LIAM McKINLEY.]

But it was too late; Cu-ba had no faith in Spain, and would now be free
from her hard yoke. There was much want in the big towns of Cu-ba at
this time, for Wey-ler had made all the poor folks, who had lived in
peace on their small farms, come in-to the towns. He said they gave
help to the Cu-ban troops, and so he forced them to leave their homes
and would on-ly let them bring with them just the few things that they
could put on their backs. Then he had their lit-tle homes, and their
crops which they had raised with care, all burned to the ground. He had
lit-tle food to give this great host of poor peo-ple, and ma-ny died in
the streets for the want of bread. You may be sure that our great land
saw the pain and want down in Cu-ba, and longed to give aid; but an act
of help on our part would mean war with Spain, and this Mc-Kin-ley did
not wish. But there came a day when a great cry went up through the
U-nit-ed States at a foul deed done in the bay of Ha-va-na. Our great
war ship, the "Maine," was blown up by a bomb, as she lay at an-chor in
the har-bor. The thought of our poor men sent to such a death raised the
cry of war in all hearts. "Re-mem-ber the Maine," was the war-cry; and
men cried for war at once with Spain. But Mc-Kin-ley gave Spain one more
chance to stop the fight and free Cu-ba; this she would not do. So on
A-pril 21st, 1898, once more the U-nit-ed States had to make read-y for
war. From all the states men poured in and camps sprang up here and
there, where the men were taught to load and fire their guns. Off at
Hong-Kong, in charge of our war-ships, was brave Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey. He
knew that the Span-ish fleet was in Ma-ni-la Bay, near the Phil-ip-pine
Is-lands, which were ruled by Spain; the loss of these ships would be a
great blow to Spain just at this time; so Dew-ey steered his ships there
to strike a blow for his coun-try.

It was night when he reached the spot, and be-fore the Span-iards knew
he was near, six of his great ships had slipped past their forts. Then
a fierce fire poured on him from the forts; but it did not do much harm.
At last the Span-ish fleet saw him, and at once the ships o-pened fire;
but Dew-ey's flag-ship, the "O-lym-pi-a," sent out such a storm of shot
and shell, that the first of the Span-ish ships was sunk, and all on
board killed.

The fight last-ed two hours; and at the end of that time the Span-ish
fleet had all been sunk. Great joy was felt in the U-nit