THE TOYS HE DOESN'T LIKE
I have no use for iron toys,
Or linen books - can't bear 'em;
They're aggravating things for boys,
For I can't break or tear 'em.
Thursday, December 9, 2021
The Toys He Doesn't Like
The Turkey's Lament
THE TURKEY'S LAMENT
A merry Christmas, did you say?
I wonder how you'd feel
If you were going to be killed
To make a Christmas meal!
Why can't you eat nice fresh green grass?
Or feed upon some hay?
I'm sure it would be quite as good,
And more humane, I say.
The ducks and geese upon the farm
All quite agree with me;
And think it time to put a stop
To such barbarity.
We talked together late last night,
And think the wisest plan
Would be for us to take your place,
And just to kill a man.
And then perhaps you'd understand
A little how we feel,
And vegetarian diet choose,
To make your Christmas meal.
How Santa Claus Looks
How Santa Claus Looks
The Santa Claus Tom Brown once saw, he said was tall and slim;
The one I saw down at the store didn't look at all like him;
The one at our house Christmas-time looked just like any man;
I can't explain just how this is - perhaps the big folks can.
The Santa Claus Tom Brown once saw, he said was tall and slim;
The one I saw down at the store didn't look at all like him;
The one at our house Christmas-time looked just like any man;
I can't explain just how this is - perhaps the big folks can.
When Santa Claus Comes
When Santa Claus Comes
Have you seen dear Santa Claus anywhere to-day ?
I should be so very glad if he'd come this way:
When I see him I shall say with a bow like this, (1)
If you will my stocking fill you shall have a kiss.
Have you seen dear Santa Claus anywhere to-day ?
I should be so very glad if he'd come this way;
When I see him I shall say with a smile like this, (2)
If you will my stocking fill you shall have a kiss.
Have you seen dear Santa Claus anywhere to-day?
I should be so very glad if he'd come this way;
When I see him I shall say with a hose like this. (3)
If you will my stocking fill you shall have a kiss.
- Makes a pretty bow.
- Makes a pretty smile.
- Holds up a very large stocking which had been concealed until now.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
The Puzzling Pumpkin
The Puzzling Pumpkin
by Roberta Symmes
This is the way the pumpkin looked,
Jolly fellow,- round and yellow!
This is the way the pumpkin looked
Out in the garden green.
This is the way the pumpkin looked,
Spooky,- very, big and scary,
This is the way the pumpkin looked
At jolly Hallowe'en.
When Thanksgiving Comes...
When Thanksgiving Comes
by T. C. O'Donnell
I never used to could remember when
Thanksgiving came. I asked my Mamma every day
If when it came it was November then,
Or Thursday, March or May.
But now I know when every single dish
Is heaped with turkey, sauce and punkin pie each year:
Why, Thanksgiving comes when I begin to wish
That Santa Claus was here.
Halloween Cats
Halloween Cats
Black cats, of season
Halloween,
You are the queerest I
have seen.
In pose, you're somewhat
like a curtain,
But that you're casts, I'm
still quite certain.
Your figures, rather
Oriental,
Would stamp you purely
ornamental.
No rat or bird such cats
would shun,
From you no smallest mouse would run.
For this, I love you, gentle
creatures,
And much admire your pleasant features.
Monday, September 13, 2021
The Flag Day Poem...
The Flag Day Poem
by Lydia Coonley Ward
Out on the breeze
O'er land and seas,
A beautiful banner is streaming.
Shining its stars.
Splendid its bars,
Under the sunshine 'tis gleaming.
Over the brave
Long may it wave
Peace to the world ever bringing
While to the stars
Linked with the bars,
Hearts will forever be singing.
Off To School
Off to School
Hurry! hurry! is the rule
On the days we go to school.
Just as soon as breakfast's done,
'Round about the house we run,
Looking here and looking there,
Finding things 'most anywhere.
Father, walking to and fro,
Hurries Jack who's always slow.
Mother, glancing at the clock,
Smoothes out Mary's rumpled frock;
Tells us children to make haste;
Says there isn't time to waste;
Goes down with us to the gate;
Says she hopes we won't be late.
Then away we hurry fast,
Off to school again at last.
Monday, August 23, 2021
A Sunshine Rainbow
A Sunshine Rainbow
Six pretty colors
Dancing on the door.
Climbing on the ceiling,
Falling on the floor.
One little boy
With his hands held high,
Tried to catch the colors.
But oh, how they did fly!
Roguish Johnny held the glass
In the morning sun.
Tommy chased the colors
As fast as he could run.
But when he put his hands up
To catch the colors bright,
John would give the glass a tip
And then they'd all take flight.
''Now get them, Tommy,'' Johnny said,
''This time I'll make them stay.''
But oh, just then there came a cloud
And stole them all away.
A Sky Rainbow
A Sky Rainbow
Some little drops of water
That lay upon the ground.
Once started off for cloud-land
To see what could be found.
They climbed up on a sunbeam,
But when they reached the sky
They saw a great black rain-cloud
Whose thunder rumbled by.
And oh, they feared the thunder,
And the lightening flashing so,
And back to earth they tumbled
As fast as they could go.
Ten when they saw the green earth
They laughed with all their might;
and John and Katie shouted,
"Oh, see the rainbow bright!"
