Hundreds-thousands! Let us weep, Who they were that fought and fell 4. Come, we'll lay us down, my child; Sleeps upon the open sward, By the Alma river. 5. Willie, Willie, go to sleep; God will keep us, O my boy; NOTES.-I. The battle of Alma was fought September, 1854. 2. Sevastopol, in the southern part of Russia on the Black Sea, was the principal scene of the Crimean War, 1854, 1855. 3. "CHINESE GORDON."1 I. DURING the wild disorder which prevailed in China when the Opium War2 of 1842 ended, a village schoolmaster suddenly proclaimed himself a prophet of vengeance and freedom. He said that his mission was to exterminate the Manchoo race, and he found hundreds of thousands to believe in him. Gradually he gathered a great army, and gained one victory after another, until at last he stormed Nanking and established his throne there. 2. His troops ravaged the country, and the Imperialists could do nothing against him. The starving peasants were reduced to cannibalism; business in the coast towns was paralyzed; and the rebel who caused this desolation and suffering bestowed on himself the title of king. In despair, the Chinese Government asked that a British commander might be appointed to the Imperial forces, and Gordon was chosen. 3. He went very warily at work. First of all he completed a military survey of the country for thirty miles around Shanghai, and then he began to train his troops. His force was about four thousand strong. The men were poorly armed, and the officers were adventurers from almost every state of Europe. 4. Officers and men alike found in Gordon their master; rigid discipline was established, and the Englishman at last took the field with an army that recognized him as a real ruler. Gordon struck at the very heart of the rebellion; he was as swift and decisive in his operations as was Napoleon; and the rebel generals never knew when and where his next blow would fall. 5. Stockade after stockade, town after town, were stormed by the Imperialists, and every attack of importance was led by the commander-in-chief in person. He never carried any weapon; he went into action with a small cane which he handled jauntily, and he used to stand amid the hottest fire pointing quietly with this little rod, which the soldiers called "Gordon's wand of victory." 6. When the town of Kintang was taken by storm, he led all the assaults, and the weight of the enemy's fire again and again forced the stormers back. Here he was hit in the leg, and one of his body-guard cried out that the general was wounded. The wounded leader sternly silenced this alarmist, and stood giving orders until he nearly fainted from loss of blood. There was no bravado in all this; it was absolutely necessary that the Chinese troops should see no sign of even reasonable prudence in their general. 7. In all his dealings with the Chinese, General Gordon was high-handed in the extreme. The Emperor sent the Yellow Jacket-which carries with it the highest military grade of the Empire-and also a donation of ten thousand. taels. When the treasure-bearers entered Gordon's presence carrying huge bowls of coin, the irate general took up his famous wand and flogged them out of the chamber. 8. If we imagine an English general assaulting the queen's messenger, we. can form some idea of the consternation which followed this action. But Gordon knew what he was doing; his rude treatment of the yellow robe only served to make him more popular, and he attained the very end he sought. He crushed the rebellion, and then left China without taking one penny of reward. By ending a cruel civil war promptly, he rescued an immense population from misery and starvation. Definitions.-3. Ad věnt'ūr er, one who tries to push his fortune by bold means. 7. I rate', angry, enraged. NOTES. .-I. Charles George Gordon was born in England in 1833. In 1863 be was appointed commander of the Chinese Imperial armies, and his successful campaign against the rebels as described in the selection brought him prominently before the government of England. After filling many offices with credit, he was appointed to the Soudan in 1883, to endeavor to bring about a peace between the rebel chiefs and the Egyptian government. He was killed by the rebel troops in Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan, January 26th, 1885. Tennyson has said of him "The earth has known no gentler, nobler man." 2. The British traders of India had long smuggled opium into China contrary to the protests of the government. War was at last proclaimed in 1840 and lasted till 1842. The English were victorious, and when peace was declared, opium was sent into China in still greater quantities. 4. THE COMMON-SCHOOL HOUSE. SARGENT SMITH PRENTISS (1808-1851) was born in Maine. He studied in Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1826. Having been admitted to the bar in 1829, he removed to the South, where he lived until his death, but always retained an affection for New England and its institutions. Mr. Prentiss took a prominent part in the politics of the day, and was one of the representatives from Mississippi in the Congress of 1837. His eloquence was of a high order, and many of his speeches and addresses have been printed. They are marked by logical thought and intense patriotism, and contain many brilliant passages and shrewd reflections. I. BEHOLD yon simple building near the crossing of the village road. It is small and of rude construction, but it stands in a pleasant and quiet spot. A magnificent old elm spreads its broad arms above, and seems to lean toward it as a strong man bends to shelter and protect a child. A brook runs through the meadow near, and hard by there is an orchard; but the trees have suffered much, for there is no fruit except upon the highest and most inaccessible branches. From within its walls comes a busy hum, such as you may hear in a disturbed bee-hive. 2. Now peep through yonder window, and you will see a hundred children with rosy cheeks, mischievous eyes, and demure faces, all engaged, or pretending to be so, in their little lessons. It is the public school, the free, the common school, provided by law, open to all, claimed from the community as a right, not accepted as a bounty. 3. Here the children of the rich and poor, high and low, meet upon perfect equality, and commence, under the same auspices, the race of life. Here the sustenance of the mind is served to all alike, as the Spartans served their food upon the public table. Here young Ambition climbs his little ladder, and boyish Genius plumes his half-fledged wings. 4. From among these laughing children will go forth the men who are to control the destinies of their age and country; the statesman, whose wisdom is to guide the senate; the poet, who will take captive the hearts of the people, and bind them together with immortal song; the philosopher, who, boldly seizing upon the elements themselves, will compel them to his wishes, and, through new combinations of their primal laws, by some great discovery, revolutionize both art and science. 5. The common village school is New England's fairest boast, the brightest jewel that adorns her brow. The principle that society is bound to provide for its members' education as well as protection, so that none may be ignorant except from choice, is the most important that belongs to modern philosophy. It is essential to a republican govern ment. 6. Universal education is not only the best and the surest, but the only foundation for free institutions. True liberty is the child of knowledge; she pines away and dies in the arms of Ignorance. Honor, then, to the early fathers of New England, from whom came the spirit which has built a school-house by every sparkling fountain, and bids all come as freely to the one as to the other. |