coun- 
 tries from which we get the biggest profits. Then she 
 has put a tax on tea just to annoy us and to show that 
 she has the power to tax us. Our answer to that was 
 the Boston Tea Party, when a year and a half ago, the 
 Sons of Liberty, dressed up as Indians, rushed to the 
 docks in Boston, boarded the tea vessels, and threw 
 all the tea overboard. Nine thousand dollars' worth of 
 tea was destroyed. Rather than pay an unjust tax on 
 tea, the Sons of Liberty made up their minds to destroy 
 every chest of tea brought into Boston Harbor !" The 
 old deacon smote the table with his fist in his indigna- 
 tion. Then he added in a calmer tone to his wife: 
 "What would you say, Mrs. W., to a glass of port?" 
 
 " Thank you, my dear, a very little, just half a glass. 
 As to the tea tax," sighed Mrs. Wibird, "I should not 
 mind in one way, if it were four times as high, because 
 then we should never see any more tea. To my think- 
 ing, it is a poisonous weed. My poor father used to 
 drink twelve dishes of tea at a sitting, and it ruined 
 his health." 
 
 But the Deacon shook his pink bald head with great 
 energy and said it was not the tax itself that he ob- 
 jected to, but the principle behind it. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 199 
 
 "No taxation without representation, that is what we 
 say," declared he. "We are not represented in the 
 English Parliament, and so it has no right to lay taxes 
 on us. Only our own representatives in our own 
 Assemblies have the right to tax us. Now you boys 
 are ready for a second helping, I can see that. Come, 
 Jonathan, the drumstick. You need not be afraid of 
 those preserves, Miss Nabby, they are wholesome. 
 The Proclamation of 1763," he went on, "shows how 
 impossible it is for Englishmen thousands of miles 
 away to understand our needs. No white man who 
 settles west of the Allegheny River can have a legal 
 claim to his land. The greater part of our country, 
 that vast region of the Northwest Territory, is sup- 
 posed to belong to Indians only!" 
 
 At this Jonathan spoke up for the first time. 
 
 "The soil around Warrenton is very stony; it seems 
 to grow stones. I have always thought, sir, that I 
 should like to go west when I am older." 
 
 "Very well, my boy, then England must change her 
 tune if you are to have a legal claim to your land in 
 the west." 
 
 They now began to talk over the possibilities of the 
 western territory, and Deacon Wibird said solemnly: 
 
 "Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia thinks it may be 
 a thousand years before the whole continent is settled 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And he dares not hope 
 that it will ever come under one government." 
 
 Mrs. Hale's thoughts had returned to the political 
 differences among the colonists. She was wondering, 
 
200 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 if war were really declared, what would become of the 
 Tories in Warrenton. The colonists who sided with 
 England in the quarrel were called Tories, the name of 
 a political party in England. 
 
 "The Tories are beginning to hide their heads 
 already," said Mrs. Wibird. "I very much fear that 
 poor Parson Dove will soon have to leave town. When 
 he gave out his text last Sunday, the congregation 
 expected a Tory sermon: 'Hear, Heavens, and give 
 ear, Earth, I have nourished and brought up children 
 and they have rebelled against me. 9 But he was cau- 
 tious and kept entirely to the Scriptures. However, 
 he is very much shocked at the violent speeches 
 against the British made by some of our young patriots 
 and when he met me yesterday he said; 'Dear, dear, 
 we must keep calm. I fear great trouble is ahead 
 of us. I hear that the young Rebels are making 
 violent speeches that plainly break the Third and 
 Fifth Commandments." 
 
 " But, indeed, my dear, some of the Tories are also 
 using violent language," said the Deacon. "Captain 
 Lambert cried out in town meeting with a volley of 
 oaths, 'Anyone who denies the right of Parliament to 
 tax us is a fool." 
 
 "Oh!" Mrs. Hale was startled and troubled by this 
 statement. Then she said gravely: >( There are 
 two sides to every question, and this war will be 
 like a civil war, because there are so many colonists 
 who are Tories, and so many people in England who 
 sympathize with the grievances of the Rebels." 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 201 
 
 When the dinner was ended, Deacon Wibird gave a 
 toast in the formal, flowery fashion of the time : 
 
 "May the fair dove of liberty, in this deluge of des- 
 potism, find a rest to the sole of her foot in America!" 
 
 THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 
 
 The next day all kinds of warlike preparations were 
 made in Warrenton. Intrenchments were dug, breast- 
 works were thrown up, and a cannon was mounted on 
 a small hill overlooking the town. As it happened, the 
 British troops did not pass through Warrenton, but 
 they passed through some villages in the neighborhood 
 on their retreat to Boston, and the booming of the can- 
 non could be heard. To Mrs. Hale it was a terrible 
 sound, for it brought to her pictures of men wounded 
 and dying. Little Nabby understood nothing of its 
 meaning, she found only amusement in it, and would 
 mimic, "Bang, bang, boom, boom!" To Jonathan the 
 amazing roar sounded grand and wonderful, like the 
 roar of thunder, and he wished that he were old 
 enough to join in the fighting. 
 
 During the first year of the war, the news that came 
 to Warrenton was encouraging. The colonists had 
 resisted the British successfully at Boston. Jonathan 
 went regularly every week to read the Boston Packet 
 at Deacon Wibird's, and he learned a great deal about 
 the political situation. 
 
 The colonies were united in their resistance against 
 England. There were now thirteen colonies in America, 
 
202 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and they all adopted state constitutions and renounced 
 allegiance to England, thus becoming thirteen inde- 
 pendent states of America. Each state had a governor 
 and an assembly elected by its own people. 
 
 When the trouble with England first started, the 
 thirteen colonies had each elected two or more repre- 
 sentatives, called delegates, to be sent to a general 
 meeting in Philadelphia, called the Continental Con- 
 gress. This Continental Congress stood for the unity 
 and mutual protection of the colonies, and the conduct 
 of the war was placed in its charge. 
 
 After the battle of Lexington and Concord, a second 
 Continental Congress was called which in July, 1776, 
 signed the Declaration of Independence. These words 
 resounded throughout the country like a bugle call: 
 
 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
 men are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
 Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among 
 these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
 Jonathan was too young to join the militia, but 
 the boys of his school had formed a club called the 
 "Hearts of Oak," which he joined. Some of the boys 
 used to drill in green uniforms with leather caps, on 
 which was inscribed the slogan Freedom or Death. 
 Jonathan could not afford to buy a green uniform 
 or a leather hat, but he had his father's old gun, 
 and with it he went hunting in the woods, trailing 
 squirrels and beavers, because he knew that there is 
 no better training in marksmanship than the training 
 of a hunter. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 203 
 
 At this time, too, he began to keep a diary. His diary 
 was not merely a history of daily events, but a means 
 of strengthening his character. Mrs. Hale brought up 
 her children according to the sternly religious and 
 moral rules of Puritanism. Jonathan would write down 
 in his diary the texts of the sermons which he heard on 
 Sundays, and thought would have a good effect upon 
 his behaviour. He also recorded stern resolutions and 
 took himself to task for wasting his time. 1 Such entries 
 as these were numerous: 
 
 "Accomplish't vury little this Afternoone. 2 Went out on to the 
 Common and plaid Ball with the Freedum or Deth boys." 
 
 "Spent the Afternoone Birdsnesting with Sam. Let me Blush if 
 I do not keep a more Strickt Account of every Minit of the Day." 
 
 " Roase shamefully late, at six o'clock, a Sluggard's hower." 
 
 "Having mad up my mind to mend my ways, roase at fower, 
 and unpitcht a lode of Hay." 
 
 Some might call Jonathan a prig. He was, however, 
 only a good Puritan boy with a strong will. His was the 
 strict upbringing of many of the boys who were to fight 
 in the Revolutionary War and become our first American 
 citizens. Such training produced men of decided charac- 
 ter, men of principle, ready for the hardest work, whether 
 of brain or of body. They said, " We are ready to swim 
 or sink, live or die, survive or perish with our country/' 
 
 During the second and later years of the war, the 
 news that Jonathan read in the Boston Packet was often 
 
 1 See the Diary of John Adams. 
 
 2 Incorrect spelling was very common even among educated people in 
 those days. 
 
204 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 discouraging. The British had taken possession of New 
 York, and General Washington was unable to move 
 them. The Battle of Monmouth was a failure owing to 
 the conduct of General Lee, who had disobeyed the 
 orders of his chief and refused to march forward to help 
 Washington's men. In the year 1777, the colonists 
 were successful in the north, and the British general, 
 Burgoyne, was obliged to surrender at Saratoga. But 
 this same year ended sadly for General Washington and 
 his men. Washington went into winter quarters at 
 Valley Forge, near Philadelphia, which city was then in 
 the hands of the British. The American troops, camped 
 in a small valley shut in by high hills white with snow 
 and ice, had not enough food, nor enough fuel, nor 
 enough clothing. The men were starving, freezing, 
 and dying. When they marched, they left trails of 
 scarlet blood in the snow from their bleeding bare feet. 
 Washington was doing what he could to feed them 
 at his own expense, but it was impossible for one man 
 to feed and clothe a whole army. The root of the 
 tragedy lay in the fact that the central government, the 
 Continental Congress, was too weak. It had the con- 
 duct of the war in its charge, and yet it had no power 
 to raise taxes. Washington wrote long letters almost 
 daily to the Congress, begging for money and help, 
 and the Congress, in its turn, would write letters to the 
 various governors and assemblies of the Thirteen States, 
 begging them to raise taxes and buy supplies for 
 Washington's army. But the states did not always 
 carry out the wishes of the weak Congress. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 205 
 
 Even in Warrenton, the people were beginning to 
 feel some of the effects of weak government. Because 
 it seemed impossible to raise enough in taxes to pay 
 for the war, the State of Massachusetts, like most of 
 the othe r states, printed a great deal of paper money, 
 which was a mere promise to pay. The people did 
 not trust the promise of their government, so they 
 hoarded their gold and silver. This resulted in very 
 high prices, and a dollar in silver became a great rarity. 
 Mrs. Hale was able to give her children good food be- 
 cause it was produced on their own farm, but in all 
 her purchases she had to economize. Goods imported 
 from abroad were very high. Sugar was twelve shil- 
 lings a pound, molasses was twelve dollars a gallon, 
 and pins and needles were almost as scarce as diamonds. 
 
 And so the time passed until Jonathan had reached 
 his sixteenth birthday, and was old enough to enlist. 
 He told his mother of his intention, and she made no 
 objection. She said that he had always been a good 
 boy, and she expected him to do his duty. Samuel, only 
 fourteen years old, was ready to take over the manage- 
 ment of the farm, and Jonathan was impatient to join 
 Washington's army, near New York, and see some- 
 thing of the country. 
 
 A STAGECOACH JOURNEY 
 
 It was early one morning, in the month of June, 
 1781, that Jonathan left Warrenton. Mrs. Hale and 
 Samuel and Abigail walked with him to the courtyard 
 
206 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Mail Stage, 
 
 From Wbiteftovm to Canajoharrie, 
 
 ^PARKER'S of the Plough Inn, 
 
 where the stage- 
 coach to Boston 
 stopped while the 
 horses were being 
 changed. He 
 kissed his mother 
 good-by, shoul- 
 dered his gun and 
 knapsack, and 
 clambered up to 
 his seat in the 
 coach. 
 
 When the coach 
 was filled the whip 
 called out: "All 
 in. No more. Off 
 you go, bays." 
 Then the four bay 
 horses started off 
 with a rush and 
 clattered out of 
 Warrenton. Soon 
 the wheels were 
 humming along 
 the firm highway 
 that led to Boston. 
 In bad weather, traveling in a stagecoach was not a 
 very pleasant experience. Twelve persons were crowded 
 into one wagon, with their bags and parcels thrust 
 
 ^ I ^HE Mail leaves Wbitejtown every 
 
 A Monday andTburfday, at tiuo o^ clock 
 . and proceeds to Old Fort Scbuyler tie 
 fame evening ; next mornmg ftarts at Jour 
 o'clock, and arrives at Canajobarrie in the 
 evening ; exchanges pajfengers with the Al- 
 bany and Cboper/fcum ftages, and the next 
 day returns to Old Fort Scbuyler. 
 
 Fare for pqffengers, Two Dollars-, <way 
 pajjenger s, Four Pence per mile \ iqlb. bag- 
 gage gratis ; 15010?. rated t be fame as a 
 pajjenger. 
 
 Seats-may be bad by applying at tbe Poft- 
 Office, WbiteftoiDn^ at tbe boufe of tbe fub- 
 criber, Old Fort Scbuyler, or at Captain 
 Roofs, Canajobarrie- 
 
 JASON PARKER. 
 
 AN ADVERTISEMENT OF A MAIL STAGE 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 207 
 
 in between their legs. There was little protection 
 from the heat of midsummer, or the cold of winter. 
 But on this June day, it was delightful to drive 
 along, watching the white road unwind itself, the 
 meadows and wheat fields slipping past, and the clouds 
 of the sky continually changing. The New England 
 countryside looked very familiar to Jonathan, so this 
 part of the journey afforded him little excitement. 
 
 But Boston, which he reached in the evening, was an 
 amazing, new experience. The streets of Boston were 
 crooked and narrow, and lit up at night with a few 
 smoky oil lamps; nevertheless, to Jonathan Hale, Boston 
 was a great city. He was utterly confused and dazzled 
 by the many shop windows, and the crowds of people 
 passing to and fro on the streets. His ears were filled 
 with the din of carriage wheels and with the gabble 
 of voices. 
 
 The whip drew rein in front of an inn called The 
 Green Dragon, and there Jonathan spent the night. He 
 dined with all the other travelers, as they all ate at one 
 large table; and he slept in a room containing no less 
 than eleven beds full of strange men. 
 
 The stagecoach to New York did not leave until the 
 afternoon of the next day, so that Jonathan was able 
 to walk about during the morning and see some of the 
 sights of the city. For the first time in his life, he began 
 to feel ashamed of his clothes. Everything he had on 
 was homemade. His mother had woven the grey home- 
 spun of his suit, then she had cut out the cloth and 
 sewn it. She had also knitted his stockings. His shoes 
 
208 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 had been made by a traveling cobbler, who had spent 
 a whole day at the farm, cutting out very sensible, 
 square-toed shoes for all the family. Even Jonathan's 
 hat had been manufactured by the village hatter. Now 
 he was meeting on the streets fine gentlemen who wore 
 velvet clothes and black silk stockings, and had their 
 hair powdered in the latest French fashion. 
 
 At midday, he called on a friend of Deacon Wibird's, 
 a Mr. Nick Boylston, who was a wealthy Boston mer- 
 chant. At Mr. Boylston's home he was given an elegant 
 dinner, indeed, and the house seemed to him fit for a 
 nobleman. The floors were covered with Turkish car- 
 pets, the windows were curtained with crimson dam- 
 ask, and there were painted hangings on the walls. In 
 the hallway was a marble table, and a beautiful, tall 
 clock. More than ever Jonathan felt ashamed of his 
 countrified appearance. 
 
 In the afternoon he set off in the stagecoach on the 
 long journey to Dobbs Ferry, near New York, which 
 was to take three days. For a time he rode among great, 
 lonely hills. Then he came into the rich Connecticut 
 Valley. Here were broad, flat pastures, richer than any 
 he had ever seen in Massachusetts. The distances he 
 was covering hour after hour during these three days 
 seemed to him immense, greater than anything he 
 had imagined. Yet he knew that these great states 
 through which he was journeying were only the fringe 
 of the Atlantic seaboard. If a road could be built 
 right across the whole continent, how long would it 
 take, he wondered, to drive in a stagecoach from the 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 209 
 
 Atlantic to the Pacific coast? Probably months and 
 months and months. At the end of the third day the 
 stagecoach reached the Bronx River, north of New 
 York, and Jonathan climbed down from his seat, 
 stretched his stiff legs, and walked in the direction of 
 Dobbs Ferry. 
 
 His life as a recruit in Washington's camp for the 
 next few months was a very hard one. There was a 
 constant repetition of drilling, target practice, bay- 
 onet practice, and marches, for Washington was train- 
 ing his men as thoroughly as time and circumstances 
 would permit. 
 
 THE YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN 
 
 In order to follow the great Yorktown campaign in 
 which Jonathan was to take part, one must know the 
 position of the British and American armies in the 
 summer of 1781. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton, a British general, was occupying 
 New York with a large British army, and Washington's 
 camp was close by, at Dobbs Ferry. With Washington 
 was the French general, Rochambeau, and a force of 
 French soldiers. 
 
 In Virginia, there was another British army and 
 another American army. Here, the American army 
 was commanded by the French general, Lafayette, 
 and was quartered at Williamsburg, while the British 
 army, under Lord Cornwallis, was at Yorktown. There 
 was also a small British fleet in Norfolk harbor, pro- 
 tecting Cornwallis. 
 
210 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 A PICTURE OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Washington at this time was expecting a French 
 admiral, Count de Grasse, to sail with a fleet from the 
 West Indies to New York, to help him capture that city 
 from the British. But, instead of waiting for the Count 
 de Grasse to reach New York, Washington made up 
 his mind to go south with his own and Rochambeau's 
 army and join forces with Lafayette in Virginia. He 
 planned to reach Lafayette at the same time as Count 
 de Grasse should reach Norfolk, a port near Yorktown, 
 and with the combined forces to capture Yorktown. 
 
 The British general in New York was expecting an 
 attack at any moment, so Washington decided to hood- 
 wink him. Washington's army made certain prepa- 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 211 
 
 AS IT APPEARED IN 1780 
 
 rations and movements which persuaded Sir Henry 
 Clinton that an attack on New York was bound to take 
 place very soon. For several days he could not find out 
 exactly where Washington's troops were, nor what they 
 were doing. All the roads leading out from New York 
 were guarded, and the British spies could not succeed 
 in crossing the Continental lines. 
 
 Meanwhile, Washington was carrying out his plan 
 and was secretly making a rapid march southward to 
 Virginia. The men were covering eighteen miles a day. 
 On the first of September, Jonathan and his comrades 
 crossed the Delaware River at Trenton. The next day 
 they passed through Philadelphia. 
 