Friday, June 25, 2021
Indepenence A Solemn Duty
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| poem by Charles Sprague. |
INDEPENDENCE A SOLEMN DUTY
By Richard Henry Lee
The time will certainly come when the fated separation between the mother-country and these colonies must take place, whether you will or no, for it is so decreed by the very nature of things, by the progressive increase of our population, the fertility of our soil, the extent of our territory, the industry of our countrymen, and the immensity of the ocean which separates the two countries. And if this be true, as it is most true, who does not see that the sooner it takes place the better? - that it would be the height of folly not to seize the present occasion, when British injustice has filled all hearts with indignation, inspired all minds with courage, united all opinions in one, and put arms in every hand? And how long must we traverse three thousand miles of a stormy sea to solicit of arrogant and insolent men either counsel, or commands to regulate our domestic affairs? From what we have already achieved it is easy to presume what we shall hereafter accomplish. Experience is the source of sage counsels, and liberty is the mother of great men. Have you not seen the enemy driven from Lexington by citizens armed and assembled in one day? Already their most celebrated generals have yielded in Boston to the skill of ours. Already their seamen, repulsed from our coasts, wander over the ocean, the sport of tempests and the prey of famine. Let us hail the favorable omen, and fight, not for the sake of knowing on what terms we are to be the slaves of England, but to secure to ourselves a free existence, to found a just and independent government.
Why do we longer delay? why still deliberate? Let this most happy day give birth to the American Republic. Let her arise, not to devastate and conquer, but to reestablish the reign of peace and the laws. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us; she demands of us a living example of freedom that may contrast, by the felicity of her citizens, with the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace and the persecuted repose. She entreats us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous plant which first sprang up and grew in England, but is now withered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade all the unfortunate of the human race. This is the end presaged by so many omens; by our first victories; by the present ardor and union; by the flight of Howe, and the pestilence which broke out among Dunmore's people; by the very winds which baffled the enemy's fleets and transports, and that terrible tempest which engulfed seven hundred vessels upon the coast of Newfoundland.
If we are not this day wanting in our duty to our country, the names of the American legislators will be placed, by posterity, at the side of those of Theseus, of Lycurgus, of Romulus, of Numa, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all those whose memory has been and will be forever dear to virtuous men and good citizens.
Speech of James Otis In 1765
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| "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 1776 | |
Speech of James Otis in 1765
England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the steps of Freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful land than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland. Arbitrary principles, like those against which we now contend, have cost one king of England his life, another his crown, and they may yet cost a third his most flourishing colonies.
We are two millions, one-fifth fighting-men. We are bold and vigorous, and we call no man master. To the nation from whom we are proud to derive our origin we ever were, and we ever will be, ready to yield unforced assistance; but it must not, and it never can be extorted.
Some have sneeringly asked. Are the Americans too poor to pay a few pounds on stamped paper? No! America, thanks to God and herself, is rich. But the right to take ten pounds implies the right to take a thousand; and what must be the wealth that avarice, aided by power, cannot exhaust? True, the specter is now small; but the shadow he casts before him is huge enough to darken all this fair land.
Others, in sentimental style, talk of the immense debt of gratitude which we owe to England. And what is the amount of this debt? Why, truly, it is the same that the young lion owes to the dam which has brought it forth on the solitude of the mountain, or left it amid the winds and storms of the desert.
We plunged into the wave, with the great charter of freedom in our teeth, because the fagot and torch were behind us. We have waked this new world from its savage lethargy; forests have been prostrated in our path; towns and cities have grown up suddenly as the flowers of the tropics; and the fires in our autumnal woods are scarcely more rapid than the increase of our wealth and population.
And do we owe all this to the kind succor of the mother-country? No; we owe it to the tyranny that drove us from her; to the pelting storms which invigorated our helpless infancy!
But perhaps others will say, We ask no money from your gratitude; we only demand that you should pay your own expenses. And who, I pray, is to judge of their necessity? Why, the king! (And, with all due reverence to his sacred majesty, he understands the real wants of his distant subjects as little as he does the language of the Choctaws.) Who is to judge concerning the frequency of these demands? The ministry. Who is to judge whether the money is properly expended? The cabinet behind the throne.
In every instance, those who take are to judge for those who pay. If this system is suffered to go into operation, we shall have reason to esteem it a great privilege that rain and dew do not depend upon Parliament; otherwise, they would soon be taxed and dried.
But, thanks to God! There is freedom enough left upon earth to resist such monstrous injustice. The flame of liberty is extinguished in Greece and Rome, but the light of its glowing embers is still bright and strong on the shores of America. Actuated by its sacred influence, we will resist unto death.
But we will not countenance anarchy and misrule. The wrongs that a desperate community have heaped upon their enemies shall be amply and speedily repaired. Still, it is lighted in these colonies which one breath of their king may kindle into such fury that the blood of all England cannot extinguish it.
America Resents British Dictation
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| "Nor shall their story be forgot... |
AMERICA RESENTS BRITISH DICTATION
By Henry H. Carrington
By Henry H. Carrington
During the agitation of 1765, concerning the British Stamp Act, a convention of its opponents was assembled in New York City under the name of "The Stamp Act Congress." Among the most conspicuous of the delegates from the Massachusetts Colony was James Otis. As early as 1761 he protested so earnestly against permitting the British officers of the customs to have "writs of assistance" in their enforcement of the British revenue laws, that John Adams, who listened to his argument, thus described it:
"Otis was a flame of fire! With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. Every man of an immense audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take up arms against any 'writs of assistance.'"
