has
been practically "harnessed."

In 1886, the Niagara Falls Power Company was incorporated, followed
three years later by that of the Cataract Construction Company. Work
began in October, 1890, and three more years were required to complete
the tunnel, the surface-canal, and the preliminary wheel-pits.

The first distribution of power was made in August, 1895, to the works
of the Pittsburg Reduction Company, near the canal. Other companies were
added, and the city of Buffalo, in December, 1895, granted a franchise
to the company to supply power to that city. The first customer was the
Buffalo Railway Company. November 15, 1896, at midnight, the current was
transmitted by a pole line, consisting of three continuous cables of
uninsulated copper, whose total length was seventy-eight miles. Since
that date, the street cars have been operated by the same motor, with
more industrial points continually added.

[Illustration: A GOLD PROSPECTING PARTY ON DEBATABLE LAND IN BRITISH
GUIANA.]

While our past history shows that we have had only two wars with Great
Britain, yet it shows also that talk of war has been heard fully a score
of times. Long after 1812, we were extremely sensitive as regarded the
nation that the majority of Americans looked upon as our hereditary foe,
and the calls for war have been sounded in Congress and throughout the
land far oftener than most people suspect. That such a calamity to
mankind has been turned aside is due mainly to the good sense and mutual
forbearance of the majority of people in both countries. England and the
United States are the two great English-speaking nations. Together they
are stronger than all the world combined. With the same language, the
same literature, objects, aims, and religion, a war between them would
be the most awful catastrophe that could befall humanity.

The last flurry with the "mother country" occurred in the closing weeks
of 1895, and related to Venezuela, which had been at variance with
England for many years. Until 1810, the territory lying between the
mouths of the Orinoco and the Amazon was known as the Guianas. In the
year named Spain ceded a large part of the country to Venezuela, and in
1814 Holland ceded another to Great Britain. The boundary between the
Spanish and Dutch possessions had never been fixed by treaty, and the
dispute between England and Venezuela lasted until 1887, when diplomatic
relations were broken off between the two countries.