The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-12

Anniversary Of the Great Americans
Birth Recalls Lincoln's Cheer
full Advice.
AN INTERESTING CONTRAST
PRECIOUS WORDS HELD IN RE-
MEMBRANcE.

| New York, Feb. n-It is not every
boy in school who can look up from his
lesson to a message on the wall sent
him by a great American president and
leader in a crisis that tried mems souls.
Monday, Feb. II, marking the anniver-
sary of Lincolns birth, and being a le-
gal holiday in New York, is, next to
Christmas, the day which the New York
Juvenile asylum most loves TO celebrate,
| for it was to the asylum boys in 1860
and to the asylum boys ever since and
to come, that Abraham Lincoln sent a
message that is the pride of the inst-
Tell the boys Of the Juvenile asylum"
he said, that they must follow truth,
Justice and humanity if they wish to
become useful and honorable men.
These words ara enshrined inN a huge
frame. hanging on the wall in the as
sembly room of the asylum schoolhouse
tition removed last May from its for
mer home In a single building at Wash
ington Heights. They are the peculiar
take this message as personal TO them
| selves, Just as their predecessors did for
/ ty-six years ago.
Asylum Boys Celebrate.
Small wonder, then. that Lincoln's
birthday is celebrated at Dobbs Ferry
with ali the vim that the asylum boy
can impart to the occasion. There is
necessary work is done. Above all there
are 1.-The exercises" which take place in
the assembly room of the school, All
the asylum's youthful orators and es-
sayists treat the great subject of the
day before an appreciative audience.
| Stirring, patriotic songs are sung in uni
son, and a distinguished director, with
a voice that is coveted for many pub.
| lie gatherings, sings for the pleasure or
the asylum youngsters.
The historical "reminiscences bring out
asylum had been in existence but nine
years when the late George H Allen,
Lincoln in Springfield, H.. and talked
to him about his proteges, That was
Just about a month before Lincoln was
! chosen president. The country was then
ton, though little realizing the greater
excitement to follow; and Lincoln was
staying at home, quietly engaged in
He was much impressed with Mr.. Al
LENS enthusiastic plans for his boys,
with his finding them good homes, ana
thus giving their misdirected young lives
a new impetus in the youthful and en-
! ergetic west. But ne did not know when
he might come again to New York, ana
as he could not give a definite promise
to made an address to the asylum boys,
he told Mr. Allen to tell them from him.
THAT they must follow truth, justice and
and honorable men,"
Sympathetic Lincoln.
The asylum orator goes on to say that
the history of Mr.. Aliens charges, was
typical Of the kindliness he always felt
for children, particularly II they were
childhood's privaticns had been of the
bitterest In contrast, indeed, with the
struggles of his bOyh0Od, the lot Of the
walls of the big city institution, was
Luxurious. AS compared with the real
conditions in the middle west in pioneer
days, the existence Of the Juvenile Asy-
lum boys, as lived now on the hills above
Dobbs Ferry, would dazzle with its lux
ury the homely household of young
housed in fifteen fine cottages, each as
different from the log cabin in which
Lincoln lived as boy as modern car
pentry is different from the trade that
fhe future presidents father practiced.
! The ChiIdren's Village, as it is called Is
situated in grounds as attractive as a
about, and big athletic field for spe-
ciaI games and contests. The cottages,
| with their solid Oaken Woodwork, their
substantial hardwood floors, their wide
windows and attractive furnishings, with
their tiled lavatOries and locker rooms.
would astonish the soul Of plain Abe"
So that Lincoln, the orator goes on to
explain, would have envted the regular
| school sessions held day after day in
the handsome schOolhouse, red brick
without and hardwood within; the teach
ers no ''vagrant Htefad" Of the back
woods, but skilled instructors, regularly
! licensed in the metropolis of the nation;
the subjects, everything to be learned
! as far as a boys mind can reach; at
night a comfortable white bed to go to
| among nine others in row, ana three
/ Substantial and hygienic meals a day.
! In the school today there are only 300
hovs-the asylum authorities, when they
adopted the more expensive cottage sys-
tenn. preferring, with their limited means,
to follow the correct treaIInehit LOT
with the wornout method Of the cheaper
| coneregate scheme which was the only
! one understood in the earlier days.
Received the Message.
| In 1860, 699 boys received the message
| of Lincoln. The big sign that contained
| it hung, too, In former times on the wall
| of the assembly room, where all the
children could see ii during morning ex-
ercises. Beneath the frame was draped
! the American flag. and as the children's
gaze wandered from the flag to the mot
| 10. and from the motto to the flag again,
no doubt the one interpreted the other.
Every boy could rectte the motto to
heart Even the smallest, who couldn't
read learned it from the older children.
one lad who was in the asylum for pet
~ stealing, and who has since grown up
mander of a G. A. r. post in the west,
saws that the words started him off in
the right direction. AS boy he fell
10 bordering on them, then took them
to himself for his rule in life; and one
of their first practical workings was
to send him into the army to fight for
the hearts desire of the man who sent
that message.
Hes my Abraham Lincoln used TO
assert another small boy, now a war vet
eran. when in those stirring days the
talk within the asylum, as outside, was
all of Ghe great war that had started.
The boys strutted around the playground
announcing that they were going to the
war ''to fight fer President Lincoln
and many kept their word: Ninety boys
enlisted. Many who had been indent-
ured in the west ran away to join the
army, or were released by sympathy
ing foster fathers.
And the asylum boys fought well for
the man who had found an encouraging
m Of a