The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-04-25

to the pictures which crowd the galler-
les of our national history, and see
through the softness of the distance
the figures which must ever stand out
in relief from the majority and must
ever hold for us the charm which sur
rounded the demi-gods of old.
The voices are growing faint that
can describe to us these pictures and
with personal touch can rehabilitate
the forms. to mean active living flesh
and blood. There is one still in the
land that has not failed through the
years and that today can better make
us see the dim figures of the past
than any other. Such was the voice
that spoke last night of the troublous
times nearly forty years ago and of
the great figures that filled the canvass
then.
THE BISHOPS LECTURE.
Bishop Charles H. Fowler with his
wonderful gift of language and his
treasures of memory, spoke for two
hours to a large audience in the high
school auditorium last night about
Abraham Lincoln and vividly those
who listened could see the sad worn
face of the colossal central figure. the
secretary. the swift glimpse of the
silent man of deeds in camp and field
and on and on steady procession Of
the great ones who walked across the
stage in the period preceding and dur
ing the Civil war.
This is one singular gift of the great
churchman. His hearers do not see the
bishop. They forget even his voice, but
as in wonderful dream they see the
grand subject in heroic proportions, liv-
ing again through the burdensome
years, and the SORROW the misunder-
standings and strain of a NATIONS peril.
That is what was realized last night.
He showed them Lincoln--the man who
had the faith of an Abraham, the
leadership of a Moses, the statesman
ship of a Pericles, the massive intellect
of a ST. Paul, the political sagacity of a
Richelieu, the integrity of a Cromwell
and the patriotism of a Washington"
He was introduced by Rev. DR.. Chas.
NJ. Giffin, who spoke of the bishop as
1.-The chief of all lecturers on the chief
theme of all times"
EPIGRAMMATIC THOUGHTS.
The lecture was filled with brilliant
flashes of wit. and tic
thoughts. Yet,. beneath it was the
earnest intensity and passionate feel
ing for the subject which carried a
contagious influence. The bOyhOOd of
Abraham Lincoln. with the strange
preparation he had for the RESPONSE
bility to fall upon him We're portrayed
with graphic fidelity. After a picture
of the gaunt, awkward figure came the
swift comparison to the oak on the
stern mountain top. against whose
trunk the wild boar sharpens it's tusks.
and in whose branches the lightning
has left fiery path and which bends
in the blast like the bow and flies
back like the arrow. THAT" said the
bishop, was Lincoln"
The great solitary figure was pictured
as going into Washington alone-abso-
lutely. He found two men to welcome
him in the city. They were Washburne,
of Illinois, and William II. Seward. He
found the solid rock of government in
u few days but shifting sand. A navy
OF ninety wooden vessels, forty-five in
such a condition that If unmoored they
would sink like bullets. The forty-five
that could float were in Chinese or In
dian seas or locked I'D IN southern
waters by the compact between
Buchanan and Pitkins. of South Caro-
lima. -Four vessels alone won the great
est sea fight the world has ever known.
The army had marched down to Mex
leo. The officers of the Union turned
toward Confederacy, but. be it said. TO
the everlasting honor of the common
soldier, not one turned his back on the
flag.
The treasury was worse scuttled than
the navy. and worse scattered than the
army. The secretary stuck fast in the
middle of IA loan of $4,OO0,0o0 at IL per
cent. Lincoln stood alone. for from
army, cabinet, private and public life
the people were rushing toward the
Confederacy.
Such was the beginning of the lee