River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-07-23
Abraham LincoIn's Royhood.

well, he was at this time not
grown, only six feet two inches high
/ [said Dennis i. Hanks, cousin of Abra-
ham Lincoln]. He was six feet four
/ and one-half inches when grown-tall
lathy and gangling- not much APP
pearance, not handsome, not ugly,
but peculiar. This kind of fellow.
Ii man rode up horseback, Abe
| would be the first one out. up on the
fence and asking questions, till his
father would give him knock o. the
head; then he'd go and throw at snow
birds or suthin', but ponderin' all the
while.
''Was he active and strong?"
''1e was that. | was ten years
older, but I couldn't rassle him down.
His legs was too long for me to throw
him. He would fling one foot upon
my shoulder aud make me swing corn
ers swift, and his arms Sc long and
strong! My, how he would chop! His
AK would flash and bite into a sugar
tree or sycamore, and down it would
come. If you heard him fallin' trees
in a clearin' you would say there were
three men at work by the way trees
fell. But he was never sassy or
quarrelsome. I've seen him walk into
a crowd of sawin' rowdies, and tell
some droll yarn aud bust them all up.
1t was the same when he was a lawyer;
there was suthin' peculiarsome about
him. -
What did you teach him to write
with?n
Sometimes he would write with a
piece of charcoal or the pint of
burnt stick, on the fence or floor We
got little paper at the country town,
and made initsout of the briar-root
and put little copperas in it. II was
black, but the copperas would eat the
paper after a while. | made his first
pen out of a turkey buzzard's feather.
Them's good for pens. We had no
geese them days. After he learned to
write he was scrawlin' his name every
where; sometimes he would write it ON
the white sand down by the crick bank,
and leave it till the fresh would blot it
out"
All, Dennis, that name is written
now, not in sand, high on the heroic
roll in Liberty's proud temple, above
the names of all save one. Next to
the name of the immortal Washington
blazes the signature of the blameless
ruler and matchless man, Abraham
Lincoln. That plain name is now a
kinglier title than is worn on earth.
Yes, that's so, and rightly, too. Not
for his greatness; he was not the
greatest man that ever lived, but he
was the honestest. / reckon he never
did mean act. / could see he diln't
know how. an he never learned.
did you have any idea of his future
greatness?"
mo; it was a new country and he
was a raw boy; rather a bright and
likely lad, but the big world seemed
far ahead Of him. We were all slow
goin' folks, but he had it in him,
though we never suspected it.
'.Did he take to books eagerly?"
"No; we had to hire him first, but
when he got Il taste it was the old
story-we had to pull the sow's ears to
get her to the trough and pull her tail
TO get her away. He read great
deal and had wonderful memory
wonderful. Never forgot anything"
"What church did Abe attcnd?''
1.-The Baptist. I'll tell you a cir
about him. He would come
home from church and put box in
the middle of the cabin floor and re-
peat the sermint from text to doxology.
I've heard him do it often. y Charles
ton NeDS and Courier.