Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-14
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
Gen. Porter Tells "a New Story and PAYS
an Eloquent Tribute to the Martyr.

Gen. Horace Porter's speech at the Lincoln
anniversary banquet in New York on Tuesday
night was a mastery effort, and the following
extracts will be read with interest:
The names of Washington and Lincoln are
inseparably associated, and yet. as the popular
historian would have US believe. one spent his
entire life in chopping acorn trees and the
other splitting them up into rails Laughter
Washington could not tell a story Lincoln al
ways could. [Renewed laughter.l And Lin
coins stories always possessed the true
geometrical requisites. They were never too
long and never too broad. [Laughtor.l He
never forgot point. A sentinel pacing near
watch-fre. while Lincoln was once telling
some stories. quietly remarked that "he had
mighty powerful memory, but an awful poor
forgettery." [Laughter.l
The last time l ever heard him converse he
told one of the stories which best illustrated
his peculiar talent for pointing moral with an
anecdote. Speaking of Englands assistance to
the south and how she would one day find she
had aided ii but little and only injured herself
he said: Yes. that reminds me of barber in
Sangamon county. He was about going to bed
when stranger came along and said he must
have shave. He said he had few DAYS beard
on his face, and he going to n ball and the
barber must cut it OFF. The barber got up re-
luctantly. dressed. and put the stranger i'm a
chair with low back TO it, and every time
he bore down he came near dislocatng his
patients neck. Laughter. He began by
latherlng his face, including nose. ewes and
ears. stropped his razor on has boot. and then
made drive. scraped down the right cheek.
carried away the beard and a pimple and two
or three warts. Laughter The man in the
char said. 1ou appear to make everything
level as you CO. iRoars of laughter. The
barber said, Yes: if this handle don't break I'll
get away with what there is there Renewed
laughter.l The mans cheeks were so hollow
that the barber couldn't get down into the
valleys with the razor, and an ingenious idea
occurred to him to stick his finger in the
mans mouth and press out the cheeks.
lLaughter.l Finally, he cut clean through the
cheek and into his own finger. He pulled the
finger out of the mans mouth and snapped the
blood OFF it and looked at him and said: There.
You lantern-jawed Gus, you've made me cut my
finger. IROars of laughter
Now" said Lincoln, England will find she
has got the south into a pretty bad scrape from
trying to administer to her. In the end she will
lind she has only cut off her own finger" ZAP
plause.
LINCOLN N HISTORY.
with heart as tender as that of a gentle
woman, yet Lincoln was compelled TO be the
great leader in terrible war; Surrounded bv
traitors-in the rear as well as the front-men
misled him. They could not understand him.
His logic was too keen, his craftsmanship too
wise. He learned that in public life all hours
wound; the last one kills. But throughout II
ali he never lost the courage of his conviction
one hope hlleo his heart, one oh jeCt led hun
on. As the Danes DESTROYED the hearing
of their horses that they might not be dis
mayed by the noise of the battle SO Lincoln
turned deaf ear to the clamor of the ours in
the rear, and went straight on with an IN
swerving faith in the justice OF his cause and
the integrity of 1.-The Union. 1t was faith bv
which he could see bow of promise in every
storm cloud IL was as the faith of a Christian
in his God.
Men learn little in this world from precept
and much from example. The best teachers
are the lives of great men. For three hundred
years after the battle of Thermopyla every
child in the public schools of Greece was made
to recite the names of the immortal three hun
bred who had defended the Tass. And il would
be browning triumph if every schoolboy in
the United States were taught the name of
Lincoln.
He was a singular man. No one can lessen
the measure of his fame no one can pluck the
laurels from mis- brow. We fail TO find in his
tory another man whose nature was so gentle
born for peace and yet destined to lead and
control the uprising OF great nation. In the
annals of all history we fail to find another
man whose training was for the cabinet and
not the camp, and who had more tragic death
Seldom has 1t fallen to a single man to strike
the letters from a OF slaves, to die the
death of "A martyr at the moment of the tri-
umph of his country.
I'VE buried him-not in Roman pantheon.
not under the dome of st. Paul's. not in his
toric Westminster. We laid him 10 rest in the
bosom of the soil his efforts had saved That
tomb will be the true mecca of every true son
of the republic. Future ages will pause to
read the record of his fame. He had filed the
full measure of human greatness. He has
passed from our view. We shall not meet him
again until he rises again to answer to his
name at the final reveille among the greatest
of earth. He had a childlike simplicity of ma
ture, mingled with a greatness and nobility
that were sublime. He leaves behind him the
rich3st of all legacies-the memory of a good
name and the inheritance of a great example,"