212 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 This city, Jonathan found, was more beautiful than 
 Boston, larger and finer looking. But there was little 
 time to see any of the public buildings, as the army 
 was on a quick march. Jonathan saw the State House, 
 for the troops were reviewed in front of it by the 
 delegates of the Continental Congress. Bands were 
 playing, and the people of the city collected in great 
 crowds on the streets. Jonathan was interested in see- 
 ing the delegates, a set of serious-looking, black-coated 
 men. They were having at this time a hard struggle to 
 obtain money for the needs of the army. 
 
 Some of the soldiers who had not received any pay 
 for months and months were seriously discontented, 
 and had little respect for the Continental Congress. 
 
 "Those delegates are a body of old women," they 
 grumbled, "who can do nothing but talk. They mean 
 well, but they have no real power." 
 
 After the troops had marched out of Philadelphia, 
 they came into a wonderfully rich farming country 
 owned by Pennsylvania Quakers and Dutch settlers. 
 As they marched further and further to the south, the 
 scene changed again and again. The air was clear and 
 sweet, and the woods through which the soldiers 
 passed were very beautiful. But the roads were full 
 of ruts, and there were no bridges over the rivers. 
 
 The roads were so bad, in fact, that the stage- 
 coaches were frequently upset. One morning the 
 soldiers saw a stagecoach drawn up in front of an 
 inn. As the driver mounted into his seat, he grinned 
 cheerfully over his shoulder to the passengers, "I 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 213 
 
 hope we shan't upsit. I han't driv' this road this 
 two month." 
 
 Several of the passengers already had their heads 
 bandaged with bloodstained napkins. They explained 
 to the soldiers that they had received some cuts and 
 bruises, though they had been upset only once. 
 
 "The other coach," they said, "upset twice last night." 
 
 About the middle of September, the troops arrived 
 at Williamsburg, Virginia, and Washington joined 
 forces with Lafayette. On September 28, the com- 
 bined armies marched toward Yorktown to attack the 
 British troops under Cornwallis. 
 
 Cornwallis was trapped. Retreat by sea was cut off 
 by the French fleet under Count de Grasse, who had 
 defeated the small British fleet. On the land side there 
 was an enemy army of sixteen thousand men hemming 
 him in, and Cornwallis himself had only seven or eight 
 thousand men. He threw up strong defenses around 
 Yorktown and waited. 
 
 Jonathan was put to work with many others dig- 
 ging trenches, and on the ninth of October the bom- 
 bardment began. It continued for nearly twenty-four 
 hours. The air was full of terrible roars and thuds and 
 queer whistling sounds. The earth was ripped up and 
 the flying dirt struck Jonathan's face. He saw some of 
 the soldiers fall to the ground, dead or wounded. He 
 began to feel very much afraid; he was trembling, and 
 wanted to turn and run, but he managed to hold his 
 ground and hide his fear. At the end of twenty-four 
 hours, the British guns ceased to reply. 
 
214 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 On the night of October eleventh, new trenches were 
 begun within two and three hundred yards of the Brit- 
 ish works, and it was determined that the Americans 
 should try to capture two of the British batteries by 
 assault, under the leadership of Colonel Alexander 
 Hamilton. 
 
 The signal for the advance was a shell from the 
 American batteries, followed by one from the French. 
 Together with the other soldiers, Jonathan moved 
 silently out of the intrenchments under cover of the 
 darkness. They ran across the open ground at full 
 speed, under a hot fire of rifle bullets, and leapt up on 
 to the defenses of the British batteries. For nine 
 minutes there was fierce fighting, and then the Brit- 
 ish gave up the batteries. Jonathan was unhurt. 
 
 The fighting continued for the next few days; then, 
 on October 17, General Cornwallis asked for a truce. 
 On October 19, he surrendered. The news was car- 
 ried all over the Thirteen States by postriders, and in 
 the big towns and the small towns and in the sleepy 
 villages, the night watchmen called out : 
 
 "Past ten o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken." 
 "Past twelve o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken." 
 "Past three o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken." 
 Although peace was not declared until two years 
 later, Jonathan's regiment was disbanded in the north 
 soon after the siege of Yorktown. He started on his 
 homeward journey, feeling very hopeful for the future. 
 He believed America had won her victory, and that the 
 United States might become a strong nation. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 215 
 
 THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 
 
 Jonathan passed again through Philadelphia on his 
 way home, and was given a leave of absence, so that 
 he was able to pay a visit to Deacon Wibird's brother, 
 a Quaker merchant. 
 
 He found Rachel Wibird grown up into a girl of six- 
 teen; but she looked very much as he had remembered 
 her, with her red-brown hair and her grey Quaker dress. 
 The whole city of Philadelphia was rejoicing over the 
 victory, and the sober Quaker family who did not 
 believe in war could be very sincerely glad that the 
 war was nearly over. They made much of Jonathan 
 and this was a very happy time in his life. They gave 
 a dinner in his honor, and Jonathan remembered what 
 Mrs. Wibird had said: "These quiet Friends, with 
 their thee's and thou's and their grey clothes, know 
 how to keep a good table." Turtle soup, baked meats, 
 flummery, jellies, sweetmeats, trifles, whipped silla- 
 bubs, floating islands, gooseberry fool, and then fruits, 
 raisins, and almonds Jonathan had never eaten such 
 a grand dinner. 
 
 After his stay in Philadelphia, he went back to 
 Warrenton in a hopeful mood, and all America felt 
 hopeful with him. "The times that try men's souls are 
 over," wrote Thomas Paine. 
 
 But when Jonathan had settled down to his daily 
 work on the farm, he began to grow discontented and 
 restless. He was disappointed at the trend in public 
 affairs, and more than ever wished to go west and 
 
216 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 clear a farm for himself in the wilderness beyond the 
 Allegheny River. 
 
 He found that the end of the war had not meant 
 to the people of Warrenton what it had meant to 
 him. To him it was the birth of a new nation, and 
 he was looking forward to the time when the United 
 States would become a powerful country, united 
 under a strong national, or federal, government. But 
 the people of Warrenton, most of whom had never 
 been outside Massachusetts, were looking backward 
 into the past, when Massachusetts had been un- 
 disturbed by the British and they had enjoyed self- 
 government. 
 
 "We want our old self-government," said Deacon 
 Wibird. "We want no upstart National Government 
 to tyrannize over us. We must stand up for States' 
 Rights, my boy!" 
 
 During the next few years, long talks and fierce argu- 
 ments were carried on in the ale-houses of Warrenton 
 between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, that 
 is, between the people who wanted a strong national 
 government and those who did not. Jonathan was a 
 Federalist but he took very little share in the discus- 
 sions, for he was working hard on the farm and saving 
 up money so as to be able to buy a plot of land in the 
 Northwest Territory. 
 
 No one at this period felt any respect for the weak 
 Continental Congress, under which the country was 
 drifting into confusion and lawlessness. Because it 
 had no power to raise taxes, it was almost bankrupt, 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 217 
 
 and could not pay its war debts. There was a great 
 deal of quarrelling and jealousy between the Thirteen 
 States. They quarrelled over paper money, and 
 quarrelled over trade, and now they began quarrelling 
 over the Northwest Territory which was claimed by 
 various states. The problem was to decide to which 
 states did it, or should it, now belong? No less than 
 four states laid claims to it. 
 
 At last from the little State of Maryland came a 
 suggestion as to a way out of the difficulty. The pro- 
 posal was that the Northwest Territory should be put 
 under the control of Congress. If the Congress could 
 have control of the Northwest Territory, it could sell 
 plots of undeveloped land to pioneer farmers, and use 
 the money received to help pay off the nation's debt. 
 People began to realize that a strong national gov- 
 ernment was indeed needed and steps were taken in 
 this direction. 
 
 This was what Jonathan had been waiting for. He 
 would buy a plot of land in the Northwest Territory, 
 gain a legal right to it, and the money he paid would 
 help to strengthen the national government. 
 
 Now he began to lay very definite plans for the 
 future. Rachel Wibird had again visited her uncle and 
 aunt in Warrenton, and Jonathan's diary for the past 
 year had been full of allusions to R. W .: 
 
 "Went a-hunting with Deacon Wibird, and afterwoods Supp't 
 with his Lady and R. W." 
 
 "Roade over to Deacon Wibird's and dronk Tea thare." 
 "Dreamed away the Hole Day." 
 
218 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 "Friday afternoone, Saturday afternoone, Sunday after- 
 noone. All spent in wastefull idlenesse, or, which is Wurse, in 
 Gallanting the Girls. O the Sad Effeckt of War in Distrackting a 
 Country!" 
 
 "R. W. is more calm and serious than other Girls. She thinks 
 over the Books she has Red. She sets, with her eyes stedily fixed, 
 in Deep Thought. Hur friend, on the other hand, is Plump and 
 Pretty and Pert, but has no Hed. She thinks and Reeds much 
 less than R. W. Yet R. W. can be naughty and witty, Unex- 
 pecktedly." 
 
 "Had an interesting Conversation yesterday with R. W., on 
 the subgickt of Married Lif: 
 
 R. W . 'Would thee rather spend thy evenings At Horn, by thy 
 own fireside, reeding with thy Wif, or would thee rather spend 
 them in Inns or jolly Clubs?' 
 
 Self. 'Should prefur the Conversation of a Sensible Wif to anny 
 other Companny; that is, generally, but not allways. I should not 
 lik my Horn to be a Prizen.' 
 
 R. W. 'Suppose Thee had been at Work, and came home 
 Weary, and thy Wif should meet thee with a Sour or Inattentive 
 Face, how would thee feel?' 
 
 Self. 'I would flee my country, or she should!' 
 
 R. W. 'But how can a Married Cupple avoid falling into a 
 Pashun or out of Temper on some occasions, and Hurting each 
 other's Feelings?' 
 
 Self. 'By Resolving agenst it. But if it happens that Both 
 get out of Humor and a Stormy Dispute follows, yet both will feel 
 very Sorry and AfFektionate afterwoods, and forgive each other 
 Tenderly and beg forgiveness, and so love each other the better 
 for it in the Futur.' 
 
 After Rachel returned home, Jonathan wrote to Mr. 
 Wibird of Philadelphia, asking for his daughter's hand 
 in marriage. His letter was written in the stiff, formal 
 style of the day, and it was very different from his 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 219 
 
 conversations with Rachel. "I am awar," he began, 
 "that Miss Rachel's prudence, and the love she bares 
 to her Amiable and Tender Parents, forbids her Giv- 
 ing Encurridgement to anyone without Thare Consent." 
 But, however stiff and' formal the style, it was deeply 
 respectful and full of warm feeling, and it served its 
 purpose, for Jonathan received a favorable reply. 
 
 When he arrived in Philadelphia for his marriage, 
 the first sight that caught his eye was a group of black- 
 coated men standing on the bank of the river and watch- 
 ing a little ferryboat plying against the current. It was 
 not moved either by sails or oars, but by steam. A 
 passer-by remarked to him, "That is the new invention 
 of Mr. John Fitch of this town. It is arousing a good 
 deal of curiosity, but very few people understand the 
 workings of it." 
 
 Jonathan thought of the westward journey he was 
 about to make with his young wife, and said to himself: 
 "How fine it would be if we could explore our great 
 western rivers in boats driven by their own power. 
 And in England other machines are driven by steam. 
 Perhaps our cities of the future will be humming with 
 great steam-driven machines." 
 
 Jonathan found that he could make his land deal with- 
 out difficulty. He traveled to New York, where plots 
 of land were being sold at public auction, and bought 
 several hundred acres of uncleared forest in the North- 
 west Territory, paying to Congress two dollars an acre. 
 
 Then the wedding took place, in the drawing-room of 
 the Wibird house in Philadelphia. This room was 
 
220 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and square, panelled in white. It was decorated for the 
 occasion with holly and illuminated with hundreds of 
 wax candles. Rachel was dressed in a white gown with 
 a long pointed bodice. Jonathan wore a black velvet 
 coat and breeches, and white silk stockings. Instead of 
 his usual square-toed shoes, he had on a pair of pumps 
 with shining buckles. 
 
 After the wedding, they both put away their fine 
 clothes, and began to prepare for the westward journey. 
 Rachel knew that her future life in the wilderness was 
 to be very different from the life she had been accus- 
 tomed to, for in her father's household she had enjoyed 
 'all the comfort which was typical of a wealthy Quaker 
 family in the wealthiest of American cities. 
 
 Jonathan first took Rachel home to Warrenton, and 
 then they drove together in a wagon to Pittsburg, 
 taking with them farm supplies and tools as well as 
 horses, cattle, sheep, and chickens. At Pittsburg, which 
 was then only a village, they began their journey down 
 the Ohio River to the land of promise in the west. 
 
 Jonathan lashed two rafts together, each ninety feet 
 long, and built a small wooden shack on one of them, 
 into which were piled Rachel's household treasures. 
 Among these were fine linen, silverware, delftware, 
 and a few pieces of mahogany furniture. On the other 
 raft were a stack of hay, and the horses and cows and 
 pigs and poultry, together with the wagon, ploughs, and 
 other farm tools. 
 
 The young people had brought their own food sup- 
 plies, and their rafts floated with the current, so that 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 221 
 
 their journey was made at very slight expense. The 
 birds were singing pleasantly in the boughs of the trees, 
 for it was the spring of the year, and the river flowed 
 through wild forests. For hours Rachel would sit quiet- 
 ly on the raft, her eyes looking steadily ahead at the 
 new country. At meal times Jonathan would go ashore 
 and chop wood for the fire, while Rachel would explore 
 the streams and the waterfalls, and watch the horses 
 and cattle grazing along the river's banks. When the 
 fire was ready Rachel would cook the meal. Then they 
 would drive the horses and cattle back to the raft and 
 continue on their way. 
 
 When they reached the plot of land that Jonathan 
 had bought, they found that it was a region of gloomy 
 forest, waste land, and swamp. But Jonathan set to 
 work with enthusiasm, clearing it and draining it. Like 
 the thousands of other American pioneers, he could see 
 the future and gain courage from it. Out of the gloomy 
 forest and swamp, he thought of a great country devel- 
 oping, with cornfields stretching out for thousands of 
 miles, like the ocean, under the expanse of the sky, and 
 immense pastures feeding herds of cattle, and big cities 
 manufacturing machines more powerful than any driven 
 by man or beast. 
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 When the people of America at last recognized that 
 a strong Federal, or National, Government was needed, 
 it was decided that a meeting should be held in Phila- 
 
222 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 delphia for the purpose of planning and writing out a 
 national Constitution, that is, a document describing 
 the nature and powers of the new National Government. 
 Fifty-five delegates were chosen from all parts of the 
 country. These included George Washington and 
 Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the two greatest men in 
 America at this time. 
 
 George Washington was the natural leader among 
 the delegates. In the presence of his dignity and his 
 native strength, the lesser men around him caught 
 some sense of the greatness and sacredness of their 
 task. Benjamin Franklin had political wisdom, a 
 shrewd knowledge of human nature, and a saving 
 sense of humor. 
 
 For several months, the delegates met every day in 
 the State House at Philadelphia, behind closed doors. 
 The document they planned and wrote has been called 
 "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given 
 moment by the brain and purpose of man." The 
 delegates worked for many months, and they often 
 felt very weary and discouraged. Sometimes, when the 
 difficulties seemed impossible to overcome, when the 
 speakers had grown hoarse with weariness and bitter- 
 ness, Benjamin Franklin would make some homely, 
 witty remark that would cause a great outburst of 
 laughter, and cleanse the air for a good-natured settle- 
 ment of the dispute. 
 
 It was decided that there should be a President of 
 the United States, elected indirectly by the people 
 for a term of four years. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 223 
 
 There was to be a lawmaking body called Congress. 
 Upon this matter the delegates argued for weeks and 
 weeks. The little states wanted to be represented equal- 
 ly with the big states. But the big states claimed that 
 they ought to have more representatives because they 
 had more population. At first there seemed no way out 
 of the difficulty, but at last Franklin saved the day by 
 remarking, "When a joiner wishes to fit two boards, 
 he sometimes cuts off a bit from both." His suggestion 
 was acted upon. A compromise was made, a half-way 
 settlement, as it were, between the wishes of both sides. 
 It was decided that there should be two Houses of 
 Congress, one to suit the wishes of the smaller states, 
 the other to suit the wishes of the larger states. In the 
 Upper House, to be called the Senate, the states were 
 to be equal, each electing two Senators. In the Lower 
 House, or House of Representatives, the number of 
 representatives to be elected from each state was to 
 be determined according to population. There was to 
 be a Supreme Court of Justice, to judge cases con- 
 cerning the general interests of the nation and to in- 
 terpret the laws. The government thus set up was 
 called the Federal, or National, Government, and was 
 to have power to pass laws, raise taxes, regulate trade, 
 and keep up an army and navy. The Northwest Ter- 
 ritory was to remain under the control of the National 
 Government, but if any part of it became well devel- 
 oped and settled in the future, it might demand a 
 state constitution. The state governments were to 
 continue with full power over their own local affairs. 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE NATION 225 
 
 Each state was represented on the American flag by a 
 star. At this time there were only thirteen stars. It 
 was decided that a place must be chosen for the resi- 
 dence of the President and the houses of Congress. 
 
 When the Federal Constitution was finished and 
 written down, many of the delegates were not satisfied 
 with it, but Benjamin Franklin urged them to sign it, 
 even though they felt that it was not perfect in every 
 detail. "I once met a French lady," he said, "who 
 told me that after a long life in this world, she had dis- 
 covered that she herself was the only person who had 
 always been right in her own opinion." 
 
 It was decided that the Constitution, being imperfect, 
 might be changed, or amended, in the future, if two 
 thirds of the national Congress so desired, and if three 
 quarters of the states were willing to accept the change, 
 or amendment. 
 
 When all was over, and the meeting was breaking 
 up, George Washington sat silent, with his head bent 
 low, in the presidential chair. This was a quaint old- 
 fashioned, high-backed armchair, with a half sun 
 painted in bright gold upon its headrest. Franklin 
 went up to Washington and said, "As I have been 
 sitting here all these weeks, I have often wondered 
 whether that sun is rising or setting. But now I 
 know that it is a rising sun/' 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: After the American Revolution, the 
 colonies became independent states, and a Federal Government 
 was established. How was all this accomplished? 
 
