Part 3

It was at first planned that the United States Government should build and control this canal, but a bill for this purpose was vetoed by President Cleveland on account of the conditions named by the Government of Nicaragua.

In 1889 a private company was formed to undertake the work, but this company has since failed. It is now hoped that bills can be passed and financial arrangements made which will enable this company to finish the work and the United States to control the canal. The estimated cost of this canal is $150,000,000, and, as General Tracy said in his speech, the saving, etc., will more than compensate the Government for the outlay.

The importance of having this waterway joining the two great oceans has long been recognized and is easily seen. The distance from New York to San Francisco, when vessels have to go all the way around South America, is about fourteen thousand eight hundred miles. If they could pass through a canal at the Isthmus it would be reduced to under five thousand, or about one-third of the distance. Think of the saving in time and money that this would mean!

The great advantages of such a plan are evident in a moment.

We have referred to the speech of General Tracy, who, you will remember, was, during President Harrison's administration, Secretary of the Navy. In that speech he stated that, were this canal completed, we would need to have but one navy where now we practically must have two,--one to guard the Atlantic coast and one the Pacific coast.

If the canal were open, vessels of our navy could be sent from one coast to the other in a very short time.

Moreover, the canal would make trade with the East--China, Japan, etc.--much more direct than now, and, because the voyage would be easier and quicker, greatly increase that trade.

It has been said that the nation that controls such a canal will hold the "key to the Pacific," and with the considerations of our shipping interests, and the desirability of having our war-ships easily transferable from one coast to the other, and our great expanse of country, it would seem that the United States should control it.

SELECTED LIST OF NEW BOOKS

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5cts.--CLASSICS.--5cts.

The children ought to bless the spirit that prompted the getting up of such books.--MASON S. STONE, _State Supt. of Education, Vt._

No. _1st Reader Grade._

2. Æsop's Fables.--1. 3. Æsop's Fables.--2. 11. Selections from Æsop.--1. 12. Selections from Æsop.--2. 73. Story of the Buds. 74. What Annie Saw.

_2d Reader Grade._

1. Grimm's Fairy Tales.--1. 4. Grimm's Fairy Tales.--2. 7. Little Red Riding Hood. 8. Jack and the Beanstalk. 9. Story of Bryant. 13. Selections from Grimm.--1. 14. Selections from Grimm.--2. 20. Stories from Garden and Field. I. 21. Stories from Garden and Field. II. 25. Story of Columbus. 26. Story of Israel Putnam. 27. Story of William Penn. 28. Story of Washington. 29. Story of Franklin. 30. Story of Webster. 31. Story of Lincoln. 35. Story of Lowell. 36. Story of Tennyson. 42. Story of Whittier. 43. Story of Cooper. 44. Story of Fulton. 45. Story of the Pilgrims. 46. Story of the Boston Tea Party. 48. Story of Eli Whitney. 60. Story of Edison. 61. Story of Hawthorne. 62. Story of S. F. B. Morse. 63. Story of Louisa M. Alcott. 64. Story of James Watt. 68. Story of the Norsemen. 69. Puss in Boots. 70. Story of Stevenson. 71. Story of Irving. 72. Story of Pocahontas.

No. _3d Reader Grade._

15. Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving). 16. Rip Van Winkle, Etc. (Irving). 17. Philip of Pokanoket, Etc. (Irving). 18. The Voyage, Etc. (Irving). 22. Hawthorne's Golden Touch. 23. Hawthorne's Three Golden Apples. 24. Hawthorne's Miraculous Pitcher. 32. King of the Golden River (Ruskin). 33. The Chimæra (Hawthorne). 34. Paradise of Children (Hawthorne). 41. Evangeline (Longfellow). 47. Rab and His Friends. 50. Christmas Eve, Etc. (Irving).

_4th Reader Grade._

5. Story of Macbeth. 19. The Deserted Village (Goldsmith). 37. Othello, Etc. (Lamb). 38. The Tempest, Etc. (Lamb). 39. We Are Seven, Etc. (Wadsworth). 40. Ancient Mariner (Coleridge). 54. Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning). 55. John Gilpin, Etc. (Cowper). 56. The Elegy, Etc. (Gray). 65. Sir Roger De Coverley. 66. Declaration of Independence. 67. Thanatopsis and Other Poems (Bryant).

_5th Reader Grade._

6. Lays of Ancient Rome.--1. 10. Enoch Arden (Tennyson). 49. L'Allegro and Other Poems (Milton). 51. As You Like It (Shakespeare). 52. Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare). 53. Henry the Eighth (Shakespeare). 57. Lady of the Lake. Canto I. 58. Lady of the Lake. Canto II. 59. Lady of the Lake. Canto III.