IF yu culd g up int yur grandmther"s atticr the atticf smebdy else"s grandmther，r culd dig dwn int smeld trunk， yu might find smef the newspapers that were printed during the years frm 1854 t 1865. Yu might actually read in these daily papers the happenings that I am nw ging t tell yu abut. Under the heading， Freign News， yu wuld prbably find smef the fllwing things tld abut：
ENGLISH NEWS. At this time the queenf England was named Victria. She was much belved by her peple because she had such a kindly nature. Yu may have seen a picturef her surrunded by her many children. Victria had five daughters and fur sns. S yu can see that she was a mther as well as a queen. She was mre like a mther t her peple than a queen. She ruled fr mre than half a century， and the time when she ruled is called the Victrian Age.
The English newsf 1854 wuld tell abut a war that the English were then fighting with Russia. Russia was a lng wayff， and s the English had t send their sldiers in bats thrugh the Mediterranean Sea t the end， then past Cnstantinple int the Black Sea. There， in a little sptf land that juttedut frm Russia int the Black Sea， mstf the fighting was dne. This little sptf land was called the Crimea， and the war therefre was called the Crimean War. In this war in that far-ff land， thusandsf English sldiers died frm wunds and disease.
Nw， there was living in England at the timef this war a lady named Flrence Nightingale. She was very tender-hearted and always lkingut fr and taking caref thse wh were sick. Even as a little girl， she had played that her dlls were sick with a headacher a brken leg， and she wuld bandage the aching headr brken leg and pretend t take caref her sick patient. When her dg was ill， she nursed him as carefully as if he were a human being.
Flrence Nightingale heard that English sldiers were dying by the thusands in that distant land far away frm hme and that there were n nurses t take caref the wunded. She gt tgether a numberf wmen， and they wentut t the Crimea. Befre she arrived， almst half the sldiers wh were wunded died-fifty sldiersutf a hundred； after she and her nurses came，nly tw in a hundred died. She went abut thrugh the camps andver the battlefields atnight carrying a lamp， lking fr the wunded. The sldiers called her the Ladyf the Lamp， and they all lved her.
When at last the war wasver and she returned t England， the gvernment vted t give her a large sumf mney fr what she had dne. She， hwever， refused the mney fr herself but tk it t fund a hme fr training nurses. Nwadays prfessinal nurses are thught almst as necessary as dctrs， and anyne wh is sick can call in a trained nurse t take caref him， but at that time there were n prfessinal nurses. Flrence Nightingale was the first t start teaching nursing， and she is lked upn almst as a saint tday.
Inne battle in the Crimea， a cmpany
f sldiers muntedn hrseback were given by mistake anrder t attackFlrence Nightingale searchingut the wunded弗洛伦斯 南丁格尔在寻找伤员the enemy. Thugh they knew it meant certain death， they never hesitated but charged， and tw-thirdsf them were killedr wunded in less than half an hur. Lrd Tennysn， the English pet， has tld this stry in verse which yu may knw. It is called The Chargef the Light Brigade.
JAPANESE NEWS. Japan is a grupf islands near China. Althugh I have nt tld yu abut it befre， it was anld cuntry， settled in its ways even befre Rme was funded. In Eurpe there have been cnstant changesf kings and rulers and peple and cuntries. But in Japan they have had the same linef kings since befre Christ.
Japan was very lucky inne way. In all the years， the Japanese islands were neverccupied by a freign army. But in 1853， the year befre England began the Crimean War， an American navalfficer named Cmmdre Perry sailed int Tky Bay， an imprtant Japanese harbr， with American warships. The Japanese emperr then allwed Americans t cme in and d business in Japan.
These are smef the things yu might read abut in thseld newspapers. Such news wuld prbably have taken up little space. Perhaps they wuld have been fund dwn at the bttmf a clumn if the newspaper were American. But if the paper were printed between 1861 and 1864， the greater partf it wuld be abut a war that was gingn inur cuntry at that time. This was a war betweenurwn peple， a family quarrel， which we call the Civil War，rthe War between the States.
