The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-02-15

Was hD8oiupely uOtniuR, soiu hiNcObN' W
excite ambition for education" The boy
hood and youth Of this great man were
passed amid surroundings OF far greater
hardship than those which are now about
the "lower strata as DR.. RAISsfoRD calls
the poorer people Of this city. His home
was comfortless, and only the ~plainest fare
was obtained by the family, and not any
too much OF that. Food and convenience
which the poorest OF the New York poor
now regard as necessaries for civilized
people, were unknown to ABRAHAM LIN
COL up to the time when he reached
manhood; and long afterward he lived
a life of deprivation greater than that
Of the people for whom claptrap news
papers are getting up soup houses In
New York. He was a hired man."
a r%ail-splitter, n hand on a fiatboat, a
clerk in a little country store. LINCOLN
had a hard time Of It, a terribly hard time;
but he did not squeal out that tho people
have done almost nothing for the lower
strata" He did not want to be boosted up
by philanthropy; but got up by his own
struggles, and would have resented as an in
suit any suggestion by III Episcopal parson
hat his STRATUM" was so low that he
needed to be- lifted out Of it by main force
exerted by other people.
The experience Of ABRAHAM LINCOLN was
the experience OF the great mass Of the
people Of this country at that time. They
were generally in DR.. TRANSPORTS CLOVER
STRATA but they did not waste their time
in fretting over the hardships Of their lot.
They endured them and went to work to
improve them. asking no sympathy from
Episcopal parsons. From these stout, self
reliant, valiant souls sprang the stock
which now gives vigor to this country and
makes 1t u~nconquerable.
Querulous discomfort with transitory so
cial conditions which are inevitable, and de-
sirable, too, for they strengthen the moral
fibre, is not OF American breeding. 1t does
not express the American character, which
was moulded by the pioneers who felled the
forests for the building up Of our present
civilized development. II is a noxious and
enfeebling weed Of foreign transplantstion.
A poor Irish adventurer comes here from
Claughbawn, picks up a living by writing
for newspapers, gets the editorship Of a
newspaper, and then proceeds on his hunt
for fortune by defaming the country which
lifted him up from his original poverty,
seeking in all ways to spread distrust Of the
social and political system whose incom-
parable benefits he enjoys. A wretched
Hungarian jew emigrates to this free land
to escape from oppression and save him
self from n life OF filth and squalor;
and when American opportunities bring
to him wealth, he also gets a news.
paper and joins the Claughbawn ad-
venturer in a greedy, malicious effort
to make more money by generating q spirit
OF sedition and social rebellion. and debas-
ing public taste and public morals. A cler-
gyman comes hither from Dublin by way OF
Canada, and In return for the hospitality OF
this republic he begins, within n few years,
to tell the people that 1t does not amount to
ms much as they imagine. He himself lives a
life Of material luxury. attends balls, operas,
and plays, dinners, and other elegant and
costly functions, and then turns about to
accuse those who have entertained him OF
neglecting their duties to the poor, the
lower strata" because they spend their
money and thus put it In circulation.
One popularity Of the American people
has been called a weakness. 1t Is our patient
federation OF nuisances; but we are tolerant
because we are indifferent. Every true
American is too much engaged with the
serious business OF trying to get ahead to
stop to fret over the annoyance Of buzzing
insects along his path. But for several
years past these disturbers OF our peace have
been becoming more than annoying. They
have been engaged In a concerted attempt
to provoke scdition, or at least that is what
their defamation OF our whole social and
political system amounts to; and they have
grown to be nuisances whose abatement is
imperatively necessary.