Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-19

embarrassed by you nor yet to draw rom you anything to relieve myself from difficulty. My only object was to assure you that had not, as represented by The Herald correspondent, charged you with an attempt to inve;gle me in 10 Kentucky to do me violence. I be- l1eve no such thing of you or of Ken tuck1ans generally, and I dislike to be represented to them as slanderine tbero Ill that way "
 During the war Larue countv-beino that part of Hardin county in which MT. Lincoln was born-sent Dr. I IF Rodman, one of her citizens. to Wash ln9ton to sec the president with a view to having corrected the number of men demanded from the county under the requirements of the draft Not lone after reaching the White House and sending up his card Dr. Rodman was admitted, somewhat in advance of his turn, as ho thought, because several ef those who still fingered in the ante rooms told him they had been #yainlv waiting to sec the president for days bat were unable to catch even a glinnse of him. h the course of the convers9- ton Rodman informed the president that q number Of the citizens of Larne county had sentWith him to be present. cd to the president q cane made from timher that grew on the farm on which the latter was born, but that he had left t with jeWeler in the city with directions to put gold head with 6 suitably engraved inscription on it. On the following day, when the ieweler had finished his work, he would bring it ever. How will I know, ," inquired MT. Lincoln, 'who the donors of this acceptable gift are?i Rodnaan answered that he supposed the names would be engraved on the gold headpiece. "How foolish of me, ; laughed the president, " to ask that question 1 am like the lrishman who called for his mail at the posto1fice and when the postmaster ask ed his name with true Irish wit an- swered, Faith aud mo name is on the letter. n
 Dr, Rodlnan says the president seem- ed to be ip an unusually reminiscent mood and made frequent inquiries about the Cessmas, Brownfields, Friends, Ash crafts and other prominent Kentucky families Recalling @ few meager incl dents Of his boyhood, he inquired espe- cially after Austin Gollaher. one of his playmates who by the ready and skill ful use of q sycamore branch claimed to have saved young Abe from drowning in Knob creek.
 "How is the old fellow making it now?2 playfully inquired the president 'eTell him I would rather see him now than any man living. He played me a mean trick once, but you can assure him when you see him that l have long since forgiven him. 1t was this way: We were cut ill the woods playing one day and hunting for game. Our most dangerous weapon was 6 hickory club or stick ] had climbed mp into tree and being mere or less tired had braced myself ill the forks of two limbs to rest, leaving Austin below Sitting thus for some time, looked down and beheld the latter stretched out on the grass appar- ently asleep. Beside him lay his hat, bottom side uppermest. l remembered that I had ill the pocket of my little coat hanging from 8 limb overhead a papaw which 1 had picked up 6 few moments before and which was thor oughly ripe Knowing if it fell to the ground it was black and soft enough to burst, 1 determined that as Austin was asleep to drop it into his hat. Reaching up, I withdrew 1t from my pocket, and, holding it between my knees to get a sure aim, I let it fall It landed i'll the very center of my playmate's hat, and there was a bountiful scattering of bursted papaw inside and all around it. In keen expectation of enjoyment 1 rapidly descended, but when l reached terra frma l found that, contrary to my supposition, Austin had not been asleep at all and that while I had been en- gagged in reaching for my coat he had quickly transposed hats, and instead of practicing a joke on him had carefully defiled my own hat. ''
 The period of Lincolns boyhood spent in Indiana is fraught with the greatest interest to the student of his history, for it was these earlier years of his life that had their lasting effect on the mind and temperament of this great "mirthful and yet melancholy man. :" No better picture of boys life ln the early days of the west can be obtained than the modest bit of autobiography furnished by MT. Lincoln to Jesse w. Fell in 1859. It is one of those purely Lincolnian specimens of terse and wig orous English One seldom finds in lit erature or history such concise and yet forcible expression. "We reached our new home,' he relates, referring to the removal to Indiana, about the time the state came into the Union. 1t was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still ill the woods There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of teacher beyond 'readin, writin and cipherin' to the rule of