The all-absorbing sentiment of his life, the wealth of his diction, and the fire of his oratory have been embodied in a form which stands among the best of American classics. In the romance of "The Rebels," Miss Lydia Maria Francis (afterwards Mrs. Child) introduces James Otis as a leading character. After the opening statement, that there was hurrying to and fro through the streets of Boston on the night of the 14th of August, 1765,'' his patriotic American woman shows such a right conception of the power and oratory of Otis, as well as of the actual tone and spirit of his times, that the fragments of her hero's conversation during the story, gathered in the form of a speech, have often been mistaken for some actual appeal to the people of his period. The youth of America will do well to keep it fresh in mind, and thereby honor both its author and its subject.
The Fourth Of July in Westminster Abbey
THE FOURTH OF JULY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
By Phillips Brooks, July 4, 1880
To all true men the birthday of a nation must always be a sacred thing. For in our modern thought the nation is the making-place of man. Not by the traditions of its history, nor by the splendor of its corporate achievements, nor by the abstract excellence of its Constitution, but by its fitness to make men, to beget and educate human character, to contribute to the complete humanity the perfect man that is to be, - by this alone each nation must be judged today. The nations are the golden candlesticks which hold aloft the glory of the Lord. No candlestick can be so rich or venerable that men shall honor it if it hold no candle. "Show us your man," land cried to land.
It is not for me to glorify tonight the country which I love with all my heart and soul. I may not ask your praise for anything admirable which the United States has been or done. But on my country's birthday I may do something far more solemn and more worthy of the hour. I may ask for your prayers in her behalf: that on the manifold and wrondrous chance which God is giving her, - on her freedom (for she is free, since the old stain of slavery was washed out in blood); on her unconstrained religious life; on her passion for education and her eager search for truth; on her zealous care for the poor man's rights and opportunities; on her quiet homes where the future generations of men are growing; on her manufactories and her commerce; on her wide gates open to the east and to the west; on her strange meeting of the races out of which a new race is slowly being born; on her vast enterprise and her illimitable hopefulness, - on all these materials and machineries of manhood, on all that the life of my country must mean for humanity, I may ask you to pray that the blessing of God, the Father of man, and Christ, the Son of man, may. rest forever.
Crises Of Nations
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| "How sleep the brave who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest." |
"There are brief crises in which the drift of individual and national history is determined, sometimes unexpectedly; critical moments on which great decisions hang; days which, like a mountain in a plain, lift themselves above the dead level of common days into everlasting eminence. Our Day of Independence was such a day; so was the day of Marathon, and the day of Waterloo. Napoleon admitted that the Austrians fought grandly on the field of Rivoli, and said, They failed because they do not understand the value of minutes" Humboldt refers the discovery of America to a wonderful concatenation of trivial circumstances," including a flight of parrots." Dr. Foss
America's Natal Day
The Declaration of Independence: The Vision of a Free Society from the Jack Miller Center
"The United States is the only country with a known birthday. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they know not how. If there had been no Independence Day, England and America combined would not be so great as each actually is. There is no "Republican," no "Democrat," on the Fourth of July, - all are Americans. All feel that their country is greater than party." James Gillespie Blaine
Sunday, June 20, 2021
Our National Anniversary
OUR NATIONAL ANNIVERSARY BY A. H. RICE
We celebrate to-day no idle tradition - the deeds of no fabulous race; for we tread in the scarcely obliterated footsteps of an earnest and valiant generation of men, who dared to stake life, and fortune, and sacred honor, upon a declaration of rights, whose promulgation shook tyrants on their thrones, gave hope to fainting freedom, and reformed the political ethics of the world.
The greatest heroes of former days have sought renown in schemes of conquest, based on the love of dominion or the thirst for war; and such had been the worship of power in the minds of men, that adulation had ever followed in the wake of victory. How daring then the trial of an issue between a handful of oppressed and outlawed colonists, basing their cause, under God, upon an appeal to the justice of mankind and their own few valiant arms. And how immeasurably great was he, the fearless commander, who, after the fortunes and triumph of battle were over, scorned the thought of a regal throne in the hearts of his countrymen. Amidst the rejoicings of this day, let us mingle something of ' gratitude with our joy - something of reverence with our gratitude - and something of duty with our reverence.
Let us cultivate personal independence in the spirit of loyalty to the State, and may God grant that we may always be able to maintain the sovereignty of the State in the spirit of integrity to the Union.
Whatever shall be the fate of other governments, ours thus sustained, shall stand forever. As has been elsewhere said, nation after nation may rise and fall, kingdoms and empires crumble into ruin, but our own native land, gathering energy and strength from the lapse of time, shall go on and still go on its destined way to greatness and renown. And when thrones shall crumble into dust, when scepters and diadems shall have been forgotten, till heaven's last thunder shall shake the world below, the flag of the Republic shall still wave on, and its Stars, its Stripes, and its Eagle, shall still float in pride, and strength, and glory.
