The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-12

ed it before murder found him, and the the kindly, patient, fearless eyes were closed forever.
 Lincoln and Washington.
 AS a people we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in the characters of
 the two greatest of our public men, Washington and Lincoln. They were
 alike in essentials-they were alike in the great qualities which rendered each
 able to render service to his nation and to all mankind such as no other
 man of his generation could or did
 render. There have been other men as
 great and other men as good, but in
 all the history of mankind there are
 no other two great men as good as
 these, no other two good men as great
 Widely though the problems of today
 differ from the problems set for solu-
 tion to Washington when he founded
 this nation, to Lincoln when he saved
 1t and freed the slave, yet the qualities
 they showed Tn meeting these prob
 lems are exactly the same as those we
 should show in doing our work today.
 Lincoln saw into the future with the
 prophetic imagination usually vouch-
 safed only to the poet and the seer
 He had in him all the lift toward
 greatness of the visionary, without any of the visionary's fanaticism or
 egotlsm, without any of the vision
 ary's narrow jealousy of the practical
 man and inability to strive in prac- tical fashion for the realization of an ideal No more practical man ever liv- ed than this homely backwoods ideal
 ist, but he had nothing in common with
 those practical men whose consciences are warped until they fail to distin- guish between good and evil, fail to understand that strength, ability, shrewdness whether in the world of business CT of politics, only serve to make their possessor a more noxious, a more evil member of the communi- ty, if they are not guided and con- trolled by fine and high moral sense
 LincoIn's Qualities Needed Now.
 We of this day must try to solve many social and industrial problems requiring to an especial degree the combination of indomitable resolution with cool headed sanity. We can profit by the way in which Lincoln used both these traits as he strove for reform. We can learn much of value from the very attacks which following that course brought upon his head, attacks alike by the extremists of revolution and by the extremists of reaction. He n in fo hf ,r3y, ciples, in his love for the Union and in his abhorrence of slavery. Timid and lukewarm people were always denounc- ing him because he was too extreme: but, as matter of fact, he never went to extremes.
 Yet perhaps the most wonderful thing of all and, from the standpoint of the America of today and of the future, the most vitally important was the extraordinary way in which Lin coln could fight valiantly against what he deemed wrong and yet pre- serve undiminished his love and re- spect for the brother from whom he differed. In the hour of a triumph that would have turned any weaker mans head, in the heat of struggle which spurred many good man to dreadful vtnlietiveness,, he said truth fully that SO song as he had been in his office he had never willingly plant ed a thorn in any mans bosom and besought his supporters to study the incidents Of the trial through which 1 they were passing as philosophy from 1 which to learn wisdom and not as wrongs to be avenged, ending with ]! the. solemn exhortation that, as the strife was over all should reunite in a common effort to save their common country. .@g>
 "Mishtiest of Americans"
 He lived in days that were great l and terrible, whens brother fought l against brother for what each sincere ly deemed to be the right, in a con | test so grim the strong men who alone l can carry it through are rarely able to l do justice to the deep convictions of ] those with whom they grapple. in nor tai strife. At such times. men, see l through glass darkly. To only the | rarest and loftiest spirits is vouch- l safed that clear vision which gradually comes to all, even to the lesser, as the l struggle fades into distance and l. wounds are forgotten and peace creeps back to the hearts that were hurt. But l to Lincoln was given this supreme vii sion. He did not hate the man from f whom he differed. Weakness was as | foreign as wickedness to his strong, | gentle nature. But his courage was of 1. 6 quality so high that it needed no l bolstering of dark passion. He saw | clearly that the same high qualities, | the same courage and willingness for 1 self sacrifice and. devotion to the right | as it was given them to see the right, J belonged both to the men of the north f and to the men of the south. As the years roll by and as all of us, wher- ever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the yalor and self devotion, h Ike of the men who wore the blue nd the men who wore the gray, so |, this whole nation will grow to feel peculiar sense of pride in the mightiest | of the mighty men who mastered the mighty days, the lover of his country l. md of all mankind, the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people and for the freedom of race, Lincoln.
 An Annoying Error.
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