The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-02-08

on earth, but whose head was crowned
with stars. In a period Of really great
men such as national tragedies usually
produce, surrounded by a cabinet of
distinguished characters. he stood head
and shoulders above them all. seeing
farther down into the centuries and
to be seen Of them.
All the departments Of Lincofn's
mind were developed in colossal pro-
portion. His perceptions were keen,
his conceptions strong; the scales with
which he weighed measures n men
were evenly balanced and true; his
memory was marvellous and his i'm
ag1nation, with Its wings and witchery,
would have distinguished him in any
Held of literature, art, or discovery.
Lincoln was self educated. He was
enriched with poverty and honored
with ~obscurity. In the midst Of one of
the most complex periods in the history
OF the world he was a supple child of
nature. close to the ground, with an
ear to the forest stream, an eye to the
wild flower, I'M a keen vision of the
stars. Without schools, or libraries,
or society. he was trained in the wider
university of nature and solitude
which contributed so much to the de-
velopment Of the creative faculty SO
necessary in a great ruler or reformer.
he was wise enough, however, to place
university bred men at the head of
most Of the Departments Of his admins
tration.
Lincoln was a master of oratory. His
debates with Judge Douglas and his
Cooper Union speech did much to make
ham president. His address at Gettys-
burg, delivered from notes on the back
Of an envelope. will be read and de-
claimed by school children in every
tongue 1000 a from now.
Llncoln's letter from the executive
mansion to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston, while
one of the tenderest specimens Of pa
thos on record, Is preserved in the or
iginal, 1t is said. by h London His
tor1cal society as a sample of the best
English composition known. He says:
Il have been shown, in the files of
the war department, a statement of the
adjutant general Of Massachusetts that
you are the mother Of five sons who
nave died g~loriously on the field of
battle. I feel how veal and fruitless
must be any word of mine which shall
attempt to beguile you from the grief
o. a loss SO overwhelming. But I can
not refrain from rendering you the con
ISOLATION that may be found in the
thanks of he republic they died to
I pry hat our Heavenly Father
may assuage the anguish of your be-
reaVement and leave you only the cher
ished memory of the loved and lost,
n the solemn pride that must be
yours to have laid SO costly a sacrifice
upon the altar of freedom"
wit and pathos were side by side in
MIN, and were made out Of the same
material. He was the funniest and
saddest man the nation ever had.
Lincoln's Story On His Own Suffering.
Once I asked my friend, Gen. Lew
Wallace, to tell me a new story about
Lincoln. and he said:
Il went over to the White, House to
see the president, who was convalescing
from a spell of inf1ammatory rheu-
matism. He had his long legs stretched
over the table in front of his chair.
said: How are o today, Mr.. Presi-
den? He replied: I will answer your
question with this story:
out In Illinois. q neighbor farmer
bought a lanter jawcd, sway backed,
slab sided. and flea bitten horse-a
building up horses, n told a friend
to come back in two months and see
his fine, fat animal. At the time speci-
fed the friend came over and asked
about the horse. The farmer replied:
He Is getting along finely. I've got
him fat as far as the legs Casting
his eyes down to his own limbs, swol-
len to almost twice their natural size,
the president toll me, with a merry
twinkle In his eye that he had an
swered my question as to his health"
II his intellect was a mountain, Lin
SSAho was d 0e6p, DOunQleSS sea.
The greatest hearted men are the
greatest men. The ancient mariners
love for the water snakes which
brought the showers of life to the dead
crew on the deck suggests Lincoln's
love for the lower tribes.
I asked an intimate friend of Lin
coins early manhood to tell me a Lin
coin story which never had been
printed in the books or magazines, and
he related this incident:
one moonlight night, when walking
with Lincoln in the country. we met In
the Toad a litter of striped pigs that
had lost their mother. WI helped them
TO find her. And he said to me: 4
never see one of these little creatures
that l do not think OF my first pet.
When six years of age a neighbor gave
me a little pig. The only garment |
had on was a little tow shirt my
mother Wove, fastened at the neck with
a wooden button my father had made.
In the front of this garment wrapped
my pig and brought him home. 1t took
me a week to teach him to eat. Mean
while l carried him back to his mother
Tor his meals. He was my constant
companion. We played many games
together. 1 can see his little face now,
peeping o the side of the cabin as
we played hld and seek. I carried him
everywhere till he got too big, and then
l made him carry me, which he did so
haPPiy the plOughed
ground, and to the woods where !
helped to find the nuts. One day father
said: We're going to kill the hog to-
day ! said: What hog?' He said
yours answered: Would you xiii
my precious pet?' and cried with
agony. But my wit served me. for
when father turned his back I iumped
on the hog and drove him as fast as
he could go into the woods, where
stayed all day; and the hot water In
the big kettle was not used.
Broken Hearted Over Pets Death.
THE next day I undertook the same
trick, but father was too smart for me
He locked the pig in the smoke house
and l couldn't each the button to gel
him out. And I turned sick. Gould
not eat any breakfast, went off into
the woods and stayed all day; an6
when came In at night 1 saw my PEI
dressed, hanging from a pole near the
cabin; and I began to bIubber. They
never could get me to take a bite Of
the meat, neither tenderloin nor rib
nor sausage nor souse. And months
after. when the cured ham came on thu
table, it made me sad and sick even t.
look at It. Whenever I see a pig like