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| "Whilst the earth bears a plant. Or the sea rolls a wave." |
Address of John Lathrop, 1796
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| "Let Independence be our boast, Ever mindful what it cost." |
ADDRESS OF JOHN LATHROP (JULY 4 , 1796, Boston.)
In the war for independence America had but one object in view, for in independence are concentrated and condensed every blessing that makes life desirable, every right and privilege which can tend to the happiness, or secure the native dignity, of man. In the attainment of independence were all their passions, their desires, and their powers engaged. The intrepidity and magnanimity of their armies, the wisdom and inflexible firmness of their Congress, the ardency of their patriotism, their unrepining patience when assailed by dangers and perplexed with aggravated misfortune, have long and deservedly employed the pen of panegyric and the tongue of oratory.
Through the whole Revolutionary conflict a consistency and systematic regularity were preserved, equally honorable as extraordinary. The unity of design and classically correct arrangement of the series of incidents which completed the epic story of American independence, were so wonderful, so well wrought, that political Hypercriticism was abashed at the mighty production, and forced to join her sister, Envy, in applauding the glorious composition.
On the last page of Fatehs eventful volume, with the raptured ken of prophecy, I behold Columbia's name recorded, her future honors and happiness inscribed. In the same important book, the approaching end of tyranny and the triumph of right and justice are written, in indelible characters. The struggle will soon be over; the tottering thrones of despots will quickly fall, and bury their proud incumbents in their massy ruins. Extract.
Address of John Quincy Adams, 1793
ADDRESS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (July 4, I793, Boston.) 
Old Glory in the Sky.
Americans! let us pause for a moment to consider the situation of our country at that eventful day when our national existence commenced. In the full possession and enjoyment of all those prerogatives for which you then dared to adventure upon ''all the varieties of untried being," the calm and settled moderation of the mind is scarcely competent to conceive the tone of heroism to which the souls of free-men were exalted in that hour of perilous magnanimity.
Seventeen times has the sun, in the progress of his annual revolution, diffused his prolific radiance over the plains of independent America. Millions of hearts, which then palpitated with the rapturous glow of patriotism, have already been translated to brighter worlds; to the abodes of more than mortal freedom.
Other millions have arisen, to receive from their parents and benefactors an inestimable recompense of their achievements.
A large proportion of the audience, whose benevolence is at this moment listening to the speaker of the day, like him, were at that period too little advanced beyond the threshold of life to partake of the divine enthusiasm which inspired the American bosom: which prompted her voice to proclaim defiance to the thunders of Britain; which consecrated the banners of her armies ; and finally erected the holy temple of American Liberty over the tomb of departed tyranny.
It is from those who have already passed the meridian of life; it is from you, ye venerable assertors of the rights of mankind, that we are to be informed what were the feelings which swayed within your breasts and impelled you to action; when, like the stripling of Israel, with scarcely a weapon to attack, and without a shield for your defense, you met and, undismayed, engaged with the gigantic greatness of the British power.
Untutored in the disgraceful science of human butchery; destitute of the fatal materials which the ingenuity of man has combined to sharpen the scythe of death; unsupported by the arm of any friendly alliance, and unfortified against the powerful assaults of an unrelenting enemy, you did not hesitate at that moment, when your coasts were infested by a formidable fleet, when your territories were invaded by a numerous and veteran army, to pronounce the sentence of eternal separation from Britain, and to throw the gauntlet at a power, the terror of whose recent triumphs was almost coextensive with the earth.
The interested and selfish propensities which, in times of prosperous tranquillity, have such powerful dominion over the heart, were all expelled, and in their stead the public virtues, the spirit of personal devotion to the common cause, a contempt of every danger, in comparison with the subserviency of the country, had assumed an unlimited control.
The passion for the public had absorbed all the rest, as the glorious luminary of heaven extinguishes, in a flood of refulgence, the twinkling splendor of every inferior planet. Those of you, my countrymen, who were actors in those interesting scenes will best know how feeble and impotent is the language of this description, to express the impassioned emotions of the soul with which you were then agitated.
Yet it were injustice to conclude from thence, or from the greater prevalence of private and personal motives in these days of calm serenity, that your sons have degenerated from the virtues of their fathers. Let it rather be a subject of pleasing reflection to you than the generous and disinterested energies which you were summoned to display, are permitted, by the bountiful indulgence of heaven, to remain latent in the bosoms of your children.
From the present prosperous appearance of our public affairs, we may admit a rational hope that our country will have no occasion to require of us those extraordinary and heroic exertions, which it was your fortune to exhibit.
But from the common versatility of all human destiny, should the prospect hereafter darken, and the clouds of public misfortune thicken to a tempest; should the voice of our country's calamity ever call us to her relief, we swear, by the precious memory of the sages who toiled and of the heroes who bled in her defense, that we will prove ourselves not unworthy of the prize which they so dearly purchased; that we will act as the faithful disciples of those who so magnanimously taught us the instructive lesson of republican virtue.
Address of Joel Barlow, 1787
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| Glorious Fourth postcard |
On the anniversary of so great an event as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will question the propriety of passing a few moments in contemplating the various objects suggested to the mind by the important occasion ; and while the nourishment, the growth, and even the existence of our empire depend upon the united efforts of an extensive and divided people, the duties of this day ascend from amusement and congratulation to a serious patriotic employment.
