5　The 13 Club

A man may pay millions of dollars to have a hospital, a library, or a museum named after him, and another who has paid nothing, done nothing, deserved nothing, and asked nothing has two of the biggest things in the World—the two continents North and South America—named after him, and people will go on forever calling them America after him—an unimportant, almost unknown man named Amerigo.

Do you know the song that begins，“My Country，'Tis of Thee”?What do you mean by“My Country”?It is a part, the smaller part, of North America.

Have you a buffalo nickel in your pocket—a 5-cent piece?If not, perhaps you can borrow one just to look at. On the head side is the picture of an Indian with feathers in his hair.Why do you suppose our country has the picture of an Indian instead of a white man on the nickel?On the tail side is the picture of a buffalo.Why do you suppose our country has a picture of a buffalo on the nickel instead of a horse or a cow?

Well, long before there were any white men here at all, or any horses or cows, there were a great many Indians and a great many buffaloes in this country. Now there are very few Indians and very few buffaloes in America, so these pictures on the nickel are to remind us that the Indian is the first American man and the buffalo is the first American animal.