erate characters hurried
to the Black Hills and began digging for the yellow deposit.

CUSTER'S MASSACRE.

The Sioux are fierce and warlike. They have given our government a great
deal of trouble, and, finding their reservation invaded by white men,
they retaliated by leaving it, burning houses, stealing horses, and
cattle, and killing settlers in Wyoming and Montana. Their outrages
became so serious that the government sent a strong military force
thither under Generals Terry and Crook, which drove a formidable body of
warriors under the well-known Sitting Bull and others toward the Big
Horn Mountains and River.

[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE CROOK.]

Generals Reno and Custer rode forward with the Seventh Cavalry to
reconnoitre, and discovered the Indians encamped in a village nearly
three miles long on the left bank of the Little Big Horn River. Custer,
who was an impetuous, headlong officer, instantly charged upon the
Indians without waiting for reinforcements.

This woeful blunder was made June 25, 1876. All that is known of it has
been obtained from the Indians themselves. They agree that Custer and
his men dashed directly among the thousands of warriors, and that they
fought with desperate heroism, but Custer and every one of his men were
killed. The number was 261. General Reno held his position at the lower
end of the encampment on the bluffs of the Little Big Horn until
reinforcements arrived. Soldiers were sent to the neighborhood, and
there was more sharp fighting. It was a long time and there was much
negotiation necessary before the Sioux could be persuaded to return to
their reservation in Dakota.

On the 4th of July, 1876, the United States was one hundred years old.
Preparations had been on foot for several years to give it a fitting
celebration. A bill was passed by Congress as early as March, 1871,
providing that an exhibition of foreign and American arts, products, and
manufactures should be held under the auspices of the government of the
United States. A centennial commission was appointed, consisting of
General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut; Professor John L. Campbell, of
Indiana; Alfred T. Goshorn, of Ohio; and John L. Shoemaker, of
Pennsylvania. Naturally Philadelphia, where the Declaration of
Independence was written and signed, was selected as the most fitting
place to hold the celebration. Fairmount Park, one of the largest and
finest in the world, was set apart for the buildings.