We are assembled, not to boast, but to realize, not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council or the field, but, from a modest retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our present situation, and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded, to discern and familiarize the duties that still await us as citizens, as soldiers, and as men.
Revolutions in other countries have been affected by accident. The faculties of human reason and the rights of human nature have been the sport of chance and the prey of ambition. When indignation has burst the bands of slavery, to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to impose the manacles of another. This arose from the imperfection of that early stage of society, the foundations of empires being laid in ignorance, with a total inability of foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting government to a state of social refinement. On the western continent a new task, totally unknown to the legislators of other nations, was imposed upon the fathers of the American empire. Here was a people, lords of the soil on which they trod, commanding a prodigious length of coast, and an equal breadth of frontier, a people habituated to liberty, professing a mild and benevolent religion, and highly advanced in science and civilization. To conduct such a people in a revolution, the address must be made to reason, as well as the passions.
In what other age or nation has a people, at ease upon their own farms, secure and distant from the approach of fleets and armies, tide-waiters and stamp-masters, reasoned, before they had felt, and, from the dictates of duty and conscience, encountered dangers, distress, and poverty, for the sake of securing to posterity a government of independence and peace? Here was no Cromwell to inflame the people with bigotry and zeal; no Caesar to reward his followers with the spoils of vanquished foes; and no territory to be acquired by conquest. Ambition, superstition, and avarice, those universal torches of war, never illumined an American field of battle. But the permanent principles of sober policy spread through the colonies, roused the people to assert their rights, and conducted the revolution. Those principles were noble, as they were new and unprecedented in the history of human nations. The majority of a great people, on a subject which they understand, will never act wrong.
Our duty calls us to act worthy of the age and the country that gave us birth. Every possible encouragement for great and generous exertions is presented before us. The natural resources are inconceivably various and great The enterprising genius of the people promises a most rapid improvement in all the arts that embellish human nature. The blessings of a rational government will invite emigrations from the rest of the world and fill the empire with the worthiest and happiest of mankind; while the example of political wisdom and sagacity, here to be displayed, will excite emulation through the kingdoms of the earth, and meliorate the condition of the human race.
England And The Fourth of July
ENGLAND AND THE FOURTH OF JULY
BY W, T. STEAD
(From The Independent.)
I wish with all my heart that we could adopt the Fourth of July as the Festival Day of the whole English-speaking race. If this suggestion should seem strange to Americans, it is not unfamiliar to many Englishmen. We consider that the triumph of the American revolt against George III was a vindication of the essentially English idea of democratic self-government, and we believe that we have benefited by it almost as much as the Americans. It taught us a lesson which made the British Colonial Empire a possibility, and if we are now involved in a suicidal war in South Africa, it is largely because our Government has forgotten the principles of George Washington, and has gone back to the principles of George III.
For some years past I have presided at a distinctly British celebration of the Fourth of July at my brother's settlement in Southeast London, at Browning Hall, and I have always repudiated the idea that Americans should be allowed to monopolize the Fourth of July. It is one of the great days of the English-speaking race in the celebration of which all members of the English-speaking nations should participate.
The 4th of July or Independence Day Index
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| A young American from the turn of the 20th Century. |
Independence Day is the national holiday most dear to the hearts of the American people. It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776. On the fourth of each July this great event is celebrated throughout the Union with patriotic exercises of varied nature and noisy demonstrations, in which firecrackers and other explosives have a prominent part.
- Search the Index for President's Day Artifacts
- 4rth of July Coloring Pages at Crayon Palace: American Patriot Coloring Pages
- The Great American Holiday
- The Nation's Birthday by Mary E. Vandyne
- How The Fourth of July Should Be Celebrated by Julia Ward Howe
- England and America by James Bryce
- The Birthday of the Nation by Daniel Webster
- The Fourth of July by Charles Leonard Moore
- Lift Up Your Hearts
- England and the Fourth of July by W. T. Stead
- Address of Joel Barlow, 1787
- Address of John Quincy Adams, 1793
- Address of John Lathrop, 1796, Extract
- The Fourth of July by Charles Sprague
- Our National Anniversary by H. Rice
- America's Natal Day by James Gillespie Blaine
- Crises of Nations by Dr. Foss
- The Fourth of July in Westminster Abbey by Phillips Brooks
- Patriot Sons by Samuel F. Smith
- The Flag Day Poem by Lydia Coonley Ward
- America Resents British Dictation by Henry B. Carrington
- Speech of James Otis
- Independence a Solemn Duty
- An Appeal for America by William Pitt
- Conciliation or War
- "War is Actually Begun" by Patrick Henry
- Emancipation from British Dependence by Philip Freneau
