Ummm...yeahhhhh

I'm just posting this because idk I am...it was on my other blog...it wasn't meant to be "writing blog" worthy, but oh well.....

Picture a girl going out for a trail ride, bareback. She heads out onto the trail and doesn't get more then 15 paces before she hears shrieking. She thinks instantly that it sounds like a chicken. A familiar chicken. But surely it can't be a chicken of hers, seeing as how her chickens have been gone now for one full week. She decides it must be a turkey in distress. She urges her horse forward at a trot and peers through the trees, trying to see. Suddenly, movement catches her eye, and the girl spots a very frightened chicken running through the snow covered wood, followed by a very mischievous young cat named Gronemeyer. The girl screams like she's going to die, yelling like crazy to stop the stupid cat from killing the one chicken that made it away from the slaughter man's hands the week before. She hops off her horse, and without really thinking, she snaps her horse's reins to a very small tree branch and races through the woods. The cat is now sitting, content to watch the show, under a tree, while the chicken runs around, bewildered. The girl follows the chicken through the woods. The chicken ambles along, just out of reach of the girl, until the chicken goes just behind the trunk of a tree. The girl stands on the other side of the trunk and peeks around the left side of the trunk. There is the chicken, peeking back at her. The chicken moves to the right side of the trunk and peeks around. So does the girl. This process continues itself as the girl contemplates how to snatch the bird. She decides she has no other choice, and as the bird peeks around the right side of the trunk another time, the girl grabs the bird's tail feathers. The bird cries out, but the girl grabs her and hugs her to her chest. Survivor has been found.

Miss Daisy-Mae--a Memoir

So, this is a memoir I had to write recently for English class...Actually, I'm handing it in tomorrow...I'll try to remember to let you know what grade I get...

Squish, smush, snort. These sounds met my ears as she cantered around me in the mud and snow. It was blustery cold that day, April 17, 2007, the day my dream came true. You could find me standing in a small corral at Storie Stables, a private horse farm a little out of the town I lived in. This place, the place my 12 year old eyes first laid eyes on her, was windy, bitterly cold, as it was the last winter storm of the year. The weather seemed to have decided to work really hard at freezing everything solid and turning the world all white for the last time before spring hit. In the midst of this storm my mother brought me here to take a look at a horse whose “For Sale” ad I’d seen on the internet. She was a cute little horse, still fuzzy with her winter coat and chestnut brown, with a crooked, penguin-shaped white stripe down her face. She was a stubborn, feisty little mare, but I was a stubborn kid, and wouldn’t admit that she was a tad bit more to handle then I was used to. Anyway, here we were, the horse and I, her cantering in a circle around me, driven along by my repeated snaps of the whip. My eyes and body circled around and around watching her nimble legs navigate the slick, muddy footing.

My horse-back riding Aunt Daniela rode the dark-colored horse and had quite a ride, as the mare refused to do half of the things asked of her. Soon, I mounted her, expecting an equally challenging ride, but instead the little horse calmed right down and listened to me, as if she knew it was important.

The world was quiet, white, and cold until Jean, the owner of the Quarter Horse I rode, asked “Would you like to try her outside?”

“Sure,” I responded, nodding bravely. Tears welled up in my eyes as my mother’s voice broke the stillness:

“Should I write a check?”

I’d taken riding lessons since I was a little four year old riding a welsh pony. Did I want to have my own horse? Well, that’s like asking a man about to die of hunger if he’d like some bread! Ok, so maybe not that dramatic, but it was close. Of course I wanted a horse!

Sitting astride the little mare, I grinned, hot tears running down my chilled cheeks, and nodded. All those years of wishing for a pony over the candles on my birthday cake had paid off. My dream had come true: Daisy was mine.

The Second Industrial Revolution

This is one of those essays I wrote that I'm posting on here pretty much for my own way of preserving it, because I don't think it's interesting enough for people to want to read it...anyway, I had to write this about the Second Industrial Revolution for social studies...it took hours to write...ugh..I'd say, all together, 3-4 hours writing...spread apart on 2 days. :-/ lol

The time of the Second Industrial Revolution was a time of growth in the United States: More inventions were made, which made life easier, and these inventions had a great effect on the world then and now.

