The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-02-13
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY.

|
day, Feb. IL, is becoming more genera
and impressive each year. This year i
was observed in hundreds of towns ant
4 cities where it had never been TAX er
notice of before, and the meetings were
generally attended by greater numbers
1 Everywhere the best speakers were OBJ.
1 tanned. the exercises were of unusually
fine character and the function became
more instructive and useful in its in.
culcation of the lessons of Lincoln's life
upon the people.
Lincoln does not belong to us alone
| but to all humanity. Every man, oil
| whatever creed, cline or country, who
loves his fellowman looks to Abraham
Lincoln as the greatest leader and bene-
factor of the race since the Man OF
Sorrows who died on Calvary. The
agreement has become universal that
he was the greatest. man that our race
has produced in the 500 years that II
has occupied the center of the worlds
stage. In those eight centuries our race
has filled history with men great in
every phase of usefulness and helpful
effort for mankind. Great as the galaxy
of these i1lustrious men is, Lincoln
stands easily ahead of them all, and our
British cousins are no less asSertive
than we that he has had no equal
among them all. England has had her
Cromwell and her Alfred, but they fall
far short of attaining the eminence of
Lincoln. There have been myriads of
tributes to Lincoln written by the ablest
pens, but the lines of James Russell
Lowell seem particularly applicable to
this Lincoln season
Abraham Lincoln.
CFrom the "Commemoration Ode" by
James Russell LOVELY
Life may be given in many ways,
And loyalty to truth be sealed
As bravely in the closet as the field,
So bountiful is Fate;
But then to stand beside her.
When craven churls deride her,
To front lie in arms, and not to yield,
This shows, methinks, Gods plan
And measure of a stalwart man,
Limbed like the old heroic breeds,
Who stand self-poised on manhoods
solid earth,
Not forced to frame excuses for his
birth,
Fed from within with all the strength
he needs.
Such was he, our Martyr-C Chief,
Whom late the Nation he had led,
With ashes on her head,
Wept with the passion of an angry
grief:
Forgive me, if from present things !
turn
To speak what in my heart will beat
and burn,
And hang my wreath on his world
honored urn.
Nature they say doth dote,
And cannot make man
Save on some WORKOUT plan,
-r Repeating us by rote;
For him her Old World moulds aside
she threw,
And, choosing sweet clay from the
breast
OF the unexhausted West,
With stuff untainted shaped hero new,
Wise, steadfast in the strength of God,
and true.
How beautiful to see
Once more shepherd of mankind in
deed,
Who loved his charge, but never loved
to lead:
One whose meek flock the people joyed
TO be,
Not Iured by any cheat of birth,
But by his cleargrained human
worth,
And brave old wisdom of sincerity,
They knew that outward grace is
dust,
They could not choose but trust
In that sure-footed minds unfaltering
skill,
And supple-tempered will
That bent like perfect steel to spring
again and thrust.
His was no lonely mountain peak Of
Thrusting to thin air Ger our cloudy
bars.
A seamark now. now lost in vapors
blind;
Broad prairie rather, genial, level
g. lined,
Fruitful and friendly for all human
kind.
Yet also nigh to Heaven and loved of
loftiest stars.
Nothing of Europe here,
Or, then. of Europe fronting mornward
still,
Ere any names of Serf and Peer
(, Could Natures equal scheme deface
And thwart her genial will;
mere NdS d y pc VI the true tiutr
race.
And one of PIutarch's men talked with
US face TO face.
praise him not; II were too late:
And some innatiye weakness there must
be
In him who condesccnds to yictory
Such as the Present gives, and cannot
wait
Safe in himself as in ia-e
So always firmly he;
He knew to bide his time,
And can his fame abide.
Still patient in his simple faith sublime,
Till the wise years decide.
Great captains, with their guns and
druirs.
Disturb our judgment for the h@ur.
Eut 81 last silence comes;
These are all gone, and, standing like
tower,
Our children shall behold his fame.
The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing
man,
Sagacious, patient. dreading praise, not
blame,
New birth of our new soil, the first
American.
WARNING no POSTS.
Commander-in- Chief Charles G.. Bur-
ton. in General Orders No. 3. finds it
,an.ecar&- IN rep7ind the Posts of a rigid