The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-05-30
ABE LlNcoLN's COUSIN.

NGN AASN AaAA ttAG O1ynQ&O pANtxfGt U4 Lincoln still lives at the age of eighty, six years ir an Illinois town, This man is kin to the great hberatoE, was his back woods teacher and guide. and knows more of Honest Abe than any man alive or dead. h,s "reminiscences of the boy Lincoln never hsvlnE been published to my knowledGe, will be of interest 10 the readers of the iesvRal, and worth much ts the future historian.
 found him hale and erect, ready to recount for the bene6t of younger .y n. erat.on the incidents which marked the youth of the mArtyred president His name Is Denn,s Hanks and he IS a cousin to Lincoln. Uncle Dennis, as he is called, is a typical Ken,uckian, born in Hardin county, I7p9 His face Is sun. hionE.d and nlougned with fuuows of time tusv;Ise s,S,ssssa, sssssSs ::.s;s. E1;s o: the jaws, broad forehead above a pau of unweariable eyes. TAe eyes seem out ol place in the weary, faded face they glow and flash like two diamond sparks set in ridges of dull gold. The face Is a serious one, but the play ot light in the eyes, uu- quenched by time, hetrays the nature full si sunshine and elate life. A side- wise glance a, the profile shows face strikingly Lincoln like, prominent cheek bones, temples, nose and chln; but bes, cf all, that twinkling drollery .n the eye that flashed in the White House during the dark days of the civit war. To our query he replied cheerily;
 Certainly, certainly, sir, I'll talk to you about Abe. kin talk, too. bein' as 1 am the only hvin' man that knows all about him"
 How old was Mir, Lincoln when you first met hlm F'
 About twenty. four hours-haTdly tha, l rekk,lect run all the way, over two miles, to see Nancy Hanks boy baby Twas common then for connexion to gather in them days to see new babies
 Her name was Nancy Hanks before she married Thomas Lincoln. held the wee one minnit. was ten years old, and II tickled me to hold the pulpy, red, little Lincoln
 When did you move to lndianaT'
 When Abe was about nine. Mr. l.inco il moved first, and built camp of brush in Spencer county. We came ou, year later. and he then had a cabin up, and he gave us the shan,y. On this spot
 Abe grew to manhood"
 How far apart were your cahinsp
 About fifteen rods. Abe killed a turkey the day got there, an couldn't git through tellin' about il. The name was pronounced I.iukhorn by the folks then We was all unedducatei. Alter spell we learned better"
 "In the Life of Lincoln published after his nomination, Il Is stated that you taught him to read"
 "Yes, sir, l did. taught him to spell read and cipher. He knew his
 letters pretty wellSh. but no more. His mother taught him his letters If ever l there was good woman on earth she
 was one "a true christian of the BapiiS, f church; but she died soon after we ar rived, and left him without a teacher 1 his father couldn't read a word" Is il possible he had no schooling" "Only about one-quar,er, scarcely that. then set in to help him 1 didn't
 know much, but did the best 1 could.n
 What books did he read firstT 1 W.biter's spelIer. When l go, him through that only had copy Of ln- , diana statutes. Then he got hold oi a book, can't rikkolect the name, maybe { you kin If tell you sonethin' ct was ID
 1t. It told yarn about fellar, nigger or suthin', that sailed a fatboat up to A
 rock, and the rock was magnetized and
 drawed the nails out of his boat and he got duCkIn', or drowDded, or Suthin', 1 , forget now"
 "That is the story of Snbad in the Arabian Nights"
 "Tha,'s it, that's the book. Abe would lay on the floor with chair under his head and laugh over them Rabian , Nights by the hour. told him 1t was likely lies from end to end, but he learned 10 read right we'll in it."
 Had he any other books fp
 "Yes; l borrowed for him a Life of Washington and the Speeches of Henry Clay' They had powerful influence on him. He told me afterwards In the White House he wanted to live like Washington. His speeches show that, , but the other book did the most ans zing work He was a democrat, like his father and all of us, when he began to read i,. When he closed 1t he was A
 whig, heart and soul, and he went step
 Ay step till he became leader of the re- publicans"
 l meditated a moment here on the old
 mans story. Was ever anything so !. strange, so suggestive? This rude bark woodsmap blindly had turned with a cheap book the current of the mightiest life in modern times. What sandblind creatures we are. How we juggle with destiny. How God uses us with band- aged eyes to work out His high behests. When Hanks laid that whix book in that boys hand he buiided better than he knew. He laid the first stone in the base course of the structure this boy was des. tined to build and baptize with his own blood. What would history be now had he grown up unlearned by this volume z It makes one muse hushed in thought. "WilI you describe him when boy P
 @Well, he vas al this time not grown, only six feet two inches high. He was six feet tour and one-haif inches when grown--tall, la,hy and gangling- no,