The Second Industrial Revolution was sparked by the creation of the railroad. During the Civil War, railroads existed and were helpful in bringing supplies to troops, but they weren’t very reliable as they would only go on for as long as the owner of the railroad had land. When the owner of the railroad ran out of land, the railroad would end, and people would have to move the things from the railroad to another railroad. People did realize, however, how well a railroad could work if they were all connected. They found that they could make money from the people using their railroad and riding on the trains, and soon people connected their local railroads together. Railroad barons, like Cornelius Vanderbilt, bought small railroads from owners and consolidated, or connected, them together to make a large railroad. Through the help of immigrant labor, a transcontinental railroad (a railroad that goes all the way across the country) was created, made up of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads.

The railroad companies began competing for their customers. They would offer rebates, or discounts, to people to use their railroads. People would use their railroads because of the rebates instead of other railroads, so other railroads would offer rebates. This was the process which continued on-constant competition, as each railroad fought to give the best prices. For the normal person to use a railroad sometimes these prices were fine, however, farmers had a problem. They wanted to be able to ship their products places to sell, but they didn’t have the money to pay the high prices the railroad companies asked for. This made them angry. Railroads were also the reason that small factories shut down. They were no longer needed because larger factories produced goods and now had the means to transport them far and wide.

The creation and use of the railroad offered new opportunities for people, like creating jobs and making travel easier. Steel workers became much more needed and used as they created the steel for the sides of the railroad tracks. Lumberjacks were also more common, as they made the tracks for the railroads. Coal workers produced coal to run the trains on the tracks, too. Immigrants were given the option of working on the railroad, and they were the sole creators of the tracks that soon ran across the country. The railroad also caused many more people to settle in the west, as it became easier to go out west on a train instead of in a stagecoach or wagon. In all, railroads were one of the biggest factors in the start of the Second Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have been the same without 3 very important men: John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Piermont Morgan.

John Rockefeller was the leader in the oil industry. He invested in an oil refinery for himself, and used the profits he made from this one refinery to buy other refineries, until he owned every single one of them. This monopoly (owning all the businesses in an industry) erased all competition-he controlled everything, and he made record profits. He named all his refineries together The Standard Oil Company of Ohio.

Andrew Carnegie was the leader in the steel industry. While traveling in England in the 1870’s he learned about the Bessemer process and when he came back to the US he created a steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania. He produced steel and sold the steel to railroad owners and builders. Very quickly, Carnegie was earning a large profit, and used it to buy out rivals. He bought iron mines, railroad and steamship lines, and warehouses. At this point, Mr. Carnegie owned everything he needed to produce steel: the means to get iron ore to make steel, railroads and ships to distribute the steel, and warehouses to store it in. He was a great example of vertical integration (owning everything you need to create a finished product). In 1892 he combined all his single businesses into the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1900 he produced more steel then all of Great Britain. Carnegie believed that he had the duty to help improve society, so he donated over $60 million to towns to build libraries all over the country. Andrew Carnegie had a major impact on the second Industrial Revolution.

J.P. Morgan was the leader in the banking industry. In the 1890’s Morgan and his friends invested money in the stock of troubled corporations. They won seats on the boards of directors because they were stock holders and from there they directed companies in a way that avoided competition and made money. Morgan ended up gaining control of most of the nations major rail lines. Then he began to buy up steel companies and he put them together into one large corporation. By 1901, Morgan was the head of the United States Steel Company (which included Carnegie Steel) and this was the first business in the US to be worth more then $1 million.

During the second Industrial Revolution many inventions were created that simplified life. Some major inventors were Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Bessemer, George Eastman and George Pullman.

Thomas Edison created the light bulb using electricity in 1878. The light bulb made it possible to create light at night without the hazard and struggle with a candle and matches-just a flick and the light was on. It could also be used to send signals or messages with Morse code, or a light to show when a machine was one, etc. Even now people use the light bulb for many things. Almost every household in the US has lights now. This invention could be one of the most treasured and important of them all.

Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone in 1876. The telephone was a device that could be used to talk to people, no matter how far away they were, and was faster and easier then a telegraph, which could only send one message at a time, and messages had to be short because they were “sent” using Morse code. Bell modeled the telephone after the telegraph-he used a human voice instead of Morse code-and it worked. A person’s voice could be carried through wires to another person, near or far. This made talking to people and communication easier, and connected people and kept them in contact because they could talk whenever they wanted. They could send news without having to wait for letters to arrive to people, which the letters would, by the time the other person got it, most likely be outdated. Now, in the 21^st century, people still use it as a main source of communication, and can talk and do business with people all the way across the ocean, all because of Alexander Graham Bell.

Henry Bessemer thought up the Bessemer Process in the 1850’s, which made it possible to produce steel cheaper and easier, but so that it was still strong and sturdy when it was made. Steel was used more often because of the Bessemer Process to make skyscrapers, nails, screws, needles, and pins. Today, steel is used for buildings, machines, cars, and more.

In 1888, George Eastman invented the camera. A camera can take a picture of something-people, places, objects, anything really and be looked at for years to come. Before people had to have huge cameras and only people who were professionals could take pictures. Photos were rare. Eastman produced a camera that any person could use to take photos. People could take photos of anything, any time, without a big hassle. These days pretty much everyone has a camera and it is used for a profession, hobby, and to savor memories.

George Pullman is the reason sleeping on a train was and still is comfortable. Pullman designed a “sleeping car” in 1857, which was a train car that people could ride in overnight and sleep in comfortably. It made overnight train rides more enjoyable and less bothersome. Nowadays, sleeper cars aren’t used as often, but when they are used, we can thank Pullman for making train rides overnight so fun and comfortable.

The Second Industrial Revolution didn’t make everything wonderful. It created new jobs for people-working in factories, for instance. People and children at young ages could work in a factory, however, the conditions were not safe and people were not treated well. One example of this is the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

On March 25, 1911, a large fire broke out in a New York City factory. A factory called the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was housed in the Asch building on the top three floors- floors 7-10. Over 500 women and children between the ages of 13 and 23 worked in the factory, producing clothing all day long. Women worked in rooms that were locked from the outside by the owners of the factory, in an effort to keep women working. Supposedly, the fire was started by one of the owners of the factory throwing a cigarette butt into a pile of fabric, which caught on fire. In any case, the top three stories were on fire in a matter of minutes, and the women were trapped inside the locked rooms. Fire hoses and ladders couldn’t reach these top stories and women began to die. There was an elevator with a man inside that ran it, and this man went up and down, trying to rescue women, however, the elevator could only occupy 10 people at a time. The women who couldn’t make it down the elevator ended up having to throw themselves out the windows or die burning in the flames. Women who jumped died from the fall. Other women threw themselves down the elevator shaft, thinking they could save themselves, but they died as well. Altogether, on that fateful day, approximately 146 women, most immigrants from Ireland and other countries, died. This tragic accident was an eye-opener for women’s, and worker’s rights.

The Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman, Illinois rented out houses to it’s workers, and ran food and supply stores that workers bought from. Altogether, workers relied on the Pullman Company for their whole life-in a sense, they were slaves. In 1893, the company decreased wages by one fourth without making changes in rent, fuel, or other costs for living. The workers tried to speak to the company and have prices changed, but when the company didn’t listen, workers went on strike. President Grover Cleveland sent troops to the Pullman town, and they opened fire on a group of strikers, killing approximately 30 people. This was another sad event, all because workers were trying to get their rights.

During a labor rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago, in 1886, a bomb exploded among a group of policemen as they tried to stop the rally. The bomb killed seven police officers and injured seventy people. The incident was known nationwide and damaged the view of the growing labor movement.

The Second Industrial Revolution increased the amount of immigrants and immigrant labor in the country. Immigrants came to the United States and ended up having jobs in factories or other places where they didn’t receive fair treatment and pay. Immigrants worked in factories like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and helped make the transcontinental railroad, which was the main cause of the whole industrial revolution.

The Second Industrial Revolution was started because of the Central and Pacific Railroad. It increased immigrants and immigrant labor. It also was a cause for people to realize worker’s rights. Inventions were made and life changed drastically. The Second Industrial Revolution was a time of growth and learning in the United States of America.

