El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-11

/ hero, or both2 Few Will fail to answer
| that he was supremacy good and SUI
premely great.
AS to his saint-Iike qualities, what
were they? He was very human-mer
even called him rude and worse-bul
in one respect. at least, 1t will be nc
frreverence to compare him to his d.
vine prototype. How did he measure
UP to the standard Of this perfect man;
These are the words of this man:
Greater love hath no man than this
that a man lay down his life for his
friends" Love was the essence of the
divine-all men he counted friends.
Love is the greatest thing in the world.
This love, love for humanity, was Lin
coins greatest characteristic Love for
all created things as we'll as for man.
produced that extreme tenderness and
sensitiveness of nature that are
brought out more and more clearly in
the worlds estimates of Lincoln as the
years pass.
Was Lincoln a hero? We might answer
offhand, les. In whom can be found
more heroism? What qualities ever pos
sessed by men have been more heroic
than those Of our first martyred presi-
dent?
Richard Mansfield said a few years
ago, Great men owe their prominence
largely to their histrionic ability. The
knowledge of the art of acting is in
dispensable to a knowledge of man.
kind. and when you are able to pierce
the disguise in which every man arrays
himself, or to read the character which
every man assumes, you achieve an in
innate knowledge of your fellow men,
and you are able to cope with the man,
either as he is or as he pretends to be-
Napoleon and Alexander were both
great actors-Napoleon the greatest
actor the world has ever seen. Napo-
leon had studied the art of acting and
he knew its value. If the power of the
eye the power of the voice. the power
of all that all-commanding gesture Of
the hand, failed him wnen he faced the
regiment Of veterans on his return
from Elba, he was lost"
Emerson using Napoleon as a repre-
sentative man says: NBonaparte was the
idol of common men. because he had in
a transcendent degree the qualities and
powers Of common men"
Was Lincoln an aetor2 Perhaps I'M
consciously .so-he certainly knew now
to read men and to influence them But
contrast the simple, usually humorous
method Of our great men, with the his
trioEic method Of any other; what need
had he of histrionics? Napoleon's little
body and rotund countenance almost
Lincolns six feet and four inches and
his sad sincerity Of face carried with
them the silent force which men felt
and unconsciously obeyed. If a smile
lighted his cOuntenance, or his quick
wit illustrated his point with an anec-
dote, the force was perhaps the greater.
In Lincoln the actor and the man were
one. and-the stage was the stage of life.
Whether Lincoln was an actor or not,
=
matte? What romance of a novelist,
what play Of a playwright ever mag
ined or pictured anything more i'm
pressive or striking? From the rudest
cabin of a pioneer. to the head OF
great people in the most crucial period
Of a nations existence. in the brief
space of half century. Had not the
marvel actually occurred it would have
seemed incredible. Still a greater mar
vel is the place of Lincoln today AS
has been recently said:
Never before has any man. within
so short a time been placed by the
sUffrages of the civilized world among
the worlds heroic figures. 1t is one of
the miracles of modern biography that
this frontier boy should have climbed
from the log cabin, with one side open
to the storms Of winter, not to the
presidency, but to the supreme place of
honor where stand the figures of those
whom the whole world has consecrated
as its ideal men"
On February u. 1909, the hundredth
anniversary Of Lincoln's birth, the
whole world joined in doing him hon.
age Brief perspective of time yet suf-
ficient for a background for his heroic
figure. Will IT ever be lessened or
effaced? We may confidently answer,
No With the worlds constantly i'm
proving standards. this figure must
loom larger and larger until all men
join in the worship of the great Ameri-
can hero.
Wat Lincoln a hero? We may answer
by quoting the following characterize
ton: Two qualities the hero always
has-a powerful personality and a ca
pacity for services"
Again it is asked, Who are the heroes
loved by Americans-Washingt JEFF
ferson, Franklin, Lincoln, Grant, Lee.
Stonewall Jackson and others, and not
one of these was captain of indus
try or a great material organizer in
the acquisition of wealth. "AII have
stood for devotion to principle, for love
Of liberty. for conservation to the IN.
terest of humanity; these men repre-
sent not only the American ideals Of
character and achievement but the
American ideal Of success. In them
American life justifies itself In their
careers American institutions and the
American spirit find their real inter
probation" And among all these the
interpreter was Lincoln, the
greatest American.
The great value Of a hero is perhaps |
not so much what he has done as what !
he stimulates and inspires others to do. |
What boy of manly fibre can read of |
the life and follow the career of Lin /
eoln even down to its lamentable close,
without wishing that he. too. might walk |
he same glorious road? And number
ess no doubt have been the good deeds |
lone and honorable lives lived because
Of this inspiration.
Too often men worship an ideal and /
orget that its value to them lies not in /
heir worship but in their emulations-
md there IS g peculiar appropriateness
n this Lincoln centennial year Of |
bringing to the notice Of all, to the
young in particular. the great quail
les of Lincoln as an office holder in /
,ur republic, and the secret of his sue
,ess as politician.
Men, to be sure, have had what they
allied success as politicians-they have |
wen reached the presidents chair
Without the great qualities of Lincoln |