Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-01-27

fhp tHlk Oh IuG lOWD. Nldlly cana r.
TO witness the process and presently
If was moved, for a time, to more
accommodating quarters. Before
crowd of peonle in the PRESBYTERIAN
church. Lincoln, Logan, Baker and
browning fer the Wings, and Douglas
Calhoun, Lamborn and Thomas for
the Democrats, having a~ssiduously
prepared for the trial, debated the
burning issues Of the time. The effort
of each filed an evening and Lineoln's
speech gave him new hope of himself
Wise men began to have great conf
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
had made him question its value in
q public address. Dignity, clear rea-
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:
eff / ever feel the soul within me
elevate and expand to those dimen-
sionS not wholly unworthy of its Al
mighty Architect. it is when l con-
template the cause Of my country de
serted by all the world besides, and
I standing up boldly and alone and
hurting defiance at her victorious Op- {
pressors. Here without contemplating 1
consequences before high heaven an0
in the face of the world l swear eter-
nal fidelity to the just cause, as II
deem it, of the land of my life, my
liberty and my love-"
In these p~erfervid u~tterances 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 h~eaven-born genius sprung in full
panoply from the head Of Jove." He
was just one of the slow, common
folk, with a passion for justice and
human rights, Slowly feeling his way
upward. His spirit was growing.
Strong in it's love and knowledge Of
common men and of the things neces
sary to their welfare, it was beginning
to seek and know 1.-THE divine power
of words" Every moment of leisure
he gave to the study of Webster and
Burke and Byron and Shakespeare and
Burns. 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 bis
pillow and candle, reading long after
the others had gone to sleep. Samson
writes that he never knew a man who
understood the art of using minutes as
he did. A detached minute was to
him a thing to be filed with value.
Yet there were few men so deeply In
love with fun. He loved to laklgE at
a storytelling and to match hisV N
nor with Thompson CampbellEs@
nous raconteur-and to play VIZ
children. Fun was as necessary roF.
him as sleep. He searched for 1t IMP
people and in books.
He came often to Samson's house
to play with mfr. Nimble" and to talk
with Joe. Some of his best thoughts
came when he was talking with Joe
and some Of his merriest moments
when he was playing with "Mr. MIN
ble." He confessed that it was the
latter that reminded him that he had
better be looking for a 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 or the stills of a brave
and ponderous vigor. His fve-foot
stature and his hundred pounds OF
weight did not ft the part of Achilles.
But he would have no other. He blus-
tered much with a spear too heavy for
his hands. Lincoln used to call him
a kind Of popgun.
This free-for-all joust Of individual
ism-one Of the first fruits Of freedom
in the West-gave to the life of the "
tie village a rich flavor of comeH
The great talents of Douglas had mol
been developed. His character was o.
vet shifty and shapeless. Some OF
the leading citizens openly distrusted
him. Lincoln never liked this little
man, in opposing whom he was 70
come to the fulness of his power Oh
the platform. 1t is evident that LII,
coin regarded him as an able advocate
of small sincerity looking chiefly for
personal advancement.
There is a passage in the diary
which illustrates the character of DON
glas and Lincoln's knowledge OF IT.
The passage relates to a day in the
famouS debates of 1914 Lincoln ha0 (