Greely Expedition.

THE NINETEENTH PRESIDENT.

[Illustration: RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES (1823-1893) One term,
1877-1881.]

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware County, Ohio, October 4,
1822, and was graduated from Kenyon College at the age of twenty years.
In 1845 he completed his legal studies at Harvard University, and
practiced law, first at Marietta, in his native State, then at Fremont,
and finally in Cincinnati. He entered the military service, at the
beginning of the war, as major, and rose to the rank of brevet
major-general. His career as a soldier was creditable. While still in
the service, in 1864, he was elected to Congress, and was governor of
Ohio in 1867, 1869, and again in 1875. His popularity as chief
magistrate of one of the leading States led to his nomination to the
presidency, to which, however, it must be conceded, he had not a clear
title. He died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.

President Hayes proved his desire to strengthen the fraternal feeling
between the North and South by appointing as a member of his cabinet
David McKey, his postmaster-general. Mr. McKey was from Tennessee, and
had served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Hayes' administration
on the whole was uneventful, though marked by a number of incidents
which deserve mention. It was in 1877 that the first telephone for
business purposes was put into use. It connected the residence of
Charles Williams, in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his business office
in Boston, three miles distant. Alexander Bell, of the latter city, was
the inventor of the instrument, which is now in general use throughout
the country, and serves to connect points more than a thousand miles
apart.

RAILWAY STRIKES.

In the summer of 1877 occurred one of the most violent outbreaks among
labor men that has ever been known in this country. There was unrest in
the mining districts over the question of wages, and the dissatisfaction
spread to the principal manufacturing points. When the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad made a reduction of 10 per cent. in the pay of its
employees it was followed, July 14th, by a partial strike on their line.
The men had the sympathy of workmen throughout the country, and the
strike spread to the Pennsylvania, Erie, New York Central, and their
western connections, including the Missouri and Pacific, and a number of
less important lines west of the Mississippi.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is one