The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1905-12-15
gelect @isrellany.
Presidents Boyhood.
Young Lincoln Made the Best Of Scanty
Schooling.

As Abraham had been only seven
years old when be lett Kentucky, the
little beginnings he learned in the
schools kept by Riney and Hazel in
that State must have been very slight,
probably only his alphabet, or at most
only three or f, ur pages OF Webster's
Elementary Spelling Book" The
multiplication table was still a mys
terry to him and he could read or write
only the words he spelled. His first
two years in Indiana seem to have
passed without schooling of any sort,
and the school he attended shortly af
t,r coming under the care of his step
mot her was of the simplest kind, for
the Pigeon Greek settlement number
ed only eight or ten poor families, and
they lived deep in the forest, where,
even if tt ey tad bad the money foI
such luxuries, it would have been i'm
possible to buy books, states, pens,
ink or paper. 1t is worthy of note.
however, that IN our Western coun-
try, even under such difficulties, a
scboolhouse was one of the first build
,ngs to rise in every frontier settle
ment. Abraham's second school in
Indiana was held when he was IA
years old and the third in his seven
teenth year
BY that time he had more books and
better teachers, but lie had to walk
four rive miles to reach them. We
know that he learned to write and was
provl,'el with pen. ink and q copybook
"A very small supply of writing pa
per, for cop.es have been printed OF
several scraps on which he carefully
wrote down tables of long measure,
land measure and dry measure, as
we'll ss examples in multiplication
and com pound division, from his ar
ithmetic' He was never able to go to
school again after this time, and
though the instruction he received
from his FIVE teachers extended over
a period of nine years, it must be re-
membered that it made up in all less
than one twelve month; that the ag
gregate OF all his schooling did not
amount to one year" The fact that
be received this instruction, as he him.
self said, "by Titles" was doubtless an
advantage A lazy or Indifferent boy
would, OF course, have forgotten wba,
was taught him at one time before he
had opportunity at another; but Abra
ham was neither Indifferent nor lazy
and these widely separated fragments
ofins,1uction were precious steps to
self-heip. He pursued his studies with
very unusual purpose and determina'
tion, not only TO understand them a,
the moment, but to fix them firmly in
his mind His early companions al
agree that he employed every spare
moment in keeping on with some ont
Of his studies.
His stepmother tells US that wher
he came across passage that struck
him be would write it down on board.
if be had no paper, and keep it there
until he did get paper. Then be
wou Il rewrite it, look at it, repeat it
He had coyy book, kind Of scrap
book, in which he put down all things
and thus preserved them He spent
long evenings doing sums on the fire
shove. Iron fire shovels were q rar-
iy among pioneers. Instead they
u st d broad, tam claphoard with one
end mar owed handle, arranging
with this the piles Of Goals upon the
h"arth, over which they set thcil
"sk, ~" and "oven"to do their cook
ing vas on such a wooden shove
that AT ri ,ls worked bis sums b,