The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-12

LrncU1n nau all the rude 'hunors ana
gestures of the untaught man of that
type. It has been proved that the Lin
coin family, early in the Eighteenth CEN
fury, possessed some substance and held
at least middle rank, but thereafter the
decline was so rapid that in the person Of
Thomas Lincoln and in the Kentucky
hoEel the family had, at the date of the
hero's advent, reached the lowest point.
The standard of the region was certainly
not high, but the Lincolns and their
congeners sank below it.
The boyhood of the Liberator was a
tragedy and can only be treated as such.
A few CLEANS of hu1nor broke its melan-
choly monotony here and there, and the
riotous wit Of the new west sometimes
tortured mirth even out of misery; still
it was tragedy and dark and gloomy
one. Yet out of that abyss came occa-
sional flashes of intellect which showed
that the strain of the older Lincolns was
again to show itself by that mysterious
law which scientists call atavism, but
which the common people explained long
before Darwin by saying of such a one
that he takes back'-that is. from a re-
mote ancestor In proof of the foregoing
summary it is necessary to cite but one
fact: When Thomas Lincoln married
Nancy Hanks his friends and relatives
remarked with a sort of surprise that she
could read and write and was "a ra' al
smart woman"
The woeful childhood of Lincoln ended
suddenly when he was eleven years old
and his stepmother arrived; from that
date the mental philosopher can trace
with ever increasing interest the rapid
development of his mind. All at once,
apparently, as if it were in a day, he
ceased to be the forlorn and neglected
child and became the ''smart boy of the
neighborhood." In three years he was
noted; in five more he was notorious.
The usual results of being the smart
boy" of country neighborhood had fol-
lowed. 1t is extremely difficult to find
any one who remembers anything about
him previous 10 1920; it is altogether too
easy to find many in southern Indiana
who remember many things he did after
1926; for there Is no doubt that his smart
ness" had, for want of better field, taken
a turn for queer ways and that he was,
as the people said, up to some mighty
mean tricks"
This stage of effervesence ended almost
as suddenly as his woeful childhood had
i -,
Lincoln became an ambitious young man
a trip to New Orleans and a few trials
as hired laborer while still in Indiana
appear to have excited in him a fierce
ambition to get ahead in the world
And in this stage of ms career the future
philosopher viii find the first unqueStiou-
able evidences that he looked forward to
time when he should be an honored
! citizen. CnGueStionablv the Abraham
/ Lincoln of 1872 dill. in some mysterious
| way, arrive II the conclusion that this
-.-~--
I world had Ior MN something Iar myner
! than the position of nelghborhood Joker.
( champion wrestler or prize woodcnopper
His conception of his future was, how
ever, such as now excltes 4 smile. He
seems 10 have felt certain that he could
/ acquire a competency, that he could go
( to the legislature. that he could be a
| leading man aud successful lawyer. and
IN time go TO congress and be a great
| political oracle III his district, and De
( yond that-well, that was the extent Of
/ his dream And IN this mind he re-
/ manned, as far as all the evidence shows
! for twenty years. In al that time there
/ Is on record but one Utterance which
can even be tortured into personal
forecast Of hrs great MISSION. That was
! the eft quoted remark 10 his cousin IN
regard to slavery as he had seen il on
MS last southern trlp. VIZ; Ny God,
( John, If / evsv get = chance 10 hit that
! institution I'll hit il hard"
Nevertheless, he was growing. Indeed,
this Is the one prominent fact IN Abra-
| ham EineolR's life-hs never ceased
growing As captain IN the Black Hawk
war, a. candidate for th> lesi.la.Hre