rebuild the
front wall and preserve the rest of the building as it is, using it as a
picnic resort.

This old house has a very interesting record.

During the Revolutionary times it was known as the Mabie Tavern, and the
old tap-room, with its ancient bar, is still as it was in those
troublous times.

Major Andre was the officer who, as the representative of the British
general, Sir Henry Clinton, made arrangements with the infamous traitor,
Benedict Arnold, for the surrender of West Point.

On returning from his interview with Arnold at Stony Point, Andre was
arrested at Tarrytown and taken across the Tappan Zee. He was tried by
court-martial and sentenced to be hanged as a spy. The sentence was
carried out in October, 1780.

The tavern was used as a prison, and the room in which Andre was visited
by Alexander Hamilton, and the window from which the doomed man was
supposed to have looked out on his place of execution, are still in good
preservation.

G.H. ROSENFELD.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

On Monday, December 6th, the first regular session of the Fifty-fifth
Congress began.

At twelve o'clock precisely the Senate and the House of Representatives
were called to order by their respective presiding officers.

The usual form of business was then gone through.

After a prayer by the chaplain, both bodies appointed two members to
inform the President that Congress was in session, and ready to receive
any communication from him.

At half-past one the President's secretary presented the Message to the
Senate, and a few minutes later handed another in to the House of
Representatives.

The Message, which is President McKinley's first annual message, was
listened to with the closest attention.

After a greeting to Congress, and congratulations on the good work done
in the extra session last summer, the President took up the

CURRENCY QUESTION.--You will remember that he was very anxious to make
some changes in our money system, which he did not consider
satisfactory. He asked Congress to appoint a committee to examine into
the subject, but Congress referred the matter to the Committee on
Finance, and no special committee was appointed.

The President realized from this that the country was not ready or
willing to have changes made in its money system, and therefore, in his
Message, he treats the currency with the utmost care.

He warns Congres