The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-29

make his biography at all interesting. u
was here, however, that the real foundations
of his character were laid. Here. the boy
who WAS father to the man lived and moved
n went his lonesome and clumsy way
| He was not ostraoised but isolated. He
! made a voluntary hermit Of himself 30 far
| as his relations with the other sex were
concerned-voluntarily excluding himself
| from female society. 1t was altogether his
own fault, NJ any of the buxom country
lasses would willingly have smiled upon
the bashful boy, for women, the world over,
when virtuous, have sympathy and regard
for the man or boy who t~estiies, by his
shyness and bashfulness in their presence,
his SENSE of their superior charms. They
take it as \ compliment and he is the most
accomplished one who can best simulate
it.
nature. The more encouragement he re-
ceiyed the moro Rhy and retiring he be-
came. "Ahe might have got the best gal
among all 'em," SAYS Uncle Dennis. And
he knows. 1t was from here that Lincoln
went to ~flat-boating. Pennington is not
from Terra Haute, Vincennes and other
points along the classic stream fleets of
tlatboats used to depart for points below on
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Lincoln
did not remain a tlatboatman for any
length of time. The forces which were TO
lllpSl III " IL LoWRIN AA6 AVapAAv NSAS
beginning to work. He had always had n
thirst for knowledge. Part of the reason
for his seclusion of himself was to secure
opportunity for study. Finally it dawned
upen him that a man., to do anything. must
shake the dust of Pennington Oft him. He
wanted to see more of the wo.ld. He took
the tlatboat trip to get 81 view of it. The
experience seems to have given him a large
degree of self-conidence and opened up
new possibilities Of life to him.
He did not keep to the water long, but he
never returned to the Pennington cabin.
The places which had known him once were
to know him no more forever. 1tssems that
after his transplantation to a larger and
wider field of usefulness. he never returned.
He wrote frequently to his brothers, and
other relatives in the vicinity, but never
came back to the scenes of his earlier life.
Probably they were associated. in his mind.
with too much of the pathetic and SORROW
full to make a visit to them otherwise than
to him. Here his step-mother,
Nancy Hanks that was before her marriage
to Lincoln's father. died and was buried.
This woman was next to his own mother
the best friend Lincoln ever met. She was
much more a parent to him than the indol-
and dissolute man who was responsible
for his existence. Her grave, grass-grown
and overrun, will be pointed out in the
of graves, some OF them ornamented
headstones, which is calledby courtesy
a graveyard"
Pennington is one of innumerable places
like it in the timber lands of the Wabash
and Ambram bottoms. 1t is now Just what
it was when the tall. ungainly youth called
Abe Lincoln was a citizen there. No boom
come. There has been no advance in
the price of corner lots. A store and a
hitching post are now, as they we're then,
the principal features Of the landscape.
The traveller who comes along the dusty
road can find any number of old men who
willingly tell him all they know, and don't
know, about Lincoln, and who will mourn
the departure of the old log house as those
who are without hope.
Pocket saving banks for dimes and nickles, at
The Bee Hive, only 15c.