Page:Lives of the presidents in words of one syllable (1903).djvu/133

 his heart and bore fruit in years to come. He was fond of books, and did so well with them that when not quite fif-teen years old he went to Un-ion Col-lege and took high rank at once. He went through all the course there in three years. Then he taught school so that he could earn sums to help him take up law. In 1854 he was at the bar, and made a start of his own with an old friend in New York.

Ar-thur won a suit in New York, in 1856, which gave the blacks the right to ride in street cars with the whites.

It was soon plain that there would be need of men of arms once more in the land, and to Ches-ter A. Ar-thur came the trust of the state troops. He took up this work with zeal and when the call for men came, from Pres-i-dent Lin-coln, the New York troops were in trim to start, though, in spite of all this, the Mas-sa-chu-setts 6th was the first on the field. Ar-thur then went up from post to post and was of great help to the Un-ion Cause.

In 1881 Gen. Ar-thur was made Vice-Pres-i-dent of this land, and Pres-i-dent on the death of Gar-field.

While Pres-i-dent Ar-thur was in the chair there came, at York-town, a glad day to show that 100 years had gone by since Corn-wal-lis, the head of the Brit-ish troops, had held out the white flag as a sign that he and his force would give in to the A-mer-i-cans and the French who were with them.

Good times now came, crops were large, and mines rich. The blacks did far more work now that they were free than they had done when they were slaves. All things went on so well that At-lan-ta gave a fine show that all might see the great gain the South had made since 1865.