226 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. Was the school in Warrenton a public or a private school? 
 
 2. What is the difference between a minuteman and a regular 
 soldier? 
 
 3. Explain the causes of the Revolution. 
 
 4. What is the meaning of the phrase "No Taxation With- 
 out Representation?" 
 
 5. Who were the Tories? 
 
 6. What is a state constitution? 
 
 7. Describe the Continental Congress. 
 
 8. What do you think were the effects of a Puritan upbringing 
 on Jonathan's character? 
 
 9. What was the chief weakness of the Continental Congress? 
 
 10. Explain the difference of opinion between the Federalists 
 and the Anti-Federalists. 
 
 11. How much did Jonathan pay per acre for his land in the 
 West? 
 
 12. What is the National, or Federal, Constitution? 
 
 13. Why are there two Houses of Congress in Washington? 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 AMERICA TO-DAY 
 
 1. THE WINNING OF THE WEST 
 
 2. THE HOME LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 Now we must let our imagination sweep over more than 
 a hundred years, from the time of the writing of the 
 Constitution to the present day. If we could witness the 
 Westward Movement across America, the building of the 
 railroads, and the growth of our great cities, the rapid 
 development of our country would seem almost a miracle. 
 
 THE WINNING OF THE WEST 
 
 Beginning with short journeys, like the journey of 
 Jonathan and Rachel Hale, the pioneer farmers moved 
 westward. Forests were cut and cleared, herds of 
 buffalo on the prairie were shot down, and broad fields 
 were cultivated. After the first farmhouses were built, 
 appeared the little red schoolhouses where the farmers' 
 children learned their lessons. 
 
 New farms were built farther and farther to the 
 westward across the great prairie, and pioneers explored 
 the desert lands beyond, until, at last, on the horizon, 
 appeared the faint blue peaks of the Rocky Mountains, 
 snow-flecked, and shimmering with their strange frosty 
 light. A line of caravans succeeded in crossing the 
 
 227 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 229 
 
 mountains and reached the Great Salt Lake that lies 
 beyond. Then, after all the droughts and blizzards of 
 the prairie, the pioneers found California, a beautiful 
 region, with snow-covered peaks, and green valleys 
 shaded with groves of giant trees. In California, so it 
 
 CHICAGO IN 1834 
 
 seems, all the fruits of the earth can be raised in plenty 
 acres of wheat, acres of roses and poppies, orchards 
 of peaches, oranges, and almonds. 
 
 Whenever a group of western settlers built their 
 houses close together around a successful lumber mill or 
 a mining camp, they would soon begin to feel the need 
 of city conveniences: paved sidewalks, good roads, a 
 
230 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 water supply, and so forth. If the people were willing 
 to join together and pay city taxes, then they would 
 organize a city government to look after these matters. 
 So the Western cities grew and multiplied. 
 
 When a territory of the West became well settled 
 with many cities, the Westerners would wish to live 
 
 CHICAGO AS IT IS TO-DAY 
 
 This shows part of Michigan Boulevard, Chicago's most noted street. 
 
 under state laws of their own making. At the beginning, 
 the western territories were under the guardianship of 
 the Federal Government; they were, in a sense, the 
 children of the nation. But, as soon as they grew up, 
 their guardian was ready to give them independence 
 and the control of their own riches. The people would 
 demand a state government and a written state con- 
 stitution. So the new states developed throughout the 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 231 
 
 West, each obtaining self-government when the proper 
 time came. Now there are forty-eight states in the 
 Union, instead of only thirteen, as at the time of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 While the western pioneers were subduing the wilder- 
 ness, shiploads of immigrants were pouring into America 
 from all the countries of Europe, and so the population 
 increased. At the time of the Revolution there were 
 less than three million people in the United States. 
 Now at the beginning of the twentieth century, there 
 are a hundred and five million. 
 
 Higher wages are paid in the United States than in 
 the European countries, and so the poor of Europe have 
 flocked to America the poor, the homeless, the tired, 
 the adventurer, and the idealist have found here new 
 strength, new life, and new opportunity. Irishmen, 
 Scotchmen, Germans, Jews, Russians, Norwegians, 
 Swedes, Italians, Greeks, Armenians, and Slavs stand 
 shoulder to shoulder in American factories, so that the 
 United States of to-day is not merely a nation, but a 
 " nation of nations." It is the poverty of Europe 
 that has built up the richest nation in the world. 
 
 Many of these immigrants come to America dreaming 
 of a free country, and their hopes are welcomed in New 
 York Harbor by the Statue of Liberty holding high 
 her torch. After they have been " naturalized," they 
 become American citizens and help to uphold the pure 
 principles of democracy which were founded by those 
 earlier immigrants, the Pilgrim Fathers, and which are 
 always in danger of attack. After all, every one in 
 
232 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 America is either an immigrant or the descendant 
 of an immigrant. Even the Indians, so historians 
 now believe, are descended from men who migrated 
 
 , from Asia. 
 
 All over the 
 country, great 
 cities have risen 
 up with their 
 skyscrapers and 
 smokes tacks; 
 their roaring, 
 crowded streets; 
 and their factories 
 whirring with ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 The develop- 
 ment of industry 
 and science in 
 America and 
 throughout the 
 world in the last 
 century has been 
 extraordinary. 
 American work- 
 men of to-day, 
 instead of using 
 their own muscles, use engines and locomotives of tre- 
 mendous driving power. Instead of using their eyes 
 and ears unaided, they use delicate instruments that 
 are a thousand times more sensitive and reliable, such 
 
 IMMIGRANTS OF TO-DAY 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 233 
 
 as microscopes, telescopes, and the apparatus of wire- 
 less telegraphy. 
 
 The United States has become not only the richest 
 nation in the world, but one of the most powerful. The 
 work of the government has increased with the nation. 
 The expenses of the Federal, or National, Government 
 in 1791 were three million dollars; now, even in peace 
 times, its expenses require four billion dollars a year, 
 which means a thousandfold increase. 
 
 THE HOME LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 President Roosevelt, one of our greatest chieftains of 
 modern times, was a strong upholder of true Americanism. 
 Perhaps he never felt more proud than when the sailors 
 on board a United States warship gave three cheers for 
 '' Theodore Roosevelt, a typical American citizen.' 9 
 
 He brought up his children according to American 
 ideals, and his description of family life in the Roosevelt 
 country home, Sagamore Hill, Long Island, is typical of 
 the best in American home life of to-day. He believed that 
 children should be free and happy, and that they should be 
 out of doors as much as possible. The following is an 
 extract from Roosevelt 9 s autobiography: 1 
 
 Sagamore Hill takes its name from the old Sagamore 
 Mohannis, who, as chief of his little tribe, signed away 
 his rights to the land two centuries and a half ago. The 
 
 1 This selection from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography is used 
 through the courtesy of the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
234 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 house stands right on the top of the hill, separated by 
 fields and belts of woodland from all other houses, and 
 looks out over the bay and the Sound. We see the sun 
 go down beyond long reaches of land and water. Many 
 
 SAGAMORE HILL 
 
 birds dwell in the trees round the house or in the pas- 
 tures and the woods nearby, and of course in winter 
 gulls, loons and wild fowl frequent the waters of the 
 bay and the Sound. . . . 
 
 At Sagamore Hill we love a great many things birds 
 and trees and books, and all things beautiful, and horses 
 and rifles and children and hard work and the joy of 
 life. We have great fire places, and in them the logs 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 
 
 235 
 
 roar and crackle during the long winter evenings. The 
 big piazza is for the hot, still afternoons of summer. 
 
 . . . The books are everywhere. There are as many 
 in the north room and in the parlor is drawing room 
 
 THE LIBRARY AT SAGAMORE HILL 
 
 a more appropriate name than parlor? as in the li- 
 brary; the gunroom at the top of the house, which 
 incidentally has the loveliest view of all, contains more 
 books than any of the other rooms; and they are 
 particularly delightful books to browse among. 
 
 Books are all very well in their way, and we love 
 them at Sagamore Hill; but children are better than 
 books, Sagamore Hill is one of three neighboring 
 
236 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 houses in which small cousins spent very happy years 
 of childhood. In the three houses there were at one 
 time sixteen of these small cousins, all told, and once 
 we ranged them in order of size and took their 
 photograph. . . . 
 
 When their mother and I returned from a row, we 
 would often see the children waiting for us, running 
 like sand-spiders along the beach. They always liked 
 to swim in company with a grown-up of buoyant 
 temperament and inventive mind, and the float offered 
 limitless opportunities for enjoyment while bathing. 
 All dutiful parents know the game of "stage-coach"; 
 each child is given a name, such as the whip, the nigh 
 leader, the off wheeler, the old lady passenger, and, 
 under penalty of paying a forfeit, must get up and turn 
 round when the grown-up, who is improvising a thrilling 
 story, mentions that particular object; and when the 
 word "stage-coach" is mentioned, everybody has to 
 get up and turn round. Well, we used to play stage- 
 coach on the float while in swimming, and instead of 
 tamely getting up and turning round, the child whose 
 turn it was had to plunge overboard. When I men- 
 tioned "stage-coach," the water fairly foamed with 
 vigorously kicking little legs; and then there was 
 always a moment of interest while I counted, so as 
 to be sure that the number of heads that came up 
 corresponded with the number of children who had 
 gone under. . . . 
 
 There could be no healthier and pleasanter place in 
 which to bring up children than in the nook of old-time 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 237 
 
 America around Sagamore Hill. Certainly I never knew 
 small people to have a better time or a better training 
 for their work in after-life than the three families of 
 cousins at Sagamore Hill. It was real country, and 
 speaking from the somewhat detached point of view of 
 the masculine parent I should say there was just the 
 proper mixture of freedom and control in the manage- 
 ment of the children. They were never allowed to be 
 disobedient or to shirk lessons or work; and they were 
 encouraged to have all the fun possible. They often 
 went barefoot, especially during the many hours passed 
 in various enthralling pursuits along and in the waters 
 of the bay. They swam, they tramped, they boated, 
 they coasted and skated in winter, they were intimate 
 friends with the cows, chickens, pigs and other live 
 stock. They had in succession two ponies, General 
 Grant and, when the General's legs became such that 
 he lay down too often and too unexpectedly in the road, 
 a calico pony named Algonquin, who is still living a 
 life of honorable leisure in the stable and the pasture- 
 where he has to be picketed, because otherwise he chases 
 the cows. Sedate pony Grant used to draw the cart in 
 which the children went driving when they were very 
 small, the driver being their old nurse Mame, who 
 had held their mother in her arms when she was born, 
 and who was knit to them by a tie as close as any tie 
 of blood. I doubt whether I ever saw Mame really 
 offended with them except once when, out of pure but 
 misunderstood affection, they named a pig after her. 
 They loved pony Grant. Once I saw the then little boy 
 
238 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 of three hugging pony Grant's forelegs. As he leaned 
 over his broad straw hat tilted on end, and pony 
 Grant meditatively munched the brim; whereupon the 
 small boy looked up with a wail of anguish, evidently 
 thinking the pony had decided to treat him like a 
 radish. . . . 
 
 One of the stand-bys for enjoyment, especially in 
 rainy weather, was the old barn. This had been built 
 nearly a century previously, and was as delightful as 
 only the pleasantest kind of old barn can be. It stood 
 at the meeting-spot of three fences. A favorite amuse- 
 ment used to be an obstacle race. The contestants were 
 timed and were started successively from outside the 
 door. When they were little, their respective fathers 
 were expected also to take part in the obstacle race, 
 and when with the advance of years the fathers finally 
 refused to be contestants, there was a feeling of pained 
 regret among the children at such a decline in the 
 sporting spirit. . . . 
 
 As soon as the little boys learned to swim they were 
 allowed to go off by themselves in rowboats and camp 
 out for the night along the Sound. Sometimes I would 
 go along so as to take the smaller children. Once a 
 schooner was wrecked on a point half a dozen miles 
 away. She held together well for a season or two after 
 having been cleared of everything down to the timbers, 
 and this gave us the chance to make camping trips in 
 which the girls could also be included, for we put them 
 to sleep in the wreck, while the boys slept on the shore; 
 squaw picnics, the children called them. 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 239 
 
 My children, when young, went to the public school 
 near us, the little Cove School, as it is called. For 
 nearly thirty years we have given the Christmas tree 
 to the school. Before the gifts are distributed, I am 
 expected to make an address, which is always mercifully 
 short, my own children having impressed upon me with 
 frank sincerity the attitude of other children to ad- 
 dresses of this kind on such occasions. There are of 
 course performances by the children themselves, while 
 all of us parents look admiringly on, each sympathizing 
 with his or her particular offspring in the somewhat 
 wooden recital of "Darius Green and his Flying 
 Machine," or "The Mountain and the Squirrel had a 
 Quarrel." But the tree and the gifts make up for all 
 shortcomings. . . . 
 
 As for the education of the children, there was of 
 course much of it that represented downright hard work 
 and drudgery. There was also much training that came 
 as a by-product and was perhaps almost as valuable 
 not as a substitute but as an addition, . After their supper, 
 the children, when little, would come, t lotting up to thejr 
 mother's room to be read to, and it was always a sufprise 
 to me to notice the extremely varied reading which 
 interested them, from Howard Pyle's "Robin Hood," 
 Mary Alicia Owen's " Voodoo Tales," and Joel Chandler 
 Harris's "Aaron in the Wild Woods," to "Lycidas" 
 and " King John." If their mother was absent, I 
 would try to act as vice-mother a poor substitute, I 
 fear superintending the supper and reading aloud 
 afterwards. The children did not wish me to read the 
 
240 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS OF ROOSEVELTS 
 
 books they desired their mother to read, and I usually 
 took some such book as "Hereward the Wake/' or 
 "Guy Mannering," or "The Last of the Mohicans," 
 or else some story about a man-eating tiger, or a 
 man-eating lion, from one of the hunting books in 
 my library. . . . 
 
AMERICA TO-DAY 241 
 
 As the children grew up, Sagamore Hill remained 
 delightful for them. There were picnics and riding 
 parties, there were dances in the north room sometimes 
 fancy dress dances and open-air plays on the green 
 tennis court of one of the cousin's houses. The children 
 are no longer children now. Most of them are men and 
 women, working out their own fates in the big world; 
 some in our own land, others across the great oceans or 
 where the Southern Cross blazes in the tropic nights. 
 Some of them have children of their own; some are 
 working at one thing, some at another; in cable ships, 
 in business offices, in factories, in newspaper offices, 
 building steel bridges, bossing gravel trains and steam 
 shovels, or laying tracks and superintending freight traf- 
 fic. They have had their share of accidents and escapes; 
 as I write, word comes from a far-off land that one of 
 them, whom Seth Bullock used to call " Kim " because he 
 was the friend of all mankind, while bossing a dangerous 
 but necessary steel structural job has had two ribs and 
 two back teeth broken, and is back at work. They have 
 known and they will know joy and sorrow, triumph 
 and temporary defeat. But I believe they are all the 
 better off because of their happy and healthy childhood. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: The pioneer spirit. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. What do you know about the history of your own state? 
 
 2. If you live in a city, find out when and how it was first 
 settled. 
 
242 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 3. Have you any relatives who settled in the West during the 
 last fifty years? If so, what was their reason? 
 
 4. If your parents or grandparents were immigrants, find out 
 what was their reason for coming to America. 
 
 5. Do you think it is good for children to be brought up to 
 hard work, and according to very strict rules of conduct, like 
 Jonathan Hale, or do you believe in the freer home life of modern 
 American children? Give your reasons. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 1. WASHINGTON A VISIT TO THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 2. THE CAPITOL 
 
 3. THE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS 
 
 In order to understand our American government of 
 to-day, we must study the National Government in Wash- 
 ington, and also the government of the states, the cities, 
 and the counties. Let us first imagine that we are taking a 
 trip to the city of Washington. 
 
 WASHINGTON A VISIT TO THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 As our train approaches the Union Station, we catch 
 vague glimpses in the early morning mist of a huge, 
 white, dreamy dome, and some distance away, of a slen- 
 der white shaft, very tall, rising out of a sea of tree tops. 
 The dome is the dome of the National Capitol, and the 
 slender shaft is the shaft of the Washington Monument. 
 
 A hundred years ago Washington was called "A city 
 of miserable huts." Now it is the most beautiful city 
 in the United States. It is a big peaceful city, with 
 shining white houses, and long broad avenues shaded 
 with fine trees. 
 
 We get into a taxi and ride quickly ; to 014 r'ho't^s 
 passing some of the government buildings on the way. 
 
 243 
 
THE NATIONAL, GOVERNMENT 245 
 
 They are huge blocks of white stone, with rows of 
 pillars, like those of the old temples of Athens. As soon 
 as we have unpacked our grips at the hotel, we go out 
 to see the sights. We are told that the White House, 
 the residence of the President, is open from ten in the 
 morning until two in the afternoon, and we decide to 
 spend the morning visiting the White House. 
 
 As we walk along the pleasant shaded streets, the 
 first government building we see is the great Capitol, a 
 huge pile of white pillars and walls with a magnificent 
 dome as its crowning glory. It is here that the laws of 
 the nation are made by our Senators and Congressmen. 
 The Capitol is the grandest building in Washington and 
 one of the stateliest in all the world. 
 
 Skirting around the Capitol, we come into a green 
 park and pass by a number of other government build- 
 ings before we turn to the right in the direction of the 
 White House. In some places we can see stonemasons 
 and carpenters at work, for Washington is still a city of 
 the future, and plans have been made for a great many 
 new government buildings. 
 
 Our first impression of the White House is of a 
 beautiful home, like a small palace, shining out daz- 
 zlingly white from among smooth green lawns and big 
 trees. It is built somewhat in the style of the early 
 Colonial homes, with Greek pillars in front of the 
 main doorway. 
 
 Before going in, we take a stroll around the grounds. 
 There is a fountain with an apple tree near-by. For a 
 minute or two we sit under the shade of the apple tree 
 
246 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and look at the bright flowers and at the play of the 
 water in the sunlight. In the big linden trees a pair of 
 warbling vireos are singing lustily. The magnolias are 
 in bloom and the scent of the jasmine on the porch of 
 the White House is wafted to us. The garden is beauti- 
 
 THE WHITE HOUSE AS SEEN FROM AN AIRPLANE 
 
 ful, and we can imagine that it is a delightful resting 
 place for a tired and overworked President. 
 
