The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-12

This is the ninety-ninth anniversary
of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. In
some of the states the day will be OBJ
served as a holiday, but in Utah there
/ is no provision of law setting aside the
day of Feb. II as more than an ordi-
nary day, save that, at the last legis-
lature a law was passed whose pro-
vision was that the American flag
should be raised on all public school
buildings In some of the states, how
ever, the day is a legal holiday. These
include Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York,
North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Wash
ingtOn and Wyoming.
In the schools of Salt Lake exercises
appropriate to the day and the spirit
thereof will be carried out. Petitions
in number had been sent to the gov
ernOr by no small representation of pu-
pills asking that ne proclaim the day a
holiday The suspicion is that this re-
quest was not altogether based on mo-
tives unseIfish, inasmuch as Washing
toms birthday, a legal holiday every
where, falls this year on Saturday, and
consequently on a day when the boys
would not be required to attend school
at all, holiday or no-therefOre, a holt
day on LincOln's birthday presented at
fractions for the Juvenile mind that
were not to be overlooked in the pros
pect.
Literature bearing on the life and
times of Abraham Lincoln there is
without limit. His humble origin, his
childhood struggle his rise in his
younger manhood, his later achieve
ments as statesman and, finally, his
elevation to the presidency and his sue
cessful efforts to save the Union
these are known. So, too, is known the
history of the awful tragedy when Lin
coin became martyr. Literature,
however, is incomplete, much as there
might be of it, without the publication
of at least some of the recOllectiOns of
Dennis Hanks, cousin of Abraham Lin
coin, the companion of his youth, which
are so admirably set forth in the Feb
ruary number of the American Mag
azine by Mrs. Eleanor Atkinson, who
spent an afternoon with the venerable
cousin of the emancipation. Mrs. At
kinson quotes Mr.. Hanks. who is him
self now dead, in homely fashion:
Tom an Nancy Oincolns parents)
lived on a farm about two miles from
us, when Abe was born. l ricollect
TonecOmin' over to our house one cold
mOrnin' in FEBRUARY an sayin' kind o.
slow, 'Nancy's got a boy baby
"Mather got flustered an hurried up
'er work to go over to look after the
little Teller but / didn't have nOthin'
TO wait fur, so 1 cut an run the hull
two mile to see my new cousin.
You bet L was tickled TO death. Ba-
hies wasn't as common as blackberries
in the woods o Kaintucky. Mother
come over and washed him an put d
yaller flannel petticoat on him, an
cooked some dried berries with wild
honey fur Nancy, an slicked things up
an went home. An that's all the
nuss'n either of 'em got. LordyI wo-
men nowadays don't know what their
grandmOthers went through an lived
some of EN-. A good many of 'cm
died arly. Abe's said many time that
Nancy d lived if she'd had any kind O.
keer; an l reckon she must have been
strong to "a stood what she did.
Il rolled up i'm a bar skin an slep'
by the fireplace that night, SOS | could
see the little Teller when he cried and
Tom had to git IN an tend TO him.
Nancy let me hold him purity soon.
Folks often ask me if Abe was a good
lookin' baby. Well, now. he looked
just like any other baby at fust-like
red cherry pulp squeezed dry. An he
didn't improve none as he growed old
er. Abe never was much fur looks. l
ricollect how Tom jolxed about Abes
long legs when he was toddlin' round
the cabin. He growed out o. his clothes
Eastern Nancy could make 'em.
1T didn't seem no time till Abe was
runnin' round in buckskin moccasins
and breeches, "A tow-linen shirt an
coonskin cap. That's the way we all
dressed then. We couldn't keep sheep