Connecticut western news., 1922-07-06

my young IdLuSrnOOu. MI. NlLuD1o wanted to pick all the flowers and splash his bare feet in every stream. In the evening he would talk to the stars as if he were playing with them. He is like some of the grown folks in Chicago. He would sit hanging on to the reins- and talk to the horse and to God by the hour. He used to tell me that God was friend of his and think he was right. It was good luck to get back to Sarah and the children. They took the little stran- ger into their hearts. Heart room, house room Is the motto of this part of the country"
 It was a new town to which Samson returned. The governor and the state officers had moved to Springfield. The new capitol was nearing completion. The hard times which had followed the downfall of '37 had unjustly dim- finished MT. Lincoln's confidence in his ability as a legislator. He enjoyed the practice of the law, which had be- gun to turn his interest from the af fairs of state. But the pot of political science boiled before the fireplace in the rear of Joshua Speeds store every evening that Lincoln and his assOci- ates were in Springfield. The wit and wisdom which bubbled into it's vapors and the heat that surrounded 1t were the talk of the town. Many came to witness the process and presently 1t was moved, for a time, to more accommodating quarters. Before crowd of people in the Presbyterian church, Lincoln, Logan. Baker and Browning for the Whlgs, and Douglas, Calhoun, Lamborn and Thomas for the Democrats, having assiduously prepared for the trial, debated the burning issues of the time. The effort of each filled an evening and Ltncoln's speech gave him new hope of himself. Wise men began to have great conf1- dence In his future, He had taken the style of Webster for his model He no longer used the broad humor which had characterized his efforts on the stump. A study of the best speeches of the great New Englander
 
 a public address. Dignity, clear req soning and impressiveness were the chief aims of his new method, the lat ter of which is aptly illustrated by this passage from his speech in reply to Douglas in the debate mentioned:
 "If ever feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimen- sions not wholly unworthy of its AL mighty Architect, 1t is when con- template the cause of my country de- serted by all the world besides and I standing up boldly and alone and hurling defiance at her victorious op- pressors. Here without contemplating consequences before high heaven and in the face of the world swear eter- nal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty and my love-"
 In these perfervid utterances one may find little to admire save a great spirit seeking to express itself and lacking as yet the refinement of taste equal to his undertaking. He was no heaven-born genius sprung in full
 
 was just one of the slow, common folk, with passion for justice and human rights, slowly feeling his way upward. His spirit was growing. Strong in its love and knowledge of common men and of the things neces- sary to their welfare, 1t was beginning to seek and know "the divine power O@ dc 0F he gave to the study of Webster and Burke and Byron and Shakespeare and .5@.~~. He had begun to study the art of Irving and Walter Scott and Of a new writer of the name of Dickens
 There were four men who slept with him in the room above Speeds store, and one of them has told how he used to lie sprawled on the floor, with his pillow and candle, reading long after the others had gone to sleep. Samson writes that be never knew man who understood the art of using minutes as he did. A detached minute was to him a thing to be filled with value. love with fun. He loved to laugh at StOry-eellng and to match n1S nur nor with Thompson Campbell-a fa- nous raconteur-and to play with children. Fun was as necessary to him as sleep. He searched for 1t in people and in books.
 He came often to Samson's house to play. with MT Nimble" and to talk with Joe Some of his best thoughts came when he was talking with Joe and some of his merrtest moments when he was playing with "Mr. Nim- ble." He confessed that it was the latter that reminded him that he had better be looking for wife.
 But Lincoln was only one of many remarkable personalities in Springfield who had discovered themselves and were seeking to be discovered. Sun dry individuals were lifting their heads above the crowd, but not with the modesty and self-distrust of Honest Abe. Steve Douglas, whom Samson had referred to as that little rooster of a man." put on the stiltS of a brave