 Then we come back to the main entrance of the White 
 House and show a special card, with an introduction 
 written by one of the Senators from our state. 
 
 We are led through a number of big rooms, which are 
 richly furnished and decorated with tall vases filled 
 with hothouse flowers. When we finally reach the 
 famous East Room, a big reception hall, we find it 
 filled with callers who wish to shake hands with the 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 247 
 
 President. The East Room is an immense place, with 
 magnificent crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. 
 When these are all lit up on the night of a banquet, the 
 effect must be wonderfully gay and brilliant. 
 
 The President is standing at the far end of the room. 
 We look at him with great respect, for we are Ameri- 
 cans, and we feel that there is no higher office and no 
 greater responsibility in the world than that of the 
 President of the United States. 
 
 The chief usher is introducing some of the visitors 
 by name. There are streams and streams of visitors- 
 people like ourselves from all parts of the country, from 
 New York, from Nebraska, from California; and for- 
 eigners from many different countries, from England, 
 from Belgium, from France, even from China and Japan. 
 
 When our turn comes, we tell the President our 
 names, and he shakes hands with us. 
 
 Some of the Presidents do not enjoy these public 
 receptions, but President Lincoln liked to meet with 
 simple country folk who would give him a "God bless 
 you" with affection and admiration shining out of 
 their eyes. He used to call his receptions his "public 
 opinion baths/' The interest and trust of the com- 
 mon people made him forget his anxieties for a mo- 
 ment, and gave him fresh courage to go on with his 
 hard work. 
 
 After we have shaken hands with the President, we 
 are taken to see the office where he works. During 
 Roosevelt's term a new wing of office buildings was 
 added to the White House and several other changes 
 
248 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 were made. We are first shown busy office rooms where 
 the staff of White House stenographers are hard at 
 work. There is the clicking of telegraph instruments, 
 the hum of many typewriters, and the sharp ring of the 
 telephone. Some distance away is a quiet room, the 
 President's own office, and we are taken there to see 
 the very table at which he sits when working. 
 
 When he is carrying on his full day's work, the 
 President is an exceedingly busy man. President 
 Roosevelt has described a day at the White House in 
 one of his letters. Every morning, in the summer, he 
 took breakfast with Mrs. Roosevelt out on the South 
 Portico, which is a beautiful, stately porch overgrown 
 with honeysuckle and jasmine. After breakfast he 
 strolled about the garden for fifteen or twenty minutes, 
 looking at the flowers and the fountain and admiring 
 the trees. Then he went into his office and worked 
 until lunch time. He usually entertained some official 
 people at lunch; sometimes Senators or ambassadors, 
 sometimes an author, a prominent business man, a labor 
 leader, a scientist, or a big game hunter. Immediately 
 after lunch he went back to work, and worked until 
 five. If Mrs. Roosevelt wished to ride, he would spend 
 two or three hours with her on horseback. A favorite 
 ride was through Rock Creek Park, which is one of 
 Washington's public places. After dinner he was 
 sometimes free, but toward the end of his term as 
 President he was generally busy and had to sit up late 
 at night writing messages to Congress and other im- 
 portant papers. 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 249 
 
 There is a tall glass vase rilled with pink carnations on 
 the President's table, and we can see that his calendar is 
 scribbled all over with the names of people who have 
 appointments with him. After we have been shown 
 the President's own work table, we are shown the big 
 table which is used for Cabinet meetings. The Presi- 
 dent appoints a number of well-known men to be the 
 heads of the big Government Departments (which we 
 are to visit), and about once a week he invites these 
 men, who are called the members of his Cabinet, to 
 the White House for a Cabinet meeting. They all sit 
 around the big table with him and talk over the affairs 
 of the nation. 
 
 Every four years there is a national election, at which 
 the people of the country vote, and the various political 
 parties run candidates for the Presidency. The Presi- 
 dent is elected for a term of four years, and has to carry 
 out a great many official duties. He is the chief official 
 worker of the nation, and is given a salary of $75,000 
 a year. 
 
 At first, he is kept very busy making appoint- 
 ments; that is, choosing good men to carry on the work 
 of the Government Departments. He has the grave 
 responsibility of deciding whether or not to sign the 
 bills which are passed by Congress. The President does 
 not always agree with Congress. If he wishes, he can 
 refuse to sign a bill, 1 in which case, if Congress still 
 wishes to make it a law, it must pass the bill over 
 again by a big majority, a two-thirds vote. 
 
 1 A proposed law, before it is finally passed, is called a bill. 
 
250 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The President is the Commander-in-Chief of our 
 Army and Navy. During a war his powers are very 
 great and his duties very heavy. No doubt President 
 Wilson's breakdown and serious illness were brought 
 on by the terrific strain of the Great War. 
 
 The President also has to receive foreign ambassa- 
 dors, and he has the power to make treaties with foreign 
 countries, but only "with the advice and the consent of 
 the Senate/' President Wilson went to Paris and 
 helped to write the Treaty of Peace with Germany and 
 the constitution of the League of Nations, but when 
 he came back to America he was unable to obtain the 
 consent of the Senate, so that America did not sign the 
 Treaty with the other countries. 
 
 This is only a short outline of the- duties of the 
 President, but it is enough to show us that he must be 
 a hardworking man. 
 
 As we are leaving the White House, we pass through 
 a great corridor and are shown the pictures of past 
 presidents hanging on the walls. We look up at them 
 with great respect, but our guide tells us that they 
 have not always been so respectfully treated. One 
 rainy day during President Roosevelt's term, his small 
 son Quentin invited a number of young friends to play 
 with him, including Charlie Taft, the son of President 
 Taft. The little boys were very noisy and full of mis- 
 chief, and finally they chewed wads of paper and threw 
 them at the portraits. When President Roosevelt later 
 discovered what had been done, he hauled young 
 Quentin out of bed and made him take off the paper 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 251 
 
 WASHINGTON'S BEDROOM AT MOUNT VERNON 
 
 wads. The next day he summoned the four culprits to 
 come before him. He explained to them that they had 
 acted like boors, and then stated that Quentin could 
 have no friends to see him, and that the other three 
 were not to come inside the White House until he felt 
 that time enough had passed to serve as a punish- 
 ment. They were four very sheepish small boys when 
 he had finished his reprimand. 
 
 MOUNT VERNON AND THE CAPITOL 
 
 That same afternoon we take a delightful trip in a 
 steamer down the Potomac River to visit Mount Ver- 
 non, the beautiful old house which used to be the home 
 
252 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 of George Washington. Everything has been left 
 exactly as it was when Washington died. There is a 
 quaint garden, still carefully tended, with old box 
 hedges planted by Washington himself, and prim, old- 
 
 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 fashioned flowers such as used to be grown there in 
 colonial days. Inside the house, the furniture is just as 
 it used to be. Nothing has been moved away. We can 
 see the mahogany chairs in which Washington used 
 to sit, and the big four-posted bed in which he used 
 to sleep. 
 
 The house is situated on a high hill which slopes down 
 gently toward the shores of the Potomac. We go out 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 253 
 
 to the porch, and, as we stand there for a moment, 
 we have a sweeping view over the fairest of landscapes. 
 We look down on the shining, splendid river and over 
 hills forested with quiet shadowy trees, where the deer 
 wander in herds. This is the view upon which Wash- 
 ington's eyes used to rest, and like himself it is calm, 
 silent, stately, and dignified. At Mount Vernon we are 
 carried back over a hundred years to the time when 
 our Constitution was first written. 
 
 The next morning, we plan to visit the Capitol, and 
 see how our laws are made. 
 
 Our laws are made by our Representatives and 
 Senators, whom we ourselves elect at the national 
 elections. The Representatives meet in a big hall called 
 the House of Representatives, which is in the south 
 wing of the Capitol, and the Senators meet in the 
 Senate Chamber, which is in the north wing. 
 
 Before starting out from the hotel, we ring up on 
 the telephone the Congressman from our district, and 
 he arranges to meet us on the steps of the Capitol. He 
 has very kindly promised to show us over the building. 
 He is always kind and friendly to the "folks from back 
 home," as he calls us who live in his district. The 
 United States is divided up into districts, each contain- 
 ing about 212,000 people, and one Representative is 
 elected from every district. 
 
 When we meet our friend, we go inside the Capitol 
 building, and find that it is crowded with visitors. 
 Passing through a hall which is full of statues, we 
 come to the House of Representatives. The lawmakers 
 
254 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 are assembled, so we cannot go down on the main floor; 
 we must go up with the crowd into the visitors' gallery. 
 
 Here we look down upon a huge hall, something like 
 a concert hall. There are rows and rows of benches 
 which run in a half circle around a platform, on which 
 is placed a marble seat, the seat of the Speaker. The 
 Speaker is the most important person in the house, and 
 it is his business to see that all Congressional business 
 is conducted in an orderly fashion. 
 
 The Congressmen seem to us to carry on their work 
 in a noisy and confused manner. There is a buzz of 
 conversation, and men are walking about in every 
 direction. A clerk sitting below the Speaker is reading 
 aloud from a paper in a singsong voice. No one pays 
 any attention to him, and we are surprised to be told 
 that he is reading the title of a bill. When the hubbub 
 is at its loudest, the Speaker strikes the top of his desk 
 with a heavy mallet. There is silence for a moment, 
 and he calls out, "The House will be in order." 
 
 At this, our friend asks us to excuse him for a mo- 
 ment. He says that a vote is going to be taken, and 
 that he must vote with his party. 
 
 While he is gone, there is more confusion, and every- 
 one seems to be getting up or sitting down again. Then 
 the Speaker again hammers his desk, and calls out this 
 time: "The ayes have it." 
 
 Our Congressman comes back and tells us that a bill 
 has just been passed. The House has voted to allow 
 several millions of dollars to one of the Government 
 Departments which we are to visit to-morrow. 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 255 
 
 Our Congressman, as we have said, voted with his 
 party. The members of the House are divided up 
 into the two big parties, the Democrats and the Repub- 
 licans, and they sit on opposite sides of the House. 
 We ask our friend, "What makes a Republican, and 
 what makes a Democrat?" He smiles, but refuses 
 to answer directly. He says that the two parties 
 are constantly taking up new questions and chang- 
 ing their "platforms," so that it is difficult to say 
 what is the exact difference between them. When a 
 party outlines a set of new laws which it wishes to 
 pass, and policies which it endorses, these are called its 
 "platform." 
 
 We now leave the House and walk back in the direc- 
 tion of the Senate Chamber. On the way, we pass by 
 the Supreme Court Room. Someone is coming out, the 
 door swings noiselessly open, and for a moment we can 
 glance in. 
 
 The Court Room is filled and a lawyer is arguing his 
 case. Nine grave-looking judges, in black silk robes, 
 are seated in a row. These are the Chief Justice and 
 the eight Associate Justices of the United States. The 
 lawyer ceases talking, and there is complete silence. 
 We look at the faces of the Justices. They are middle- 
 aged or old men, and several of them have white 
 hair. They are uncommonly fine-looking, and seated 
 there in the black flowing robes of their office, they 
 seem like the symbols of dignity and authority. This 
 is the highest court in the country, the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. 
 
256 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The door is closed, and we move away. When we 
 reach the Senate Chamber, we notice that it is much 
 smaller than the House of Representatives. There are 
 fewer Senators than there are Congressmen, and this 
 is because the Senators are elected according to states, 
 
 THE SENATE IN SESSION 
 
 only two from each state, while the Congressmen are 
 elected according to districts. 
 
 The Senate Chamber is beautifully decorated. The 
 seats of the Senators are arranged in half circles, like 
 the benches of the Congressmen, but each Senator 
 has a desk which is made of polished mahogany. The 
 chief officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 257 
 
 the United States, and he sits in a high-backed chair 
 and presides. 
 
 One of the Senators, who has a bald head, is making 
 a long speech, and he is being listened to with great at- 
 tention by all the others. There is no talking, no walk- 
 ing to and fro. The Senate has always had the habit 
 of grave politeness and slow, cool deliberation. The 
 Senators, on the whole, are older men than the Con- 
 gressmen, and their position is more dignified. They 
 are elected for six years, while the Congressmen are 
 elected for only two years. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS 
 
 Our next two days are very busy, strenuous ones, 
 spent in travelling around the city and visiting the 
 Department buildings. The Departments, with the 
 President, belong to the working branch of the Govern- 
 ment. They carry on the business of government, and 
 put into practice the laws passed by Congress. 
 
 The Department of State attends to our business 
 with foreign countries. 
 
 The Treasury Department attends to the money 
 affairs of the Nation. 
 
 The War and Navy Departments have charge of 
 our Army and Navy. 
 
 The Post Office Department directs the postal system 
 all over the country. 
 
 The Department of the Interior attends to a variety 
 of things pensions for soldiers, Indian affairs, the 
 
258 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 patent department, the national parks, education, 
 Alaska and the territories, the vast national forests, 
 and national engineering work. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture has charge of the 
 interests of the farmers of the United States. 
 
 The Department of Commerce attends to trade 
 problems. 
 
 The Department of Labor has charge of the interests 
 of wage earners. 
 
 The first building that we enter is a huge grey 
 granite pile, just west of the White House, which 
 contains the central offices of three Departments, the 
 State, War, and Navy Departments. 
 
 In the offices of the War and Navy Departments we 
 are shown some maps, dotted over with little flags, 
 and some interesting models of our new big battle- 
 ships. But these offices give us very little idea of the 
 work of our Army and Navy, so we spend only a short 
 time in them. 
 
 We pass by the White House again, and find on 
 the opposite side another huge granite building, the 
 Treasury Department. An old guide leads us down to 
 the great dark basement of the building, where vast 
 hordes of money are stored up. Before our eyes lie 
 thousands of millions of dollars, in shining new coins 
 and crisp, clean dollar bills. Most of this money is 
 locked up in boxes inside big steel cages, which are 
 guarded night and day by armed watchmen. 
 
 The guide tells us that at present the Treasury has to 
 raise about four billions of dollars a year in taxes to 
 
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 259 
 
 pay the expenses of the National Government. Almost 
 all of this huge sum is spent in paying for wars, past 
 or future. If the nations could prevent wars in the 
 future, it would mean the saving of vast sums of 
 money. 
 
 The next building we enter is that of the Depart- 
 ment of the Interior. Here we are shown a fine col- 
 lection of artistically colored photographs which have 
 been taken in the National Parks: the Yosemite, 
 the Yellowstone, Glacier Park, and the Rocky Moun- 
 tain National Park. There are pictures of cool, shady 
 forests and giant trees, pictures of snowy mountain 
 ranges, where the trout streams plunge down steep 
 waterfalls into clear blue lakes, and pictures of wild 
 flower gardens, brilliantly colored, where the bright 
 blossoms and the soft green grass grow close up against 
 the snow banks of the mountain peaks. The air in 
 these high places is light and crystal clear; it seems 
 to give fresh life and vigor to all who breathe it. The 
 National Parks are a paradise for the summer visitor 
 who is tired out by the heat and noise of the big 
 cities. Let us hope that some time in the future 
 railway fares will be so cheap, that the National 
 Parks can be a summer playground for poor people as 
 well as rich. 
 
 Then we visit the Department of Agriculture, where 
 we are shown specimens of all the plants and fruits 
 which are grown by the farmers of our country. This 
 Department helps the farmers to produce better crops, 
 and it also organizes the country children all over 
 
260 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the United States into Corn Clubs, Baby Beef Clubs, 
 and Canning Clubs, which are arousing great enthu- 
 siasm for good farming among boys and girls. 
 
 The last Department we see is the Department of 
 Labor. The office in this department which most 
 interests us is the Children's Bureau, because the 
 Children's Bureau is working for child welfare and the 
 ideal of equal opportunity for all children. Its first 
 care is the health of children. Under its guidance, child 
 welfare work is being started all over the country, and 
 the care of good doctors and nurses is being provided 
 free of charge. A little leaflet printed by the Bureau 
 describes the advantages which every American child 
 ought to have. Read what it says: 
 
 WHAT DO GROWING CHILDREN NEED? 
 
 Child-welfare experts consider the following necessary for the child's 
 best growth and development. 
 
 SHELTER. 
 
 Decent, clean, well-kept house. 
 
 Plenty of fresh air in the house, winter and summer. 
 
 Warm rooms in cold weather. 
 
 Separate bed, with sufficient bedclothes to keep warm. 
 
 Sanitary indoor water-closet or outdoor privy. 
 
 Pure, abundant water supply. 
 
 A comfortable place to welcome friends. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 Three square meals a day. 
 
 Clean, simple, appetizing, well-cooked food. 
 
 Meals at regular hours and sufficient time for them. 
 
 Dinner at noon for children under 7 years of age. 
 
THE NATIONAL (JOVERNMENT 261 
 
 The daily diet should include: 
 Milk, at least 1 pint a day. 
 Cereal and bread. 
 
 Green vegetables, especially leafy vegetables. 
 Fruit. 
 
 Egg, meat, or fish. If no one of these three is used, an additional 
 pint of milk should be given. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 Every Child Has the Right to Be Well Born, Well Nourished, and Well 
 
 Cared for. 
 
 CLOTHING. 
 
 Clean, whole garments. 
 
 Different clothing for day and night, suited to the climate. 
 
 Change of underclothes and nightgown at least weekly. 
 
 A change of stockings at least twice a week. 
 
 Warm underclothing and stockings in cold climates. 
 
 Heavy coat, cap, and mittens for cold weather. 
 
 Shoes, free from holes, and long and wide enough. 
 
 Foot protection against rain or snow. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 HEALTH AND PERSONAL HABITS. 
 
 Hands and face washed before meals and at bedtime. 
 
 Bath every day, or at least once a week. 
 
 Natural bowel movement every day. 
 
 Teeth brushed at least twice a day (morning and night). 
 
 Regular bed hour. 
 
 Ten hours of sleep at night, with open windows. 
 
 Correct weight for height. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 RECREATION AND COMPANIONSHIP. 
 
