Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-02-10
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Something of the Life and Work OF
Americas Greatest Hero, Whose
Centennial VII be Celebrate
ed OF iGay.

In every American namleI, through
out the length and breadth of this
great nation of ours, the citizens of
the Republic will on Friday celebrate
! the 100 anniversary of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln; in the schools, in
! the churches, in civic societies, and
! in public gatherings the life and
| char acter of this great man will be
reviewed, and fitting tribute paid to
his memory.
The most concise sketch of his
career that has come under our OBJ
servation is from the Register and
Farmer, from which we take the
liberty to quote the following:
IT'S said that all great men are
born on the farm, most of them in
| log cabins. In fact, this has so often
been true, that the young man from
| the farm is welcomed in almost any
enterprise because he is known to
have the right sort of start.
Abraham Lincoln, to us the great
est man in history, was born on a
farm and in a log cabin, February
J. ~, 1909, near Hodgensville, LaRus
county, Kentucky. He was twenty
three years old before he left the
farm environment and from the time
he was ten up to his twenty-third
year he was a farm laborer, working
often for his neighbors at a very
small wage.
The poverty which Lincoln knew in
l. ;- al sc 81, l.
in these days. No boy in the most
remote section of the country today
but has far larger opportunities for
an education than had Lincoln. Very
few of us are required to endure the
discomforts, day after day, that he
endured. And yet, what masterful
nobility developed in him despite all
this. He is one of the very few char
acters in history whose influence
lives after him, strengthening with
the years. He is more than loved
he is worshipped.
EmersOn's Tribute.
HE was thoroughly American"
| said Ralph Waldo Emerson in a BEAU
| tiful tribute paid to Lincoln. He
| had never crossed the sea, had never
been spoiled by English insularity
or French dissipation; quiet, native
aboriginal man-aS an acorn from an
oak; no aping of foreigners, no friv-
| olous accomplishments. Kentuckian
| born, working on a farm, a flatboat-
man, captain in the Blackhawk war,
country lawyer, representative in
the rural legislature of Illinois-on
such modest foundation the broad
structure of his frame was laid.
How slowly, and yet how happily,
step by step, he came to his place
There, by his courage, his justice,
his even temper, his fertile counsel,
his humanity, he stood an heroic fig
ure in the center of an heroic epoch.
| He is the true history Of the Ameri-
can people in his time. Step by step
he walked before them; slow with
theirs, the true representative of the
continent; an entirely public man.
father of his country, the pulse of
twenty millions throbbing in his
heart, the thought of their minds ar
ticulated by his tongue"
Born February IL, 1909, in the
county Of La Rue, Kentucky. he first
attended school at the Little Pigeon
Creek school house in the winter of
1919. Three or four years later he
attended Crawford's school in that
same neighborhood. In 1852 he re-
ceived his last schooling under the
teaching of Mr.. Swaney. He walked
four miles and half to get to school.
Later, when working as hired boy,
he taught himself as best he could
with his rude surroundings, often
| nin fro oh Or
anything else that came in his way"
says the book, Great Americans of
History. His reading was confined
to two or three books, one of them
the bible. He went to local con-
| stables Office and was there permitted
to read the Revised Statutes of In
DIANA" although he could not take
the book from the Office. This was
his first reading of law.
His Great Prophecy.
The passion to do something to
free the slaves was born in him, when
he was twenty-One years Of age, on
his first trip to New Orleans on a
fiatboat. 1t was there he first saw
some of the denominations of the slave
trade.
The sights he witnessed depressed
him greatly, and then he made the
prophetic statement, eff ever ! get
a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit it
hard" 1t was after his return from
this trip that he found an English
grammar and mastered it during the
long winter evenings by the light Of
| pine knots.
When the Blackhawk war broke
out in 1912, he enlisted, and al
though he knew nothing about mill
tary tactics his personal popularity
made him captain. Following this
short war be became candidate for
the state legislature but was defeat