- True Heroism
- The Origin of the Declaration by Sydney George Fisher
- The Declaration of Independence by John D. Long
- The Signing of the Declaration by George Lippard
- Supposed Speech of John Adams by Daniel Webster
- The Liberty Bell by J T. Headley
- Independence Bell, Philadelphia
- The Declaration of Independence
- Independence Explained by Samuel Adams
- The Dignity of Our Nation's Founders by William T, Evarts
- The Character of the Declaration of Independence by George Bancroft
- The Declaration of Independence by Henry T. Randall
- The Declaration of Independence by John Quincy Adams
- The Declaration of Independence by Tudor Jenks
- The Declaration of Independence in the Light of Modern Criticism by Moses Coit Tyler
- The Principles of the Revolution
- The Song of the Cannon by Sam Walter Foss
- Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- A Song for Lexington by Robert Kelly Weeks
- The Revolutionary Alarm by George Bancroft
- The Volunteer by Eldridge Jefferson Cutler
- Ticonderoga by V, B. Wilson
- Warren's Address by John Pierpont
- "The Lonely Bugle Grieves" by Grenville Mellen
- The Battle of Bunker Hill
- The Maryland Battalion by John Williamson Palmer
- The Battle of Trenton
- Columbia by Timothy Dwight
- The Fighting Parson by Henry Ames Blood
- The Saratoga Lesson by George William Curtis
- The Surrender of Burgoyne by James Watts De Peyster
- The Saratoga Monument Begun by Horatio Seymour
- Molly Maguire at Monmouth by William Collins
- The South in the Revolution by Robert Young Hayne
- The Song of Marion's Men by William Cullen Bryant
- Our Country Saved by James Russell Lowell
- New England and Virginia by Robert Charles Winthrop
- America by S, F. Smith
- The Republic by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- The Antiquity of Freedom by William Cullen Bryant
- America by William Cullen Bryant
- Ode by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- America First
- Liberty for All by William Lloyd Garrison
- Hymn
- The Dawning Future by William Preston Johnson
- Liberty
- Freedom
- A Rhapsody by Cassius Marcellus Clay
- Columbia by Frederick Lawrence Knowles
- A Renaissance of Patriotism by George I, Manson
- Centennial Poems by John Greenleaf Whittier
- Welcome to the Nation by Oliver Wendell Holmes
- Liberty's Latest Daughter by Bayard Tayhir
- "Scum of the Earth" by Robert Haven Schauffler
- Liberty and Union One and Inseparable by Daniel Webster
- Address to Liberty by William Cowper
- The Torch of Liberty by Thomas Moore
- Horologue of Liberty
- The American Republic by George Bancroft
- A New National Hymn by Francis Marion Crawford
- "Dear Old Uncle Sam"
- Under The Washington Elm, Cambridge
- Jim's Aunt Frances by Bent Dillingham
- Our Barbarous Fourth by Mrs, Isaac L. Rice
- A Safe and Sane Fourth of July by Henry Litchdeld West
- The New Independence Day by Henry B. F. MacFarland and Richard B. Waltrous
- New Fourths for Old by Mrs. Isaac L. Rice
- Americanizing the Fourth by Robert Haven Schauffler
- The Fourth of July by Aunt Fanny
- His Wish
- The Feathered Patriot
Patriotic Puzzles for Kids:
Friday, May 7, 2021
Bee
The bee a common insect of which the honeybee and bumblebee are the best known species. There are probably not less than 5,000 species scattered over all parts of the world, but they are especially numerous in the tropics. Bees naturally divide themselves into two classes: solitary bees, which live in pairs, and those which live in colonies or societies. The carpenter bee and mason bee are good representatives of the first class.
6 Important Facts About The Honeybee:
- The honeybee has always been regarded as the most intelligent of insects, and it has been partially domesticated from the earliest times.
- Honeybees live in large colonies or societies, numbering from 10,000 to 60,000 individuals.
- In bee culture such a colony is known as a swarm.
- In every swarm there are three kinds of bees: the queen, which is the female bee that lays the eggs from which the colony is born; the males or drones, so called because of the low humming sound which they make, and the workers, which are by far the largest number.
- There is only one queen to a swarm.
- The males may number several hundred, but at a certain season every year most of these are stung to death by the workers, who with the queen are provided with stings.
It is upon leaf-cutting bees, the workers, that the real strength of the swarm depends. They are the smallest, strongest and most active of the three classes. The queen during the season may lay as many as 300 eggs in a single day, but in cold weather, the number is much less. From the eggs first laid come the workers, and from the later ones, drones. The eggs are deposited in cells prepared by the workers, one to each cell. One set of cells is constructed for workers and another for drones and the queen never makes a mistake in depositing the eggs. The eggs which are to develop into queens are laid in cells much larger than the others, but they will not differ from those laid in the other cells, and the queen is developed by feeding the larva on a special food.
The eggs are about one-twelfth of an inch long, of a bluish color and oblong in shape. They hatch in about three days. The larvae are fed by the workers for about five days, the food consisting of honey and pollen, called beebread. When the larva has grown so as to fill the cell, the workers seal it up and leave it for about two weeks, when the bee comes forth in the adult state. As the swarm becomes too large for the home in which it lives, a new queen is allowed to appear, and in a short time after this, on a bright, warm day, the old queen leaves the hive with a large portion of the swarm and seeks a new home for herself or enters one that the bees have found beforehand. In one season as many as three successive swarms may leave the same colony. During the winter the bees remain asleep, move about but little and eat little food.