I'm Taking a Risk of Embarrassment

This is a moment of udder embarrassment...See, around last January, or maybe earlier, I really don't know, I started a story just with the first two lines of this one...I thought maybe I could use it in another essay or story later...then one day, when I was bored, I added to it...today I re-read it, added a bit, and I have decided to risk complete humiliation by posting this story, written on a whim...it's just really, really cheesy...or maybe it's not and I just think so, but anyway, here it is...feel free to give constructive criticism...or just criticize:

"I will NOT chew my nails, I will NOT chew my nails." Kaitlin thought, as she headed down the hall, dodging other students who were mingling with their friends, as she headed to her English classroom. Jeez, people really need to get time management classes , she thought, as she glanced at groups of kids still talking together, when there were only a few precious seconds left before the next class started. Shouts of "Hey, Taylor, do you have a piece of gum?", and "Yo, Matt, can I borrow a pencil?" filled her ears. Kaitlin saw her friend, Naomi ahead of her, and she ran up to her, "Hey, Naomi, what's your next class?"
"Health, ugh, such a bore," Kaitlin's tall, olive skinned friend answered with a sigh.
"Haha, I have English! Much better-oh, wait, no it isn't , I have a test today! Oh, shoot, I forgot to study! Oh, I'm thinking of the Social Studies test, I didn't study for THAT, but I did the English guide."
"No worries, there's a sub in Social Studies, so no test! Good luck! Tell me later how the English test was!"
"I will, bye Naomi!"

Kaitlin entered the class, annoyed to find that she was late. She slipped cautiously into her seat, knowing that any minute her teacher, Ms. Mooney, would scold her for being late, but looking up after she sat down, she found that her teacher wasn't there. They had a substitute. YES! She thought joyfully, realizing she was free of being yelled at. Class was uneventful, and Kaitlin continued through her day.

Kaitlin stared anxiously at the clock: Just 2 more minutes....one minute....50 seconds...20...10...BRING! The loud whine of the school bell filled the air, signaling that school was over. Kaitlin bolted out of her seat, her blue backpack swinging on her shoulder. She jogged through the hall, skipped quickly down the school steps and onto the sidewalk. She turned a a left at the street corner, and sprinted down the street. Slowing after a few moments, she grabbed a granola bar out of her bag, opened the package, and biting into it she planned her next few hours. Okay, when I get to the barn I'll take Poncho out of his paddock, groom him, saddle up....Maybe Naomi will ride with us today. We could take a nice little trail ride, maybe jump the stream a little...Oh, but Checker's, Naomi's horse, is lame...darn woodchuck hole. Hadn't he stepped in it, we would be riding today...well, she may be able to rent out a horse, we'll see....

After a 15 minute walk, Kaitlin arrived at the stable where the horse she was leasing, a brown and white paint pony, Poncho, was kept. She slowed to a walk as she walked into the stable yard, remember the "No running around the horses" rule. She stepped into the stable's storage room and put her backpack into one of the many mini lockers that were used for the rider's belongings. She traded it in for her helmet and jeans. Turning from her locker she met the cold stair of fellow rider Annabelle Tailor. Annabelle was a skilled rider and owned a pure bred Thoroughbred gelding named Kingston, King for short. Kaitlin smiled icily back at her, remembering the argument they had had the day before. They had had a discussion over horse feed. Poncho was fed normal, feed store brand sweet feed, but Annabelle had been throwing a fit over the fact that Kingston wasn't getting high quality, expensive show horse feed. Kaitlin had kind of lost her temper, shouting about how she was so spoiling her horse, and it wouldn't kill him to eat regular food.
"So, out to ride your little pony?" Annabelle asked dryly.
"Yes, I am out to ride. How about you, going to ride her spoiled, 'perfect' horse? You handle him so well-love the way you let him go galloping yesterday and lost the reins-such a great horse." Kaitlin turned, knowing she had won the argument, and headed out the door. She met up with Naomi in the aisle. "Hey, are you going to ride today?"

Naomi sighed "No, I don't have time, I have to ice Checker's hoof, and hand walk him a little, and clean his stall, and make him a bran mash, and probably be stuck cleaning tack, or lugging hay bales and water buckets...oh, but I really want to ride!"

