The San Francisco call., 1898-02-13
LINCOLN'S
 MEMORY IS
 KEPT GREEN Anniversary of His Birth Generally
 Observed. Noted Men Pay Tribute to the Martyr War
 President. Benjamin Harrison's Pathetic Speech Before the Mar
 quette Club. ESSONS OE GREAT IEE Traits of Character Possessed by the Rail-Spitter That Caused Him
 to Become Leader.
Benjamin Harrison's Pathetic
 Speech Before the Mar quette Club.
LESSONS OF A GREAT LIFE.
Traits of Character Possessed by the Rai1-Splitter That Caused Him
 to Become Leader.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

CHICAGO, Feb. 12.-The anniversar,
 of the birth of Abraham Lincoln wa
 generally observed here to-day, by ex
 erc1ses in the schools and by various
 banquets. The principal banquet of tn evening, however, was the twelfth an
 nual affair of the Marquette Club
 which was held at the Auditorium Hotel. Fully 600 members of the clul were present and the speeches in re- | ply to the toasts were received witt l great applause. Ex-President Harrison was the speaker of the evening, and his address on Abraham Lincoln" was re- ceived with enthusiastic manifestation. of applause.
 President B. G. Paulding, of the Marquette Club, opened the exercises with brief address, and then intro duced Congressman Boutelle of Illinois who spoke on "Chicago-A Political Storm Center" Congressman Boutelle was followed by ex-President Harrison, who said in part:
 The observance of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, which has now be- come so widely established by public law or by general custom, will more and more force the orators of the occasions to depart rom the line or DlORrdpny ana incident and eulogy and to assume the duty Of applying to pending public QueS- tions the principle illustrated in the life and taught in the public utterances of the man whose birth we commemorate. And after all we may be sure that the great, simple hearted patriot would have wished it so. Flattery did not soothe the living ear of Lincoln. He was not un- appreciative of friendship, not without ambition to be esteemed. but the over mastering and dominant thought of his life was to be useful to his country and to his countrymen.
 No college of arts had opened to his struggling youth. He had been born in a cabin and reared among the unlettered. He was a rail-splitter, a flatboatman a country lawyer Hsa h all those eSna at the rail-splitting. in the rapids and at the bar, and in story telling.
 In the broad, common-ssense way in which he did small things he was larger than any situation in which life had placed him. Europe did not know him. To the South and to not few in the jester. an ambitious. upstart, a, reckless disturber. He was hated by the South not only for his principles, but for him. self. The son of the cavalier, the men who felt toll to be stain, despised this son of the people, this child of toll. He was distinguished from the abolition leaders by the fairness and kindliness with which he judged the South and the
 
 slavery, not because some masters were cruel but upon reasons that kindness to the slave did not answer. "All men in- cluded the black man. Liberty is the law of nature The human enactment cannot pass the limits of the States; Gods law embraces creation MT. Lincoln had faith in time and time has justified his faith. If the panorama of the years from 1861 to 1885 could have been unrolled before the eyes of his countrymen would they have said-would he have said-that he was adequate for the great occasion? :? And yet, as we look back over the story of the civil war, he is revealed to us standing above all men of that epoch in his capacity for and adaptation to the duties of the Presidency.
 Following Harrison came Justice David J. Brewer of the United States Supreme Court, who spoke eloquently on "The Nations Anchor" the court of which he is a member. He was fol- lowed by Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury, who spoke on Govern ment and Finance"
 Great applause greeted Bishop Potter of New York when he arose to deliver an address on "The Humor of Lincoln." The reverend gentleman told many anecdotes of Lincoln in most happy manner, and contributed greatly to the enjoyment of the evening. The other addresses of the evening were by Presi- dent Garfield of the University of Ohio, who responded to Education and the Nation" and w. J. Calhoun of Dan- vile, H., who replied to Illinois