Bees obtain their food by entering flowers and sucking up and swallowing the nectar, which is stored in the stomach-like honey bag. The hind legs are also provided with little cavities, called baskets, in which the bees store pollen for transit to the home. The bee, after gathering what pollen and honey it can carry, rises into the air, flies in a circle for a few times around, then, having found its bearings, flies home in a perfectly straight line; hence the expression bee line. Bee hunters take advantage of this habit to locate swarms and stores of honey.
On entering and leaving the flowers, bees get dusted with pollen, and as it is their habit to work but one species of flower at a time, they are important agents in the cross- fertilization of flowers; in fact, such plants as clover cannot be successfully grown with- out the aid of bees.
Bees are liable to be destroyed by the larvae of a moth which enters the hives at night and lays its eggs. The larvae bun-ow out through the cells and sometime kill an entire swarm. Occasionally in winter mice find their way into the hives and feed upon the bees and honey. Lice and several species of flies and birds also destroy bees.
Leaf cutter bee video by ResonatingBodies
Domestic Cats
Cat, the name of the commonest of the household pet animals, is also applied to the family to which the cat belongs. This family includes the fiercest wild animals known, including the lion, tiger and panther.
8 Fast Facts About House Cats:
- It is believed that tho cat was originally domesticated in Egypt, where it was loved and venerated. The domestic cat belongs to a genus better armed for destruction of animal life.
- Among the various breeds or races of cats, the tailless cat of the Isle of Man, and the Persian cat, with its long, silky fur, are among the most curious.
- The tortoise shell, with its color a mixture of black, white and brownish or fawn color, the large Angora and the blue, or Carthusian, and Maltese cats, with long, soft, grayish-blue fur, are other well-known species.
- The short and powerful jaw, sharp, pointed teeth, sharp claws and strong muscles make it a fierce enemy of birds and other small animals.
- Birds have no greater enemy, and one cat often drives the beautiful, friendly singing birds from a whole neighborhood.
- The cat is usually regarded as less intelligent than the dog, but possibly it has equal intelligence of another kind.
- It seems to have little real affection for mankind, though it enjoys being petted and shows signs of jealousy if neglected.
- It does become strongly attached to places, and it often will desert its friends who have removed, and return to the strangers who occupy its old home.
More About House Cats:
- Domestic cat information from big cat rescue
- Where do domestic cats come from?
- Craft a Cat Scratching Post for Your Dolls
- Color the things that are black, including a cat...
- The Naughty Kitten-Cat Poem
- Paint a peppermint striped kitty for the Christmas tree
- Raggedy Ann and The Kittens
- Color-by-number: Beware of Cat
Pole Cat
A pole cat is a small animal .of the weasel family. The common polecat is found in most parts of Europe, except the extreme south. It is about seventeen inches long, with long, coarse brown fur, which grows blackish on the feet and tail. A superior kind of artists' brush is made from the hairs. The polecat possesses an odor something like that of the American skunk, and hence in the United States the skunk is often called the polecat. It is very destructive to poultry, rabbits, rats and mice, and also feeds on snakes, frogs, fish and eggs.
Pointer
A pointer is a hunting dog, so called because it stops short at the sight of game and points toward it with its nose. It has a smooth coat of short hair, and is marked, usually black and white, like the fox hound. The tail is slender and stiff; the ears, large and drooping. The dogs have a very keen sense of smell and are unerring in locating game.
Centipede
The centipede is a creature which has many feet and a body consisting of numerous similar rings or segments, each of which bears a pair of legs. The common centipede, found in the United States, is quite harmless, but some species of tropical countries inflict severe and often dangerous bites. Some of the latter species grow to a length of eighteen inches. They are savage animals and defend themselves energetically. The name means having a hundred feet, but in reality no species known has more than thirty-one pairs of legs.
Nothing says "Nope, Nope, Nope" like a Centipede!
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Billy Basso Bull Frog
Billy Basso
Bull Frog
by Florence M. Pettee
Billy Basso Bullfrog
A-rumbling in the dark,
A-tuning up his viol,
While all the swamp fold hark.
With a pinky and a panky,
And a ga-lum, ga-lum, ga-LUM!
Billy Basso's found his fiddle,
While all the frog folks hum.
With a pinky and a panky,
All the swamp's a lullaby,
With the big bass viol strumming
'Way down where the tadpoles lie.
How Mother Nature Cleans
How Mother Nature Cleans
by Oscar H. Roesner
When Mother Nature cleans the sky
And makes it shiny blue,
So all the stars may twinkle bright,
The sun and moon shine through;
She sprinkles it with showers first,
Next scours with whitest snow,
And then with rough old wind for broom
She sweeps it clean you know.
Grandmother's Garden
Grandmother's Garden
by Marjorie Barrows
Amaryllis and I heard a fairy
In grandmother's garden today,
When the wind in the roses was calling
The birds and the blossoms to play.
Amaryllis stooped down by bluebell
And listened there ever so hard;
But I, in my little white apron,
Caught the rose-fairy's calling card!
Caterpillar On The Wall
Caterpillar On The Wall
by Marion Ryan
Caterpillar on the wall,
Fuzzy, furry yellow ball!
Don't I wish that I could spy
You turning to a butterfly!
Will you be a yellow one,
Sparkling, golden, in the sun,
Or a dusky tan and brown,
Fluttering lightly up and down,
In and out among the flowers
All the warm sweet summer hours?