"Hmmm...well, I guess you can't really get out of that stuff, huh? If you want you can hop on Poncho after I ride today to cool him off while I clean off some tack or feed Checkers. Do you want you?" Kaitlin asked, hoping it would cheer her friend up.

"Yeah...yeah, that's a good idea, thanks...as long as you don't mind."

"No, of course I don't! I'll probably be back from riding around 4:30, so check the arena around that time!" Kaitlin said, and after saying a quick goodbye to Naomi she headed to the tack room, grabbed Poncho's western saddle and bridle and hurried to his stall.

>>>>>>TO BE CONTINUED.....EVENTUALLY<<<<<<

Dear Agnes:

This is a 'letter' I had to write for Social Studies. We're learning about the Industrial Revolution, and the Transportation Revolution, and I had to pretend I was writing a letter to a friend in a neighboring town and tell them about a railroad that was built in my town. It's cheesy on purpose, don't worry. Here it is:


Dear Agnes, June 26, 1816

Have I told you that a railroad has been put into our town? It has! Our town decided to let a railroad be put in, and it’s been very good…well, for the most part. The big dairy here in town is doing very well now because it has a siding right next to their barn, so instead of having to put their products into wagons and moving them to a station, the train is right in their backyard! The government had to put the rails into people’s properties, so because they were intruding on their property, they paid the people money, so not only does the dairy have an easier job of loading the trains, they were given money, too!

This railroad business hasn’t been all good, though. One man had to have his house and barn torn down because the railroad designer had no other choice but to go through his home. He was paid as well, but in my opinion, it wasn’t enough to lose an entire home. The small store had to close down as well because too many people were purchasing goods from large factories that ship their goods in with the train, and they weren’t relying on the store anymore.

There is also a large cow farm that had some trouble with the train station being in town. One thing is that the railroad cuts right through their farm road, and through their cow’s pastures. Just last week a train was going through town and a coal from the firebox of the car landed on the family’s roof during the night, and the whole roof burned! The family also claims that the cow’s milk hasn’t been as good as before the railroad came into town. The good thing for them is that since they now have a railroad near them, they can ship their milk out to other towns and sell it, which means that they make more money. I’d bet that your city has been getting milk from our town!

I like the railroad. I’m just a regular, living in town, and I love that I can get so many products from big cities that I would normally have to travel a long way to get! It’s wonderful! It’ll also be much easier to visit you my dear-I can just catch a train to Allentown, where you live! I bet I could be there 3 times faster then going by wagon. I’ve heard the trains are SO much better to travel with then by stagecoach. It’s very fast, and it has seating areas, and dining. It’s probably very expensive, but it’s much better then traveling 5 hours with Jack and the wagon. Poor Jack gets very tired of pulling all that weight the whole way, so I have to take time and rest the poor horse throughout the ride. This railroad has certainly been a good investment. Faster, smoother, safer, cleaner, the list goes on and on.

I’d have more to say, but I must go now. I believe I just heard a train whistle, so I’m eager to go out and see if the train’s brought in any new products.

That's it!......

What's the Deal with Cloning?

I had to think about posting this because there is so much controversy around the issue of cloning. I had to write an essay for science class about 3 weeks ago about my view of cloning. I will post it below. I got a 100% on it, by the way. It's called "What's the Deal with Cloning?:

People, every day, are discovering and learning new things, and one of these new discoveries is cloning. Scientists have figured out a way to clone, or make a copy of, embryos, that could either be placed in a women’s womb to grow a baby, or be used to extract stem cells in the early stages of development, to be used for therapeutic cloning. However, there is controversy around cloning because using the embryos for therapeutic cloning takes away lives. If the egg used to make the embryo was fertilized naturally, it would create a human being. Using it for therapeutic cloning squashes the chance of a person coming out of that embryo. That is pretty much destroying a person’s life, and that person deserves the chance to live.

If people did begin to clone other people or animals, there is a high risk that the baby born will have health issues, or die younger then normal. We suspect this because that’s what happened to Dolly the sheep, a sheep clone created by Ian Wilmut in 1996. Dolly was born pretty healthy, but it took 275 tries before her just to make her. She also developed arthritis at a young age, which does not happen to naturally born sheep. She aged faster then most sheep, and her life was put to an early end when she was 6 years old, because she developed progressive lung disease, and the scientists decided to euthanize her. This is a short life for a sheep, whose life span is between 8 and 13 years. One might question, after hearing about Dolly’s multiple health issues, and short life span, if we should really clone! Do we really want to clone humans? Destroying embryos until we get a real, healthy human, and putting it at risk of having diseases and a short life? Think about it. Obviously, it would be irresponsible to clone humans.