 A safe, clean, roomy place for outdoor and indoor play. 
 At least two hours outdoor play every day. 
 Constructive and suitable playthings and tools. 
 Some one with sympathetic oversight to direct the play. 
 The right sort of playmates. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 Wise Parents Are a Child's Best Asset. 
 
262 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 EDUCATION AND WORK. 
 
 Schooling for at least nine months a year from 7 to 16 years of age. 
 Not more than two hours of "chores'* outside school hours. 
 Not enough work either in school or out to cause fatigue. 
 Vacation work, if any, must allow ample opportunity for the proper 
 amount of rest and recreation. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 
 RELIGION AND MORAL TRAINING. 
 
 Opportunity for religious training. 
 
 Proper moral and spiritual influence in home. 
 
 Teaching of standards of right and wrong in daily life. 
 
 Has Your Child These? 
 Is your child getting a square deal? 
 If not, what are you going to do about it? 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: The Government of the United States 
 is a representative democracy. Show that you know just what 
 this statement means. 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. What do you know about the President now in office? 
 
 2. Describe what happens at a national election. 
 
 3. Explain some of the duties of the President. 
 
 4. Explain some of the duties of National Congressmen and 
 Senators. 
 
 5. What is meant by a "party," and a "party platform"? 
 
 6. If you have ever visited a National Park, describe what 
 you saw. 
 
 7. If you have lived on a farm, explain how a farmer can be 
 helped in his work by government experts. 
 
 8. Do you know any families of children who do not enjoy 
 all the advantages which, according to the Children's Bureau, all 
 American children should have? If so, can you suggest any means 
 of helping them ? 
 
 9. Name the chief Government Departments in Washington. 
 10. Name the present heads of these Departments the 
 
 Cabinet officers. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 
 
 1. A VISIT TO A STATE CAPITOL 
 
 2. A STATE UNIVERSITY 
 
 3. A COUNTY COURTHOUSE 
 
 Now that we have seen something of our National 
 Government, we are going to see how a state government is 
 carried on. There are now forty-eight states in the United 
 States, and each one has its own state government. In 
 every state, a city has been chosen as the capital, and in 
 tli is city a big government building has been erected, 
 called the State Capitol. One has to be careful not to 
 confuse these words, capital and Capitol. 
 
 A VISIT TO A STATE CAPITOL 
 
 We leave Washington, and at last our train arrives 
 in a city which is the capital of one of the states. As 
 we leave the station, we walk in the direction of the 
 State Capitol, and we soon catch sight of it, as it is 
 built on rising ground. We are struck at once by the 
 fact that it looks very much like the Capitol in Washing- 
 ton, except that it is smaller and less stately. It is of 
 white marble, and built in the classical style. There is 
 the same round dome in the center, and the same long 
 wings on either side flanked by pillars. Most of the 
 
 263 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 265 
 
 state capitols resemble each other and resemble the 
 Capitol in Washington, though of course they differ 
 in details. 
 
 The outside of the building is of a white stone 
 quarried in the state, and the inside is finished with 
 slabs of onyx, a valuable stone. The pale white and 
 green of the onyx and its high polish reflect the light 
 like shimmering water. As we move along the glisten- 
 ing corridors, we meet a guide, an elderly man with a 
 grey beard, and we ask him to show us over the whole 
 building. He is very glad to do so, and seems genuinely 
 enthusiastic over its beauty. He tells us that he him- 
 self, being a stonemason by trade, helped to build it 
 only ten years ago. The state had been growing so 
 rapidly that a new capitol much bigger than the old 
 one was needed. 
 
 Before we have gone very far, an old farmer and his 
 wife join our party. They have come up from a lonely 
 country district in the state, and they tell us that 
 this is their first holiday in ten years. Evidently a visit 
 to the State Capitol is a great event in their lives. The 
 farmer's wife is a quaint, spectacled old lady in a black 
 dress. Both she and her husband are very much 
 interested in knowing how much money has been spent 
 on the furnishings of the Capitol. They are taxpayers. 
 They are shocked and appalled at the expensive lux- 
 ury of the building, and at the same time very .proud 
 of it. This is their State Capitol. 
 
 We go down first into the basement of the Capitol 
 and are shown the offices of the Bureau of Agriculture 
 
266 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and of many other bureaus. Not only the Capitol but 
 the state government itself seems to be organized on 
 the pattern supplied by our National Government. 
 We are continually reminded of this. But of course 
 the state government is on a much smaller scale. Hence 
 all the chief offices can be contained in one building. 
 
 On the first floor we are shown the offices of the 
 Governor and of the state treasurer. The Governor, of 
 course, corresponds to the President, and his relations 
 to the lawmaking body of the state are the same as the 
 relations of the President to Congress. The Governor 
 has to sign all the bills passed by the state legislature 
 if they are to become state laws, and he can refuse to 
 sign a bill if he pleases. 
 
 The Governor's apartment is grandly furnished, and 
 our guide informs us, with a dignified * air, that the 
 Governor's inkwell cost four hundred dollars. 
 
 Then we are led through long corridors on the first 
 floor and pass by the offices of the Board of Health, 
 which safeguards the health of the people, especially 
 during epidemics like an influenza epidemic. Of all 
 the other offices that we see, the one that most interests 
 us is the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
 tion, and we stop for a moment to chat with one of the 
 clerks in that office. He is very proud of the work that 
 the state is doing for the education of its people, and 
 he tells us that there is open to every child in the state 
 a course of free school education from the kindergarten 
 to the State University. The university is supported 
 entirely by the state, but the public schools and high 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 267 
 
 schools are supported partly by the state and partly 
 by the cities and the counties in which they are located. 
 
 Before we leave the Capitol building we go up to the 
 second story. Here we see the House of Representa- 
 tives (or Assembly), the Supreme Court Room, the 
 Senate Chamber, and also the State Law Library. 
 
 We tell the farmer's wife that the House of Repre- 
 sentatives and the Senate Chamber are smaller and 
 more plainly furnished than their namesakes at 
 Washington, but that they are built on the same plan. 
 W 7 e look down from the gallery of the House at the 
 assemblymen, as the members of the lower house are 
 called in this state. They seem to be very free and easy 
 in their manners. It is a hot day, and many of them are 
 lounging in their chairs with their coats off and their 
 feet up on their desks. More than half of them repre- 
 sent the farming communities of the state and are 
 themselves farmers, a fine, honest, straightforward set 
 of men. The state is divided up into a number of small 
 districts for the purpose of state elections, and each 
 district elects two assemblymen and one senator to the 
 state legislature. 
 
 Most of the laws under which we live laws protect- 
 ing life and property are state laws, no less important 
 than the national laws. Many of them deal only with 
 the local needs of each state. However, some of the 
 new, progressive laws that have been tried out by the 
 states, and proved successful, have afterwards been 
 adopted by the National Government for the nation as 
 a whole. For instance, the right of women to vote was 
 
268 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 first granted by some of our western states, and now it 
 has been adopted by the nation as a whole. 
 
 As we look down at the state assemblymen, we are 
 sorry to hear that the farmer and his wife have not a 
 single good word to say for the assemblyman from 
 their district. 
 
 "He ain't a farmer, he's a lawyer. Very slick. He's 
 always puttin' one over on us. He's a reg'lar politician; 
 likes playin' the political game, and likes his salary. 
 Next election, we're goin' to clean out the old gang 
 and put in some good men of our own." 
 
 The old farmer looks very grouchy. 
 
 We wait a few minutes at the door of the Supreme 
 Court of the state and listen to a lawyer making a 
 speech. The guide tells us that this lawyer represents 
 a railroad company. As the old farmer listens, the ex- 
 pression on his face becomes very sour. It soon appears 
 that he has a grouch against railroads as well as against 
 lawyers; in fact, he is full of grouchiness. 
 
 We have now been all over the Capitol. As we take 
 leave of the guide, he remarks: "Now that you have 
 seen the State Capitol, how about visitin' one of the 
 state institootions ? There's a nice lot for you to 
 choose from, if you're choosey. There's the Home for 
 Dependents and Defectives, the Home for the Blind, 
 the State Hospital for the Insane, and the State 
 Penitentiary. You can go to any one you please, just 
 as it happens to soot." 
 
 The old lady looks at him doubtfully for a moment, 
 then she answers tartly: "No sir, we are not going to 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 269 
 
 visit any of the institootions you mention, but I can 
 see that we taxpayers'll all be driven to visit the County 
 Poor Farm, if we leave this Capitol under its present 
 management much longer!" 
 
 A STATE UNIVERSITY 
 
 The only state institution we wish to see is the State 
 University, which the guide at the Capitol forgot to 
 mention in his list. 
 
 Shortly after our visit to the Capitol, we spend a 
 day at the State University, and are shown over the 
 campus by a young friend of ours, a boy of twenty, who 
 is taking a course in engineering. 
 
 Most of the states support a state university out of 
 the taxes, and this state is proud of its big, rapidly 
 growing institution. Five thousand students, men and 
 women, attend, and there are over four hundred pro- 
 fessors on its faculty. 
 
 Our friend meets us and we walk through the town 
 with him up a wide central street which leads straight 
 to the university. A great many young men and gaily 
 dressed girls are walking to and fro, and streams of 
 reckless automobiles filled with students pass by. 
 
 The first university building we visit is the big 
 library, which contains half a million books. Our 
 friend takes us up to the central reading room, where 
 we walk between many rows of mahogany tabks-and 
 chairs, with little green shaded lamps hanging over- 
 head. There is silence everywhere. Young men and 
 
WE VISIT A STATE UNIVERSITY 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 271 
 
 women move quietly about, laden with books, and the 
 place seems to be pulsing with work like a beehive. 
 We remember that we are in the presence here of half 
 a million books, including all the greatest books of 
 the wor^d, which carry the heritage of our civilization. 
 We stand for a moment, watching the scene intently. 
 
 A few of the students, however, do not seem to be 
 impressed with this thought as we are. They are 
 spending a good deal of time in the reading room look- 
 ing around, or whispering softly to each other, and 
 they seem to find human nature more interesting than 
 their textbooks. 
 
 In the basement of the library there is a newspaper 
 room. We come across a student who is carefully 
 comparing a number of different newspapers. He tells 
 us that for one of his history courses, the class has to 
 write a history of the world day by day, collecting 
 the facts from the daily papers. 
 
 Near-by, in a quiet corner, a little Chinaman is 
 sitting absorbed in his reading of Shakespeare's plays. 
 The boy with us has met this Chinaman at one of the 
 university clubs, and he asks him how he likes his work. 
 
 "I like it. But must work hard. The examination 
 on Shakespears will be execute on the nine, Monday 
 morning." 
 
 We leave him shaking his head over the prospect of 
 the Monday morning execution. 
 
 We now go out of the library and walk up the 
 university campus. The campus is like a park. In 
 between the university buildings there are wide grassy 
 
272 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 stretches and tall trees. Gardeners are busy sweeping 
 away the red and gold leaves that thickly carpet the 
 ground. Beyond the campus itself we can see wooded 
 hills which are beginning to look grey and wintry, and 
 beyond the hills a glimpse of a grey lake. 
 
 The buildings near the library are the medical school, 
 the law school, and the engineering building, where 
 young "medics" and "laws" and "boiler makers" are 
 trained for their future work. Our friend takes us all 
 round the engineering shops, and we see professors and 
 students dressed in grimy over-alls working among big 
 machines. What most impresses us is a full-sized rail- 
 road locomotive which is kept here so that it can be 
 thoroughly examined by the students. 
 
 Beyond the engineering building, on the top of a 
 small hill, is a big central building called Main Hall. 
 In Main Hall there are dozens of lecture rooms. Our 
 friend tells us that hundreds of different courses are 
 given here, in languages, literature, history, mathema- 
 tics, business, and the natural sciences. In the hallway 
 we look at a bulletin board where notices are pinned 
 up, and see that two public lectures are to be given 
 that afternoon. One is on astronomy, and is called 
 "The Structure of the Universe," the other is on fishes, 
 and is called "The Breathing of the Florida Sea Cow." 
 
 "Mercy!" we say to ourselves, "there seems to be 
 a wide range of choice among the subjects taught at 
 this university." 
 
 We ask the boy who is with us whether he is enjoying 
 himself at the university, and he replies, "Yes, indeed, 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 273 
 
 this is a very nice place, and there would be plenty of 
 pleasant things to do, if only one didn't have to study!" 
 
 He tells us that college is a great place for sports 
 and amusements of all kinds. The fall is the football 
 season, and the whole university goes out in a body to 
 watch the big games between the rival teams of 
 young football heroes. In the winter, the lake freezes, 
 and the students skate all over it, and they play ice- 
 hockey and go ice-boating in the bitter cold wind. Or 
 if there is deep snow they go sledding in the woods or 
 skiing. As soon as the weather turns warm, in April 
 or May, they begin to play baseball and tennis. Then, 
 in the summer, they swim in the lake, or go canoeing, 
 or go for picnics or long hikes into the country. 
 
 There are also numerous clubs, which are organized 
 by the students for their pleasure and interest- 
 debating clubs, musical clubs, theatrical clubs, and 
 social clubs of all kinds. And there is a great deal 
 of dancing, too, as the fraternities and sororities en- 
 tertain each other with dancing parties throughout the 
 year. In one way or another, the students are able 
 to while away their spare time. 
 
 In a building near Main Hall we are shown a printing 
 press in operation. The students of journalism edit a 
 daily paper and do all the writing and printing them- 
 selves. After this we are taken into three buildings 
 filled with scientific laboratories. Some of the univer- 
 sity professors are scientists and inventors who have 
 made valuable discoveries. In one room some young 
 scientists are studying sound, and we are shown a 
 
274 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 photograph of the sound waves of a violin. Another 
 room seems full of live guinea pigs. Students are 
 learning about the laws of heredity by comparing the 
 great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother 
 
 A CLASS IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE 
 
 guinea pigs with the hundreds of little guinea pigs 
 that surround them. 
 
 Before walking on in the direction of the College of 
 Agriculture, which is some distance away from the 
 science buildings, we go down a little side path and visit 
 a small house which is known as the practice cottage, a 
 modelhome for the girls who are learning to be good 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 275 
 
 housewives. The practice cottage is charmingly fur- 
 nished. The girls are taught to keep it in apple-pie 
 order, and they are allowed to invite their friends 
 to meals which they themselves have cooked. The 
 students we happen to see here this morning are pre- 
 paring a meal, and they are chattering and laughing 
 together very gaily. They remind us of little girls 
 playing with a doll's house, but are indignant when we 
 suggest such a thing. They tell us that their courses 
 are very difficult and very scientific. 
 
 In the College of Agriculture we are first shown work- 
 rooms where young "aggies," as they are often called, 
 are learning the science of farming. We see them 
 studying seeds and soils in the classroom. But the 
 university also owns a big farm, where practical 
 farming is taught out in the open. 
 
 Finally we see the Extension Division of the univer- 
 sity, which does its best to carry the university to the 
 people. Five thousand young men and women are 
 able to attend the courses given here on the campus, 
 but there are thousands more dotted over the small 
 towns of the state, who have to stay at home. These 
 can only be reached by mail or by travelling pro- 
 fessors. About seven thousand students in the state 
 take correspondence courses through the Extension 
 Division. Books are mailed to them, and long letters 
 pass back and forth between professors and students. 
 
 The College of Agriculture has a special Extension 
 Division of its own, which sends out workers all over 
 the state to help the farmers. We are shown maps of 
 
276 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the state which describe the kind of work that is being 
 carried out in the different counties. The university 
 men show the farmers how to kill their weeds in the 
 most scientific manner, how to plant and spray their 
 orchards, how to care for their livestock, and how to 
 have the best possible crops. As a result of all these 
 efforts, the crops and herds of the state have increased 
 enormously, bringing in millions of dollars to the 
 farmers. So the people of the state are being repaid 
 many times over for the cost of the university. 
 
 Now we have gone all over the campus and can 
 form some idea of the wonderful opportunities that 
 the state is offering to its children through the uni- 
 versity. Most of the students we meet look very 
 happy, and this is because they are free^to choose the 
 kind of work and the kind of play that suits them 
 best. They are planning the future, and are shown 
 the great possibilities in the life work that stretches 
 out before them. 
 
 It is half-past eleven, and our friend tells us that he 
 will have to go back now to the cafeteria in the Wo- 
 man's Building, and put on a white coat and apron. 
 He is working his way through the university in part 
 by acting as a helper in the dining hall. 
 
 He tells us that almost half the students are working 
 their way through. In the summer they work on farms ; 
 in the winter they wait on table, or take care of fur- 
 naces, or beat rugs, or clean windows, or run laundries. 
 The state gives them a splendid education practically 
 free, but it does not feed them or clothe them, so 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 277 
 
 those who wish to pay all their own bills must work 
 part of the time and earn enough money to pay for 
 board and lodging. 
 
 A COUNTY COURTHOUSE 
 
 The government of a county is carried on in a build- 
 ing called the courthouse, located in the chief town of 
 the county. Of course there are thousands of court- 
 houses scattered over the country, as each state is 
 divided up into many counties, but most of them are 
 more or less alike, and the particular one that we are 
 going to visit is fairly typical of all the rest. 
 
 We select a quiet, peaceful little country town and 
 find the courthouse situated on the main street, in 
 the center of the business section. At first glance one 
 would feel no curiosity to go in, as it is by no means 
 as splendid a sight as the other government buildings 
 we have visited. It is just a small building, in a 
 small, sleepy town, and is rather dingy in color and 
 awkward in shape. There seems to be very little go- 
 ing on in its vicinity. But in spite of the dull air 
 of the courthouse, we wish to see its "works" and 
 examine them, because, after all, county government 
 affects very closely and intimately the lives of all 
 country people. 
 
 The courthouse turns out to be much more interesting 
 than we had expected. For instance, we never dreamed 
 that there was a jail in the basement of such an or- 
 dinary-looking building. 
 
