The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1910-02-13

railroads were few and
then only building.
The convention was held in a Wig
wam,' said the speaker, erected be-
tween two buildings, but it was out Of
doors, covered with green boughs out
from nearby forest and the ends
Of the wigwam were open to permit
the crowd outside TO hear.
Before the convention was fully
organized, Dick Oglesby, afterwards
senator and governor, and John Hank
brought upon the platform two wal
nut rails said to have been split by
Lincoln and Hanks. There were great
cheers for the famous rail splitter.
The crowd was so dense that when
there was a call for Lincoln it could
not be broken TO let him through, and
he was lifted over the heads of the
audience to the platform. Some one
cried out
Abe, did you split those rails
A queer look passed over Lincoln's
face and he replied:
John Hanks said we split those
rails ! do not know whether we did
or not, but have split many better
ones"
Il met Lincoln only once after his
election to the presidency. He was
on his way to Charlestown H., to bid
his stepmother gooiby before going
to Washington He was travelling on a
day train. riding in day coach and
surrounded by other passengers some
congratulating him, others advising.
hut most of them simply crowding
around TO shake his hand. They all
seemed to know him or felt that they
knew him. He made his last visit to
his stepmoher. She was just a COM
mon homespun woman, and to her he
remained until the end just My Boy
Abe
Through one term as president and
the beginning of another, the speaker
sketched in a graphic way Lncoln's
life-war. the inevitable, the strife
among mis- advisors. the criticism and
abuse heaped upon his head after the
first battle of Bull Run. and the al
most superhumsn task the president
carried to win his fight for the right
as he saw It.
wv men ministers Of the gospel came
with advice which they believed to be
divine inspiration, continued the
speaker, Lincoln replied hat If God
intended to give divine advice to any
one. he believed it would come to him
upon whom laid the responsibility for
he was as anxious as any one to know
the Irvine will and act in accord with
It,"
ITO me, there is no more inspiring
incident in our whole history, nor one
more pathetic. than that of the tall,
gaunt form of Lincoln with that sad
but serene face, standing out against
a darkening sky TO assure the men in
the field and their supporters at home,
that there was still manhood and real
leadership in the place Of highest re-
sponsibility.
THE territories which Lincoln
sought to save from slavery have sur.
passed the widest speculation and
prophecy in 1860, and the homestead
act passed in Lincoln's administration
on his recommendation has converted
the staked plains and the great Amer
lean desert into an agricultural en-
pire that has not parallel anywhere.
The newer west has double the total
wealth OF the United States at the
time Lincoln WAS elected.
But even more than that, the poll.
cies of Lincoln have brought a new
life to the sou,h that rebelled against
the union. In the last decade that sec
ton has had the most remarkable de-
velopment--until in its prosperity, the
south is almost willing to admit that
The stone rejected by the builders
shall become the chief corner stone
of the temple
"They have seen the light and this
achievement of a united country with
the same interests Justify my asser.
tion that the Republican party and
what has been wrought under its poll
cies in this half century make the
most fitting monument to Lincoln, un-
Ger whose leadership the slave was
made free. and of far greater import
ance, the white man was set free.
".he pioneers Of the generation TO
which Lincoln belonged have passed
away With the changed conditions
il is absolutely necessary that we
should grow more and more compe-
tent in our respective callinss as the