Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/78

74 more than eighty of his cities an average of several thousand of his young Americans were being killed and injured, so he decided to keep the Fourth in a new way. This year we will celebrate not only the independence of our Nation, but our freedom from the dangers of toy cannon and giant fire crackers. Buy a flag instead of a pistol.

When your grandfather was a boy, he went to the village park to hear some important man of the town read our wonderful Declaration of Independence. Then the band played patriotic airs, and there were games, and refreshments for the children, Uncle Sam thinks that was a fine way to celebrate the Fourth of July, and he wants you to go back to this kind of celebration in America to-day.

Four hundred years after the brave Christopher Columbus discovered the islands off the shore of America, Uncle Sam decided that Columbus’ bravery ought to be recognized by keeping the anniversary of the discovery as a national holiday, because, without Columbus’ bravery, there might not have been any Land of the Free. Our President, Benjamin Harrison, issued Uncle Sam’s proclamation about this new holiday. He said:

“Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, in pursuance of the aforesaid anniversary of the discovery of