278 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The inside of the courthouse is just as dingy as 
 the outside. The walls are painted a dull tan color, 
 and the woodwork is varnished golden oak. There are 
 a number of doors opening on the hallway, and each 
 
 ^flR 
 
 I , - ii 
 
 ? .; " . , i 
 
 m--< -sii 
 
 A COUNTY COURTHOUSE 
 Some county courthouses are fine imposing buildings like this one. 
 
 one has painted on it, in large black letters, the name 
 of a county office; as, SHERIFF COMMISSIONERS - 
 TREASURER ASSESSOR CLERK AND RECORDER 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 The first office we are shown into is the one marked 
 SHERIFF, and we are introduced to a fine, strong- 
 looking man who is the sheriff of the county. He tells 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 279 
 
 us that it is his duty to arrest offenders against the law 
 and look after them while they are in jail. He asks 
 us whether we should be interested to inspect the jail, 
 and we reply that we should. 
 
 Carrying a bunch of strange-looking keys, the 
 Sheriff leads the way down into the basement, an ugly 
 place with damp walls shrouded in gloom.. The first 
 cell he opens for us, which happens to be empty, 
 does not look so very uncomfortable. The little win- 
 dow up near the ceiling is barred but there is a 
 white bed with a spring mattress, and a decent cane 
 chair. This, so he tells us, is the best room in the 
 jail, and is reserved for women and children. 
 
 We are thinking to ourselves that the jail, after all, 
 is not such a terrible place, when the sight of the next 
 cell gives us a start of horror. The walls and the inside 
 of the door of this strange-looking room are padded 
 with a kind of thick white mattress, and the ceiling 
 and the higher portion of the walls are covered with 
 a strong steel screen, most sinister in effect. This is 
 the "padded cell" for violent lunatics, and we are 
 shocked to hear that it was occupied only the night 
 before. The insane are not kept in the jail long, but 
 are sent, after examination, to the State Hospital for 
 the Insane, where they are given kind and helpful 
 treatment, in comfortable, and even beautiful, sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 Turning a corner of the dismal basement corridor, 
 we now come into full view of the cages where male 
 criminals are kept. In one room we can see three of 
 
280 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 them sitting together, reading magazines. There is a 
 bunch of flowers on the table, probably brought by 
 friends, but their sitting room is untidy and ill-kept. 
 
 One of these men 
 has forged a small 
 check, the other 
 is a boy who has 
 stolen a sum un- 
 der twenty dol- 
 lars, and the third 
 is a bootlegger, 
 who is serving 
 time for making 
 whiskey. The 
 bootlegger smiles 
 when he sees us 
 and nods his head; 
 later we hear him 
 humming a song 
 with seeming un- 
 concern. 
 
 Sheriff 
 
 INTERIOR OF A JAIL 
 
 shows us the cells 
 
 where these prisoners sleep. They are miserable looking 
 places with walls of steel and no furniture except the can- 
 vas hammocks which are strung from wall to wall. The 
 air is dank and unhealthy, and pools of dirty water lie 
 on the floor. The Sheriff tells us that this jail, like most 
 county jails, is an old one, and that he would like very 
 much to have a new jail built on a more sanitary plan. 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 281 
 
 Now he pulls out his biggest key, which is like a long 
 screw with sharp teeth attached to it, and unlocks for 
 us the worst horrors the dark cell, and the murderer's 
 cell, both empty at this time, we are thankful to see. 
 The dark cell, as we look into it, is an almost 
 pitchblack hole; we cannot even see how small or how 
 big it may be. The Sheriff says that it has not been 
 occupied for years; it is only used as a punishment for 
 prisoners who are utterly brutalized and undisciplined. 
 He believes that there are very few men of this nature, 
 perhaps only one out of every four thousand prisoners. 
 We doubt if a dark cell does even such a man any good. 
 
 The murderers cell is solitary, apart from all the 
 rest. The walls are of heavier steel than the other cells, 
 and the light only enters slantwise through the cage 
 door, from a window across the corridor. We ask the 
 Sheriff if it is often occupied, and he explains to us that 
 men arrested for murder and other serious crimes are 
 only kept here in the county jail for the short period 
 between their arrest and their trial. After their trial, 
 if found guilty, they are sent to the State Penitentiary. 
 The only prisoners who work out their whole sentence 
 in the little county jail are those charged with slighter 
 offences, such as bootlegging and petty thieving. 
 
 Now we have been all over the little county jail. 
 We feel sure that men would have a better chance 
 of reforming in more wholesome surroundings where 
 they could work out of doors. The Sheriff locks all 
 the doors again, and takes us upstairs into the Com- 
 missioners' room. 
 
282 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Here he introduces us to the three County Com- 
 missioners, who are sitting at a long oak table littered 
 with papers. In a small way, the Commissioners are 
 the general managers and lawmakers of the county 
 government. It is they who decide how all the county 
 taxes shall be spent. One of them tells us that in private 
 life he is a banker; the other two are retired farmers. 
 We ask them what political party they belong to, and 
 it turns out that one is a Republican and the other two 
 Democrats. But they assure us that they "get along 
 fine " in spite of this. They look at each other and laugh, 
 and seem to think that the party question is rather a 
 joke. We agree with them, that so far as county politics 
 are concerned, it is a joke. There is always a great deal 
 of talk about Republicans and Democrats at a county 
 election, but everyone knows perfectly well that the two 
 great parties differ chiefly on national and state ques- 
 tions, which have no connection at all with the daily 
 work of a county officer. For instance, take the sheriff's 
 office. At an election we should want to vote for the 
 best possible sheriff, and it would matter very little if 
 he were a Democrat or a Republican, because, as many 
 writers have remarked, there is no difference between the 
 Republican and Democratic methods of chasing a thief. 
 
 But to return to our Commissioners. We ask them 
 what becomes of the county taxes after they have been 
 collected, and they tell us that they are spent on roads 
 and bridges, on the County Home (for the homeless 
 poor), on schools, on child welfare work, and a dozen 
 other good causes. 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 283 
 
 Opposite the Commissioners' office is the Treasurer's 
 office. We do not go in there to inquire what the 
 Treasurer's business may be, because we can see for 
 ourselves. PAY YOUR TAXES HERE is written in 
 large black letters on the door. Next to the Treas- 
 urer's office is the office of the Superintendent of 
 Schools. The Superintendent is the general manager of 
 all the country schools in the county, and he is con- 
 stantly making little trips into the country districts, 
 visiting one school after the other. He examines the 
 schoolchildren, engages teachers, plans with the teach- 
 ers the courses of study, and has general charge of 
 the educational system. 
 
 Now we go up to the second floor of the County 
 Courthouse, to see the court rooms where trials are 
 held. We spend more time looking at the District 
 Court Room, as it is the bigger and more important 
 of the two. At present it is empty. 
 
 Filling the body of the District Court Room are 
 rows and rows of wooden chairs for visitors. Facing 
 these is the judge's seat upon a small platform, and 
 directly below the judge's seat is a table with chairs, 
 reserved for the lawyers and the prisoners. In a corner, 
 on the left-hand side of the judge's seat, there is 
 another platform with twelve chairs grouped together. 
 This platform is reserved for the jury. 
 
 According to an age-old custom, it is the jury of 
 twelve citizens, and not the judge, that decides whether 
 a prisoner is guilty or innocent. After a case has been 
 heard, the jurymen retire to a little anteroom and talk 
 
284 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 over the case until they all agree upon the verdict. 
 Then they come back and announce their decision. 
 If they say "not guilty," the prisoner is let free. If 
 they say "guilty," then it is the duty of the judge to 
 decide how light or how heavy the prisoner's punish- 
 ment shall be. 
 
 The Clerk of the Court, who is showing us the 
 District Court Room, tells us that a murder trial was 
 held here not long ago. A poor dull-witted country 
 lad had murdered his father and a farm helper with a 
 shotgun, giving as his reason that he felt "mad" 
 because they had put his little dog to death. The jury 
 found the prisoner guilty, and the judge imposed the 
 sentence of imprisonment for life. When the poor boy 
 heard the words "for life," he murmured, "that's too 
 long, that's too long." Later he was declared insane, 
 and was removed from the State Penitentiary to the 
 State Asylum for the Insane. 
 
 After hearing this melancholy story, we leave the 
 little County Courthouse, realizing that many strange 
 scenes have been enacted within its dingy walls, some 
 of them moving and tragic in the extreme. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: The United States is a nation formed 
 on the federal principle. Each state has its own government and 
 local authority, but all the states together form one union, recog- 
 nizing the authority of the central, or National Government. 
 
 (If any of the children reading this book happen to live in the 
 capital of a state, it is suggested that their teacher take them 
 to visit the State Capitol. If they live in a county town, they 
 should visit the County Courthouse.) 
 
STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 285 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. If you have visited a state capitol, describe what you saw 
 there. 
 
 2. Who makes the laws for the state? Who are the principal 
 state officials? 
 
 3. Explain how the state governments resemble the National 
 Government in organization. 
 
 4. What work is being done by the states in regard to public 
 education? 
 
 5. What kinds of laws are generally state laws? 
 
 6. Would you like to attend a university later on ? If so, why ? 
 
 7. If you have visited a county courthouse, describe what you 
 saw there. 
 
 8. What are the duties of the sheriff? 
 
 9. What are the duties of the county commissioners? 
 
 10. Do you think it is right that a jail should be in an untidy 
 and unsanitary basement? Give reasons. 
 
 11. Should prisoners of all ages be kept together, regardless of 
 what they have done? Give reasons. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 1. A VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY 
 
 2. THE CITY HALL 
 
 3. THE WORK OF CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 We now plan to visit a great American city and learn 
 something about city government. After some hesitation, 
 we choose New York. Its government is not exactly 
 like that of any other city government, but it is a 
 wonderful city, the largest and richest in the United 
 States, and the largest and richest in the world. We feel 
 certain that after we have seen something of such a huge 
 and complicated city government as New York must 
 have, it will be easy for us afterwards to understand the 
 government of any smaller American city. 
 
 A VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY 
 
 Our train pulls in at the Pennsylvania Station, which 
 is on Manhattan Island in the heart of New York. We 
 follow a stream of people into the huge central hall of 
 the station and are thrilled and excited at our first 
 sight of the great city. We recall the dingy, smoky 
 little railroad depots we have seen in small towns, and 
 our first impression suggests the might and good for- 
 tune of New York. The Pennsylvania Station is as 
 
 286 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 287 
 
 huge and beautiful as a cathedral. Walls of light col- 
 ored stone and enormous pillars in the Roman style 
 support an arched ceiling decorated in pale colors. 
 We look up at some designs on the walls and find that 
 they are not pictures, as we at first glance imagined 
 them to be, but gigantic maps made up of different 
 colored stones. 
 
 Now we come out of the station into the hubbub of 
 the New York streets. We clamber into a taxi with our 
 suitcases and are carried rapidly to our hotel, driving 
 a few blocks along Fifth Avenue on the way. On the 
 sidewalks there are vast streams of people elbowing 
 each other; some are hurrying along, others are look- 
 ing with interest at the glittering store windows. The 
 blue dusk of a winter's evening is falling, and the 
 round street lights shine out like colored balloons. 
 The store windows are filled with luxurious objects, and 
 the jewellers' stores, especially, display a magic wealth 
 which reminds one of the Arabian Nights. 
 
 Out in the current of the traffic, the automobiles 
 follow so closely upon one another that they almost 
 touch; they form long continuous lines, sliding, twist- 
 ing, and writhing like serpents. At the end of every 
 block there is a policeman regulating the traffic, and 
 several times our taxi has to stop, with the rest of the 
 autos, while a little huddled crowd of people on foot 
 cross the avenue. The policemen are big men, as stately 
 as lords, and all their gestures have dignity and 
 authority. This is our first sight of city officials, and 
 it comes up to all our expectations. 
 
288 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Our hotel a skyscraper also comes up to our 
 anticipations. It is actually so tall that we can hardly 
 see the top as we lean out of the window of our taxi 
 and gaze up at it. It seems to loom down out of the 
 evening mists like a mountain cliff. 
 
 Inside the hotel there are crystal chandeliers, all 
 lit up, like enormous bunches of shining flowers shed- 
 ding a glorious golden blur over the whole scene. We 
 walk through open halls, among waving palms and 
 fountains past velvet curtains, treading silently upon 
 soft carpets into which our feet seem to sink two or 
 three inches. In one room there is an orchestra playing 
 dance music, and for a moment we stand and watch the 
 dancers. In another room, called the Japanese Tea 
 Garden, groups of beautifully dressed women and some 
 men are sitting at little tables drinking tea. 
 
 Now we wish to find the rooms that we have engaged, 
 and we pass into another section of the hotel which is 
 filled with shops and booths. There is a barber's 
 shop, a drug store, a candy store, a tobacco store, a 
 newspaper store, and many others. We are shown 
 to an "express" elevator and are wafted up to our 
 rooms on the twenty-fifth floor, leaping five stories 
 at a time. The elevator boy tells us that he spends the 
 whole day going up and down the elevator shaft in 
 this rapid manner. 
 
 Out of all our confused impressions of the city, one 
 stands out very strikingly: the wonderful organization 
 of modern city life. Both the Pennsylvania Station 
 and this hotel are like great organized beehives. Some 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 289 
 
 of the people are the drones; and some are the workers, 
 running and flying busily to and fro, each carrying his 
 own small burden into the hive, each, like the elevator 
 boy, fulfilling his small duty and making his special 
 contribution, to this enormous pile of energy which is 
 the Modern City. 
 
 We can realize that where people are organized so 
 closely the government will have a great deal of work 
 to do. It must protect the people who are helpless, and 
 prevent those who are unprincipled from doing harm 
 to their neighbors. 
 
 We find that our hotel bedrooms are a miracle of 
 modern plumbing. Each one has its own little bath- 
 room attached, all finished with glazed white tiles and 
 beautifully fitted. The rooms are lighted with elec- 
 tricity and supplied with telephones. When we go 
 to hang up our coats we find that the light inside the 
 closet is turned on by opening the closet door, and 
 turned off by shutting it. Another neat device 
 that pleases us is a little niche in the wall with a 
 silver button which, when pressed, causes iced water 
 to pour into a drinking glass standing ready to receive 
 it. All these labor-saving devices, however trifling, 
 mark the high pitch of civilization in our great cities. 
 
 The whole of our next day is given up to sight-seeing. 
 
 Early in the morning we telephone to a friend, who 
 is a real New Yorker, having lived here all his life, and 
 he promises to act as our guide. We meet him in the 
 lobby of the hotel and explain to him that we wish to 
 see something of the government of the city. 
 
290 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 A RIDE ON FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 "Very well," he replies, "but first you ought to see 
 something of the city itself." 
 
 He takes us to Fifth Avenue, and we climb to the top of 
 a motor bus headed in the direction of Riverside Drive. 
 
 The ride is very pleasant. There is a general hum and 
 movement of life in the street, and the sun is shining 
 down brightly on the polished tops of automobiles and 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 291 
 
 on the bright colors of women's hats and dresses. Most 
 of the store buildings are high and seem very new. Their 
 white tiles glitter, and their flags float gaily in the wind. 
 When we reach the Public Library, on Fifth Avenue 
 at 42nd Street, we clamber down from our bus, be- 
 
 THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AT NIGHT 
 
 cause we want to see this famous library which is 
 considered one of the finest in the United States. It 
 was built by the City of New York, for the free use of 
 the people. 
 
 It is much bigger than the library which we saw at 
 the State University. An attendant informs us that 
 there are altogether ninety miles of bookshelves. We 
 go through all the reading rooms and see some wonder- 
 
292 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ful books and prints, but what charms us most is the 
 children's reading room on the first floor. Here the 
 walls are painted with gay scenes illustrating various 
 children's books, and there are little tables and com- 
 fortable little chairs to fit small children. There are 
 bowls of fresh flowers on the tables and pots of ivy 
 plants and ferns. Everything is pleasing and delightful, 
 and even the kind girl librarians who find books for 
 us seem to have been especially chosen for their youth 
 and prettiness. 
 
 Our friend tells us that there are forty other public 
 libraries, built by the city with money given by Mr. 
 Carnegie. A great art museum and other museums 
 also belong to the city. If we only had time, he assures 
 us, we could spend days and days of pure enjoyment 
 at the Art Museum, or the Natural History Museum. 
 
 "Or/* he continues, "if you would rather see all 
 kinds of wild animals, we ought to go out to Bronx 
 Park. Most of the animals in the Bronx Park Zoo are 
 not shut up in cages, but are allowed to wander about 
 freely in fields fenced in like small parks. Even the 
 bird cage in the Bronx is so big that it contains several 
 growing trees and a little stream of water with two 
 pools. The birds can spread their wings and fly about 
 from one tree to the other. All the animals are there, 
 two by two, just as they were in Noah's Ark, but 
 there isn't the same overcrowding." 
 
 We are interested to hear about these places, but 
 unfortunately we have no time to visit them. We 
 mount to the top of another bus and content our- 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 293 
 
 selves, for this morning, with visiting Central Park. 
 On our way we pass by a number of great stone man- 
 sions, belonging to famous millionaires including the 
 families of Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Frick, and Astor. 
 
 Central Park is a charming place with wide grassy 
 spaces, tall elm trees, and a number of little lakes where 
 white ducks are swimming. It seems like a quiet corner 
 of the country that has been transported to the middle 
 of the great city. There are plenty of children playing 
 here, most of whom look as if they belonged to well-to-do 
 families. The little girls are well dressed; their bobbed 
 hair is combed very smooth and they wear smart hats 
 and pretty shoes. 
 
 "Now you must see something quite different," 
 says our friend, leading us out of the park. " In a great 
 city there are sharp contrasts of rich and poor. Let us 
 go down a few blocks to the East Side, where the 
 factory workers and poorer classes live. Then we will 
 take a street car to the Bowery, which is quite close to 
 the City Hall and the Municipal Building where the 
 government of the city is carried on." 
 
 We turn to the right and soon come to a gloomy 
 quarter where the streets are very narrow and the 
 stores are mean looking. We get into an electric tram- 
 car and find it crowded with men and women who seem 
 to be foreigners. The men are mostly standing, hanging 
 on to straps for support as the car lurches and sways; 
 we notice the tired-out look on the faces of some of our 
 fellow passengers. This part of the city does not seem 
 a healthful place to live in. Many of the women have 
 
294 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 worried faces, and the children are pale. Our car grinds 
 and crashes along for several miles, down an avenue lined 
 with small dirty stores and an occasional factory quiver- 
 ing with the vibrations of powerful machinery. One 
 big building we notice is closed and silent; there are men 
 guarding the doors. Our friend suggests that the work- 
 men are on strike. Probably the employers of the fac- 
 tory have ordered a cut in wages and the workmen have 
 refused to go back to work, or the workmen have asked 
 for higher wages and their request has been refused. 
 
