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Spanish American War (1898)
 Kites and Balloons Go to War

Kites and Balloons Go to War
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.77

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    jungle-covered, mid-1890s, skittish, standing, techno, dynamite, know-how, combat, reenactment, military, dating, telegraph, flights, battlefield, warfare, rifles
     content words:    Spanish American War, Civil War, Wild West, Henry Ford, Motor Wagon, American War, Rough Riders, San Juan Hill, Walter Reed, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

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Kites and Balloons Go to War
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     The Spanish American War took place in 1898. More than thirty years had passed since the U.S. Civil War. The Wild West had been tamed. Things like distance and disease were now life's biggest hurdles. Americans were eager to leap into the new century. The search was on for new tools and know-how. Instead of taming new lands, people explored better ways of doing things. We call this technology (tek NAHL uh gee).
 
2     It would be a few years before Henry Ford made the first widely used motor car. But the world was already coming out of the horse and buggy stage. The first motor vehicle built factory style came out in the mid-1890s. Only 15 were made. The vehicle was called the Motor Wagon. It looked just like a wagon, except with an engine instead of a horse!
 
3     Most homes relied on gas for heating and light. Companies were working hard to make electric power handy for everyone. They tried out electric gadgets that would do all sorts of things like cooking and washing clothes. Plants to make electric power were being built in many places.
 
4     Communication was another big story in these days. By the 1890s, many people who lived in big cities had telephones. The telegraph had also been around for a while. It was the fastest way to send messages long distance. As the war heated up, both media took great strides forward. News crews keeping pace with the war filed their reports first by telegraph. Later, the stories were called in on "battlefield telephones."

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