The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-02-27

hau SOLO young Lincoln the peddlers
pack and who was afraid to trust him;
and that when Mr.. Lincoln saw him in
the delegation lie turned the cold
shoulder to him.
Lord, how this world is given to
lying! He never bought any goods on
sredit; consequently the rest Of the
stcry-well, it does to entertain folks
who go down to Troy to fish.
There is no story to tell about
Abraham Linco!n's tarrying at Max.
Vile.
The steamer turns her bow down
stream and sinking her paddles into the
water departs from Troy. One looks
back OF Anderson River and thinks Of q
scrawny boy who used to tend ferry
there, and who subsequently became
president of the United States. The
intervening space is q strange story-as
strange as any in history and it will be
repeated and repeated until the "last
syllable OF recorded time"
But Abraham Lincoln as ~ferry-tender
at Maxville, owe Anderson Creek,
never did anything to distinguish him
sell. There is no record that he was
CfOA ui tAiCiU hV LII puSlDeSS,
The steamer of to-day lands the pas.
senger in search of the early home of
Abraham Lincoln's father at Rockport,
the county seat of Spencer. The wharf
boat, so familiar now on the Ohio, is
Juggling at the moorings here. The
passenger departs, the captain of the
boat accompanying him ashore.
fly passenger is turned over to a
Young mulatto, who takes his valise.
Before The passengers view rises the
bluff on the back of which is the city Of
Rockport. II can't be seen from the
River-the city can't. On the summit
of the bluff is the standpipe from which
the city draws its supply of water. The
standpipe is elevated on heavy timbers,
and see1 from a distance reminds one of
some Of the pictures one has seen of the
old castles on the Rhine.
The ascent to the city causes one to
think Of the goat. If a man had to train
q goat this is the place to bring it. But
the goat needs no training. One can
climb this ascent in summer when the
earth is fresh, but how it is done in
winter is n puzzle that would make the
inventor of the pigs in clover" turn
green and die.
There is o stairway-to tell the truth
it is o ladder. At first the climber
thinks it is spiral, but it soon strikes
upon his mind that it takes an angle OF
forty degrees. Perhaps. That seems to
be the favorite number OF degrees when
one speaks of an angle. AT the termi'
nation of this angle the ladder begins to
assume aspiral shape. And SO it goes
until the climber has grown dizzy.
The young Ethiopion is far ahead
with the valise. He is used to it. The
man to whom the yalise belongs looks
up aud gets more dizzy. Helooks back
and sees o dog below him, and after the
dog two or three struggling natiyestoil'
ing upward. A cold sweat gathers
about the face Of the new comer and he
begins to wonderzif young Lincoln evel
made this trip
Some of these days an ingenious
American will come to Rockport an6
start a line of balloons from this land
lug to the summit and he will get rich
When the traveller gets w into the
town proper, he will find two men whit
actually knew ABE" Lincoln and wer.
"chumlny' with him. Uncle Joe Rich
ardson lives right in town and knew
Lincoln when he lived up at Gentry,
j, vile. James Gentry, who lives gu
J, two miles, was a lad when Lincoln was
a young man, but he remembers hin
and a recall hearing his brothel
Joseph, still living and so years Of age
talk about the days when he hired aAbe'
to do work by the day.
Uncle Joe Richardson has an un
j clouded memory and talks modestly o
his acquaintance with Lincoln.
. Lincoln City, eighteen miles from
Rockport and t~hirty-four from Evans
q vile, is the name that syndicate ha!
j put on the little town which is pointed
: out as the place where Lincoln live,
before he moved to Illinois. Here rest
the body of his mother. Down til
) road q little way is all thereis of Gen
tryyille, where William Jones lived i
/ 1929. He is the man who sold the ped
S dler's pack to Lincoln, aud whom Lin
coin paid, Jones has been dead thes
several years.
The only one now living about Ger
s tryyille who knew Abraham Lincoln j
s James Romine. He used to be count
7 auditor at Lincoln City and was a mel
chant Ut Gentryville when the Lincoln
lived here,
s There's nothing secluded in thisias
afeatiag ujace.o d Mrs. ipe9lp, moths