 Most of our big business companies are so organized 
 that a small group of employers with money have 
 control over the work of thousands of laboring men 
 who are only wage-earners. So the social condition in 
 our great cities is not such an equal one as that of our 
 farmers in the country. In the eyes of our government 
 all men are equal. But it is always difficult to preserve 
 true equality in government and democracy where there 
 is no real equality in the working life of the people. 
 One of the great problems of the future, which city 
 children will have to face as they grow up, is the ad- 
 justment of the relations of workmen and employers. 
 A big coal strike, for instance, results in great hardship 
 for all city people. They cannot buy enough coal to 
 keep themselves warm, because the demand is usually 
 greater than the supply and a strike cuts off the sup- 
 ply. Probably, in order to do away with strikes and 
 industrial conflicts in the future, changes will have 
 to be made in the organization of many factories and 
 big business companies. The workers do not consider 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 295 
 
 themselves fairly treated unless they are given some 
 share in the profits and some share in the management. 
 The ride to the Bowery takes some time as the 
 car stops at each 
 street corner and 
 traffic is con- 
 gested. When, 
 finally, we reach 
 the lower east 
 side of the city, 
 we get out of the 
 car and explore 
 some of the by- 
 ways of this 
 quarter. It is not 
 merely over- 
 crowded; it is 
 simply swarming 
 with human be- 
 ings. The houses 
 are swarming 
 with people, the 
 pavements are swarming with people, the streets are 
 swarming with people, so that an automobile has liter- 
 ally to push its way through. The little children, 
 having no other place^ to play, are cheerfully playing 
 on the sidewalks, or squatting in the gutters which are 
 littered with garbage. Their clothes and their sticky 
 little faces are covered with dirt and soot, but they do 
 not seem to mind their condition. 
 
 DOVER STREET IN CHINATOWN 
 
296 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The houses in the worst streets are small and dingy 
 and old, and the ugliness of their general appearance 
 is not improved by the number of fire escapes stuck on 
 the outside, little staircases of iron bars which at once 
 remind us of the cages at the Zoo in Central Park. 
 
 Emerging suddenly from the gloom of the Bowery, 
 we catch a glimpse of a group of splendid skyscrapers, 
 shining golden-white in the sunlight, high up above the 
 murky, smoky little houses of the slums. Our friend 
 points out to us the famous Woolworth Building, fifty- 
 one stories high, and near it the new Municipal Build- 
 ing, only a few stories lower. 
 
 By this time we are beginning to feel rather weary, 
 and are footsore from walking so long on hard pave- 
 ments. We find a quiet little cafe overlooking City 
 Hall Park, and here we rest while we eat our lunch. 
 
 THE CITY HALL 
 
 After lunch we stroll through City Hall Park. We 
 pass by one of the courthouses of the city, and we can see 
 very plainly looming up into the sky the huge Municipal 
 Building, where the offices of the city departments are 
 housed. The first place we wish to visit, however, is the 
 City Hall, a little, old building of pale yellow marble, 
 which seems very small and insignificant in the presence 
 pf the glittering, overtowering skyscrapers that have 
 sprung up around it like giant beanstalks. But the City 
 Hall has charm and quaintness, and it is interesting 
 historically. It contains a collection of relics that 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 297 
 
 date back to the days of the Revolution, among which 
 is a writing desk which belonged to George Washington. 
 
 We enter by the main doorway, and there is no one to 
 prevent us from wandering around inside to see what 
 we please. Turn- 
 ing to the left, we 
 come to the office 
 of the Mayor of 
 New York. As 
 the chief official of 
 the city govern- 
 ment, the Mayor 
 has a great deal 
 of power, and he 
 appoints most of 
 the men who are 
 the heads of the 
 city departments, 
 just as the Presi- 
 dent of the United 
 States appoints 
 the heads of the 
 great departments in Washington. The Mayor is 
 elected by the votes of the citizens. 
 
 At the other end of. the little City Hall is the room 
 where the Council or Board of Aldermen meets to 
 pass the laws of the city. This council is the lawmaking 
 branch of the city government, and the council room 
 reminds us of the House of Representatives in Wash- 
 ington. There are rows of chairs and desks on the main 
 
 CITY HALL PARK 
 The tall Municipal Building is shown in the center. 
 
298 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 floor, where the aldermen sit, and a little gallery 
 above for spectators. The aldermen are elected by the 
 citizens, one from each city district. 
 
 We now go upstairs to the second floor of the City 
 Hall and are shown the Washington relics and the room 
 where the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
 meets. This Board is very important because it de- 
 cides how the city taxes shall be raised and spent. 
 We see eight men coming out of the room, and hear 
 one of them say: 
 
 "Well, then, the total this year will be two hundred 
 and seventy-three million dollars more than the ex- 
 penses of London and Paris put together." 
 
 Two hundred and seventy-three million dollars! 
 That is a big sum for one city to spend in a year. 
 
 Our friend suggests to us: "If you wish to see with 
 your own eyes what a big job it is that the city de- 
 partments have to tackle, and how they spend some of 
 their money, we had better go to the top of the Wool- 
 worth Building, where we can look down over the whole 
 of New York City and get an idea of its greatness." 
 
 THE WORK OF CITY GOVERNMENT 
 
 So we cross the street to the Woolworth Building, 
 each pay fifty cents, and are shot up in an elevator to 
 the fiftieth floor. After we get out of the elevator we 
 go up a short flight of steps and come out on an open 
 platform which runs around the topmost pinnacle of 
 the building. 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 299 
 
 The wind is blowing strongly up here, and we are in 
 the full blaze of the sun. We walk 'to the edge of the 
 little platform, and for a moment feel sickeningly dizzy, 
 as if we were hanging over a great precipice. The 
 building seems to rock with the wind, and we could 
 almost imagine we were on the topmast of a tall ship. 
 Soon, however, we become used to our strange position, 
 and are able to look around with pleasure at the 
 wonderful view below. 
 
 We can see that we are on the tip of a narrow strip 
 of land, Manhattan Island. The broad expanse of two 
 rivers, the Hudson River and the East River, divides 
 Manhattan from the mainland. The bridges spanning 
 the rivers look like the threads of a spider's web, they 
 are so thin and fine seen from this distance. Beyond 
 them lies the great grey mass of the city rows upon 
 rows of shining roofs stretching out in every direction 
 for miles and miles to the misty horizon. 
 
 As we marvel at the intricate network of lines that 
 are the streets in the great living design mapped out 
 below us, we are told that the streets of New York 
 would span the whole continent of America, if they 
 were stretched out into one straight line. It is the duty 
 of the city to build streets, repair them, and keep them 
 clean. The clearing of the streets of New York after 
 one very heavy snowstorm cost the city almost two 
 million dollars! 
 
 Ten million people live under this grey mass of 
 roofs, guarded by an army of ten thousand city police- 
 men and five thousand city firemen. 
 
300 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 If we could stay up on the roof of the Woolworth 
 Building until night falls, when all the streets are 
 lighted with electricity, in the dark mist the city so 
 far below us would seem like another sky lit with stars. 
 
 NEW YORK AT NIGHT (TIMES SQUARE) 
 
 The city supplies the electricity for lighting the 
 streets, and it also supplies pure water for all the 
 houses. 
 
 "One must think of a great city/' says our friend, 
 "as a huge mass which is honeycombed with hidden 
 pipes and wires. Under the streets, under the pave- 
 ments, between the floors and ceilings of all the houses 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 301 
 
 they run, hundreds and thousands of them electric 
 wires, telephone wires, gas pipes, and water mains. 
 They are like the pulsing veins and nerves inside a 
 human body. 
 
 "A city needs pure water, if it is to remain healthy, 
 just as the human body needs pure blood. The citizens 
 of New York drink the pure crystal water of mountain 
 streams, which is brought down to them from the 
 Catskill Mountains, a distance of ninety-two miles." 
 
 We look again over the great view in the afternoon 
 light, and notice here and there little green patches 
 breaking into the dull expanse of roofs. These are the 
 city parks. They seem very small and far apart, 
 and yet we are told that the city keeps up, altogether, 
 eight thousand acres of park land. Unfortunately too 
 few of these are in the crowded section. 
 
 Then our friend points out the roofs of a number of 
 big public buildings belonging to the city schools, 
 libraries, museums, and hospitals. The city maintains 
 ten splendid hospitals, one of which is especially for 
 children. Looking many miles down the East River, we 
 see some little islands, faint and misty in the distance, 
 and are told that some of the city hospitals and many 
 of the city prisons are located on these islands. 
 
 Directly underneath us is the little City Hall Park, 
 and opposite us is the Municipal Building where the 
 offices of the city departments are housed. It is an 
 enormous skyscraper, forty-one stories high. A fairly 
 wide street, noisy with traffic, runs right through 
 the middle of the building, reminding us of the drive- 
 
302 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ways that are cut through the trunks of giant trees in 
 California. On one of the sidewalks our friend points 
 out to us the entrance to a subway station which is 
 built among the foundations of the skyscraper. The 
 subways are underground electric railways used every 
 day by hundreds of thousands of workers who come 
 in from the suburbs to their places of business in the 
 heart of the city. 
 
 We spend almost half an hour on the top of the Wool- 
 worth Building gazing down at this aeroplane view of 
 the city, spread out below us as flat as a map. Then 
 we dive down by way of the elevator, and join the 
 stream of people that are hurrying along the streets. 
 From the top of the Woolworth Building all the in- 
 habitants of the city looked like tiny, creeping insects, 
 and the automobiles seemed to crawl like flies. 
 
 By this time we are tired of sight-seeing, and go back 
 thankfully to the luxurious comfort of our hotel. 
 
 That same afternoon we read a description of a 
 typical New York family, written by Mr. John Tildsley, 
 who is connected with the schools of New York. It 
 shows how the well-being of a city family is dependent 
 on the work of the city government. 
 
 "Mr. Jones, the average New Yorker, lives in an 
 apartment of six rooms. When he gets up in the 
 morning he washes with clear water brought a hundred 
 miles and furnished to himself and his family by the 
 city government for drinking, cooking, bathing, and 
 cleaning at a cost of about twelve dollars a year, paid 
 as part of his rent. Mrs. Jones cooks the breakfast 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 303 
 
 with gas, the price of which is regulated by law. On 
 the cereal she pours milk, the purity of which has 
 been tested by the same city government. The hash 
 is made from beef bearing the stamp of a Federal 
 Inspector which means that the animal from which it 
 came was free from disease when killed. Even the 
 butter and eggs have been inspected by some officer 
 of the law. After breakfast Mrs. Jones sends down the 
 garbage to be removed by the 'White Wings' of the 
 city Department of Street Cleaning. The dishwater is 
 carried by a city-built drain to the river miles away. 
 
 "Mr. Jones then goes to his work on one of the sub- 
 ways built by the city, and he pays a nickel fare, the 
 amount fixed by law. He works in a factory where the 
 conditions of work are regulated by state and city laws. 
 
 "Mrs. Jones sends the little daughter of eight to a 
 free public school supported by the city where the 
 child is not only given an education but is examined 
 from time to time by a nurse from the Department of 
 Health, so that her health may be protected. 
 
 "A son of fourteen goes to a free public high school, 
 a son of seventeen attends the free College of the City 
 of New York, and a daughter attends Hunter College, 
 also supported by the city. 
 
 "At three o'clock the little eight year old daughter 
 returns from school and plays in a street which has 
 been swept clean and washed down by the 'White 
 Wings/ and at this hour is kept free from traffic by a 
 policeman so that the children may play in safety. The 
 daughter attending Hunter College goes to read in a 
 
304 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 beautiful public library, and the high-school boy goes 
 with his school team to play baseball in a city park. 
 
 "In the evening Mr. Jones and his wife attend a free 
 lecture provided by the city, and the older children 
 go to a free band concert in the park. At eleven they 
 return to their home. They climb up stairs lighted 
 throughout the night by order of the Tenement House 
 Department, and they go to sleep in rooms well aired 
 and well built according to the regulations of the city. 
 
 "If, in spite of all this care taken by the city govern- 
 ment, one of the Jones family should fall sick, he or she 
 may be removed to a hospital supported by the city." 
 
 And so, Mr. Tildsley concludes, if city government 
 costs much, it also does much. 
 
 TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: In a big city, where people are organ- 
 ized closely together, the city government must undertake a 
 great deal of work. 
 
 (Children living in a large city should be taken to visit the 
 city hall.) 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 1. If you live in a city, explain how your health and comfort 
 are dependent on the conduct of your neighbors and the protection 
 of the city government. Suppose, for instance, that your next 
 door neighbor has scarlet fever, what precaution is taken to se- 
 cure the recovery of your neighbor and to prevent contagion? 
 
 2. Explain the use and value of public libraries and public parks. 
 
 3. Compare living conditions in a great city with living con- 
 ditions in the country. 
 
 4. What are the bad results of overcrowding in a big city? 
 
 5. What are the bad results of lack of supervision in the 
 country ? 
 
CITY GOVERNMENT 305 
 
 6. If you have visited a city hall, describe what you saw 
 there. 
 
 7. Name the chief city officers for whom a citizen votes at a 
 city election. 
 
 8. How many policemen and how many firemen are there in 
 New York City ? 
 
 9. Describe the work of the city government in connection 
 with streets, electricity, water, and transportation. 
 
 10. What are public buildings? 
 
 11. Explain how the well-being of a city family is dependent 
 on the work of the city government. 
 
 12. Who is responsible for a bad city government? 
 
 13. What advantages have the children of a great city over 
 country children? What disadvantages? 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 1. JOHN AND LUCY 
 
 2. THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 
 
 The express trains that cross the United States from 
 East to West pass, without stopping, through hundreds 
 of small towns that are never mentioned or described in 
 our geography textbooks because there are too many of 
 them. 
 
 In one of these small towns, which we shall call Redfield 
 Center, lives a boy whom we shall call John. His life is 
 like that of thousands of other boys who are^now growing 
 up in America. His house is the type of house that 
 would be advertised in the local newspapers as: 
 
 A Real Bargain 
 
 Nine-room frame house. Modern. Bathroom, porch, 
 garage, henhouse, fruit. 
 
 JOHN AND LUCY 
 
 John comes down to breakfast still feeling very 
 sleepy. He eats his grapefruit, enjoying the sharp, bit- 
 ter taste, but he is scarcely conscious of his thoughts, 
 they are so vague and slow. He speaks very little, ex- 
 cept to ask for more to eat. 
 
 306 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 307 
 
 Brilliant sunlight, the sunlight of the dry middle- 
 western air, is pouring in over the breakfast table. It 
 shines on the bright heads of the three children John, 
 and Lucy, and the baby. It throws haloes around 
 the cups, and rainbows around the glasses, so that all 
 the table is in a luminous haze of light. 
 
 JOHN'S HOME 
 
 As soon as they have finished their breakfast, John 
 and Lucy start to school. There are streams of children 
 pattering down Seventeenth Street, on their way to the 
 Lincoln School. The sky is blue and high, and the tall 
 maple trees shading the sidewalks are crimson and 
 yellow against the blue, for it is the beginning of the 
 school year. 
 
 John hails some of his young friends and walks to 
 school with them. His talk is rather inclined to slang, 
 
308 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 and at home he alludes to his school friends variously 
 as guys, chaps, fellows, birds, or nuts. Now and again, 
 his father asks, "Aren't there any boys at all in your 
 school, John?" 
 
 The Lincoln School is a solid red brick building set 
 in a large playground. There are several swings and 
 teeters, a sandpile for the little children, and a steep 
 wood-en slide for the older ones. The children go into 
 school for an hour or two, then they come out again for 
 an interval of play. John and his friends play baseball, 
 and make a great noise, squealing and yelling. Their 
 voices rise and fall with bursts of excitement in a kind 
 of chant, like the rude songs of the Indians that follow 
 no musical scale. Soon the bell rings, however, and 
 the children march back into the schoolhouse. When 
 they are all in the classroom, they sing to piano accom- 
 paniment a little song called "Sunbeam." Now their 
 voices sound very different. Some of the boys, includ- 
 ing John, do not seem to have voice enough to sing at all. 
 
 When John was a little boy he enjoyed school very 
 much, because in the primary grades the children did 
 so many pleasant things painting paper daffodils 
 to stick on window panes, cutting out black witches 
 for Halloween, or making paper furniture and airplanes. 
 Now John has to study more seriously and at times he 
 has to take examinations. If you ask him nowadays 
 whether he likes school, he answers cautiously, "Oh, I 
 like it pretty well." 
 
 There are no expensive private schools in this little 
 Western town, and so the children of rich parents 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 309 
 
 attend the public schools with the poorer children. 
 John's father is a firm believer in the American public 
 school system, because it means equal opportunity for 
 all. He hopes that his son will go to high school, and 
 then work his way through the state university. He 
 tells John that all kinds of opportunities are open to 
 boys with university degrees, and that there will be no 
 limits to John's future except those set by his own ability 
 and character. 
 
 At midday John and Lucy go home to dinner and eat 
 a hearty meal of roast beef, with browned potatoes, and 
 corn on the cob fresh from the garden, followed by 
 pumpkin pie. 
 
 Their mother is tired, after a long morning of ironing 
 and cooking; so, after dinner, John and Lucy clear the 
 table, and then clean the dishes in the kitchen. They 
 have time for this because they live near the school. 
 Lucy does the washing, while John does the drying. 
 John would prefer to wash the dishes himself, but 
 when he undertakes this, he is apt to splash the 
 whole kitchen with soapy water. 
 
 Dishes in hand, John gives his sister what she calls 
 a free lecture on radio. He has borrowed books on this 
 subject from the library, and has set up a wireless ap- 
 paratus on the roof of his bedroom. 
 
 At last Lucy exclaims, "John, if you say another 
 word to me about wireless, I think I shall go crazy!" 
 
