up-and-Sit-down that the white father at Washington loved them and
wanted them all to come and spend the summer at his house, and also that
by sin death came into the world, and that we were all primordial germs
at first, and that we should look up, not down, look out, not in, look
forward, not backward, and lend a hand.

[Illustration: PEACE COMMISSION POW-WOWING WITH THE MODOCS.]

It was at this moment that Early-to-Bed-and Early-to-Rise-Black Hawk and
Shacknasty James, thinking that this thing had gone far enough, killed
General Canby and wounded both Mr. Meacham and Rev. Dr. Thomas, who had
never had an unkind thought toward the Modocs in their lives.

The troops then allowed their ill temper to get the best of them, and
asked the Modocs if they meant anything personal by their action, and,
learning that they did, the soldiers did what with the proper authority
they would have done at first, bombarded the children of the forest and
mussed up their lava-beds so that they were glad to surrender.

In 1873 a panic occurred after the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., of
Philadelphia, and a money stringency followed, the Democrats attributing
it a good deal to the party in power, just as cheap Republicans twenty
years later charged the Democratic administration with this same thing.
Inconsistency of this kind keeps good men, like the writer, out of
politics, and turns their attention toward the contemplation of a better
land.

[Illustration: TALKING ABOUT THE CENTENNIAL.]

In 1875 Centennial Anniversaries began to ripen and continued to fall
off the different branches of government, according to the history of
events so graphically set forth in the preceding pages. They were duly
celebrated by a happy and self-made people. The Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia in 1876 was a marked success in every way, nearly ten
millions of people having visited it, who claimed that it was well worth
the price of admission.

Aside from the fact that these ten millions of people had talked about
it to millions of folks at home,--or thought they had,--the Exposition
was a boon to every one, and thousands of Americans went home with a
knowledge of their country that they had never had before, and pointers
on blowing out gas which saved many lives in after-years.

[Illustration: MOVE ON, MAROON BROTHER, MOVE ON!]

CHAPTER XXXI.

CLOSING CHRONICLES.

In 1876 the peaceful Sioux took an outing, having refused to go to their
r