The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-26

k The record of the literary achieve
 menJtS of Lincoln, who was compelled Ito split rails for g. livelihood when he Twas in the twenties, and to whom a l!piece of writing paper for many years
 was a positive luxury, reads like TO- ! nance. Lincoln himself said that his entire schooling, much of it received
 from Incompetent instructors. would
 amount to about one year. At four teen. he. would write and cipher with
 chalk on the cabin walls or on a 1 wooden shovel. which he would whit
 tie clean again, reservfng his scant l allowance of paper for literary gems,
 which he would commit to memory. Iii early life no avenue of education was open to him. except by. greatest sacrifice on his part, yet he made the sacrifice. His industry was unflag- I ging, his power of literary assimilation l prodigious. Lacking opportunity and l literary environment, it would seem 1 that the gulf between the rude writ ings on the wooden shovel and the l speech at Gettysburg or the second inaugural could not be spanned by the 1 ned it, and his Gettysburg speech and second inaugural are literary classics that will endure until the last syllable of recorded time.
 '"rhe style of this rail-splitter is in deed consummate. Ills effective
 phrases, his neat antitheses, his telling metaphors, his convincing logic, his
 clearness and simplicity of statement hold us enthralled.
 ''The Gettysburg address was ir1- tended to be simply introductory. It was fitting that the President should | say a few words predatory to the ad-
 dress of the day, which was delivered by the scholarly Edward Everett. It contains but 266 words, yet what a classic H,VQrV line 6 sermon every sentence benediction. It is too sub- lime to gain by praise, and the best that can be said is to paraphrase Webster's statement of Massachusetts, There it is, it stands for itself
 "In his second inaugural he rises to
 excellence. His intimate knowledge
 Of the Bible here, as usual, serves him
 to good purpose, and his aptness in
 Biblical quotation in bringing home
 great moral truth was simply wonder
 ful. M
 satisfactory, not to say complete,
 without allusion to the storytelling
 and fun-loving side of his character.
 He was naturally of a melancholy dis position, ard often in his darkest hours
 and in his most anxious times, he was
 wont ito relieve his mind by the repeti
 tion of some story or anecdote that suited the occa sion.''
 Here the speaker related a number of stories told by Lincoln which were of great interest to the audience. with us religious freedom, racial freedom. political freedom have all been achieved, and the most potent in strument in this work in our country's history has been Abraham Lincoln. Here religious liberty is now an as- sured and settled fact. In the tor rent of abuse heaDed upon the head of the devoted Lincoln he did not es- cape the charge of religious intoler- ance and Eknownothingism' Lincoln indignantly denied any sympathy with the Know Nothing Party, which con- sisted of crusaders against Catholics and foreigners, and stated that if such ideas should ever get control he would rather emigrate to some country like Russia where despotism could be taken pure, with no nypocritical talk about freedom and equality
 Lincoln was great in mind and great in heart. His character was not a bulge; it was circle. He was not small in anything. Like his calm but furrowed face, his nature was carved in deep lines like all heroic figures for dangerous heights and great purposes He had a deep faith in the masses and the common people, and they in turn chung to him with a love and affec- tion that has never been equaled. What prettier touch anywhere than shown by Miss Tarbell a few months ago, where an old friend of Lincoln from Springfield, Ill.,, simple in speech and rustic in appearance, goes to Washington during one of the darkest periods of the war to see Abe who he thinks must have a lot of trouble. His friends in Springfield endeavor to dissuade him, saying that things have changed since Lincoln lived in their old town and that the great war Pres ident had no time for such as he. And then how Lincoln welcomed him at the Soldiers Home where he was then llV- ing; how he made him stay to supper with himself and Mary: tIOw the Pres ident walked out with him and they sat down on a. bench overlooking the Potomac; how he listened to the stor- ies of the births and funerals and wed- Gings and building at Springfield; how they sat there during the greater part of the night; and dhow Lincoln in turn poured out his troubles to his rustic friend; that the great war was weigh ing heavily upon him; that he was