 " But Lucy," he remonstrates in a reproachful tone, 
 "if I don't explain this to you, you might have a 
 terrible accident some day!" 
 
310 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 So he goes on talking, and Lucy only pretends to 
 listen. At the end of a long explanation, she says 
 vaguely "yes" or "no" or "gee!" according to the 
 tone of John's voice. At last he gives up for the time. 
 
 "You can't fool me, Lucy. I know you haven't 
 been listening for a long while. It's no use. It's no fun 
 explaining all these difficult things to you." 
 
 Lucy is not at all interested in the science of wireless 
 telegraphy. She loves reading. She loves to sit, curled 
 up in an armchair, reading fairy tales or laughing and 
 weeping over the stories of Miss Alcott. 
 
 This same afternoon, in school, Lucy is given a sum 
 in arithmetic about three men walking in a handicap 
 race. They all start at different times and walk at 
 different speeds. Poor Lucy ponders over this problem 
 until her brain is in a whirl. She is not sure whether the 
 answer should be in men, or miles, or minutes, and she 
 keeps telling herself that she does not care in the least 
 which man wins. John, on the other hand, who is good 
 at arithmetic, enjoys working out a problem of this 
 kind. But a little later when compositions must be 
 written, John scowls and scratches his head while 
 Lucy's pen runs rapidly over the paper. 
 
 After school, John rides down town on his bicycle 
 to the newspaper office and then spends an hour de- 
 livering the Redfield Center News to its subscribers along 
 a certain route. There are two local newspapers in 
 Redfield Center, the News and the Star. 
 
 John's method of delivering papers is to career down 
 the street on his bicycle at full speed, tossing papers 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 311 
 
 right and left into front yards and on to front porches. 
 It is a hit-or-miss method, but he is a good shot, and 
 so far very few of his subscribers have telephoned 
 complaints to the newspaper office. 
 
 John does not mind delivering the paper, because 
 he earns a little money in this way, and can go to the 
 movies with his friends, buying his own tickets. 
 
 When he returns home, he finds his mother sitting 
 on the front porch in a rocker, with the baby on her lap. 
 It is a quiet evening, and the weather is warm. John's 
 grandfather is watering the front lawn with the hose, 
 and he is also watering the concrete sidewalk which 
 connects the house with all the other houses like it on 
 Seventeenth Street. 
 
 John now has a little rest, sitting chatting with his 
 mother on the porch and playing with the baby. He 
 needs astonishingly little rest, however, and in an 
 hour or so he is ready for more exercise. He asks his 
 mother if he may go for a picnic supper with the Boy 
 Scouts. She has no objection, and soon he puts on his 
 uniform, slings his canteen over his. shoulder, and 
 starts off on a hike into the hills with his friends. 
 
 It is the object of the Boy Scout organization to 
 teach the boys to be good citizens, and, taken in its 
 widest sense, good citizenship means nothing less than 
 good living. Scouts must have respect for law and 
 order, and they must be honest, healthy-minded, out- 
 of-door boys. John's Scoutmaster teaches his Scouts 
 to observe the life of the woods, the plants, trees, 
 birds, and animals, believing that a love of nature is one 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 313 
 
 of the healthiest outlets for a boy's energy and interest. 
 Like thousands of other young Scouts all over the 
 country, John has become especially interested in 
 birds. 
 
 While they are climbing up a steep hillside, John 
 tells the Scoutmaster all about his wrens. 
 
 The grocer at the corner store on Seventeenth Street 
 gave John a little wooden box which he has nailed up 
 under the roof of the back porch. Every summer this 
 box is occupied by wrens, and John firmly believes that 
 the same pair of birds come back to it year after year. 
 He watches them with absorption and is deeply con- 
 cerned when any tragedy overtakes their young ones. 
 
 "Those birds are like humans in some ways," he 
 says to the Scoutmaster, "you would be surprised. 
 First the father wren starts building the nest, and then 
 the little mother wren comes along and throws out 
 some of the furniture, till the porch is all littered with 
 twigs. Their tastes in house furnishing don't quite 
 agree; that's the trouble. She seems very quiet at 
 first, and doesn't sing the way he does, waking me up 
 every morning; but as soon as the young ones are 
 hatched she begins to jabber a blue streak at them, and 
 they jabber back. Last year one of the young ones was 
 more scary than the rest. He sat in the nest two or three 
 hours after the others had flown. It was a circus to 
 watch him ; he couldn't make up his mind. He kept pok- 
 in' his head out of the window and pullin' it in again. 
 It was a long steep flight, and it scared him, but finally 
 he made it. A funny little bird he was, too, soft and 
 
314 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 fat, with a little bit of a wren's tail cocked up. Birds 
 have instinct, but they have to have courage too in 
 starting put, the same as we have." 
 
 The Scoutmaster is very much interested in this 
 account; because he, too, finds bird life fascinating to 
 watch. 
 
 Redfield Center lies on the edge of the plains up 
 against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. When 
 the Boy Scouts reach the top of the high ridge where 
 they are going to cook their supper a wild scene of 
 rocks and pine trees they have an immense view, 
 that stretches eastward over the plains and westward 
 into the mountains. The mountains are beautiful at 
 this hour of sunset, but the plains are still more so. 
 Seen from a great height, the plains reflect, like a tinged 
 mirror, the changing colors of the sky; they are green 
 and blue and violet. In the far distance lie stretches 
 of pure gold; in the foreground move great dark shad- 
 ows, wine-colored, thrown by the clouds. 
 
 John never feels happier than when he is out of doors. 
 Now, as he sees the great landscape stretching about 
 him, he suddenly feels proud to be an American boy. 
 "This country is mine," he says to himself. "It's a 
 new country, it's an open country, and it's a democ- 
 racy; so it belongs to me as much as it belongs to 
 anyone. I'm an American boy and I'm a Scout. I'll 
 blaze my own trail in life, and I'll follow it." 
 
 To be out of doors, to have a sense of the fullness 
 of life, and of the bigness and freedom of the land; that 
 is what it means to John, in this mood, to be an Ameri- 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 315 
 
 can. He is looking down over the edge of the great 
 American prairie that has been called the Valley of 
 Democracy. 
 
 Suppose John were to think of himself as a citizen, 
 and say to himself, "Here am I, an American boy, 
 living in an American city. What does it mean? If I 
 had to take an oath, like the Athenian boy, to leave my 
 country not lessened, but greater and better than I 
 found it, what could I do ?" 
 
 When John grows up, he will have to vote on a great 
 many new questions. Thirty years hence, Redfield 
 Center will be different from what it is now, and 
 America will be different, because life is continually 
 changing. John and millions of others who are now 
 children must serve their country if they wish to make 
 it a better country and not a worse, and they must 
 work for the welfare of their cities, to make them more 
 beautiful and more wholesome places to live in. 
 
 At city elections, John will have to vote on what may 
 seem to him, perhaps, small questions. Should a new 
 concrete bridge be built on Twelfth Street? Do the 
 children of Redfield Center need an indoor swimming 
 pool? But only by the wise solving of such questions 
 can Redfield Center grow into a fine American city. 
 
 In connection with the government of his state, he 
 will have to think over social questions of greater im- 
 portance, including very likely the problems of the 
 workingman. Should the trade-unions be allowed to 
 strike against their employers when a big strike means 
 suffering and loss to the general public? Should the 
 
316 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 workers in a great industrial corporation be given some 
 share in its management? Such questions as these are 
 very serious; they still remain unsettled and cause 
 great disputes. 
 
 When John votes for the President of the United 
 States, and for his national Senators and Representa- 
 tives, he will be dealing with matters affecting the 
 whole country, perhaps even affecting the whole world. 
 One of the great problems of the future is the matter of 
 a coming together of nations. Is it possible to prevent 
 wars between nations? Would it be safe for the 
 United States to maintain only a very small army and 
 navy ? 
 
 John will have to think seriously over such questions 
 and many others, and he will have to decide them for 
 himself. No book on democracy can tell John with 
 what party he should vote, because his freedom of 
 choice is the foundation of democracy. 
 
 But, in the past history of the world and the history 
 of America, certain principles of freedom, which have 
 proved themselves true, and helpful to progress, have 
 been won at great sacrifice. John, and all American 
 children, should know them and consider them. 
 
 THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 
 
 As we look back through the ages we find that the 
 story of democracy is thousands of years old. There 
 has been a gradual but irregular progress. The thought 
 of mankind has climbed slowly, reaching one peak after 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 317 
 
 another, but at times it has slipped back, so that the 
 gain of one century has been lost in. the next. The 
 development of democracy still stretches, unlimited, 
 into the future. 
 
 In the story of tribal government, At-o-tar-ho, the 
 Wizard, represents the past of barbarism, of lawless- 
 ness, of torture and constant warfare, of murder unpun- 
 ished, and of selfish mastery. Hi-a-wa-tha represents 
 the high standards of future mankind. In his prophet- 
 ic sayings there is the simplest and purest spirit of 
 order and harmony, like water fresh and unsullied 
 at its source. 
 
 During the Age of Bronze, men have not yet learned 
 how to govern themselves, but they have learned how 
 to obey their kings. They trade with each other, and 
 live together in little towns, with the palace of the king 
 as the center of social life. In the story of Alcinous, 
 monarchy is shown at its best. But the development 
 of personal property has brought with it the problem of 
 riches and poverty. There is danger that an unjust 
 king, a rich and therefore a powerful man, may op- 
 press his subjects by demanding too much tribute from 
 them, and so become a tyrant. 
 
 As the centuries pass, a Greek city-state conquers 
 tyranny and develops democracy, the self-government 
 of the many. The Athenians reach, during the Age of 
 Pericles, a high peak in the history of progress, and 
 their direct democracy still remains to us in some 
 respects a model. But it is a very limited democracy 
 according to our modern ideals, because only freemen 
 
318 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 are allowed to vote in the Assembly. Women and 
 slaves are not considered citizens in Athens, and they 
 are treated as inferiors in the law courts. 
 
 In Athens, as everywhere, democracy is only suc- 
 cessful when the people choose wise leaders. After the 
 death of Pericles, the citizens of Athens voted for bad 
 leaders and unwise policies, so that the power and 
 glory of the city were lessened. Democracy still faces 
 the same dangers, and so its success must always be 
 insecure. Therefore, a good citizen must always be on 
 guard to defend his democracy by intelligently choosing 
 his leaders and the policies that they are to carry out. 
 
 The Romans learn much from Athenian civilization, 
 and at one time their government is a democracy. 
 Their great Empire, however, develops as a, despotism. 
 The life of conquered peoples is stifled, and Rome 
 finally becomes the mistress of a dead world, as a great 
 historian has said. But though democracy has died in 
 one branch of government, the executive, it is still 
 living in another branch, the judicial. Roman lawyers 
 introduce the Law of Humanity, the principle that all 
 human beings, men, women, and slaves, are equal 
 under the law of nature. The spread of Christianity 
 gives aid to this principle, for the spirit of democracy 
 is a part of the Christian religion. 
 
 In reading of the customs of the ancient Norsemen, 
 we go back to a condition of half-savagery. Though 
 there is a healthy, sturdy democracy among the 
 Icelandic freemen at their Things, there is heartless 
 cruelty to thralls among the Norsemen. Manslaughters 
 
AN AMERICAN BOY AND DEMOCRACY 319 
 
 are common, and the rule of justice is only beginning 
 to replace the rule of might. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, there is a strange mingling 
 of ancient pagan customs and Christianity, of mon- 
 archy and democracy, and there is a constant struggle 
 for progress. The principle of representative govern- 
 ment is developed, and serfdom, or slavery, comes to an 
 end in England. Thus the path is cleared for a future 
 democracy purer and greater than that of Athens. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, the Pilgrim Fathers 
 struggle for liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, 
 and freedom of the press. They flee from England for 
 the sake of liberty of conscience, and found a demo- 
 cratic government in New England, which, like that 
 of Athens, has been an inspiration to the world. All 
 men are treated as equals among them, but women 
 take no part in government. 
 
 After the American Revolution, a Federal Govern- 
 ment is established, and a new nation the United 
 States is formed, on the federal principle. Each state 
 retains its own government and local authority, but 
 all the states together form one union, and recognize 
 the authority of the central government: e pluribus, 
 unum out of the many, the one. 
 
 The Civil War tested the authority of this central 
 government and it stood the test, victorious. As a re- 
 sult of the Civil War, slavery was abolished, and the 
 right to vote was given to negroes. 
 
 At the present time, women have been given the 
 vote in the United States, so that our democracy is no 
 
320 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 longer limited to one half of humanity. The freedom 
 of women marks the beginning of a new era in the 
 progress of mankind. 
 
 So much has been won for us already. 
 
 Now the nations are striving to create an interna- 
 tional union to prevent warfare in the future. The 
 greatest of wars came to an end in November, 1918. 
 It caused so much misery to all the peoples who took 
 part in it that when the victorious nations came to lay 
 down the terms of peace to the defeated nations, they 
 tried to do more than this they tried to form a plan 
 that would prevent any such great war in the future. 
 We cannot be sure how this plan will develop, as it is 
 only in its beginning. But we can hope at least that 
 international law in the future will work for peace and 
 justice between nations, as government has worked 
 for peace and justice between men. And so our book 
 ends, as it began, with the striving for a Great Peace. 
 "We shall gather up the causes of warfare into a 
 bundle," said Hi-a-wa-tha, "and throw them away 
 from the earth." 
 
 Hi-a-wa-tha in imagery, described fellow-feeling, the 
 source of justice and democracy, when he said: 
 
 " They will take one another by the hands and arms, 
 they will have their minds in one place ', and they will have 
 but one head, one tongue, and one blood in their bodies. 
 
 "It may be that after the passing of time, some man 
 may come who will see the Great White Root, and then 
 lift his hatchet and strike at it. If he does that, blood 
 will flow from the root and we shall all feel it." 
 
PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES 
 
 a, as in ale; a, as in sen'ate; a, as in care; a, as in am; 2 as in fi'nal ; a, as in arm; 
 a, as in ask; a, as in all; d, as in so'fd; e, as in eve; e, as in e-vent'; e, as in end; 
 e, as in fern ; e, as in re 'cent ; I, as in ice ; i, as in i-de'a ; i, as in ill ; 6, as in old ; 6, as 
 in 6-bey ' ; 6, as in 6rb ; 6, as in odd ; o, as in c#n-nect' ; u, as in use ; u , as in u-nite' ; 
 u, as in up; u, as in urn; y, as in pit'y; 60, as in food; 60, as in foot; ou, as in 
 out; oi, as in oil. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 TRIBAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 At-o-tar-ho (at-5-tar'ho) 
 Cayuga (ka-yoo'gd) 
 Cherokee (cher'6-ke) 
 Dek-a-na-wi-dah (dek-d-na'wi-do) 
 Hai-yo-wen-tha (hi-yo-wen'tha) 
 Hi-a-wa-tha (hi'a-wa'thd) 
 Huron (hu'ron) 
 Iroquois (ir'6-kwoi') 
 Mohawk (mo'hak) 
 Oneida (6-ni'da) 
 Onondaga (6n-on-da'ga) 
 Seneca (sen'e-kd) 
 Wyandot (wl'an-dot) 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 EARLY MONARCHY 
 
 Achilles (o-kil'ez) 
 Agamemnon (ag'd-mem'non) 
 Alcinous (al-sin'6-us) 
 Briseis (bri-se'is) 
 Calypso (kd-lip'so) 
 Charybdis (kd-rib'dis) 
 Circe (sOr'se) 
 Cyclops (si'klops) 
 Dicon (di'kon) 
 
 Heliodora (he'li-6-do'rd) 
 Ithaka (ith'o-kd) 
 Nausicaa (na-sik'a-d) 
 Odysseus (6-dis'us) 
 Patroclus (pd-tro'kliis) 
 Scylla (sH'd) 
 Strato (stra'to) 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF ATHENS 
 
 Artemis (ar't-mis) 
 Chrysilla (kri-sil'd) 
 Cleandros (kle-an'dros) 
 Cleon (kle'on) 
 Pericles (per'i-klez) 
 Theodora (the'6-do'rd) 
 Xanthias (zan'thi-as) 
 Zeus (zus) 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 Caesar (se'zdr) 
 Domitian (do-mish'an) 
 Mediterranean (med'I-ter-a'ne-an) 
 Tarpeian (tar-pe'y2n) 
 Valerian (va-le'ri-an) 
 Vespasian (ves-pa'zhi-an) 
 
 321 
 
322 
 
 THE STORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ICELAND: THE NEIGHBORHOOD 
 THING AND THE ALL-THING 
 
 Bergthora (berg-tho'rd) 
 Geir (gar) 
 Gizur (gi-zobr') 
 Gunnar (goon'ndr) 
 Hallgerda (hal'ger-dd) 
 Hauskuld (hous'koolt) 
 Hrut (hrdot) 
 Kolskegg (kol'skeg) 
 Nyal (ny'al) 
 Otkell (ot'kel) 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 Acre (a'ker) 
 Adriatic (a'dre-at'ik) 
 Berengaria (ber'en-ga'ri-d) 
 Coeur de Lion (kur' de le'on) 
 Cyprus (si'prus) 
 Godiva (go-di'vd) 
 Leofric (le-6f'rik) 
 Navarre (nd-var') 
 Saladin (sard-din) 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA 
 
 Amidas (am'i-das) 
 Pocahontas (po'kd-hon'tds) 
 Powhatan (pou 'hd-tan') 
 Raleigh (ra'li) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 
 
 Delftshaven (delfs'ha'ven) 
 Leyden (li'den) 
 Massasoit (mas'd-soit) 
 Oceanus (o-se'd-nus) 
 Priscilla (pri-sil'ld) 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE BUILDING OF THE NATION* 
 
 Abigail (ab'i-gal) 
 Delft (delft) 
 Grasse, de (de gras') 
 Lafayette, de (de la'fa-yet') 
 Rochambeau, de (de ro'shan'bo'j 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 AMERICA TO-DAY 
 
 Algonquin (al-gon'km) 
 Darius (dd-ri'us) 
 Lycidas (lis'i-das) 
 Mohican (mo-he'kan) 
 Roosevelt (ro'ze-velt) 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 Potomac (po-to'mdc) 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 
 Holstein (hol'stm) 
 
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