Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-02
he could flourish an ak, was put to cutting
! down brush and trees.


ent teachers, one of whom was named
Azel Dorcy; but it is said that his entire
school education in both Kentucky and In
diana was limited to one year. His bed
| was the protruding logs of the cabin and
| wooden crotch cut from the forest, on
| which we're laid hickory sticks. This sort
of bed was the fathers and mothers, and
| the children slept on the ground, except
when it was very cold, and then they
crawled around their fathers and mothers
| feet.
Lincoln's mother was seized with con-
sumption and died in 1918, two years after
| she removed to Indiana, when little Abe
was only ten years old. They buried her
| under the trees by the cabin, and the boys
sat down on her grave and wept. Her fu-
neral service was not held for several
months, and little Abe, who could inst form
his letters, constructed one to parson
named Elkin, in Kentucky, asking him to
come and preach their mothers funeral
! sermon, which he did on Sunday morn
ing, riding 100 miles through the wilder
ness to do it. The neighbors for miles
| came in rude carts, on horses, riding
| double-backed, in OK wagons, and on foot,
and there were 200 persons present, sitting
around the grave on stumps and logs, and
it was the first great public memory in
Lincoln's life. His mothers Chris
tan sweetness and piety sank
around the roots of Lincoln's life,
! and sent up stream of tears to
his eyes through succeeding trials and tri-
| umphs. How poor are they whose moth
| ers are never poor! 1t is the recollection
| of the tears, anxieties and tolls of poor
mothers that have given such compensa
| ton and sweetness 10 American human ma
| ture.
| Little Abe was quick to learn to read,
and write too; and the rude Indiana neigh
! bors, hearing of his smartness, came to
| have him write their letters, and thus he
learned from original human nature the
character, strength and necessities Of his
| American fellow citizens. There were few
books, but the few there were he read well,
like the Bible, ''Hsop's Fables" ''The Pill
grim's Progress" Weames' Life of Wash
| ington," 'The Life of Henry Clay" and a
''Iife of Franklin" There he got his
beautiful, simple education; his skill to
turn phrase; his difference as a sentence
maker from the stiff old chaps like Jefer-
,..n, Madison, etc., who made the verbiage
! A GOOD sTEPMoTHER.
! L 1919 Lincoln's father married again;
and the new wife, Sallie Johnston, of Eliz-
abethtown, Ky, bad three children before
she came, but she was kind woman, and
| treated both crops of children just the
same. She was alive when Abraham Lin
| coin became president of the United
States. Little Abe grew up tall and strong,
| helpful to everybody, considerable to the
weakness of everybody, even to old con-
| frmed drunkards. He learned to use tools
and built fatboat; and, as he was about
to start Oft passeHgerswho wanted to be
taken out to steamer gave him half
| dollar apiece-the first dollar he ever had.
He once took his fathers grist on a horse
and rode fifty miles to get it ground.
MADE POSTMASTER.
| President Jackson appoined Lincoln
postmaster, and he liked the place because
it let him read newspapers taken by the
neighbors. His hat was the postoffice for
| the letters. Then John Calhoun, of
Springfield, employed Lincoln to be a
| deputy land surveyor; and he surveyed the
| town of Petersburg, ILL.,, and worked for
more than a year, his surveys standing to
this day as sound.
| IN THE LEGISLATURE
he was dressed in jeans, with surtout
over it, He made no speeches, but listen
\ ed and watched, and walked home at the
| close of the session. In the campaign for
| speech in the court house at Spring
field, which developed his aston
| ishing power of slowly WELD
L L
nent with it, putting in wit as well as
strength, and his figure heightened and
strengthened as he went on,and his dreamy
| eyes took mild fash of fire, and the peo-
| pie said to each other: ''Who would have
! thought Lincoln was an orator." The nine
members from Sangamon county were so
| long that they were called ''the long nine"
! all being over six feet high, and Lincoln
! the t4llest of all.
/ IN the legislature that year were Gen.
! McClernand, Jessie K. Dubois, Gen. James
! Shields, stephen A. Douglas, John j. Har-
| din and William A. Richardson. Abe Lin
coin was considered one of the most sub
stantial men in the legislature. Lincoln
and his colleagues demanded the removal
of the capital from Vandalia to
Springfield, and accomplished it by
| omnlDuslng WIN the system OF puDnc I'M
| provements demanded by the rest of the
state.H was then only twenty seven years
old. Douglas was twenty three years old,
and the youngest man in the house. Lin
coin in this legislature took position
against the establishment of slavery in
Illinois. He walked during this session
| 100 miles and back to Vandalia again.
The other eight members of the delegation
were on horseback, and Lincoln walked
behind on foot.
BECOMES LAWYER.
Maj. Stewart, of Springfield, now made
him proposition to become his law part
ner, and the people then felt grateful to
Lincoln for having assisted to give them
the state capital; so he moved to Spring
field on the 10Th OF April, 1887. It
was almost the anniversary of his death,
twenty -four years later.He went to Spring
field with apprehension and anxiety, hay-
ing nothing, and freshly admitted to the
bar. He left New Salem with regret, which
was full of his friends. At Springfield he
boarded with William Butler. The Spring
field people in 1888 sent him to the legis-
| lature, and there he was considered the
4 ]. n