The National tribune., 1901-04-11
A SAVING RESEMBLANCE.
His Likeness to the Martyr President
Worked His Reformation.
By JAMES BUC.HAM.

Cyrus Eastman, the village storekeeper,
was left alone in the world. He had
lived to see all his children buried; and
at last he had followed to the grave the
faithful partner of his joys and sorrows.
Alone in the world! Is there any more
terrible test of manhood and womanhood
than is expressed by those brief, familiar
words? IL there turks greater or more
insidious temptation to evil in any mortal
circumstance, God deliver from it all of
US who are waYering under the stress of
life!
Cyrus had been a good man, strenuOusly
good, up to the time of his wife'S death.
But when the tremendous test of utter
heart-lOneliness came upon him, he went
under. A lurking hereditary appetite
seized him like starved panther. His
father and grandfather before him had
been drinking men; and now. having abb
stained all his life, Cyrus suddenly be-
thought him Of liquor. 1t was said to
drown sorrow; to deaden sensibility and
memory; to people solitude with rare COM
panIonShip; TO lend color to the faded
remnant of hfe. That thought was his
undoing. Within six months it became
evident that the old storekeeper was go
ing to the bad."
Now what is commonly done, In such
cases, in a country village? What do
the neighbors do? What does the church
do? What does the minister doi The
neighbOrs sigh, and pull long faces, and
declare it is a pity. The church, Us quiet
ly as possible, disencumbers itself of the
sinner-shakes him off, acquires, as soon
as may be, the relief of his room in place
of his company. The minister feels in
duty bound to go TO the man and make
one or two perfunctory professional re-
monstrances. Then he, too, joins him
self to those who pass by on the
other side. And tho lonely man goes
down into the depths of an added loneliness
and drinks the deeper to provide him
self with phantom companionship.
Cyrus Eastman was at just this stage
of his moral decline, when there came
to trade with him, from one of the hill
towns, a certain honest old farmer patron,
who had known him in the palmy days
of his uprightness and domestic peace.
This good man, who was as blunt as most
sincere souls, whose function is to shock
rather than to pierce and wound, find
ing, to his great amaZement, that Cyrus
was half seas over" broke out with an
exclamation that had a curiously SOLDERING
effect upon his old-time friend:
Great Jehosaphat! Cyrus Eastman!
You drunk? l never would a believed
llNt " sSt II. n man WIFI an
Abe Lincoln face like yours-drunk."
Heb WHAT'S that, Lemuel?' demand
ed Cyrus, grasping the edge of the coun-
ter and staring at his accuser with solemn,
bloOd-shot eyes. Did / understand you
to say that | looked like Abe Lincoln?"
Just as like as two peas, Cyrus, Hasn't
nobody ever remarked ont before? Why,
l do b'lieye, IL old Abe was alive today,
he'd want to go and change his name,
you look SO much more like his own pic
lures than he does! Yes, sir, you're Abe
Lincoln all over, and how any man with
such an Abe Lincoln face can go and git
drunk, and disgrace every picture that
hangs on the walls next to George Wash
ington's | don't see."
.Lemuel," replied the stoFekeeper. tot
tering backward to the support of a sugar
barrel Il am going to think over what
you've said. Abe Lincoln was the grand
est man that ever lived in Gods world,
and if do look like him, I've got to be
decenter man, sure enough"
Land. look like himY" cried the old
farmer. Sea that overhangin' nose of
yourn. Look at that mole on your right
cheek. Look at them short-cropped chin
whiskers! No man ever lived that looked
so much like Abe Lincoln as you do. It's
an honor, Cyrus, 4 great honor-and a
great responsibility.
Cyrus Eastman remained buried in
thought for a long time after his old
friend from the hills had departed Then
he shambled out to the little wash-room
at the back of the store and gazed at
his face in the dusty, cracked mirror hang
ing over the wash basin. Sure enoughw
he muttered, sure enough, Curious |
never thought of it before-curious nobody
ever mentioned it before. There's a good
deal Of old Abe about the outside of me
yet. But the inside amt what it ought to
be-no, the inside amt what it ought to
be-"
Before the good and wise Samaritan
from the hills returned to his mountain
farm, he took the trouble to see most of
tho prominent men of the village, and
make suggesiOn:
Jest kind OF remark to Cyrus Eastman,
when it comes convenient" he said, "how
much he looks like Abe Lincoln. | have
notion, from something he said to me.
that t would kind of help him to leave off
liquor He don't like the idea Of disgrac-
in old Abe"
From that time On the old storekeeper
was not allowed 10 forget the honorable
resemblance that he bore to the great
and good Martyr President. One after
another of the leading men in town seemed
to be suddenly struck by It: and more
than once, when Cyrus in his weakness
was gravitatiRg toward a relapse, he was
reminded and restrained by the timely
recognition of his likeness to his special
hero: Somebody discovered when the old
mans birthday was coming around, and
the village people made 1t II memorable
anniversary by presenting him with a fine
Unframed engraving of Lincoln. That
event marked the end of Cyrus Eastman's
moral decline. His Abe Lincoln face
had saved him