Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-08-05
LINCOLN'S FRIEND.
STORIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF THE
MARTYRED PRESIDENT.

Philip Clark of Mattoon Told Some
Things About Abe That other Histo-
rians Overlooked - Additional Testi-
mony to the Big Heart of Lincoln.
The late Philip Clark of NATION,
Ills, was a lifelong friend of Abraham
Lincoln. A short time before his death
Uncle Philip said in conversation with
a correspondent Of the Chicago Times
Herald:
ct do not believe the tailor ever lived
who was skillful enough to make clothes
to fit Lincoln. He was the toughest and
most irregular man in outline / ever
saw. But no child was afraid of him,
and no woman would declare him to be
ugly. Yet any description of his appear
ance you would write down would war
rant the conclusion that he wa any
thing but good looking. Why, / must
tell you, the very skin of the man did
not fit, for it appeared to be loose on
his features, and 1 knew him from
youth to age. After the Black Hawk
war Lincoln was seized with politi-
cal aspirations, but failed to get the
coveted position of representative.
He met with an obstacle in my friend
Peter Cartwright, a good man, whom
l also knew as well as a brother In
those dreary days. After 1882 l saw
Lincoln quite often in Springfield,
where he then lived. / had met with
some reverses. and after compromising
medicines, the nature of which / had
learned from the Indians, which medi-
cines were sold by Drs. Robinson and
Shields, / took my money and went in
to partnership with the merchants Gar
rett and Douglas, and we bought hogs
and fattened them on the mast and
what corn we could buy in the fields.
1.-THE crop vas poor that year, and we
bought a great deal of ground al So per
acre and needed the service of a man to
measure the ground. / did this part Of
the business and hit upon Abe Lincoln
as that man. He had a sort of survey
ing outfit. l hired Lincoln to do this
work for us and gave him the rather re-
markable wages of 81 a day for his serv-
ices. Abel always called him by his
name-thanked me gratefully for this
because he knew and I knew we could
have got the work GSne for 90 cents a
day. But l was a friend of Abe, and
my fortunes had turned for the bright
er. So Lincoln remained in our service
q few days as a sort of accountant for
us.
1--WE turned our hogs in the fields,
driving them in droves to the same.
When weighing time came, Abe assist
ed us again. / can see him now stand
ing by the old steelyards. They are near-
ly all gone now. We would tie the hogs
legs together and swing him up, and
then Abe would sing out the weight,
take a pair of scissors and cut a bunch
of bristles off the neck to show the ami
NAL had been weighed. Hogs in those
days had longer bristles than the breeds
of today, and tho clipping could be seen
by any drover. On IL of these days he
weighed 900 hogs for Us.
Lincoln was a friend Of temperance
also. We were together one night in a
country n~eighborhood when some ono
proposed that we all go to the church
close by to hear the Rev. John Berry
preach a sermon on temperance. After
listening attentively Abe remarked to
me that that subject would some time be
one Of the greatest in this country.
Lincoln loved debate and could tell
an anecdote with great effect. In II of
his early races for congress I heard him
debate with Peter Cartwright, who was
the terror of every local orator, as his
opponent. He asked Cartwright if Gen
eral jackson did right in the removal
/ believe it was-of the bank deposits.
Cartwright evaded the question and
gave a very indefinite answer Lincoln
remarked that Cartwright reminded
him of q hunter he once knew who rec
ognized the fact that in summer the
deer were red and in the winter gray,
and at one season, therefore, a deer
might resemble a calf. The hunter had
brought down one at long range. when
it was hard to see the difference, and
boasting of his own craftsmanship had
said, i shot at it SO as to hit it IL it
was a deer and miss it il a calf This
convulsed the audience and carried them
with Lincoln.
Gratitude was a religion with him.
Lincoln was q poor ~financier. He was
not a manager and seldom had any mon
ey ahead. When he came to Springfield
from Salem. he had been boarding for a
year with n man named Nelson Ally at
81. SO per week and was in debt to him
$40. Misfortune overlook Ally long aft