Many also question the use of stem cells for therapeutic cloning. Stem cells are cells that are created in the early stages of the development of a human. They are cells that can virtually become ANY cell. People want to take eggs from women, “trick” them into developing by using electricity or chemicals, and take the stem cells from the embryo. Yes, these stem cells could help many people, but they’re also killing other people’s chances of living; the people that could be created if the embryos were allowed to keep growing. If the people that would be created could talk, don’t you think that they’d say “Let me live!”? God created these people to live and breathe, so we shouldn’t have the right to clone them.

Imagine a future where parents who want to have children can chose their children’s traits. Sounds wonderful, right? Wrong! You see, Jack and Lisa Nash, of Englewood, Colorado, had a ‘designer baby’ born to them in 2003, a little boy named Adam. The Nash’s first child, a daughter born in 2000, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called Fanconi anemia. They needed to do a bone marrow transplant for Molly, or else she would die. The only problem was, they didn’t have tissue identical to Molly, so they couldn’t do the transplant. To cure this they created Adam. With the help of a doctor, they created several dozen embryos and chose one with the proper genetic characteristics, like the correct tissue type that Molly needed. The transplant went well, and Molly is now a healthy child, as well as Adam. This was all wonderful for the Nash family, and families with similar problems, but what happened to the other dozen embryos the Nash’s didn’t choose? They were most likely disposed of. Lives, dozens of lives, were just thrown away, because they weren’t good enough. What if people do that in the future, but not for medical issues? What if they do it just so they can get the ‘perfect’ child? More and more embryos will be thrown away, and more lives wasted. More lives, people that want to live, but are tossed away like a bruised apples, apples that would taste so good, if people would just look over that one blemish. Creating ‘designer’ babies is a selfish and unjust act. God created people to reproduce naturally, and to be pleased with what they get. We don’t need ‘designer’ babies in our society.

Although cloning may help some lives, overall it just destroys lives that should live. Scientists shouldn’t clone people because, like we realized with Dolly, there are many complications and there would not be many years of existence for the people who result of cloning. They would also be seen as ‘outcasts’ in society because they weren’t created the way other people are, and this would separate the connection between people. If every person was a clone, the diversity that makes the world so interesting wouldn’t be as large. Creating embryos for their stem cells is dangerous work, and kills lives. So, unquestionably, cloning should not be allowed. It would create a twist in the world that is certainly unneeded.

Please, after reading this, if you are against cloning, please don't leave a crazy comment. I realize that cloning does have pros, but in this essay I wrote of the cons, and I stated my opinion. Please leave it at that.

Make Sure You VOTE in the New York Primary!

This is a letter I had to write for Social Studies to our town newspaper. The goal was to convince people to vote in New York's primary on February 5th. GO VOTE!

Why don’t people vote? I’m only a kid, but already I can see reasons why people should vote for our country’s leader! We need to vote to make sure a leader gets chosen who is rightly suited for the job! The said leader must know how to keep America safe and how to run it properly. He or she must see not only what he wants for the country, but what us, the citizens, want, too. These things should be their goal!

Our president makes huge decisions for the United States! You should go out and vote in the New York State primary on February 5^th to make sure that a person gets picked to be the leader who will make the correct decisions! The decisions that the president of the country makes, believe it or not, can and will affect you! And if it for some reason doesn’t affect you, it will affect others-neighbors, spouse, children, friends, etc. You want them to be happy, right? Then you need to get out and vote, and make a difference in our country, and in the lives of others.

Besides, don’t even think about complaining about things in our government unless you voted, because otherwise you’re complaining about something that could be different.

If you vote, you have a chance of living a happier life because you know that you are in good hands. If you are able to vote, go do it, on February 5^th, and make a difference in you life and other’s. Let’s pull together and make a difference!

