The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-08-19
LETTER From THE SOUTH.

Ah1Ihk FkOA THE SOUTh.
A Visit to the Birthplace Of Abrahal
Lincoln.
APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSE An.
| ;: SURROUNDINGS.
A Talk with an old Neighbor OF th
! Lincolns.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
L1NcoLn's BIRTH. P1AcE,)
HARDIN COUNTY, Kr.,
a"... . August 4th, 1869
EDITOR JouRNAL.-I write thes
lines on the spot where ABRAHAl
LINCOLN was born. Here, on rag
ged rock, I will describe the bi1thplac
of Abraham Lincoln, on whose nam
is falling more curses to-day in Ken
tucky, his native State, than upon an,
name in history.
The subject, the occasion, and tn
place, are enough to make any pen elo
quen: but mine. Mine, unaccustomee
to the divine aflatus, can only picture
in simple words tie plain, rustic birth
place of one of our ilIustrious dead
Let its simplicity correspond with th'
poverty, rudeuess and decay around ne
THE LOCATION.
I am in Hardin county, nine mile.
from Hodgeuville, sixty from Greens
burg, forty-two from Louisville, eighty
from Lexington, one hundred and six
teen from Frankford, twenty-five from
the Ohio river, and twelve from the rail
road at Elizabethtown. The journey
is made from Greensburg on horseback
over an uneven, disagpseable road. The
day has been pleasant, the country be:
tween wild and romantic, and I have
:epjt ty,d the last daJ $ ride, notwithstand.
ing the crooked, narrow way that hat
brought me- hither. 81. 80
~ .t5s i ,Ioa1ols COUNTRY.
But at last l am here, looking out
from the shade of the sassafrase tree
upon the clayey, bard-burnt ground
where a backWoods boy of ungainly
form and .uncombed locks ran about
fifty years ago barefooted, and that
boy, Abraham Lincoln. 1t is in broad
open field. The cross fences were long
since torn down, with now and then q
rock upon which it rested obtruding its
head out Of the tangled grass. 1t is or
an untrequented road, in poor region,
sparscly settled for the most part by a
class ilIiterate and idle. The old hewn
log houses, wide apart, with their rude
surroundings, dinged by time, tell but
too plainly the long absence of taste, il
indeed that grace was ever here. Many
Of these old dwellings of the neighbor.
hood date back to the beginning Of the
country. The root is renewed, the old
porches pushed aside for new ones, but
the main structure, strong, though vener.
able with sge, is handed down from
father to son; and the huge rock chin.
ney, with its solid proportions, de6es the
corroding fingers Of half a century.
T. "a THE HOUSE. =. -
In such a country here; to-day, a few
rods Of, stands the little, shattered, for
]orn, mouldy dwelling whcse only dis
tinction on this earth is that inside it
moss-grown logs, over whose faded sur
faces are marching the spider and th.
ant, was born one whose acts filed th,
world, and whose desth was TRAGEDY
that spread gloom over the land. 1t il
thirty feet square, and built Of log
dovetailed together at the corners viii
the base Of the triangle downward, ant
to this must be attributed their preser
vation where decay is first looked for
Tho lower logs between the corners an,
door are SO dccomposed that I removed
whole parts with my hand. The roo
has fallen in and lies 10 q confused mas
on the lower sleepers. q" - ~ 49,
=. :" @2xus1uos. '3:' @5:'. ..~<.
I stood, leaning solitary stranger
against the door frame, and wondered
the voice Of Abraham: Lincoln, the voic
that fang out with tho great Dongla.
over tho prairiee Of Illinois, was eve
heard in its childish grief and laughte
inside these old logs, now so wreckc'
aud SILENT; if ever the gfqpqt. q.9t. that pa
since trod the aoG rich. carpets, Of III
Presidential mansion, ever went in au
out At this -mis-shaped door if tn
haodtthat with magic, wand gave lii
erty to four millions zof human being'
ever 6 in sboyishs earelessnesse ,prcsst
these weather-beaten :liuteh or,buiIt u
eob-houses under thess1 old catslph
trees !; if he whose ashes, enclosed
mahogany mounted with silver, irepos
st Springfield, whose name il ahous,
hold word where the Alps and: :sth
Apprentices rise, ever chased The butte
aye-iin these deserted fields, 81 81 followe
his dl!| ts'|her i il, Z. re turrov over the.
iaosty y ii ridges. s'2' 'sSs '''','>s" = ID - =
7zsa4s@p sssss@3 LITTLE ADH. <esEs4
| 4 gray.headsd old man Who lives