New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1919-02-07

Oxford a printed copy Of a letter Lincoln wrote
to a mother who had given five sons that the
Union might be preserved. A label beneath this
copy of the letter bears the simple comment that
this is zone of the finest specimens of pure English
eXtant."
And that comment by one Of the greatest uni.
versities In the world is on the work Of a man
who never had a years schooling in his life.
1t is small wonder that Lincoln's life Is upheld
to the poor boy as n shining example Of what de-
termination to learn and succeed will do.
LincOln's grandfather, like many others. fol-
lowed the magnetic Daniel Boone into the wilder
ness of Kentucky. The Lincolns at that time
were not poor folks, as many have believed, for
the grandfather, whose name also was Abraham,
sold his property for $1,000 before he set out for
the unclaimed lands where some say the man.
moths still existed.
But when later he died, Thomas, the father of
the future president, did not inherit much. If any
thing, and had to start out for himself at an early
age. He married Nancy Hanks, the niece of the
man he worked for, and she became the mother
of Abraham Lincoln. the president.
Little Chance for Education.
Kentucky then QS09) had been Il state for seven.
teen years, but 1t was d wild wilderness of n land.
There were few books, no schools in the modern
sense, and little hope for anything but hard work.
It was exactly the kind of country for a great
man to make a start In, for unless he had some
elements of greatness he never would achieve his
goal.
1t was a country Of hard knocks, MS well as hard
work, and it all made for economy of time and
study. LincOln's mother, who was a bright, deli
cate woman, taught her son as much as she could.
A visiting schoOlmaster gave him some lessons In
the ordinary Three RS" The country was SO
sparsely settled and so distant from civilization
TINT at the little church the services that were
held were conducted by itinerant clergymen.
The boy Lincoln grew up here in a small log
cabin that was without windows, and whose wide
chimney was built on the outside Of the cabin.
At night a log in the fireplace gave all the illum.
nation the place afforded. By this freight, to
the music of the cracking burning logs, young
Lincoln, extended fiat on the floor, studied and
worked out little problems in arithmetic, which
in that section was regarded as or greater i'm.
portance than a deep knowledge Of English liter
Azure.
Lincoln's mother died when he was nine years
of age, or about 4 year after his father moved to
Indiana. and the following year bis father married
Mrs. Sally Bush Johnston. Contrary to the i'm.
preston. mainly created by the old fairy tales, the
second Mrs. Lincoln was a model stepmOther.
Studied While Working.
At the same time young Lincoln was working
as a farm hand. He borrowed books from neigh.
bors and greedily devoured them. The one book
that impressed him most was Weems' Life of
Washington" He received his exalted idea of the
Father of His Country from that book, which
deifed the first president rather than told his
life. But Lincoln believed in it and it influenced
his life.
He read Robinson Crusoe" and Bunyan's "pn.
grim's Progress" and a history of the United
States, and it was on these that he founded all HIS
knowledge of biography, history and literature.
But he knew those books by heart, for he had to
memorize them, as they all were borrowed. He
walked miles to a store where a st. Louis news.
paper was taken to borrow It, and thus he re-
ceived his news Of current events.
And all the while he was working, and working
hard. Now %ferrying. now blowing, but always in
this backwoods country, for he was quite a young
man when his father removed to Illinois.
Lincoln was about twenty-five at the time when