am was not long to lead a life of peace; for in 1861 he,
then but a boy of eight-een, left his books and his home, and went to
the war. Many sto-ries prove how brave he was while there; but two will
show you why he rose so fast from the ranks. At one time the guns had
been left on the road, af-ter a great fight; and it would be a hard task
to go back near the foe to get them. But, young Mc-Kin-ley said, "The
boys will haul them;" and he and a few oth-ers went back for them and
brought them into our lines. Then he was at one time two miles from the
fight, in charge of the food; he was quite safe; but he thought our men
would fight bet-ter, if they had some cof-fee and food. So he filled a
cart and drove straight to the lines, where our brave men were hard at
work. Was this not a brave act? To risk his life for the sake of tak-ing
food and drink to the worn men. He worked his way straight to the
front and came out of the war a cap-tain. He went home at once and took
up the stud-y of law in Can-ton; one of his first speech-es was for the
rights of the black men; he said that they should have the same right to
vote that white men had; and he was ev-er on the side of the black man.
In 1869 Mc-Kin-ley was mar-ried to Miss I-da Sax-ton. They were both
very young when their two lit-tle chil-dren died. The young law-yer did
all he could to cheer his wife; and she was as brave as he, and did not
let her grief keep him from his work. He rose fast in his state, and
held high place more than once; then, in 1877, he was sent to Congress.
In 1891 he was made gov-ern-or of O-hi-o; and in 1897, he had made such
a great name for him-self that he was put up for pres-i-dent by the
Re-pub-li-cans, and e-lect-ed. Just as he came in-to of-fice, the strife
in Cu-ba was at its height; and men here in our great, free land had
much pit-y for the Cu-bans, who were try-ing to get free from Spain,
just as we had tried to shake off the hand of Eng-land long years a-go.
The Span-ish rule grew worse and worse, as Spain found that Cu-ba would
not give in. At last Gen-er-al Wey-ler, a harsh and cru-el man, was sent
there to force peace on an-y terms; but Gen-er-al Go-mez knew his foes
well, and his brave men fought with a strength born of a great hate for
Spain. By and by, when Spain saw she could not win the day, she sent
word that if Cu-ba would lay down her arms, she could have the rights
for which she had asked in vain in the past.

[Illustration: WIL