Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-01-13

WOODS. WdIltu W NC hAOAS'
had a lot of thinking to doth KIND
of thinking that every man must 90
for himself. I've got the brush cleared
away, at last, so 1 can see through. l
had made up my mind to go down TO
vour house for the night and was try
ing to decide whether l have energy
enough to do It."
"Come on; it's only a short step"
urged the big-hearted Bowlin.
"What l feel the need of, just now,
is a week or two of Sleep" said MI.
Lincoln. as he rose and started down
the long hill with his friend.
Some time later Bowlin Green gave
Samson this brief account OF "nRt
happened in and about The cabin:
"He wouldn't eat anything. He
wanted to go down to the river for Z
dip, and 1 went with him. When we
got back, l induced hjrn to take OFF his
clothes and get into bed. He was fast
asleep in ten minutes. When nighf
came l went up the ladder to bed. He
was still asleep when l came down i'll
the morning. l went out and did my
chores. Then l cnt two venison
steaks, each about the size O. my hand,
and a half moon Of bacon. | pounded
the venison to pulp with a little salt
and bacon mixed in. l put it on the
broiler and over a bed O. hickory Goals.
1 got the coffee into the pot and up
next to the fire and some potatoes in
the ashes. l basted a bird with bacon
strips and put it into the rooster and
set it back O. the broiling bed. Then
1 made some biscuits and put 'em
into the oven. l tell you, in a little
while the smell O that fireplace would.
have woke the dead-honest! Abe
began to stir. In a minute l heard
him call:
"'Say, Uncle Bowlin, I'm goin' to
get up an eat you out O. house and
home. I'm hungry and 1 feel like a
new man. What time is it?'
It'll be nine O'clock by the time
you're washed and dressed l says
"'Well, l declare says he, I've had
about sixteen hours O. solid sleep. The
world looks better to me this norm
ing
"At the table 1 told him a story and
got a little laugh out of him. He
stayed with me three weeks, choring
around the place and taking it easy.
He read all the books l had, until you
and Doc Allen came with the law
books. Then he pitched into them. !
think he has changed a good deal since
Ann died. He talks a lot about God
and the hereafter"
In October young Mr.. Lincoln re-
turned to his surveying, and in the
last month of the year to Vandalia for
an extra session of the legislature.
where he took a stand against the con-
vention system of nominating candi-
dates for public office. Samson went
to Vandalia for a visit with him and
to see the place before the session end
ed. The next year, in a letter to his
brother, he says:
"Vandalia is a small, crude village.
1t has a strong flavor of whisky, pro-
family and tobacco. The night after
l got there / went to a banquet with
Abe Lincoln. Heard a lot about the
dan nigger-loving Yankees who were
trying tor ruin the state and country
with abolition. There were some
stories like those we used to hear in
the lumber camp, and no end of pow
erful talk, in which the names of God
and the Savior were roughly handled.
A few of the statesmen got drunk, and
after the dinner was over two of them
jumped on the table and danced down
the whole length of it, SCATTERING
plates and cups and saucers and
glasses. Nobody seemed to be able
to stop them. l hear that they had to
pay several hundred dollars for the
damage done. You will be apt to think
that there is too much liberty here i'll
the West, and perhaps that is so, but
the fact is these men are not half SO
bad as they seem to be. Lincoln tells
me that they are honest, almost TO a
man, and sincerely devoted to the pub.
lie good as they see it. 1 asked Abe
Lincoln, who all his life has associated
with rough-tongued, drinking men,
how he managed to hold his own
course and keep his talk and habits so
clean.
"'Why, the fact is said he, I have
associated with the people who lived
around me only part of the time, but 1
have never stopped a%ssociating with
myself and with Washington and Clay
and Webster and Shakespeare and
Burns and DeFoe and Scott and
Blackstone and Parsons. On the
whole, I've been in pretty good COM
pany.'
HE has not Yet accomplished much
in the legislature. l don't think that
he will until some big issue comes
along. I'm not much of a hand at
hunting SQUIRRELS he said to me the
other day. Wait till 1 see a bear The
people of Yandalia and Springfield
have never seen him yet. They don't
know him as l do. But they all re-
Spect him-iuSt for his pood-fnIloW-