The record-union., 1897-07-03
EARLY TEACHING.
Bisse1l Thomas Address at the
Lincoln Primary.

In his address at the Lincoln Primary
School. at Fourth and Q streets, Bis
sell Thomas said:
NV dear young friends: To-day has
been set apart by our school author1-
ties for Fourth of July exercises, so we
are all met here this morning to cele-
brate the birthday of our country. We
are not going to celebrate it this morn
ing with firecrackers and Roman can
dies; we shall have plenty of opportu-
nifty to use them next Monday, but We
are going to celebrate it is it should De
celebrated in a public school, by learn
ing what we can of the great import
ance of the day to all of us who live
in this free country, whether we are
BOYS and girls going to school or grown
I'D boys and girls, sometimes called
men and women, working out our own
lessons for ourselves, with no one TO
help us.
OF course. we all know about the
Fourth of July. We know that guns
and cannon are booming all DAY
long. We know that on next
Monday each one of US will do his very
hest to make all the noise he can, and
that flags will be flying and bands play
bration with all his might. l say we
all know this much about the Fourth,
and if I went on and told you more or
this side of the day 1 should only De
telling what you already know. SO L
am going to talk to you to-day, not
about the celebration, which we all
know about, but about the reasons why
we have that celebration. and why, in
bration has, year by year, been growing
larger and larger, until now there are
something over sixty millions OF men
and women and boys and girls taxing
part in it.
In order that we may fully UNDER
stand about the Fourth of July, am
going to ask you to go back with me
something over year before our coun-
try was born. There We're at that tlne
as all of you who have studied history
know-thirteen English colonies scat
tered along the eastern coast OF North
America, and each colony enjoyed Ger
tain rights, which had been given Ia by
the English Government Now, as
these colonies grew in wealth and i'm
portance the English Government be-
gan, little by little, to try to take away
some of these rights and to attempt 10
make the people who lived in them pay
more than their share of the taxes OIL
the Government, until finally the people
objected openly and threatened to hght
for their rights rather than give them
up, just as the people of Cuba are doing
to-day.
AT that time the colonists had Gel
lected near the city of Boston large
number of guns and cannons and pow
der and balls and the English sent
number Of war ships and many soldiers
to capture these stores. Perhaps you
have heard how a man named Paul Re
we're stood by his horses side on the
night of the 18th of April, l77o, and
watched for the light in the old church
tower which his friend was to hang
there as a signal that the English We're
marching, and how when he saw the
light he galloped through village after
village spreading the alarm and bid
ding the men be ready to fight; that the
English were coming. The next day
they came and there was fought the
first battle for the independence of
these United States at the village of
Lexington, near Boston. and the Eng
lish soldiers, as the result of that bat
tie, We're compelled to retreat.
From that time on the desire for
freedom grew among the colonists and
ended in. their all sending delegates to
a. convention which was held in Phil
adelphia in the summer of 1776, and it
was at this convention that the people
of the colonies were to declare them
selves a free and independent nation,
and that a new country was to come
into the world under the name of the
United States of America, which was
destined within hundred years to daz-
zle all nations with its resources and its
progress, and which was to be in truth
and in fact nation free and independ-
ent, where the people We're the SOW
ereign, and the rights of all men were
equal.
On the 4th day of July, 1776. the
delegates to this convention sat in a
hall in the city of Philadelphia, signing
paper which was before them on a
table. On the sidewalk across the
street was a boy, smaller than many of