New-York tribune., 1922-10-29

/ Jesse w. Weik. Houghton. Mifflin.
r I is the penalty of posthumous
greatness to be petrifed by public
q admiration into kind of idol,
and thus to lose in q sense the
edit for the long struggle by which
'minence is achieved through the at
tributien OF perfection Of character
shati must have made triumph in
svitable. Even Lincoln, the most ac-
essible of mankind while he lived,
has in large part undergone that trans
formation which he of all great men
would have least desired. His strength
lay In his sympathy, his ability to
keep. In constant touch with the
-hwarted aspirations Of humanity, its
weaknesses and impeffeetions. Next to
| she appreciation of his own conscience
| ne desired the friendship of his fel-
! lows. 1t is therefore tribute to Kim
to preserve his true likeness as nearly
as may be, even to the extent of re-
cording the prejudices of those who
we're his neighbors in the days of his
obscurity. They were what he had to
to deal with and surmount. ~
This, Is the object of Mr.. Weik's
book, and it is entirely timely. 1t
could not have been written much
sooner without giving pain to various
persons closely connected with Lincoln.
Nor much later, for then the facts
would have been obliterated.
Mr.. Weik collaborated in writing the
first of its kind, which is still, with
the Nicolay and Hay life, the chief
source book of Lincoln biographers.
This volume is not a new edition of
that, but rather complement or ap-
pendix. 1t contains all the additional
data which Mr.. Weik has been able to
CLEAN during fifty years of patient re-
search, not among official documents
but among those who knew. Lincoln
personally. Also included are digests
bof representative law cases which Lin
coln prepared and tried. The result
Is singularly rounded, yet unstudied,
unretouched portrait of Lincoln as a
private man, not that vague abstrac-
eion, public character.
His earliest years properly receive
minute attention. The meager facts
have long been known and little is
added to them here. But they could
not be more graphically presented than
in this volume, by the exact reproduc-
tion of various letters from Dennis
Hanks, cousin of Lincoln's mother.
These rude documents, ill-spelled and
laboriously composed, relating the
most homely details. are wildly revela-
tory. They convey in a way what pol
primitive cultural conditions which
Lincoln transformed from handicap
to an asset. The memory of them was
not sweet to him, but 1t had it's bitter
uses. Without that harsh experience
IL is possible he would not have been
so thoroughly representative of the
democratic ideal. The boy who had so
slight chance could never willingly
wish to see that chance lessened for
any other child; as his clear reason
showed him it must be by the preser-
vation of any rigid caste system, Of
which slavery was the natural capstone.
He was by it honorably bound to cham
pion the cause of the friendless,
though he was far too logical to SEN
timentalize over those dark days when
they were left behind.
Indeed, they were never entirely left
behind. His success was slow and diff
ficult. If he was melancholy he had
cause. OF sheer good fortune, of any
unearned increment Of happiness, his
life was singuiarly barren. The frontier
life had it's virtues but they were of
the Spartan kind. The life of a pro-
fessional man, Of lawyer, was not
essentially different from that of his
rustic neighbors in those days, and it
was a life lacking in graciousness, in
richness. Only the fact that Lincoln
is the central figure redeems Mr..
4 Weik's faithful pages from dullness.
1t need hardly be added that they are
not dull. They are, to me at least, OF
far more absorbing interest than the
smooth surfaces of such book as
Charnwood's Lincoln; they are instinct
with the profound vitality of the man
himself. One seems to just glimpse
him disappearing around the corner Of
yesterday, to catch an echo OF his
grave, jesting tones. One feels the
pressure Of the atmosphere which en-
veloped him, the deprivations which
left their marks upon him.
His childhood was not only poverty
stricken, but essentially lonely. His
youth was asthetically starved. The
man loved beauty-his literary style Is
. indisputable evidence of that-ano
there was little beauty. to be had, save
that of nature. Even his own appear
ance must have been source OF NOR
tifcation to him, or why should ne