Lincln visiting camp and shaking hands with the sldiers林肯视察兵营，与士兵们握手Tw p a r t s f u r c u n t r y， t h e Nrth and the Suth， did nt agreen several matters， chieff which was the questin whether sutherners culdwn slaves. S they went t war with eachther. Thusands upn thusandsf Americans died in this war. The war lasted fr fur years， frm 1861 t 1865， befre it was decided that nne culd ever againwn slaves in the United States.
Smef yu wh read these pages may be descended frm men wh fught in this Civil War. Smef these fught fr the Suth； sme fught fr the Nrth. Black men and white men and even sme wmen fught. Yushuld ask yur parentsr grandparents if anyf yur ancestrs fught in the Civil War.
The presidentf the United States at that time was a man named Abraham Lincln. Lincln was a very pr by wh had been brn in a lg cabin. He had taught himself t read by the lightf a blazing kntf wd at night after his day"s wrkn his father"s farm was dne. As he was very pr， he hadnly a few bks， and these he readver andver again.nef these bks was the same Aesp"s Fables that yu read. When Lincln was a yung man， he became a stre-keeper.ne day he fund that he had given a pr wman a smaller packagef tea than she had paid fr， and he clsed the stre and walked many miles t her huse inrder t return the change. Peple began t call him Hnest Abe after that， fr he was always very hnest and kind-hearted.
He studied hard and became a lawyer and at last was elected presidentf the United States. While he was president， he declared that slavery shuld be ablished.ne evening， Lincln was watching a play frm a private bx at Frds Theater. Suddenly， Jhn Wilkes Bth， wh thught Lincln had nt dne right in freeing the slaves， brke int the president"s bx and sht Lincln， wh died the next day.
Lincln wasnefur greatest presidents. Washingtn startedur cuntry； Lincln prevented its splitting int tw parts and kept it tgether asne big united land t grw int the great cuntry it nw is.
【中文阅读】
如果你可以爬到你祖母或者别人祖母的阁楼上，或者可以在某个旧箱子里仔细 搜寻一番，你也许会找到一些 1854 至 1865 年间印刷的报纸。下面我要介绍的这些 事情，你也许真的会在这些日报上读到。在"外国新闻"这一标题下，你有可能会找 到下面讲述的一些事情：
