half of
dollars. Besides this, other men continually came back with such
quantities of the precious metal that it was apparent that not only were
the reports justified, but, what is the exception in such cases, the
whole truth had not been told.

The natural consequence was that a rush set in for the Klondike, which
is the name of a tributary of the Yukon, and flows through the richest
gold fields, where the mining days of early California were repeated.
Dawson City was founded at the mouth of the Klondike, and in a short
time had a population of 5,000. Before the year closed, 500 claims were
located, with more taken up daily. As was inevitable, there was much
suffering, for the Yukon is closed by ice during the greater part of the
year, and the winter climate is of Arctic severity. The most productive
fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in the British provinces
known as the Northwest Territories. While many gathered fortunes in the
Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and suffering, returned to
their homes poorer than when they left them.

[Illustration: READY FOR THE TRAIL.]

SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA.

The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American
history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account
is given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to
set forth some historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a
proper understanding of the story of the war itself.

Spain may best illustrate the certain decline of the Latin race and the
rise of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the
leading maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious,
ferocious, and totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term
"common sense." So lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that
she alienated, when it was just as easy to attract, the weaker nations
and colonies with which she came in contact. It has been shown in the
earlier chapters of this work that when her exploring expeditions into
the interior of America were obliged to depend for their own existence
upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could readily gain and
retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simple-minded
natives by their frightful cruelties. The chief amusement of the early
Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of
their nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and