Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-11

points in this portion of his life are 81
Herndon's Life of Lincoln:
.Abe's love for books, and his deter
mined effort to obtain an education in
spite of so many obstacles, induced the
belief in his fathers mind, that book
learning was absorbing greater pro-
portion of his energy and industry
than the demands of the farm. The
old gentleman had little faith In the
value Of books or papers, and hence
the frequent drafts he made on his
son to aid in the drudgery of daily toll.
He undertook to teach him his own
trade-he was carpenter and joiner
but Abe manifested such striking
want of interest that the effort to
make carpenter of him was soon
| abandoned.
At Dorcy's school Abe was 10 years
old; at the next one, Andrew Craw-
ford's he was about IA; and at
Swaney's he was in his seventeenth
year. The last School required a
walk of over four miles and on account
of the distance his attendance was
not only irregular but brief, School
master Crawford introduced new fea-
ture in the school, and you can mag
inc it's effect; on his pupils, whose
training had been limited to the social
requirements of back woods-settle-
ment 1t was intruction in manners.
| The scholar was required to go out
side and re-enter the room as a lady
or gentleman would enter a drawing
room or parlor Another scholar
would receive the first scholar at the
door and escort him or her about the
room, making polite introductions to
each person in the room. How the
gaunt and clumsy Abe went through
this performances we shall probably
never know. If his awkward move
ments gave rise to any amusement.
his slhoolmates never revealed 1t.
The books used at school were
Webster's spelling book and the Amer.
lean speller. All scholars learned to
cipher, and afterwards used Pixies
arithmetic Mr.. Lincoln told me in
later years that Murrays English
reader was the best school book that
ever came into the hands of an Amer
lean youth. conclude, therefore, he
must have used that. also. At Craw-
ford's school Abe was credited with
the authorship Of several literary eff
forts, short, dissertations in which he
strove to correct some time-honored
and wanton sports of the school boy
4 He was now over six feet high and
was growing at a tremendous rate, fol-
he added two inches more before the
close of his seventeenth year, thus
reaching the limit of his stature
He weighed in the region of 16C
pounds; was wiry. vigorous, and
strong. His feet and hands were
large, arms and legs long and in strik
ing contrast to his slender trunk anc
small head. His skin was shrivelec
and yellow" declares one of the girl
who attended Crawford school. ellis
shoes. when he had any, were low. He
wore buckskin breaches, linsey-wool
sey shirt, and cap MADE OF the ski
of squirrel or coon. His breeches
were baggy and lacked by severa
inches meeting the tops of his shoes
thereby exposing his shin bone, sharp
blue and narrow" In one branch O
school learning he was a great sue
cess; that was spelling.
Abe was patient reader of ;
Louisville newspaper, which someone
at Gentryville kindly furnished him
Among the books he read were The
Bible, Aesop's fables, Robinson Cru
soc, Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress, {
history Of the United States ant
Weems' Life of Washington. A littl,
circumstance attended the reading o
the last named book, which only IL
recent years found its way into publ.
print. The book was borrowed from
a close-fisted neighbor, Josiah Craw
ford, and one night while lying on /,
a little shelf near a crack between TIVE
logs in the Lincoln cabin during ,
storm, the covers were damaged b,
rain. Crawford-not the schoolmaster
but old Blue Nose, as Abe and other
! called him-assessed the damage t
his book at rs cents, and the unfortu
nate borrower was required to pull
fodder for three days at twenty-five
cents day In settlement of the ac
] count While at school 1t is doubtful
II he was able to own an arithmetic
4 His stepmother was unable to remen
Der his ever having owned one. Sh
A gave me, however, few leaves from
{ book made and bound by Abe, Il
I which he had entered in large, boil
4 hand, the tables of weights and meas
ures, and the sums" to be worke
out in illustration of each table
I Where the arithmetic was obtained
4 cannot learn. On one of the page
4 which the old lady gave me, and JUS
4 underneath the table which tells no,
many pints there are in bushel, tn
facetious young student had scrawle
I these four lines of school boy dos
A gerel:
Abraham Lincoln.
His hand and pen,
He will be good.
But God knows when
On another page were found, In hi
& own hand, few lines which it Is ais