Evening star., 1932-01-26
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. G.. NJ.

LINCOLN: The Unknown. BY Dale
Carnegie. Illustrated. New York:
The Century Co.
Within that perfect temple beside the
river great Lincoln sits, body and face
craven with lines of deep world-weari-
ness. Before him, the Capital, Wash
ington, saved to an undivided country.
Behind him, vast bivouac of the dead,
watchful by day. by night, lest the in
stinctive ferocity of man again override
the legacy OF humanity. the obligations
of manhood. Those silent boys at Ar
lington. and many another where
throughout the land, price Of that
Union, cost of the slaves set free.
A monument to Abraham Lincoln and
to human freedom, that perfect memo
rial beside the Potomac.
* x x
In Lincoln: The Unknown" Dale
Carnegie has gone back @er the life OF
Lincoln in a fine fidelity OF interest and
painStaking. His particular quest that
of fact and picture and revelation that
escaped the formal biographer or was
set aside as negligible beside the large
and momentous public acts of the Pres
ident, the war chief, the guardian OF
the Union, the liberator. Historians,
many, have looked after these high
points in great career. But man,
any man, is made essentially OF innu-
merable little things, of an inter
weaving of each days trivlalltles. IheSe
are the warp and woof OF him, OF every
man. Now and then some great pattern
is traced across the fabric. DEEDS OUT
standing for good or i'll. Out OF Sucn
oyerlayings of heroism of far vision and
ha hprnpS of the world.
the leaders and sometimes, the martyrs.
But to know the man, the true weave
of him, is to follow the homely trall OF
all the days from youth on to achleVe-
ment. Such is the path so earnestly
defined and set out here by Dale car
negie in respect to Abraham Lincoln.
One honored of all men, Lincoln.
President of the United States HIS
home. for a period, the White House,
mellowed, beautiful, impressive.
Come on. Let us go with Dale Car
negie, Go back 116 years, Where
we come upon Tom Lincoln moving
from Kentucky out into Indiana Wlid
place then. Nothing new about THIS
for Tom Lincoln was always moving.
But for the time being we are inter-
ested in him only as he STANDS, pro-
WIDER and providence 10 MS poy' ape'
and to his wife, Nancy.
Tom came to halt IN something
like a wilderness. He usually ala:
There he built 'three-fenced camp.
A shed, we call it. mo floor, no door,
no windows-nothing but three sides
and a roof of poles and brush. the
fourth side was open to wind and snow
and sleet and cold" Not much IN the
way of a domicile to current account
ing. But Tom thought it was good
enough for him and his family" Ihat
was like Tom.
Nancy Hanks and her children
slept there that Winter, like dogs curled
up on heap OF leaves and bearsklns
dumped on the dirt floor, in corner OF
the shed. AS for food, they had no
butter, no milk, no eggs, no fruit, no
vegetables, not even potatoes. Ihey
lived chiefly on wild game and nuts"
For years there in Indiana Abraham
Lincoln endured more terrible poverty
than did thousands Of the slaves whom
he would one day hberate."
Then Nancy Lincoln fell i'll Of the
milk sickness" scourge Of that time
and locality. And, along with many
another, Nancy died of the malady.
And Tom Lincoln put two copper
pennies on her eyelids to hold them
shut. Then he went into the woods
and felled a tree, hewing it into rough
boards. These he fastened together
with wooden pegs" Nancy's coffin. Two
years before he had brought her into
this settlement on q sled. Now, again
on a sled, he hauled her body to the
top of a thickly wooded hill and buried
her without service or ceremony"
so perished the mother of Abraham
Lincoln"
, We are not going far with this writer
in any deliberate painstaking OF report.
For readers having an interest in the
man and the conditions IN which he
lived will choose to go along with this
sympathetic and easy-talking Dale Car
negie as he moves through the Indiana
and Illinois country, linking up its past
with the present, linking up Abraham
Lincoln with the essentials of boyhood
and youth everywhere.
Let us go to school with Lincoln.
Educators will be interested at this
point. For here is a chapter in the
history Of American methods OF edu-
cation.
when Lincoln was IS he knew his
difficulty"
Along in the Autumn of 1924 travel
ing teacher drifted into the neighbor-
hood of Pigeon Greek and opened
school, Abe and his sister were among
the first pupils. Four miles going, four
miles coming Eight miles day, the
considerable footwork required for the
brainwork sought. Azel Dorsey kept q
"blab" school. That, the method of his
day, quite generally. The children
studied aloud. All together and not
softly. AZel thought that by this
method he could tell whether they were
really studying or not. And he marched
around the room, switch in hand to
wake up the silent ones. And the uproar
could often be heard quarter of mile
away" Lincoln did not mind this. His
great trouble as time went on was to
get books-but that is an old story that
you have read many times. Just as
you have read about the early start OF
this youth as lawyer, defending al
most any one who needed his services
and with an indifference new to folks
roundabout in the matter of fees. This
you know already. But read it again,
since 1t Is part of a finely fresh ap- |
proach to Lincoln's slow and laborious |
headway along road that, in time, was
in courage, in endurance, in worldwide |
Once young Abe became a traveller. |
BY now the Lincolns had moved many |
times. Once, from the Indiana days, !
the young man had helped to float |
raft Of logs down to New orleans. This
huge adventure fired him for outfarings |
away from the pioneer farm, and not |
long after Abe Lincoln was on his way
to professional life as a lawyer, as local |
politician, as State legislator. as men,
Der OF Congress- as President, as liber-
ator of the slaves in this country, as
martyr to the idea of human freedom
and equality.
x X
Sketchy and inadequate. this bare
beginning OF Dale Carnegie's admirable !
study of Abraham Lincoln. But, as I've
already said, you will prefer to read the
story Yourselves And why since there