The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1902-02-14
LlNC0LN'S BIRTHDAY.
Had He Lived He Would Have
Been 90 Years Old on
Feb. IL.
1909, WONDERFUL BIRTH YEAR
MANY NOtabIes Then BOrn-A Giant
PhysicaIly-$3,O 600 Income When
Elected as President.

Madison, Wis, Feb. 11.-IOmOrrOW
is Lincoln's birthday. 1t is the prac
tice in many places to celebrate the
event with a recital Of his life and
discussion Of national policies. In
Grand Rapids, Mich, for instance,
there is an annual dinner and the eX-
tent of the occasion is evident from
the fact that last year 500 people sat
down to the tables. It is well for
all of us to pause Il bit and muse OH
this great career.
The year Of his birth was one of
omens. 1t was the natal year of Glad
stone, Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, Oil
yer Wendell Holmes, G. Winthrop,
Hannibal Hamlin, Poe, Fanny KEN
BILE, Chopin, Mendelshon, and Oar
win.
Lincoln has been dead for thirty
seven years and the men who saw that
great man in the field are a fast les
SEEMING number. He did his work in
u brief seven or eight years, and died
ut the age of 81; but only that youth
and early manhood of toll and SIM
plicity and truth could have made
the conclusion so noble and so epOchal.
He was strong in body. He was 6 tt.
and 4 in. tall and could lift 400 and
even 600 pounds. Those who have
seen the cast of his hand in the Ma
tiOnal museum at Washington report
that it is a giants hand-rOugh,
gnarled powerful. The woodsmen
who worked with him relate that his
axe sank deeper than any ones else.
AS Il fatbOatman, he got his craft off
the shoals where the Ingenuity Of
others failed
His Strength of Body.
His life was the story of the com
mOnpace-the picture his neighbOrs
give of the big awkward fellow
even down to his leaving for Wash
ingtOn, milking his own COW, harness.
ing his horse, cleaning the stable,
chOpping wood for breakfast-con-
found the worlds traditions of great
ness; they almost provoke to pity, and
his most ardent admirers hesitate lest
they have Overrated the powers and
achievements of this man. But not
so. Lincoln was great in that he was
simple; his soul was transparent; his
mind worked honestly; there was no
mud on his heart. No one can con-
ceiVe of Lincoln harsh to a child or
cruel to animals. He was WiSe-nOt
as scholars define Wisdom-but wise
in sense and judgment and in the tenn
per and needs Of the common people.
When he was nominated, the elegant
Wendell Phillips asked who is this
political huckster?-thisc country court
advOcate? and even his Cooper Union
speech, when he laid aside the rough
wit and easy familiarity that his
prairie constituency understood, did
not disarm the suspicion of the cul-
tured east. Yet he could revise and
improve the official diplomatic dec
1arationS Of the cultivated Steward to
the courts of Europe; and Of his Eng
1ish, as phrased in state papers, in in
speech at Gettysburg led the supreme
arbiter, The London Spectator, to de-
clare, 1T is not too much to say of
him that he is among the greatest
masters of prose ever produced by the
English race
His Knowlege of Law.
He knew less law than many a mod
ern practitioner of three years stand
ing; yet SO brilliantly was his mind
furnished with the beacon lights of
wisdom and truth, and SO glowed his
soul with conviction, that he wrestled
in the national arena with Douglas
and fancy and the master intellects of
his age respecting colossal PROPOSE
lions of the inviolable integrity of the
Union and the inherent wrong of
slavery; and while the others and
their reasoning are passing away, a
united nation and Il freed race of
blacks attest that Lincoln was right.
Lincoln was bound to the common
people by his virtues and his frailties
alike. He was attractive to the av-
erage man. There was no pride in
him. When called upon for sketch
of his life he said it was but the
short and simple annals of the DOOR"
He loved the simple things Of life
the country store, the neighborhood
company, the outdoor But with all
his strength was Il pathetic vein of
melanchOly-TOo we'll known to those
of our race who live close to the real
tiles of life III home, in toll and in
thought. The one closest to Lincoln
said: He was the saddest man I
ever knew" He loved to walk alone
on the back streets of Springfield by
night, even in the storm. Sentimental
Yerses-the cultured would hardly
call them poetry-appealed to him.
I've wandered to the village, Tom; I've
SAT 'bonpahh the tree