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

Don Carlos, and will appeal to him rather than allow the
hated Home Rule to be carried out.
In Spain, also, the Carlist party is making strong protests against the
establishment of Home Rule, and it is thought that Don Carlos will
seize this measure as a pretext for coming forward and making one
more effort to gain the throne of Spain.
Several of the Spanish journals have begun to speak of him as "the
king," and, strange to say, this treasonable conduct has been allowed to
go unpunished.
* * * * *
The stone house at Tappan on the Hudson River, in which Major John
André was imprisoned before he was hanged as a spy, is about to be
opened to the public.
For forty years it has 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 André 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, André 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 André 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