The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-23

land and settled in Massachusetts.
Samuel Lincoln came from Norfolk, the
| county which has produced many gen
fuses. During the long years of strug-
gle in England, when tho people rose
against the kings, the yoemen and
peasants and noblenlen of Norfolk rose
for freedom.
Kin, then, of sturdy, freedom-loving
folk were the Lincclns. The name OF
Lincoln goes back to one of the old
towns of England where the Danes,
Roman, Celt and Saxon all had a part
On the maternal side, Lincoln'S an
cestry cannot be well traced From his
mother, perhaps, he inherited that
gloominess which came near being his
ruin.
Early in his life we find traces of that
variety of attachments which some
times crop out in geniLses. In none of
his varied enlployments did he prove
failure. Such schooling as Lincoln re-
ceived was such as a boy who could
attend school could get. From his
mother, Lincoln learned to handle the
Bible.
He was counted q quick student,
hard worker and the seeker after all
sorts Of knowledge.
The imaginative part of his nature
led him as q boy TO write out a story
in his mind, which he thinks was the
beginning of love In him. Perhaps If
he had been surrounded by another en-
viRonment he would have become Am
erica's great author. He had a reputa-
ton as a maker Of doggerel verse. If
ever q man brought out by application
the genius in him. that man was LIN
coin. He was inventive and in the pat
ent Office is model Of an invention by
Abraham Lincoln.
In boyhood ne acquired the legal and
forensic arts. He loved to speak from
the stump and make his hearers afraid
and shed tears. AS an orator he had
that personal magnetism that can
sway an audience. Lincoln was an
orator of the kind which no school ever
developed. Between that majestic
speech at Gettysburg and the school
ma am-made elocution of today there
Is no comparison.
Many things besides writing and
speaking came into Lincoln's hfe. The
journey from Kentucky to Indiana, the
river life, schooled him in many things
which he could have learned nowhere
else. And he attended another school
which all geniuses love. Reading. The
Bible, Aesop's Fables and Pilgrims
Progress were his first books 1t is
said that he read every book he heard
of In radius Of so miles. BY the time
he had reached the presidency he had
learned to know Shakespeare as few
others knew him. He also read the
book taught by the everything finger
of God-the book of nature.
Physically, Lincoln was neither
graceful nor prepossessing, yet there
was something in the tall Indianian
that spoke the genius in the man. In
jumping and wrestling he was the talk
OF the neighborhood. He exoelled in
hunting and fishing.
Physically as well as mentally, he
was an all-round man. His friendships
were sincere and lasting, his friends
numerous. He was popular because he
respected himself and others respected
him. Perhaps the surest and noblest
test of the genius Is their treatment
of names. Not only did he pay sincere
respect to woman, but he received no
mage from woman such as men seldom
receive.
His fathers second wife was an in
estimable blessing to Abraham, then
10 years of age. She praised Abe more
than step-mothers are wont. II was the
influence of his step-mother who So
cured him leisure to persue his studies.
But Lincoln bound himself to an
other woman with a tie greater than
that which binds mother to son. In
1885 he passed through one of those ex-
periences which make or mar men. His
great heart was touched by love. The
girl was Ann Rutledge, a girl OF beau
ty And mind. But he was destined never
to wed her, for the fear OF wronging
her earlier love, made her morose ana
soon she died. Lincoln passed an hour
with her before her death, and then
saw burst forth that gloom which he