Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1915-03-05

ing that It was unjust or hopeless.
Only the most sublime moral courage
could have sustained him as president
TO hold his ground against hostile
criticism and long train of disaster;
to issue the emancipation proclama-
ton. to support Grant and Stanton
against the clamor of the politicians
and the press.
Everybody who knew him felt that
he was every inch a man, large
hearted. generous friend, always ready
to help everybody out of their troubles.
whether 1t was a poor widow In dis
tress or a farmer who needed advice.
He had frank, transparent mind. He
never covered up anything. never had
secrets. He always left the door or
his heart wide open. so that anyone
could read his Utmost thoughts.
Abraham Lincoln inherited no op-
portunities, and acquired nothing BY
luck. His good fortune consisted SIM
ply of untiring perseverance and
right heart.
Yet the romance and achievement
Of his marvellous life have no match
in fiction or history. We shall search
the biography of the world in vain for
a man who reached such heights OF
power. and yet has graduated from
such humble beginnings and such an
iron environment.
Instead of a school and university
training, Lincoln had little else than
hardships, trials and struggles to lift
him above relentless circumstances.
Behold him as a lank. awkward
youth, telling trees on little
claim, building his homely log cabin.
without floor or windows, teaching
himself arithmetic and grammar in
the evening by the light of the fire.
In his eagerness to know the contents
of Blackstone's Commentaries. he
walked A miles to procure the
precious volumes, and read 100 pages
while returning.
Yet 1t was this man, born in a log
cabin. without schooling, or books. or
teacher. or even ordinary opportuni.
ties, who won the admiration Of man.
kind by his homely, practical wisdom
while president. and who emancipated
100000 slaves.
What an inestimable blessing to the
world, what an encouragement, an In
SEPARATION to the poor and lowly born.
that his great achievements can be
accounted for by the triumph In his
character Of those qualities which are
beyond the reach of money, of fam
lily. of influence, but are given freely
to the lowest as well as to the high
est There is no quality Of integrity.
perseverance, or industry that distin-
guished Lincoln. that airy one, no mat
ter how poor and humble. how hardly
circumstanced. cannot cultivate.
His career Is a rebuke to the Undo.
lent. faint-hearted youth Of today, who.
in this age of opportunity. dares to
cry mo chance!"
Abraham Lincoln is becoming more
and more our national hero. and he
would drop into oblivion. we're we to
discover that he had ever bartered
that most precious atkribute-his man.
hood, his character-or ever offered
1t for SALE
Die. when I may" said this king
among men. II want 1t said Of me by
those who know me best, that always
plucked thistle and planted flower.
where I thought flower would grow"
What a glorious ideal, and how glo-
riously realized!
No man ever lived of whom 1t could
have been more truly said that
1.-The elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand
UP
And say to all the world. This IL .
man."