The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-03-10

mission fields. It was only when ho
| became old enough TO make himself
! the most invcterate borrower OF
books that any country over produced"
| that he began to make Roadway. When
lie was in his teens, he once admitted
10 friend he had read through every
book lie had ever heard OF In that coun-
try for circuit OF nifty miles, feat
that establishes at once both his thirst
for knowledge and his ingenuity as a
borrower.
Here, In this Indiana wilderness. all
his environment as unsympathet'c as
possible, Abraham Lincoln abandoned
himself to his passion for books and
their contents. The story reads like
fiction. but 1t isn't. How he made long
extracts from everything ha read With
his turkey buzzard pen and brier root
ink; how he wrote on a board when
/ he had no paper and how the wooden
| tire shovel was his usual slate on
which he ciphersd with charred
! stick, shaving 1t off when II had be-
| come to grimy for use how all the
! logs and boards in his vicinity were
covered with his figures and quota
lions. and how he kept book in the
crack of the logs in his loft, so that
| he might have IL at hand at p,ep of
day--all this sounds like romance,
| but ii is fact
| When he WAS about eighteen. n fer
! ryman on the Ohio River Lincoln
came in possession OF IA copy Of the
! REVISED Statutes of Indiana. which is
! now in the Lincoln Memorial collcc-
! ton nj Chicago. That work so techni-
| cal III It's phraseology and so uninter-
estinS 10 the general reader. proved
TO be more entertaining 10 the young
man than anything he had ever per-
| GaI Il r.. 10
made UP his mind TO become a lawyer
and politician. 1t was but Il dream.
but II lost none of its vividaess as
| time passed. II was eight years be-
! fore he accomplished il, but at the
age OF twenty-siX Abraham Lincoln
had made himself master OF the intel
lectual equipment which carried him
to the White House and TO the solution
! Of some Of the greatest problems of
| his age.
The Tailor who Was Taught by III.
! Wife.
The man who took up the reins Of
government whom Lincoln was stricken
| down was the product Of an educa .
! tlondl development 'aven less syste-
! matte than that which evolved the
| Great EmanciDator. AT eighteen. when
he was married to pretty Eliza Nc.
cardie. who was two wears his junior.
anu Nv JoHHSon CoNl0 read q little
and write not at all. Fortunately for
! him, the young woman who had taken
aim for better and for worse without
even the bliSsful antc-nuptial exchange
OF letters Incident to such occasions
was as bright as she was comcIy, and
she undertook the education of her
boy husband with a zeal that accom-
plishcd wonders. She read TO him
while he worked at his trade of tailor
ana during the cv anings he was her
Intent and eager pupil.
Under such inspiring tutclagc An
Drew Johnson soon acquired the rudi-
thcnts OF an education. lie was mas.
ter OF much native ability and III. nos
SCISSOR Of memory which was trul,
wonderful in its grasp. From the lime
OF MS marriage his intellectual pro-
sTess was steadily upward. At twenty
nc WAC Wise enough TO become an al
German OF Gr>envtlc. the North Caro-.
ma town In which he lived, and n
year later he was elected MAYOR
ABOUT that time. also, he was ap-
A poihtea one OF the trustees of Rhca
4 At""cihg. remarkhbia showing 70,
young man who had learned hui re.
1 Gently to write lcgibly. When at Tho
d age Oh t"cniy-scvcn Johnson was scn,
4 10 the Tennessee House OF Represcn
'htiVes' he had acquired the reputatio,
4 OF hclng one Of the hcst-read LAWYER,
\ NJ ihe state. When his friends w,r,
Urging MS ciaim Tor the Vice Presi,
dental nomination IN tho national con
sAnhnn OF 1854 his early illIteracy