Militia Puts a Bold End to Shay's Rebellion

I wrote this for a Social Studies project about Shay's Rebellion. I was supposed to act like a reporter. Here it is:

The talk of the town yesterday afternoon was the end of the rebellion-Shays Rebellion. Daniel Shays, of Pelham, Massachusetts, started his own rebellion along with farmers from three other counties in Massachusetts last September (1786), in response to the American government raising the tax for farmers. Shays, a farmer himself, served in The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Battle of Saratoga. Farmers were still growing crops during the recent war, and the demand for their products was high because of it. In an effort to make as much money as possible, they bought more land, animals, seeds, etc., using loans. Now that the war is over, the Massachusetts government has raised their tax, to recover war debts. Farmer’s who can’t pay the tax are having land taken away. This has angered the farmers, including Shays, and they started a revolt. Armed with pitchforks and other farm tools they closed down courthouses in the western part of the state, thinking that if there were no courts they wouldn’t be taxed. The government threatened to kill anyone they captured who was a part of the revolt, but this didn’t faze the Americans. This made it worse. Last month, September, the rebels forced the state supreme court in the town of Springfield to shut down. Coming back a month later, they hoped to shut down a federal weapons warehouse. Yesterday afternoon, January 1787, troops held a battle with them, and Massachusetts State thinks this has put an end to it. We will see. They will continue to capture any rebels if they should find them, and hopefully this will put a stop to all this havoc. For now, Shays’ Rebellion seems to have come to a pause.

Book Review on Bread and Roses, Too, by Katherine Paterson

I recently (December) had the task of reading a book for English, and having to write an online book review for it, with a recommendation included. I read the book "Bread and Roses, Too" by Katherine Paterson. I really liked it. Since I have nothing to post otherwise, this will be it. I warned you that I might post boring book reviews! :-) Below is my review and my recommendation.

Katherine Paterson’s “Bread and Roses, Too” is a historical fiction book that takes place during an infamous strike during the year 1912, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The main character, Rosa Serutti, is a young Italian girl who lives with her mother, older sister, Anna and younger brother, Ricci, in a cramped apartment, that is barely heated, and that they have to share with other people as well. Rosa’s mother and sister work in the one of the town’s factories, which is owned by a very wealthy man by the name of Billy Wood. Rosa’s father had died a few years before, which caused Rosa’s other family members to work in the mills. They make very little money, and they have hardly enough food to live. In the book, Mr. Wood suddenly lowers the amount of pay that the mill workers get, and this causes a strike. No one will work anymore. The strikers are even standing up to armed military boys, and Rosa is petrified to find that even her mother is striking. The author shows that Rosa is afraid for her mother and sister by writing:

She wanted to cry out a warning to Mamma, to Anna, to everyone. What are you doing here? They will kill you. You’re nothing to them! Nothing! But the screams were strangled in her tight throat.

In the midst of it, Rosa meets a boy named Jake Beale, who also worked in the mills to earn money for his father and himself. As he also striker, he chooses to live in the streets to avoid his cruel father, and he goes to drastic measures to survive. When Rosa is sent to Vermont to stay with another family away from the strike, Jake sneaks on the train and begs to go with her. She agrees, but half-heartedly, for she fears that the boy holds a terrible secret. The author does a great job with this book by leaving the reader at an edge, waiting to see what will happen, and makes you curious to hear more about this awful time in American history. This book is wonderful, and it captures you and keeps you reading it up to the end.

Recommendation:

I would most definitely recommend this book because I enjoy history and a little bit of adventure, or struggle, and this book really gives the reader adventure. The way the characters have to live fascinates me, and it I find it interesting to see how the world once was. It also makes me thankful for the good life that I live. Though the book is kind of gruesome at parts, it really engages you and makes you feel like you are really living through Rosa’s life. I just couldn’t put this book down. It came with me everywhere! This book is different in from other books partly because of where and when it takes place. I’m sure not many people know about the time in American when the strike happened, and because of that it makes the reader eager to read the book because they are curious. It does include some unpleasant content, and one bad word every now and then, so I think I would recommend this book for readers twelve years old and up. I think people who enjoy a little adventure, realistic fiction, and historical fiction will, without a doubt, enjoy this book. I certainly did!