The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-02-12

mlzable way his mother died. reck-
on it was thinkin' o. Nancy an things
she'd said to him that started Abe TO
studyin' that next winter. = Abe
she'd say, you Farm all you kin an be
some account an shed tell him sto-
ries about George Washington an say
that Abe had just as good Virginny
blood in him as Washington. Maybe
she stretched things some, but it done
Abe good"
Here is more from the same source:
Denny Abe ID say, the things I
want to know is in books. My best
friends the man who'll git me one"
The following, too, is from Dennis,
still quoting Abe: 81 Pap thinks it amt
polite to ask folks so many ques-
tions,' he'd say. I reckon wasn't
born to be polite There's so darned
many things 1 want to know. An
how else am I goin' to git to know
emp"
Poor starved child-starved in mind
IL not in body! Little did he dream
that the world one day would be as
eager to know of him as he then was
to know of ''thingsr' What tricks
time plays! How could Pontius Pi-
late imagine the man he permitted to
be executed would be powerful enough
in death to conquer and outlive the
Roman empire? How could the boy
Lincoln foresee that his name would
become the most loved of the nine
teenth century?
The miracles of history! To him
who reads them Understandings they
are an ever unfolding revelation, a
romance full of surprises, a gospel
written in letters of gold by the ever
moving finger of the divine. That this
backwoods boy should become the
chief figure in one Of the worlds
greatest epochs-where does fiction
furnish anything more romantic or
improbable? One never gets over the
surprise of it, The way Lincoln
walked from his bed of husks to the
presidency, the thrilling story of his
nomination, the simple strength and
patience with which he met the great
est of wars, the leaps and bounds by
which he grew in the nations and the
worlds esteem, his quiet faith in his
second nomination and election, faith
fully justified by events, and finally
the sense of personal bereavement felt
by everybody at his death-an of this
reads more like a tale from some d.
vine legend, an account of some myth
1cal hero, than a chapter from the
newest of nations in our own times.
Who can fathom the education of a
great soul? Who knows what forces
and intelligences are testing and tenn
pering it for it's coming work? We
talk glibly of Lincoln's training, but
what do we see of it? Behind our
knowledge are wells on wells unified?
We do not know ourselves. How should
we know one of the immortals!
Lincoln was one of those universal,
many sided men who are beheld diff
ferently by every spectator. He had
in him some correspondence to each
of those he met, and they, beholding
this, imagined they had seen the whole
of him. He could seem to be giving
away all his points or disclosing all
his plans the while he was concealing
and holding in reserve his main con-
tention or chief design. 1t is never
well to underrate these simple men.
The very ones who are SO transparent
are the ones who have depths on
depths we have not penetrated.
To the frontiersman Lincoln was a
frontfersman; to the lawyer, a law
yer; to the politician, a shrewd party
captain; to the statesman, a states
man; to the Sorrowing mother, a SYM
pathetic, tender listener, meeting all on
the level, each according to his kind.
This was no unSophisticated back
woodsman. This was a master of
men, knowing how to shape, how to
persuade and how to order. This was
a keen sighted politician, a man with
a far look into the future. This was
a diplomat. with skill to steer away
from complications with a foreign
power, with skill also to win and hold
the common people on whom he re-
lied. Where did he learn it all? Right
here we approach Lincoln's chief edu-
cation. He imbibed all this from him
self and from other men. He studied
human nature-both in himself and
In those he met. It was often re-
marked of him that every man with
whom he came in contact he pumped
dry He found out all this man had
to give him, extracting not only the es-
sence of his knowledge, but perceiv-
ing the essence of the man himself.
Lincoln also learned how to resolve
each problem into its simplest ele-
ments. This was the most valuable
lesson of all. Having schooled him
self to go into fundamentals, he fol-
lowed the same process in each mat
ter that came before him. His hu-
NOR aided him here, for it showed him
the absurd and the homogeneous. These
two faculties, together with his strong
logic and common sense, enabled him
to strip the sham from the real and to
go straight to the heart of every ques-