Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-05-14

ing. All Ne hands would quit work in an
instant and gather around to listen with great
delight until his father would come along
and roughly pull him down and set him to
work again lie had wonderful memory,
and on Monday morning would repeat with
exactness the sermon he had heard the day
before Sometimes, when the father and
mother went to church, Abe, at home with
the other children, would take down the Bi-
bic, read IL verse and preach, while the others
"did the crying Once while he was preach
ing bis stcp-brother came along with little
turtle WYiich he crushed against n tree, and
then Abe preached eloquently against cruelty
to animals. lie never could bear to see any
creature suffer When he was man me was
once riding across IL prairie, and saw hog
caught in the mire and vainly struggling to
get out. lie said, in telling the story, that
he was rather fixed up" and did not want to
spoil his clothes, so he resolved to ride by
without looking that way. But when he had
gone past his feeling became irresistible he
hdd to look back and the poor thing seem
ed to say wistfully, There now, my last hope
is gone ~ SO he deliberately got down and
helped it out.
When lac grew up to be young man he
went down the Mississippi to New Orleans as
a iat-boatman, and allerward became clerk
in a country store in Illinois. lie was noted
for his good fellowship, for his strength aud
courage, and for his eagerness to learn.
Great stories are told Of his strength. One
of his neighbors declares that he saw him
pick up aud walk away with a chicken house
that weighed 600 pounds. 1t seems to be
well authenticated that when harnts tsscd in
with straps he could lift 1900 pounds. An
other old neighbor says, "He could sink an
AK deeper into wood than any man | ever
saw IL was rough backwoods country,
where not only wrestling but fighting was
much in fashion. At any contest OF this sort
Abe was very dangerous enemy. "IIe was
cool, calculating. but swift in action aud ter
ribly strong" But he loved peace and hated
u brawl. There were a set of hectoring fel-
lows in the neighborhood called the "Clarys
grove boys" Every now conner was chal-
lenged by them to some trial of strength or
courage. II h. accepted, the affair was very
apt to be turned into fight. If he declined
he received all sorts of insults and abuse
Perhaps he would be ducked in the river
perhaps put in logshead and rolled down
hill. But Abe was not tempting subject for
such experiments, and for time he was let
alone Some Of bis friends Dragged about
his proves. aud it became matter of talk
whether he or Jack Armstrong. the leader Of
the Clary' grove boys, was the better man.
Knives and whiskey and money were bet on
held of He said Il never tussle and scuf
fe and l will not; don't like this wooliug
aud pulling But at last the best way seem
ed to be TO have the thing out, and 50 they
met. They struggled tremendously for sew
eral minutes but neither of them could get
any advantage. Then Abe lifted Jack clear
off the ground. but he came down on his
feet as square and firm as ever. Now Jack,
said Abe, lets quit; you cant throw me
aud | can't throw you.' But Jacks friends
cheered him on. aud getting desperate he
tried an unfair trick. At this Abc's patience
forsook him, and he took the bully 10y the
throat, aud held him at arms length, and
shook him like "a child. There was a great
cry Of Fight" Jacks hackers claimed
that he had won, and Abcs stakeholder, in
the fright and confusion was about to yield
the money. But Abe said the money had not
been won, and should not be paid. He stood
with his back against the store surrounded
by enemies, and declared that opposed as he
was to fighting he would fight Jack or the
whole set sooner than yield. At this point
an influential man of the village rushed i'll
peacemaker Jack under all his roughness
was eood-natured, and he now declared that
Abe WAS ''the best fellow that ever broke in
to their settlement and they became fast
friends on the spot and always remained So
There is something in this scene that re
minds one of Il time many years later, when
the country was full of fear and unct rtainty.
Part of the nation was seeding because Re
publican president had been elected. No
one could foresee the course Of things, or
know whether war or p,aceablt secession or
compromise was to come. Brave men were
dismayed and wise men were utterly per
picked The newly elected president was a
country lawyer, inexperienced in statesman
l. 4 ,.ftv
or nerve. 1t was the same man who had met
the village bully. Then as now he hated
fight aud clung to the hope of peace. But
hu said Il will suffer death before I will
consent, or advise my friends TO consent, to
any concession or compromise which looks
like buying the privilege of taking possession
of the government to which we have q con
stitutonal right. l should regard
any concession in the face of menace rs the
destruction of the government itself
Abe could get on with all sorts of people ii
they had some goodness at heart, and he and
Jack Armstrong became great friends.
Wherever Abe was at work Jack did his
loafng;" and when Abe was out of work he
spent days and weeks together at Jacks cab
in, where Jacks wife, "old Hannah made
him welcome aud stuffed him with bread and
honey. He became the most popular man in
the ueighbOrhood, and could do more than
any one else to stop IL riot or reconcile enc
mics One day stranger came into the set
tlement and Jack began to badger him after
dis old fashion. He called him names aud
worried him, until the stranger backed up to
a wood pile and got a stick, and knocked
Jack down. He was up in moment and
ready to give the man terrible thrashing,
But Abe came upon the ground and got a
hearing. "Well, Jack, said he, what did
you say to the mani" Jack repeated his
words. "Well, Jack, replied Abe, ''if you
were II stranger in strange place, as this
man is, and you were called n id liar and
the like, what would you do? "Whip him :"
says Jack with an oath. "Then this man has
done no more to you than you would have
done to him" "Well, Abe, said Jack, 'it's
all right - and lie shook his opponents hand
and treated" him. Jack was always ready
to treat or do anything else to show his good
will, when Abe had made him ashamed of
himself And Abe was always acting as
peace-maker. His old friends tell how he
would often be talking with one of them in
the store when there would be signs of a row
in the street, and he would jump up, saying
Lets go and stop it," He would push
through the ring, separate the fighters and
call for a talk. And when it came to talking,
Abe's good sense and wit were sure to carry
the day.
And III later days 1t was by wise, KIND,
homely talk that he led men to see and do the
things in politics that were right He never
"splurged' or tried to ''show off, His way
was to find out the real thing to be decided,
which other men had covered up with fine
phrases, and then to talk about it as plainly
and sensibly as he could He thought there
was a peaceable way to settle everything, and
fighting always seemed to him so senseess a
thing that he was slow to come to it or be-
lieve other people would come to it. When
he was made president, his inaugural address
was a calm patient argument with the peu-
pie of the seeding States to return to their
old place in the Union. lie said to them
I'VE are not enemies, but friends. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break
our bonds of affection" But when peace