The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-02-19

mist atlo pcissNchbg hHe~ WIG Stoeea
with silver.
There are varying eonjeetures as 4
when and how Mr.. Lincoln prepared
that dedicatory address. am con
Vinced the Oregonisu is correct IN say
ing be had prepared his remarks with,
out long generalization. From what
saw al the time or heard afterwards,
have an idea Of its formative process
that is satisfactory to myself. On the
Iun of the train from Washington Mr.
Lincoln was observed TO be looking al
the Landscape in an distracted way,
and occasionally pencilling a note or
what seemed to be a large envelope
On the forenoon Of his arrival at Get.
tysburg he held a reception in the par.
lQ5s of the Wills residence. Judge
Wills was afterwards reported as say.
ing that after getting through with the
handshaking the president asked him il
he might for q short time have a room
to himself, with pen and ink. adding
that he was on the program to say
something at the cemetery that after.
noon. The Judge showed him into his
own little office, adjacent to the recep-
tiOn room. An hour or so afterwards
Mr.. Lincoln emerged, placing some
sort of paper or document in that Gus
tomary receptacle Of the old-time law.
yer. his silk hat.
Accepting these details as probable
facts. we may infer that while alone
in tnat Office Mr.. Lincoln speedily as
sembled and uniformed his ideas in
due order for public inspection. II
was no trying or doubtful task for
him, for he had the vital points clear
in his mind. How easily and clearly
the scheme of that address presented
itself to him in the right order; ~
The oceaisen. ~ Its cause. 90 Its
object. "a Our debt to the fallen
soldiers. l5) Our duty to finish their
task. (6) The tremendous issue at
stake.
''Be sure the speaker never was in
doubt or uistIust about his utterance
that day. Lincoln was a genius, a
seer-one of the order of the mighty
ones of the reworld-originaI, unde-
generate, powerful. He was self con-
tanned, self confident. In all serious
said and how to say it. He was one of
the few not troubled with nervous
system. He did not know either phys
icsl fear or moral eowardice.
Was sush man likely to sulk un-
der the juniper tree. fretting because
people might not understand or ap-
prove his work. or shrinking ner-
vously from the dispraise of the long
nscked geese of the world?' No, being
like all higher genius, conscious of his
powrs, he could harbor nothing apollo
gstic or deprecatory, and might have
tsken'to himself the. rugged 'yawp' of
his friend and the Oregonian's No l..
American poet, Walt Whitman:
| sm an acme of things accomplished,
an enclosure of things to be.
The centuries have waited for me,
And now | stand here with my robust
soul.
"The Gettysburg speech is in Lin
coins peculiar style. He had the idea
and could express it without the tricks
of orstory, rising above the sesquipe-
dalies into the region of monosyllabes
and speaking with the direct verbal
simplicity of the Decalogue. The
speech though called perfect, is not
esxctly so when tested by the rules of
rhetoric. For instance, in its less than
800 words are six repetitions in mood
and tense of the verb to dedicate. ;
But beyond all faIous utterances is
its rich measure of thought and idea,
teresely set forth. 1t fills the require
ments of eloquence as laid down by In
gsisoll Short sentences, clear thought
an language, and in each sentence an
idea big enough to lap over the sem
tence at both ends.
These qualities make the Gettys-
burg address immortal and unsur-
passed, and justify the Oregonian s
recent Characterization of it as "a con-
tribution to the worlds imperishable
and priceless possessions.
Mr.. Irwin was born in Franklin, Pa. !,
in 1893, and learned the printers trade
in that city. He enlisted with a squad
of recruits in Franklin in 1862 and was
sent to camp near Washington. He
was later honOi ably discharged from
the army because of illness.
1bC hAnb LluuC saw hIs lltlCulIl,
said he, "was the night after the day
| arrived in Washington. That was the
evening of the disastrous second battle
of Bull Run. Our soldiers had been
driven back to Washington. The capi-
tol was in excitement and turmoil.
went toward the White House. The
grounds there ana the parks and grass
plats in the city were covered with
tired and sleeping soldiers. Many of
them wore the uniform of the Zouave.
1t was moonlight night and the faces
of all the people wore solemn and
gloomy expressions. | finally sat down
on the topmost step of flight at a
railing which separated the White
House grounds from the war and navy
grounds. While sitting there sick and
lonesome and wondering why the terri
BILE matter could not be ended a shad-
ow was cast on the steps behind me.
| looked back and, at once, recongnized
the figure of Mr.. Lincoln. He was
striding fast on his way to the war
building. As he came to the steps
looked up. He stretched up like son
of Anak. He had evidently dressed in
hurry, for he wore a long linen
duster. He was carrying bundle of
papers. AS he passed he looked down
at me and said: Wei, boy. how are
you? and | replied: Good evening,
Mr.. President He strode on to the
war department.
Leaving Washington for my home
in. 1862 stopped at Harrisburg, Pa,
and obtained employment as printer
and reporter on The PARROT and Union.
1t was a daily paper and for it | re-
ported the famous address.
Il was employed in Philadelphia
when MIR. Lincoln's body was brought
there and lay in state in independence
hall. After that. during the recon-
struction period, | reported for the
American Press Association the pro-
cetoiings of the lower HOUSE of Con-
gress. Blaine was speaker andsamong
the great men then representatives
were Samuel j. Randall, James A.
Garfield, Benjamin Butler, Sunset Cox,
John A. Logan, George F. Hoar, Dan
iel Voorhees, and John A. Bingham.
did this work six years and, of course,
some of the men | have mentioned
were not in congress when | began"
hn eli