The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls | Page 6

been owned by a gentleman who absolutely refused to allow any one to enter it.
A few weeks ago a heavy storm of wind and rain threw down the whole front of the house, and immediately scores of relic-hunters descended upon the house, and, delighted that they no longer need be deterred from satisfying their curiosity, roamed at will over the ruin, carrying away scraps of wood and stone as mementos of their visit.
Disgusted that he could no longer keep his property to himself, the owner sold the old house. The present proprietor intends to rebuild the front wall and preserve the rest of the building as it is, using it as a picnic resort.
This old house has a very interesting record.
During the Revolutionary times it was known as the Mabie Tavern, and the old tap-room, with its ancient bar, is still as it was in those troublous times.
Major Andr�� was the officer who, as the representative of the British general, Sir Henry Clinton, made arrangements with the infamous traitor, Benedict Arnold, for the surrender of West Point.
On returning from his interview with Arnold at Stony Point, Andr�� was arrested at Tarrytown and taken across the Tappan Zee. He was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hanged as a spy. The sentence was carried out in October, 1780.
The tavern was used as a prison, and the room in which Andr�� was visited by Alexander Hamilton, and the window from which the doomed man was supposed to have looked out on his place of execution, are still in good preservation.
G.H. ROSENFELD.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
On Monday, December 6th, the first regular session of the Fifty-fifth Congress began.
At twelve o'clock precisely the Senate and the House of Representatives were called to order by their respective presiding officers.
The usual form of business was then gone through.
After a prayer by the chaplain, both bodies appointed two members to inform the President that Congress was in session, and ready to receive any communication from him.
At half-past one the President's secretary presented the Message to the Senate, and a few minutes later handed another in to the House of Representatives.
The Message, which is President McKinley's first annual message, was listened to with the closest attention.
After a greeting to Congress, and congratulations on the good work done in the extra session last summer, the President took up the
CURRENCY QUESTION.--You will remember that he was very anxious to make some changes in our money system, which he did not consider satisfactory. He asked Congress to appoint a committee to examine into the subject, but Congress referred the matter to the Committee on Finance, and no special committee was appointed.
The President realized from this that the country was not ready or willing to have changes made in its money system, and therefore, in his Message, he treats the currency with the utmost care.
He warns Congress that the present money system is unsound and needs changing. He reminds the lawmakers that the country has undertaken to pay out a certain amount of gold every year, but that it has not made any arrangements for receiving gold. The consequence is that the treasury has every year to buy the gold it needs to pay its debts.
This the President does not approve of.
He suggests that some arrangement should be made whereby debts due to the Government shall be paid in gold, so that the treasury may receive enough gold for its needs.
He leaves the matter in the hands of Congress, suggesting that it might help matters if the bank-notes which the Government has to redeem in gold shall only be paid out again in exchange for gold. He also asks that earnest attention be given to the plan of the Secretary of the Treasury.
THE CUBAN QUESTION is treated in a very impartial and statesmanlike manner.
The President goes over its history in a way that is most interesting to us, because he is in possession of facts that no private citizen can obtain. We print a portion of his remarks:
"The story of Cuba for many years has been one of unrest, growing discontent; an effort toward a larger enjoyment of liberty and self-control; of organized resistance to the mother country.
"The prospect from time to time that the weakness of Spain's hold upon the island might lead to the transfer of Cuba to a continental power called forth, between 1823 and 1860, various emphatic declarations of the policy of the United States to permit no disturbance of Cuba's connection with Spain, unless in the direction of independence or acquisition by us through purchase; nor has there been any change of this declared policy since upon the part of the Government.
"The revolution which began in 1868 lasted for ten years, despite the strenuous efforts of the successive Peninsular governments to suppress it. Then, as now, the Government