The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-02-17

Wy thurC NhO ek,coA Hbuuorly Tue Hhnuc
of Lincoln because they love him but
wherever the love of liberty burns on
the altar of the heart among high or
low, rich or poor wherever the sun
shines on human souls, this day is a
holy day, and the tones of the voice are
softer and the heart beats faster and the
eye is moistened and patriotic fervor runs
high and the old songs thrill us and the
flag he loved and stained with his own
blood we press to our hearts, and give
to the breezes, with higher, nobler, finer
resolves written with our prayers, all
through it's ample folds. 'Tis true as
one has said: "When God made Abra-
ham Lincoln He used pattern never
used before, and when the work was
completed He broke the mould so that
the world will never look upon his like
again." For that hour He, who filings
the stars to right and left with lavish,
omnipotent hand, called to special
work the Kentucky boy.
He who sits on no precarious throne,
| Nor bOrrOws leave to be-"
always has His man, with his grip on
I the helm when the hour and minute
hands on the dial of history point to the
need. His clock that strikes the CEN
turies only, for all time has registered
FEBRUARY 18th, 1909.
Let us look for a moment at his en-
vironment in that home in Hardin coun-
ty, Kentucky. Twas a log cabin in
which he first saw the light. A one
room, log cabin, with one window, one
door and fire place. His father could
neither read nor write except to "scrawl
his signature )" poor, shiftless-a man
with no force was he, and in such
home as that was born man of force
incarnate-the man we love to honor be-
cause he rose above his environment
and compelled his very poverty to min
lister to his greatness of soul. There was
in that home mother as well as faith
er, and here as in countless other homes
we find that the secret of the after-Lin-
coin was the guiding hand, the sacrific-
ing love, the prayers of the devoted
Christian mother. She could read but
not write, and she was his teacher. So
indelibly did she in that home of pow
erty impress herself upon her greater
son, that although she laid down the
cares and burdens of the earthly life
when the boy was but nine years of
age, he not only mourned her loss but
in later years said: "All that am and
all that hope to be, 1 owe to my angel
mother" !" One year schooling, all told,
the boy had. After hard days work,
he would stretch himself on the dirt
floor in front of the old-fashioned fire
place and spreading the ashes thin,
would with hickory stick for pencil
solve problems. And yet this man with
aye, past master IN the use of the
. English language. # 4"
But poor as he was, he had magnifi.
cent library. One shelf held the books
and there were five of them "Esop's
Fables" Pilgrims Progress" "a Life
of Washington, "Burns's Poems," and
the "Bible." And that Bible, as wei
as the other books, he knew by heart
And tits this man, with such a start in
life, whom to-day we are honoring, in
whose memory the flags float, and who
draws from the strings of the universal
heart the sweetest music. This is the
man of whom the historian Motley
wrote: "He went through life bearing
the load of peoples sorrow with a
smiling face. AS long as he lived he
was the guiding star of whole brave
nation, and when he died the little chill,
dren cried in the Streets" Twas OF
this man the London Spectator, in an
article on Cromwell said: "There is
no other name in the long and splendid
history of our race, unless it be that Of
Lincoln, which can claim more respect
for wisdom, for true patriotism, fol
dutifulness in its highest sense"
Just listen to his own words: "WheI
5 we read about men, great men, We
: somehow imagine that they were borr
! great, and had little to do with their Owl
development. Twas not so with Lin
r coin. 'Some men are born great
1 Mr.. Lincoln achieved greatness. @.
never went to school more than 81,
months in my life; but l can cay this
that among my earliest recollections,
l remember how, when a mere child,
used to get irritated when anybody talked
l to me in way l could not understand
can remember going to my little bed
room, after hearing the neighbors tall
, of an evening with my father, and spend
i ing no small part of the night walking
up and down, and trying to make ou
: what was the exact meaning of some, Il
me, dark sayings. l could not sleep
although tried to, when got on sue
' a hunt for an idea, until had caught it
u and when l thought had got it, wa
> not satisfied until had repeated it owe
e ond o,,ar until hod Dut II in lanuuaO