The National tribune., 1899-12-07
EVERYDAY LIFE OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
CONTINUED from first page. }

| saw. HE was tall, angular and ungainly,
w0te trousers made of flax and tow, cut
| tlgat at the ankle, and ont at both knees"
| he was known 20 be very poor, but he was a
| weico ne e lest in every house i'll the neigh
borhool. NJ. Cluse SPEAKS of splitting
rails with Abraham, and reveals some very
| interesting facts concerning wages. Money
was a co notify never recloned upon.
Lincoln split rails TO get clothing, and he
ma lie a bargain with Mrs. Nancy Miller to
| split 400 rails for every yard Of brown jeans,
| dyed with white walnut bark, that would be
| necessary to make him n pair of trousers.
In those hard days, Lincoln used to walk
! five, six and seven miles to work. His
poverty, though it depressed him. did not
extlngulsh his spirits or blunt his faculties,
and he was ready to engage in an intellec-
tual or physical encounter with suitable
antagonist, whenever circumstances war
rantei. John .nks, his cousin and com
panlon in his recent voyage, relates an
anecdote in point: after Abe got to De-
catur, or rather to Macon. man by the
| name OF Posey came into our neighborhood
and made speech. 1t was n baI one, and
said Abe could beat it. / turned down a
box or keg. and Abe mounted it and made
speech. The other man was a candidate;
Abe wasn't. Abe beat him to death, his
subject being the navigation of the Sanga-
| mon River. The man, after the speech was
through, took Abe aside, and asked him
| where he had learned so much, and how he
ner and method of reading, and what he
had read: The man encouraged him TO
persevere."
REMOVAL TO NEW SALEM-LINCoLN AS
A STOREKEEPER.
At the conclusion of his trip to New Or
leans, Mr.. Ofutt, Lincoln s employer, entered
into mercantile trade in small way at New
Salem, settlement on the Sangamon
River, in Menard County, two miles from
Petersburg, the County seat. He opened
a store of the class commonly supported in
little wayside town, and also ran flour
ing mill. He had found out in his late ex
pc iition down the Mississippi the valuable
qualities Of young Lincoln, and was anxious
to secure his help in his new enterprise.
For want of other immediate employment"
says Mr.. Barrett, "aDd in the same spirit
which had heretofore actuated him, Abra-
ham Lincoln now entered upon the duties of
clerk, having an eye TO both branches of
the business carried on by his employer.
This connection continued for nearly a year,
all the duties of his position being faithfully
performed" 1t was TO this years humble
but honorable service that Mr.. Douglas
tauntingly alluded in one of his speeches
during the canvass of 1853, as keeping a
g-oggery." In his reply, Mr Lincoln de-
clare his adversary "Woefully at fault as
TO his ever having been a "groggery-keeper,"
and that he had never kept u groggery
anywhere in the world"
THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE.
Abraham's habits of study were now
again regularly resumed. while engaged
in the duties of Ofutt's store he com
menced the study of English grammar
There was not u textbook 10 be obtained in
! the neighborhood; but hearing that there
was copy of Kirkham's Grammar in the
possession of a person seven or eight miles
distant, he walked TO his house and Sue
ceeded in borrowing it. L. NJ. Greene, a
| lawyer, OF Petersburg, in Menard County,
says that every time he visited New Salem,
at this period, Lincoln took him out upon a
| hill and asked him TO explain some point in
! Kirkham that had given him trouble.
After having mastered the book he re-
marked to friend that if that was what
they called a science, he thought he could
| 'subdue another Mr.. Green says that
Mr.. Lincoln's talk at this time showed that
he was beginning TO think of a great life
and a great destiny. Lincoln said to him,
on one occasion, that all his family seemed
| to have good sense, but somehow none had
ever become distinguished. He thought
perhaps he might become so. He had
talked, he said, with men who had the
reputation of being great men, but he could
not see that they differed much from others.
During this year he was also much engaged
with debating clubs, often walking six or
seven miles 10 attend them. One of these
clubs held its meetings at an old storehouse
in New Salem, and the first speech young
| Lincoln ever made was made there. He
| used to call the exercising 'practicing
polemics.' AS these clubs were composed
principally of men of no education what
ever, some of their 'polemics' are remem-
bered' as the most laughable of farces.
| Lincoln's favorite newspaper at this time
was the Louisville Journal, a paper which
he received regularly by mail, and paid for
during a number of years when he had not
| money enough TO dress decently. He liked
its politics, and was particularly delighted
with its wit and humor, of which he had
the keenest appreciation"
STUDYING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
When out of the store Lincoln was always
busy in the pursuit of knowledge. One
says that the first time he saw him "he was
| lying on trundle-bed, covered with books
| and papers, and rocking cradle with his
| foot. OF the amount of uncovered space
between the eXtremities of his trousers and
| the top OF his socks, which this informant
observed, there shall be no mention. The
whole scene, however, was entirely char
acte iitic-Lincoln reading and studying,
and at the same time helping his landlady
by quieting her child" Mr.. Lamon says:
Sometimes, when business was not par
ticularly brisk, he would lie under shade
tree in front of the store and pore over the
book; at other times q customer would find
him stretched on the counter intently en-
gagged in the same way. But the store was
a bad place for study; and he was often
seen quietly slipping out of the village, as
if he wished TO avoid observation, when if
successful in getting off alone he would
spend hours in the woods mastering a