The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1922-04-28
AManfor
the Ages
4 Story of the Builders
of Democracy
irving Bachelor
CHAPTER XXI.

In the Rear Of Joshua Speeds Store.
Also at samson's Flreside Honest
Abe Talks Of the Authority Of the
Law and the Right Of Revolution.
The boy Joe had had a golden week
at the home of the Brimsteads. The
fair Annabel, knowing not the power
that lay in her beauty, had captured
his young heart scarcely fifteen years
Of age. He had no interest in her
younger sister, Mary. But Annabel,
with her long skirts and full form and
glowing eyes and gentle dignity, had
stirred him to the depths. When he
left he carried q soul heavy with re-
yret and great resolutions. Not that
he had mentioned the matter to her or
to any one. 1t was a thing too sacred
for speech. To God, In his prayers,
he spoke Of 1t, but to no other.
He asked to be made and to be
thought worthy. He would have had
the whole world stopped and put to
sleep for a term until he was delivered
from the bondage Of his tender youth.
That being impossible, it was for
him a sad, but not a hopeless world.
indeed, he rejoiced in his sadness. An
mabel was four years older than he.
II he could make her to know the
depth Of his passion, perhaps she
would walt for him. he sought TOR
self-expression In The Household Book
Of Poetry-a sorrOwful and pious vol
ume. He could find no ladder Of
rhyme with an adequate reach. He
endeavored to build me-. He wrote
melancholy verses and letters, confess
ing his passion, to Annabel, which
she did not encourage, but which she
always kept and valued for their In
genuous and noble ardor. Some Of
these A~nacreontics r among the
treasures inherited by her descend
ar is. They were a matter Of slight
Importance, one would say, but they
mark the beginning Of a great career.
Immediately after his return to the
new home in Springfield, the boy,
Josiah, set out to make himself hon.
ored Of his ideal. In the effort he
made himself honored Of many. His
eager brain had sOon taken the footing
Of manhood.
A remarkable school Of political
science had begun its sessions in the
little Western village Of Springfield.
The world had eve seen the like Of
It. Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A.
Douglas, E. D. Baker, 0. H. Browning,
Jesse B. Thomas, and Josiah Lamborn
"a most unusual array of talent as
subsequent history has proved-were
wont to gather around the fireplace In
the real Of Joshua Speeds store, eve
nings, to discuss the issues Of the
time, Samson and his son Joe came
often to heal the talk. Douglas looked
like a dwarf among those long-geared
men. He was slight and short, being
only about five feet tall, but he had &
big, round head covered with thick
straight, dark hair, a bulldog look ant
a voice like thunder. Douglas ant
Lincoln were in a heated argumen'
over the admission of slavery to thu
territories the first night that Samson
and Joe sat down with them.
we QiQI L llhc tiat iittiC loOStNl "
d man, he had such II high and might.
way with him and so frankly oppose,
the principles we believe in. He wa
an out-and-out pro-slavery III
would have every state free to regu
late its domestic institutions, in it
own way, subject only to the Constitu
ton of the United States. Lincol
held that 1t amounted to saying tina
If one man chose to enslave anothe
no third party shall be allowed to OF
ject.'"
In the course of the argument Dou!
las alleged that the Wings were tn
a~ristocrats of the country.
THAT reminds me of a night whe
| was speaking at Havana" said Ho,
est Abe. "A man with a RULED shil
and a massive gold watch chain &c
up and charged hat the Wings wei
a~ristocrats. Douglas in his broa'
cloth and fine linen reminds me
that man. Pm not going to answt
Douglas as l answered him. Most {
the Wings l know are my kind
folks. l was a poor boy working G
flatboat at eight dollars a mont
and had only one pair Of breeches al
they were b%uckskin. If you know Il
nature of buckskin, you know TIL
when ii is wet and dried by the sun
viii sirink and my breeches kel
shrinking and deserving the sock are
of ny legs until several inches
them were bare above my shoe
Whilst l was growing longer the
were growing shorter and so mut
tighter that they left a blue strea
around my legs which can be seen
this day. If you call that aristocra'
/ know of one Wing that Is an artist
craft
But look at the New England tyl
of Wing exemplified by the imperio
and majestic Webster said Dougls
"Webster vas another poor lac
Lincoln answered. His fathers hor