The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-02-19
THE HOLIDAY OBSERVED
The One Hundredth Anniversary of
Lincoln's Birth Fittingly Observed

Lincoln's Birth Fittingly Observed
Springfield, H., Feb. 12.-Spring-
field honored the memory of Lincoln
tonight with memorable banquet,
at which speeches were made by
Ambassador James Bryce, of Eng
land; Ambassador Jusserand, OF
France; Hon. William Jennings
Bryan; Hon. Robert Lincoln, of Chi
cago, son of Abraham Lincoln; Con-
gresham Joseph G. Cannon, speaker
of the house of representatives; SEN
ator Shelby NJ. Cullom and other
famous men.
Many men sat at the tables who
lived in the day when Lincoln was
a dominating figure in Illinois poll
tics and later in the politics and pol
icies of the nation. Practically
every member of the Illinois legis-
lature was present, as was also the
state officers and members of the
supreme court.
Address of Ambassador Bryce.
Declaring that Englishmen honor
the memory OF Abraham Lincoln as
Americans do and that it was fitting
that one who was privileged to rep
resent the land from which his fore
fathers came should bring on be-
half of England tribute of admir-
alton for him, Hon. James Bryce,
British ambassador to the United
at the Lincoln celebration here to-
day.
You are met to commemorate a
great man; one of your greatest;
great in what he did, even greater in
what he was said Mr.. Bryce. Zone
hundred years have passed since in
a lowly hut in the bordering state of
Kentucky tlhis child of obscure ana
unlettered parents was born into the
country then still wild and thinly
| peopled. There other famous men
were born in that same year in Eng
land: Alfred Tennyson, the most gift
ed poet who has used our language
since Wordsworth died Will
liam Gladstone the most powerful
versatile and high minded states
man of the last two generations in
Britain; and Charles Darwin, the
greatest naturalist since Linnaeus
and chief among the famous scien-
tific discoveries of the nineteenth
century. 1t was a wonderful year
and one who knew these three IL
lustrious Englishmen whom | have
named us tempted to speak of them
and compare and contrast each one
of them with that illustrous con-
temporary of theirs whose memory
we are met to honor. He quilted
this world long before them, but
with record to which a long life
could scarcely have. added any fur
Their lustre.
'Of course the personal impress
sion he made on those who knew
him." continued the speaker, "you
will hear from some of the few yet
living who can recollect him. All |
can contribute is a Renaissance of
what reached us in England. l was
an undergraduate student in the
| university at Oxford when the civil
war broke out. Well do | remember
|
national convention nominated him
as candidate for the presidency
for it had been expected that the
choice would fall ON William II.
Seward | recollect how it slowly
dawned upon Europeans in 1862 and
1863 that the president could be no
ordinary man because he never SEEM
ed cast down by the reverses which
| befell Ihis arms, because he never let
| himself be hurried into premature
action nor feared to take SO bold a
step, as the emancipation proclama-
tion was when he saw that the time
| had arrived. And above all | re-
member the shock Of awe and grief
| which thrilled all Britain when the
news came that he had persisted by
| the bullet of an assassin. There
have been not a few murders of the
heads of states in our time; but
f<hone smote us with such horror and
such pity as the death of this great,
| strong and merciful man in the mo-
ment when his long and patient eff
forts had been crowned with victory
and peace had just begun to shed
| her rays over a land laid waste by
the march of armies
1--WE in England already felt then
| that a great as well as a good man
had departed, though it remained
for later years to enable us all (both
you here, and the other hemisphere)
fully to appreciate his greatness
| Both among you and with us, his
fame has continued to rise till he
has now become one of the grandest
figures whom America has given to
world history to be a glory first of
| this country, then also of mankind.
"a man may be great by intellect,
or by character, or by both. The
highest men are great by both; and
| of these was Abraham Lincoln. En-
dowed by powers that were solid
rather than shining, he was not what
is called a brilliant man. Perhaps
the want of instruction and stimu-
| lation during his early life prevented
his naturally vigorous mind from
learning how to work nimbly. The
disadvantages of his boyhood, the
want of books and teachers, were so
met and overcome by his love of
knowledge and his strenuous will
| that he drew strength from them
| Though tfulness and intensity, the ca
pacity to reflect steadily and patient
ly on a problem till it has been
solved is one of the two most dis
tinct impressions which one gets
from that strong, rugged face with
| its furrOWed brow and deem set eyes