Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-02-14
NATIONAL HOME.
linco|n's Birthday Fit
tingIy Observed.
Eloquent Grafton in Evening by
Gen. G. B. Loud Of New York. !
Grand Tribute to the Memory Of
The Great Emancipation.

Inc IulSt anniversary OF the birth
of Abraham Lincoln was very fitting
ly observed Saturday at the Branch
In the evening at the Opera house Gen
George E. Loud OF New York City
delivered an Grafton ON Abraham Lin
coin in Il most Impressive manner.
General Loud is speaker of rare elo-
Qutnce and he captiVated his audience,
all being sorry when he took his scat.
Owing to the storm many from out of
town who had significd their intention
to be present were obliged TO remain at
home. The exercises were opened with
a selection by the Home Orchestra and
Invocation by chaplain Burrage. Col.
John I. Richards, governor of the
Home, introduced a. w. McCausand,
department commander of the G. A.
II. of Maine, who in d few fitting re-
marks introduced General Loud, the
orator Of the evening. General Loud
said in part:
1t was nianifeStly a part of the
PrDvidential plan in the destiny of this
great nation when l0l years ago to-
day, in a sterile and 1t,>"y section
OF wilderness, on the Collins
Creek, Harden count Ky, in
u wilderness, earth = cabin,
in the midst Of IT,: ..u!non
among the pionccl. ;:s then
q new country, thc most
unpromising circums, that ever
witnessed the advent OF a hero into
the world, Abraham Lincoln was born.
y man born for his time and which
happening at any other period would
have been perhaps national misfor-
tune, but one of which the nation
could not have been co2nfzant his ad-
vent humble though it was and al
most nnoticcd, was nevertheless the
beginning Of an era in the " orld's ad-
Nancenent ADD the child of the Ken
lucky wilderness was new pillar in
tie temple of this nation which, from
the first. God had designed for liberty;
a republic true at last to it's trad-
tons and the principles which gave
it birth, without Il master and with
oIt Il slave
Assuredly. the most significant since
the institution of our republic was the
miSsion of Abraham Lincoln-that of
guiding the forces of freedom, the 10y
al sons of Columbia, in the protection
and Dcrpetuaticn of our Union; the
tearing Of that canllcrous infection
slaNel FROM our national escutcheon.
ana Of making the American home,
however humble, the grandest, dearest
spot on earth.
Fiction las llC match for the rO-
nance of his life and biography rec
nrGS no sucn startling vagarics of for
time. 50 great power and glory wrest-
"d from such unnromiSing beginnings
and adverse circumstances as by him
whom all tfccmen, patriots and states
men, rich and loor. high and low, de-
light to honor. and the memory of
whose remarkable career and the ever
living Influences which the study of
his life ard public services impart is
tho RICHEST heritage of American citi-
zenshin.
And although nearly f. years have
elapsed since the ASA SSin's bullet ter
minated his earthly career, Abraham
Lincoln VIII guide patriotic thought of
America from his grave for centuries
to come as much as does the humble
NaZarcnc guide Christian thought
from the cross and y the agonies Of
GcthSemanc. =
Sunshine ard shadows. each in turn
Ascendant, We're strangely blended in
i1incoln's life; but when disasters
came thick and fast, and days of
agony heightened into weeks. and
weeks INTO months and months into
seemingly hopeless years, melancholy
took complete possession of his soul
and he became in truth "a man of
sorrows aud acquainted with grief
Every burden rested upon his
shoulders, every arrow penetrated his
hoart. every soldier on the weary