Evening star., 1924-06-03
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
IN THE Fo0TST7sPs OF THE LIN
coins. Ida M. Tarbell. Harper &

coins. Ida M. Tarbell. Harper &
Bros.
A pioneer trail, fresh and important
opens here for cur following. Along It's
later ways si1rfnes, many and various,
witness that the trail has become a pil-
grinage And 30 II has. For its begin
ming we must 20 back 800 years. a little
less From that point we move forward
through two centuries and a quarter tn
the middle Of the last century. There
the trail comes to an end. That is. the
literal trail comes to an end. But out
from it spiritual highway opens, one
that leads outward and upward, and will
SO continue to lead as long as human
greatness stands a guiding star for
human aspirations and human endeavor
\ X Il
The story gets its start on the coast Of
New England where, In 1887, Samuel
Lincoln. emigrant from bingham, Eng
land, settled in bingham. Mass. Samuel
Lincoln was the grandfather, five gen
erations removed, OF Abraham Lincoln
President, preserver Of the Union, eman-
cipator, martyr. These early Lincolns.
generation by generation, proved their
pioneer blood as a Samuel, a Mordecai.
an Abraham-frequentiy recurring Lin
coin names, these-moved out from the
family group to join those who adyen-
tured first southwark into New Tersev.
then west into Pennsylvania, then south
again into the Shenandoah Valley q nd
once more west into Kentucky, Indiana.
Illinois. Among the many westward
movements of the early pioneers in
Amerlca this particular one sets the
course OF the Lncolns from the Atlantic
coast to remote unsettled region,
though this region stands TODAY as
next.door neighbor to that point from
which, only seventeen years after the
landing OF the Pilgrims. the Lincoln mi
grafton began.
+ X r
Certain outstanding facts appear ont
OF this freshly blazed Lincoln trail
The first is that Abraham Lincoln was
or clear Puritan stock. One wishes that
he had known this 1t would, SURELY.
have given him q measure of satisfac.
ton to know that his career had been
started. really, in the strong blood
strain and robust life Of the colonial set
tiers But the problem of the pioneer
was to maintain his own existence and
that of his family in a wild setting that
must pc tanned, in an unfriendiy one
tnat must be circumvented. No time for
searching out family lines. Probably no
desire to do this Certainly no means
mad then been developed for reaching
such an end.
Another fact coming to the front
co,, ouI or tnis study is that the Lin
tSans were not the "shiftless tribe"
1nat they have been reported to be.
Tney were poor, but everybody was
poor. They lived in a log cabin. So
did everybody. They had to scratch
gravel for living. All the settlers
ddd1 hncoln's father. Thomas. moved
some. Possibly, this was the blood OF
the pioneer, restless and urgent, un-
der the lure of the future and the
promise of the beyond
Again, the legend of illegitimacy
has to give way before this author.
This has proved a beloved legend.
1t will come hard to give it up. 1t
looks as If in this case som ebodv
simply had to be unfathered. First
1T was Lincoln himself. That theory
exploded; the next step was to put
the burden, of an unsponsored birth
upon Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks
herself. Under evidence, irrefutable,
1t turns out that the people concerned
were regularly married, every one
concerned was born respectable, Hard
Tor the romantic inventor of tales.
but the evidence is close and covering
against their claim.
+ X
Let us stop a minute here to nay
tribute to the kind of work that has
produced not only "In the Footsteps
of the Lncolns." but all the other
Lincoln literature produced by this
author. For twenty-five years Miss
Tarbell has studied the life and work
and influence and tradition of Abra-
ham Lincoln. Patience, courage, a
trained intelligence, an exclusive de-
votion to the theme, then work and
more work have gone into this study.
No point of fresh Information has
been too remote for her to reach, no
clue too obscure for pursuit, no rti-
NOR too faint for proof, no labor too
dry and arduous for her undertaking.
She has Travelled here and there, COL
lecting from every available and au-
thentic source-court records of prop
suits, marriage and death records, the
whole what not of legal authority.
This but the beginning. For, with this
mass of material in hand. there began
the labor of tracing. comparing test
ing. tallyinE this with that, discard
ing that which could not stand the
test. collecting and arran nging= the
trustworthy facts. Then the work of
the dramatic and practiced writer to
make readable and inspiring the great
theme Of Lincoln.
Another striking effect here in