The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-02-13
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Before another week passes, the
anniversary of the birth of Abraham
Lincoln will have come and gone.
The memories of many men linger on
earth after they have died. The
something which we may designate
as the living presence of most men
is lost soon after their deaths. 1t
is not SO with Abraham Lincoln.
There is a belief, founded on hope,
we presume, that the souls of men,
after they have been translated, still
hover near and have their influence
upon the hearts of men. The pres
ence of the soul of Lincoln always
seems near. When high natures are
touched and they would express
themselves, the thought instantly re-
verts to the pathos, the power and
beauty in language which made Lin
coins words a model for men to imi-
tate. When a politician would gain
favor with harangue he cites Lin
coin as the author of his idea.
All the men OF his day are reced-
ing from public thought. Lincoln
holds his place, and it seems but as
yesterday when his sad face was
wont to tighten into smiles at some
mirthful words which his lips had
framed.
The stage was being set for this
great tragedy of modern times. Who
was to be called for the leading role?
A rude cradle was being rocked
in the then far west 1t was sur
rounded by squalor. The babe sleep
ing with it had no pride of ancestry
to help him. Moreover, he had not
one personal attraction to help him.
Passers-by recoiled before the picture
of squalor and of want that wrapped
that home around like shroud.
But the messenger sent by the Fates
to select one who was to be the chief
est agent in the transformation that
was to be, stopped, bent above that
lowly cradle-more desolate than
was the manger at Bethlehem-and
pressed the signet of immortality up
on the baby brow. Then through
the pitiless years that followed was
given the discipline, the patience, the
transformations valor and wisdom to
later take up the burden OF a nation
and bear it through the anguish and
faintness and fear of a second birth.
In the fullness of time the mighty
trial came. 1t seemed as though the
earth was being "rolled up as scroll
and the moon had turned to blood,'
as though for the nation the great
angel was about to appear, with one
foot upon the sea and one upon the
dry land, to proclaim that for the
great republic time was to be no
more. There was disaster every
where, every portent was of increas-
ing sorrows, and the waves of envy
and malice and ridicule, roared about
the devoted head of the patient man.
while at home and abroad the con-
clusion was general that the steering
gear of the great republic was lost
and the pilot was driving the disabled
great craft upon a breaker-beaten
coast,
But the storm was weathered at
last, the over-wise ceased their blab-
BILE, detraction grew ashamed; the
closing acts of the great tragedy were
revealing sky growing clear, the
dawn of a new hope with day of
lasting peace coming was beginning
to warm in the east the dissolving
veiw was ushered in.
1t was the saddest scene on earth
for eighteen hundred years-the
of that tried soul-but
above it in a radiance fingered. That
radiance still remains; its divine light
shines out on every returning ami
versary of the great mans birth; it
is filled with pathos and with pity; |
but it exalts Americans to contem-
plate it, for it brings back to all the
truth that a sad life is worth living,
if it is such a life as will at it's close
leave an impression of splendor that
all the abrasions of the age cannot
Weekly.