Caterpillar, please don't go
Till you've told me how you grow.
Saturday, August 8, 2020
A Rainy Day Game
A Rainy-Day Game
by K. G. Buffman
A little soap and water
And a little pipe of clay
Will make the time go faster
On a rainy day.
Bubbles in the bowl of water
Bubbles in the air,
Bubbles on the mantelpiece,
Floating everywhere.
Molly had a clay pipe,
Richard had another;
Nothing could be better for
A sister and a brother.
Transportation Index
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| Far left, The Chiva Bus Parade. Left Center, Mother Goose Auto Parade. Center Right, Road Sign Graphics. Far Right, one of the first airplanes. |
Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines and terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations) and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance.
Vehicles traveling on these networks may include automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, watercraft, spacecraft and aircraft.
Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the
procedures set for this purpose including financing, legalities, and
policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of
infrastructure can be either public or private, depending on the country
and mode.
Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but most types cause air pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow and restrain urban sprawl.
Our Transportation Artifacts:
Our Transportation Artifacts:
- The Proud Miss O'Haggin
- Mother Goose Auto Parade - mini book
- United States Road Sign Graphics - printable
- The Chiva Bus Parade
- The Train by C. H. Crandall
- Craft a Paper Monoplane
- Color and Shade Vintage Racing Cars
- Coloring Pages of Antique Automobiles
- How to Draw: Old Fashioned Airplanes
- "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines"
- Design a Superior Paper Airplane
- Air Transportation Silhouettes
Visit Transportation Museums Online:
President John Adams
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| Illustrated portrait of President John Adams. |
John Adams (1735-1826), was the second President of the United States, and the most famous member of a family of distinguished statesmen. He was born at Quincy, Mass., and educated at Harvard College. After completing a course in law he was admitted to the bar (1758). Adams' attention was directed to politics by the question as to the right of the English Parliament to tax the colonies, and in 1765 he published some essays strongly opposed to the claims of the mother country. As a member of the Continental Congress he was strenuous in his opposition to the home government, and in organizing the various departments of the colonial government. On May 13th, 1776, he seconded the motion for a declaration of independence proposed by Lee of Virginia, and was appointed a member of the committee to draw it up. The declaration was actually drawn up by Jefferson, but it was Adams who carried it through Congress.
In 1778 he went to France on a special mission, and after a brief home visit returned to Europe. For nine years he resided abroad as representative of his country in France, Holland and England. After taking part in the peace negotiations be was appointed, in 1785, the first ambassador of the United States to the court of Saint James.
He was recalled in 1788, and in the same year was elected Vice-President of the republic, under Washington. In 1792 he was reelected Vice-President, and at the following election was chosen President. Though a member of the Federalist party, which favored a strong central government, Adams was frequently at variance with Hamilton, the real leader of that party, and his administration was stormy. He had to face not only dissensions in his own party, but the bitter hostility of Jefferson and his adherents. The Jeffersonians were in warm sympathy with the French Revolutionists, while the Federalists favored England. Adams, determined to keep the country at peace, and above all from extending aid to France, sent three commissioners in 1797 to treat with the French government, as the relations between the two nations were somewhat strained. The insulting proposal of Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, that the United States pay France tribute money, aroused bitter indignation in America, and quick preparations were made for war. A brief naval war did actually take place, in which the French frigate La Vengeance was sunk by the Constellation. The prospect of America allied with England soon brought France to terms, and the difficulties were peacefully adjusted.
Adams, however, dug his political grave by his advocacy of the Alien and Sedition Laws, which were directed at the opponents of the administration. These laws were denounced as violations of the right of free speech and the freedom of the press, and their passage caused the downfall of the Federalist party. Adams failed of reelection, but before he retired from office he made one of the most important appointments in American history - that of John Marshall to the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court. Other events of his administration were the death of Washington and the formal removal of the government offices to Washington (1800), then set in the midst of a forest and exceedingly rough and unattractive in its primitiveness.
At the close of his term of office Adams retired to private life, disappointed and embittered at his failure to secure reelection. However, the subsequent election of his son, John Quincy Adams, to the Presidency was a consoling incident of his last days. He died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence, only a few hours after Thomas Jefferson passed away. The death of two such illustrious men on the same day has no parallel in the political history of America or of any other country. Adams' last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He did not know of the sad event in Virginia.
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| Administration of John Adams, 1797-1801 Outline and Questions. |
Friday, August 7, 2020
The Fourth of July
The Fourth of July
by Charles Sprague
by Charles Sprague
To the sages who spoke, to the heroes who bled,
To the day and the deed, strike the harp-
strings of glory!
Let the song of the ransomed remember the
dead,
And the tongue of the eloquent hallow the story!
O'er the bones of the bold
Be that story long told,
And on fame's golden tables their triumphs en-
rolled
Who on freedom's green hills freedom's banner un-
furled,
And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world!
They are gone--mighty men! --and they sleep in their
fame:
Shall we ever forget them? Oh, never! no, never!
Let our sons learn from us to embalm each great
name,
And the anthem send down--"Independence for-
ever!"
Wake, wake, heart and tongue!
Keep the theme ever young;
Let their deeds through the long line of ages be
sung
Who on freedom's green hills freedom's banner un-
furled,
And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world!
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