英国新闻。这时期英国女王名叫维多利亚。因为天性仁慈，她深受国民爱戴。 你也许见过一张图片，图片上的她被她的许多孩子围绕着。维多利亚有五个女儿和 四个儿子。所以你能够看到她既是女王，也是一位母亲。对她的国民来说，她更 像一位母亲，而不是女王。她在位长达半个多世纪，这段时期被称为"维多利亚 时代"。
1854 年的英国新闻会讲述到英国和俄国的一场战争。俄国十分遥远，所以英国 人必须用船把士兵运到地中海，再经过君士坦丁堡进入黑海。俄国有一小块土地突 出到黑海里，英俄战争大多数发生在那里。这一小块土地叫做克里米亚半岛，因此 这场战争就叫做"克里米亚战争"。在这场战争中，成千上万的英国士兵因为伤重和 疾病死在那片遥远的土地上。
战争期间在英国有一位名叫弗洛伦斯 南丁格尔的女士。她常怀恻隐之心，总 是关怀照料那些生病的人。甚至在小时候，她就自娱自乐假装她的玩具娃娃生病头 疼或者断了一条腿，她给娃娃包扎头和腿，然后把它想象成病人来照顾它。她的狗 生病时，她像照顾人一样细心地照顾它。
弗洛伦斯 南丁格尔听说大批大批的英国士兵死在远离家乡的土地上，还听说 那里没有护士照顾伤员。她组织了一些女人，一起前往克里米亚。在她到来之前， 几乎有一半的受伤士兵都死掉了--一百个伤兵中有五十个死去了；她和护士们来 了以后，一百个伤兵中只有两个死去。夜里她在营地四处巡视，还提着一盏灯在战 场上寻找伤员。士兵们称她为"提灯女士"，所有的人都敬爱她。
最终战争结束了，她回到了英国，政府通过表决为她的贡献奖给她一大笔钱。 但是她不愿让这笔钱归她个人所有，而是用这笔钱创办了一个培训护士的基地。如 今专业护士被认为几乎和医生一样必不可少，任何人生了病都可以请受过专门训练 的护士来照顾自己，但是那时候没有专业的护理人员。弗洛伦斯 南丁格尔是第一个 开始教授护理的人，现在她几乎被尊为圣人。
在克里米亚的一场战役中，一批骑上马的士兵，收到错误的命令去进攻敌人。 尽管他们知道这一去必死无疑，但是他们却毫不犹豫地向前冲，半小时不到的时间 里就有三分之二的士兵被杀死或受了伤。英国诗人丁尼生勋爵用诗歌讲述了这个故 事，你也许知道这首诗。诗的题目是《轻骑兵冲锋》。
日本新闻。日本是靠近中国的一群岛屿。虽然在这之前我没有介绍过日本，但 是它是一个古老的国家，甚至在罗马建立之前，这个国家就按自己的生活方式延续下来。在欧洲，国王和统治者、人民和国家也不断变更替换。但是在日本，自从公 元前开始他们的历代国王都来自同一个家族。
日本在一个方面非常幸运。这么多年以来日本岛屿从未被外国军队占领过。但 是在 1853 年，也就是英国开始克里米亚战争的前一年，一个名叫佩里的美国海军准 将乘美国军舰驶入日本的一个重要海港东京湾。于是日本天皇同意美国人进入日本 并在日本经商。
这些事情你也许在那些旧报纸上可以读到。这样的新闻很可能不占用什么篇幅。 如果是美国报纸的话，可能只在专栏底部可以找到这样的新闻。但是如果报纸是 1861 至 1864 年间印刷的，报纸大部分新闻会是关于当时在美国进行的一场战争。这 是一场美国内部的战争，一次家庭争执，我们称之为"美国内战"，或"南北战争"。
美国两部分，北方和南方，在几件大事上意见不一致，其中最重要的是南方人 是否可以拥有奴隶这一问题。于是他们兵戎相见，互相打起来。成千上万的美国人 在这场战争中死去。从 1861 年到 1865 年，战争持续了四年，战争结束后，终于确 定任何人都不能在美国拥有奴隶。
阅读这几页的人中可能就有参加过这场内战的人的后代。其中有些人为南方作 战，有些人为北方作战。黑人、白人甚至一些女人都加入了战争。你应该问问你父 母或祖父母，在你的先辈中是否有人参加过美国内战。
当时的美国总统是一个名叫亚伯拉罕 林肯的人。林肯出生在一间小木屋里， 从小家庭贫困。林肯白天在父亲的农场里干活，到了夜晚他就借着燃烧的木瘤块发 出的火光自学读书。因为贫穷，他只有很少几本书，这些书他翻来覆去，不知读了 多少遍。其中一本书你也读过，就是《伊索寓言》。林肯年轻时当过店员。一天一个 穷女人在店里买了一小包茶叶，她走后，林肯发现她多给了钱，于是他关上店门， 走了很远的路到她家去退还多余的零钱。从那以后人们开始叫他为"诚实的艾贝"， 因为他总是非常诚实善良。
他刻苦学习，成了一名律师，最后当选为美国总统。在担任总统期间，他宣布 废除奴隶制。一天晚上，林肯正在福特剧院的一间私人包厢里观看演出。约翰 威尔 克斯 布思这个人认为林肯解放奴隶是不对的，他突然闯入总统包厢，枪杀了林肯， 林肯第二天就去世了。
林肯是美国最伟大的总统之一。华盛顿建立了美国，林肯防止了美国分裂为两 部分。将其作为一个统一的大国团结在一起，并为美国发展成现在这样伟大的国家 奠定了基础。