ral Leonard Wood read the transfer, and the
President-elect signed it in the name of the new Republic. To free Cuba
from oppression the United States had entered into war. Our country
sought nothing for itself, and now the freedom of the island was
attained, and the American forces were to be withdrawn.

After the signing of the transfer Governor-General Wood loosened the
halyards and the star-spangled banner was lowered, having accomplished
nobly that for which it had been raised. As it sank slowly down the
Union salute of forty-five guns was fired. Then, by the hands of
General Wood, the Cuban flag was hoisted to its position and floated
proudly over a free country. A national salute of twenty-one guns was
fired in its honor, and the history of the Cuban Republic had begun.
As the _New York Sun_ said, "No country ever before conquered a
territory at great sacrifice to set up a government other than its own."

In the hands of Admiral Robert E. Peary our flag has won the honors of
the Northland. Many others had gone _far_ north; for Peary it was
reserved to go _farthest_ north, to the Pole itself. This was no
chance success, brought about by fine equipment and favorable weather;
it was the fair result of careful preparation and hard work. The
Admiral wrote in his journal:--

The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and goal
for twenty years, mine at last! I cannot bring myself to realize it.

It all seems so simple and commonplace. As Bartlett said when turning
back, when speaking of his being in these exclusive regions, which
no mortal had ever penetrated before, "It is just like every day!"

A little later, in acknowledging with gratitude the generous aid which
he had received, the Admiral wrote:--

Their assistance has enabled me to tell the last of the great earth
stories, the story the world has been waiting to hear for three
hundred years--the story of the discovery of the North Pole.

Such is the history of the flag of the United States of America from
the time when a little group of colonies dared to raise their own
standard and oppose their feeble strength and their slender resources
to the trained armies and the ample wealth of England.

This was a century and a half ago. The Republic has come of age and has
accepted her rightful share of the responsibilities of the world. The
mother country rejoiced to do her honor, and on one brilliant April
mor