The mirror., 1922-02-09
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Continued from page I

than any man ever saw" said one OF his
old employers. His strength, indeed, has
become a tradition that still endures in
Spencer County.
With power like this and brain to
direct it, man was born leader in that
country and at that time, and such Lin
coin soon proved to be. When COM
pany of volunteers for the Black Hawk
Indian War of 1882 was raised in New
Salem, Abraham Lincoln was among those
who enlisted at the first tap of the drum.
The question of the captaincy was always
settled in those days by popular election.
So when the company assembled on the
green and the point as to who should be
their captain was raised, three-fourths OF
the men walked over to where Lincoln
was standing. We have his own. word
for it that no subsequent success ever gave
him such unmixed pleasure as this earliest
distinction.
In the brief campaign that followed he
was soon admitted to be the strongest man
in the army. His great size was often the
subject of jocose remark. One chilly
morning he complained of being cold.
"No WONDER" retorted facetious COM
rade, "there's so much of you on the
ground"
His own appreciation of his extraordi-
nary length of limb was once shown in
speech he was making when Clay and
Polk were running for the Presidency. 1t
was at the courthouse in Jacksonville and
Lincoln was telling of the time when he
and John Strobe used to haul goods from
Alton in the summer. One night they
went into camp at Piasaw. II spread my
blanket" said Lincoln, "and stretched
out; and," he added, "I could not help
thinking that the girls were about right
when they used to say, ABE is long for
this world"
His gift of humor and of storytelling
endeared him to countless associates. Once,
about 1850, he explained thus how he be-
came lawyer: ~ feel somtimes now and
I used to feel all the time that in court
was a sort of bull in china shop; but
after l got to going was too poor and
too proud to stop and too old to learn any
other trade. Did you ever hear~the story
of the man who sold the best coon dog in
the world? Well, after few nights out
with that wonderful dog, the purchaser
brought him back to the man he had
bought him from, declaring that coon
would stand better show of freeing the
dog than the dog would of freeing the
coon. You don't think anything is made
in vain, do you asked the vender. No,
do not was the answer. We'll, that
dog is certainly good for nothing else, and
as there is nothing made in vain thought
he must be good coon dog So on that
principle" concluded Lincoln, II thought
l might be good lawyer"
Examples of his quick wit and shrewd
common sense are no less numerous than
of his quaint aptness in storytelling. As
IL WClI klOWu AC uCNCA ACiS SOASSAA oOOu>
his personal appearance or his clothes. On
one occasion in 1916 friend, passing him
on the sidewalk, after one quick glance
turned and said solicitously: "Abe, your
coat is much too short in the waist"
"Never mind, Tom," Lincoln instantly
answered kindly, but with twinkle in his
q 4 r r
get another"
Some time afterward he came along one
morning just as several acquaintance on
street corner had begun to wrangle about
the ideal length of mans legs in proper
ton to his body, and they agreed to sub
NIT the point to Lincoln's decision.
"Abe," one of them hailed him as he
approached, chow long ought mans legs