The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-02-25


SS 1SM that Abraham Lincoln
E4&& &S1 struck the noblest.
&$S N<S highest hottest note In
k6EH7ks2 the Utmost native soul Z
eklE1k2h1HzsssA of the American people. -
In the new paganism of commerce; '#
of money getting, no matter how;
OF criticism of public men who. =
whatever their faults, are to be
loved because they have been hated
by those who seek to make the ma vW
tion sinister and corrupt, there is NM
nothing so sodden and sordd but Nv
will in some sense uncover and 80
kneel at the sound Of the name of MI
Abraham Lincoln.
The average American does not ~
shout when he hears the name of
Abraham Lincoln Even the politi
cal demagogue the stock gambler. :
the captain of industry, Is likely to
grow" silent and reverential when
the name Of Lincoln is spoken.
-, And while we are getting ready to honor
Lincoln 1t is we'll tc add that none may un.
derstaod his people who has not first discov-
cred what it is in his character and in ours
that makes us love him above comparison in
the story OF the worlds great men-love
him for his poverty, his simplicity, for his hui
manity, for his fidelity, for his justice, for his
painness. for his life and for his DEATH
Sheer force Of character must have been
the inherent trait which he had we'll cultivated
His attitude to- women may have been but
an incident. but there can be no question but
that the influence of various women with
whom it was his good fortune to be associ-
ated In his earlier days had not little to do
with the forming of one of his most predomi-
nant traits. He was. in his later life, one OF
. the kind of men of whom good women declare
in all humility and honesty for their SEX that
. tthT0nsh the efneness. of his perception and his
Yantilify b.A
he might have been woman" 1t is high
compliment ~ >
sIn the first place. he was born of a good
woman. Nancy Hanks his mother, neglected
in the neglect of those Of her social status at
the time she was born, must have in the SUBJ
Unity of maternity engendered in the life
blood of her ilustrious offspring the nourish-
ment that made the great achievements Of
Abraham Lincoln possible. Yet, to her is due
but the honor of instilling, with her own blood,
her own spirit. the character that enabled
Abraham Lincoln to become the first Ameri.
can-the conglomerate of all that is meant
in the phrase. 1.-The land of the free and the
home of the brave"
Nancy Hanks gave Lincoln birth. She was
the daughter of supposedly iiterate and SUI
perstitious people, but she was comely, intei-
gent. knew how to read and write and taught
her busband,S Thomas Lincoln. father of the
president to scrawl his name.
The great Lincoln always believed that he
goteshfs intelligence and powers from his
, mother: =, ''> Z"
The family moved from Kentucky to Ind-
ana when Lincoln was seven years old. Two
years later Nancy Hanks Lincoln succumbed
to pestilence known as milk sickness. She
died in October Her husband sawed coffin
out of the forest trees and buried her in
little clearing Several months later war.
dering frontier clergyman preached sermon
over Her lonely grave. No wonder the coun-
tenance soS the great emancipation moved all
who be6eld it by its deep melancholy. He
knew what sorrow was As years before he
paced his office In the White House all night,
with white face and bowed head. sorrowing
over the defeat Of Charlottesville. wondering
whether ne was to be the last president of the
United States and praying for the victory that
came at Gettysburg.
All that year the sensitive boy grieved for
the mother who had gone out of his life; but
in time the father went back to Kentucky,
and in Elizabethtown. near the big South Fork
Of Nolin creek. IN Hardin county where Lin
coin was born. he married the widow Of the
towr taller. Presently thereafter four.horse
wagon creaked up to the door of the LincolN
cabin in the Indiana forest and young "Abe"
Lincoln. who, next to his own mother was to
become the second incentive of his youthful
life Sc,
Sarah Bush Lincoln was woman Of thrift
and energy, tall, straight, fair and a kind.
hearted motherly Christian. The American
people owe debt to this noble matron. who
acter of the boy who was yet to save the