The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-10-25

ABRAHAM LINCOLN's AMUSEMENT.
ham would drag his chair into the door
yard, and, tipping it back by propping
his feet against the side of the house,
forget his labor in reading the diction-
ary His only other books were the
Bible, "Aesop's Fables" Robinson
Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress" life Of
Washington and a history of the
United States. When these lost inter
est he would walk to the nearest town,
and on precious bits of paper copy down
such extracts as he could make from
ponderous law books in the constable's
office, in order to have fresh reading
material. Even his dictionary studies
had to be given up in winter, when
there was no twilight and no candles;
SO on the back of the wooden fire
shovel, with a piece of charcoal, he
would amuse himself by working out
mathematical problems and writing
essays, that could be shaved off, leav-
ing him a fresh surface. Another of
his favorite amusemcnts was making
speeches to men working in his fathers
fields.
Sir Rowland Hill, perhaps most
American boys and girls do not know,
was the man who, in the early part of
Queen Victoria S reign. reorganized the
postal service of Great Britain, from
which ours is adopted, and made it pos
sible to send d letter for n few cents to
any part of the country. He was the
son of schoOl-teacher, but so delicate
he was not permitted to study with his
brothers. He suffered from loneliness
a great deal, yet found perfect content
ment in lying fiat on his stomach on
the hearth rug adding up tremendous
columns of figures. Later in life he
was celebrated for his knowledge of
mathematics, and held important posts
under the government, for which he
was knighted.
Mr.. Gladstone, when he went to
Eton, was considered the pretticst lit
tie boy in the school, but he was not
very popular, as he cared very little
for outdoor games. His companions
rarely ever saw him run, and boat he
had for sculling on the river he inva-
riably locked up and rarely loaned it
to other boys when he was not using
it. What he dearly loved, however, was
to make long addresses on most serious
subjects in the school club of which he
was a member. Then for amusement
he helped to edit an Elton magazine,
for which he wrote a great number of
poems, editorials, translations and es-
says.
Thomas jefferson as a boy rode well
and played the violin, but he most sin
cerely loved to study. When very
young he went to college and gave IF
teen hours a day to his books, and for
exercise at twilight would run for a
mile out of the college grounds and
back again.
Cuvier, the great naturalist, used to
make for his schoolfellows the tiniest
but most perfect maps of bits of COZ
ored cloth or paper pasted on a sheet
and then drawn over with dots and
lines to represent mountains, rivers,
towns, etc.
A water clock and a sun dial, this
last marked out on the side of his land
lady's house when he went to board
ing school, were made by Sir Isaac
Newton, who, as little boy, was for
ever inventing something. lie con-
trived a curious little mill, the arms Of
which were made to move by a
pair of mice imprisoned in the mills
tower. Though for time at school he
was rather a lazy boy, when, later, he
went to live on his mothers farm, he
shirked his daily duties often to stop
and build wonderful little water wheels
by the brooks side, or lie under a
shady hedge and study out long
mathematical problems.
Louis Agassiz was so expert fisher
man when little boy he could catch
them in his hand, fascinating them
first by strange motions of his fingers
He kept a number of pet fish in a stone
basin behind his fathers house, and
was clever at tanning field mice and all
sorts of little animals and insects. He
was an expert little cobbler and
cooper. could make water-tight barrels
as well as man, and manufactured
pretty shoes for his sisters dolls.
Perhaps of all things Daniel Webster
when boy loved best was to read
about. He never remembered when he
first began to read, but as very tiny
boy he read the newspaper regularly
to an old British soldier, who used to
carry him about on his shoulder. One
day his schooimaster offered prize Of
a jackknife to the boy who could learn
the greatest number of Bible verses,
whereupn the next morning Daniel got
up and rapidly spoke off so many verses
that the master had to beg him to
stop, and promptly presented the
knife.-St. Louis Repuhli