The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-02-06

Oxford printed copy of letter Lincoln wrote
to a mother who had given five that the
Union might be preserved. 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 the work of a man
who never had years schooling in his life.
1t is small wonder that Lfncoln's life is upheld
to the poor boy as shining example of what de-
teTmn&tron TO learn and succeed will do.
LfneOln's grandfather like many others, fol-
lowed the magnetic Daniel Boone into the wilder
ness of Kentucky. The Lincolns at that time
not poor folks, many have believed for
the grandfather, whose also was Abraham,
sold his property for $1,000 before he out for
the unclaimed lands where say the
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 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 QSO9) had been a state for seven
teen years. but it a wild wilderness of land.
There were few books, no schools in the modern
sense, and little hope for anything but hard work.
1t was exactly the kind of country for a great
man to make start in, for unless he had some
elements of greatness he never would achieve his
goal.
1t was q country of hard knocks, as well as hard
work and it all made for economy of time and
study LincOlns mother, who was q bright deli
cate woman, taught her much as she could.
visiting schoolmaster gave him some lessons in
the ordinary Three RS" The country was so
sDarsely settled and so distant from civilization
that at the little church the services that were
held were conducted by itinerant clergymen.
The boy Lincoln grew up here in small log
cabin that was without windows, and whose wide
chimney was built the outside of the cabin
At night log in the fireplace gave all the fIIum-
!nation The place afforded. By this freight, to
the music of the cracking burning logs, young
Lincoln, extended fat the floor, studied and
worked out little problems In arithmetic which
in that section was regarded as of greater i'm
portance than deep knowledge of English liter
ature.
Lincolns mother died when he was nine years
of age or about q year after his father moved to
Indiana and the following year his father married
Mrs Sally Bush Johnston. Contrary to the i'm
preston mainly created by the old fairy tales the
second Mrs Lincoln 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 greediy devoured them The one hook
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 "Ptl
grim's Progress and q history of the limited
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 Tn
memorize them, they ali were borrowed He
walked miles to a store where st. Louis news
paper was taken to borrow it, and thus he re-
ceived his news of current events
And ali the while he was working and working
hard. Now ferrying, now blowing, but always in
this backwoods country, for he was quite q young
man when his father removed to Illinois.
Lincoln was about twenty-five at the time when