Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-02-03
HIS FAME CROWS
Interest in Lincoln Increases
With the Passing Years.
Whole World Has Come to Honor the
Man Most WorthiIy Termed "The
First American"

With every passing year the inter-
st in Abraham LincOln-and it is
poming to be a worldwide interest
increases. From the days of Lowell
md Whitman down to the present mo-
tent he has been the theme of poet,
ssayist, novelist, dramatist and biog-
.apher. Within the last few years we
have had Mr.. Bachelors novel, Mr..
Drinkwater'S play inc Lord Charm
woods noble biography. Englishmen,
hardly less thar Americans, have done
honor and paid reverent tribute to the
memory of the American President.
and thus this great man, though dead
has proved to be a bond of union be
tween the two peoples, says a writer
in the Indianapolis News. The more
Lincoln's life and character are stud
led the larger does his greatness loom
Other men, who made a great stir in
the world, have shrunk with the pass
ing years.
Lincoln's has been a growing fame.
Nor is it a fame that was sought
rather it was stunned. There is moth
ing manufactured in it, as indeed there
never is in a fame that is lasting and
noble. Here is a man who is honored
and this is a fine tribute to democ-
racy-for the sole reason that he de-
serves to be honored.
Really a Great Man.
Much has been made of the sim
plicity of Lincoln'S character, and yet
in a sense it was not simple at all. The
mystery connected with it has not
been conjured up by men desiring to
show their ingenuity. He was, as Ten
nyson says of the duke Of Wellington.
'rich in saving common sense" and,
"as the greatest only are, in his sim
plicity sublime" "As the greatest
only are"-the qualifying phrase is i'm
portant. There were depths in Lin
coins nature that never have been
and never will be plumbed. To him
"who only sees one way at once" Lin
coin may seem to be merely a good
natured, tolerant man. Yet, though he
overflOwed with the spirit of mercy,
he could be as hare as adamant when
occasion required. Humble though he
was, he could take a position, and
hold it with a self-assertiveness that
was sublime. Utterly without pride,
he yet trusted his own judgment, and
even his ;ntuitions implicitly. rich
in saving common sense" he was yet
beyond question a mystic. In what
Swinburne said was the greatest
threnody in the English language
Whitman spoke of Lincoln as the
sweetest, wisest soul of all my days
and lands.' More than any other
American, Lincoln had that remarka-
BILE quality which Arnold praised so
highly, sweet reasonableness." ms
character, therefore, is not simple, but
in the highest degree complex. Ihe
simplicity is found in the moral nature.
To follow conscience and do the right
was the rule of this mans life. Ihefe
is an appearance of simplicity, u TO
the fact that the character, composite
as it was, was so well rounded so
marked by totally as to blind men to
the struggles by which the unity was
achieved. 1t may be said of Lincoln,
as of Brutus, but with much more
truth:
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand
up
And say to all the world; 1hls was a
mani"
So, though he was lin his simplicity
sublime" it was "as the greatest only