The Coolidge examiner., 1933-02-03
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

IMkNzanEaIN SCORES of cities and villages
! / ! !. !. !. ]. !. !:
- E&I throughout the United States and
I@kWl in several foreign countries stand
tF& kzI statues and other memorials to the
IkA ExI great American whose birthday we
i&N&Z&HI will celebrate on February 12. Most
- OF them. having been erected to
lE1x1zsMGYI commemorate his services as Pres-
dent during a critical period in the
nations history and his worldwide renown as
great humanitarian, portray him as the bearded
of mature years and benign countenance,
the Great Emancipation, the Man of Sorrows,
the martyr.
In recent years. however. there has been
tendency To perpetvate in bronze and stone GER
tain incidents in his earlier life which will
orialize those formative years when the charac-
ter of the future American immortal was be-
ing shaped and nodded. So we have the Rail
Splitter statue in Garfield park in Chicago. the
"Black Hawk War Captain statue in Dixon, H..
the candidate" statue I'm Cincinnati, Ohio, and
the Young Statesman" statue in Louisville Ky.
The newest of these youthful Lincoln sta
tues is the one which was erected last year on
the plaza of the Lincoln National Life Insurance
company at Fort Wayne, Ind, and which por
trays Lincoln, the Hoosier Youth" 1t is the
work of the famous sculptor, Paul Manship.
The main facts Of Lincoln's earlier years are
well known 10 most Americans, thanks to the
William f. Barton Senator Albert J. Beveridge
and Carl Sandburg and others who seem to
have brought to light every single fact which
was significant in making Lincoln the man that
he became But ii is doubtful II anything more
interesting has ever been written about that pc
riod of LincOin's life than the report of an
Overlooked interview with Dennis F. Hanks.
a cousin and close companion of Lincoln. which
set down by Robert Mcintyre. an attorney
So ,-l,f oh
has recently come into the hands OF the author
of this article The interview in part follows:
found him hale and erect, ready TO recount
for the benefit of a younger generation. the in
cdents which marked the youth of the martyred
President His name is Dennis F. Hanks. and
he is a cousin to Lincoln Uncle Dennis. as he
Is called. Is typical Kentuckian, born in Har
din county. 1199. His face is sun-hronZed and
plOwed with burrows of time; resolute mouth
with firm grip of the jaw; broad forehead above
a pair of unweariahle eyes. The eyes seem out
of place. in the weary faded face: they glow
and flash like two diamond sparks. set in ridges
of dull gold. The face is serious one. but
the play of light in the eyes. unquenchable by
time, betrays the nature full of sunshine and
eate life. sidewise glance at the profile shows
n face strikingy i.incoln-like. prominent cheek
bones, temples, nose and chin; but hest of all
that twinklng droery I'm the eye that flashed
in the White House during the dark days of
the Civil war. To my query he replied cheerily:
Certainly. certainly. sir. I'll talk to you about
Abe. kin talk. too. bein as am the only livin'
man that knows all about him"
How old was Mr.. Lincoln when you first
met hm?'
About "a hours. hardly that; rekolect | ran
all the way, over two miles, To see Nancy Hanks
boy baby. Twas common then for connexion to
gether in them days to see new babies. Her
name was Nancy Hanks before she married
Thomas Lincoln held the wee one a mnnit I
was ten years old and it ticlled me to hold the
pulpy red little Lincoln"
"When did you move to Indiana?"
"When Abe was about nine. Mr.. Lincoln moved
first, and built camp of brush in Spencer coun-
ty. We came out year later. and he then had
a cabin up, and he gave the shanty. On this
spot Abe grew to manhood"
How far apart were your cabins?"
about fifteen rods. Abe killed turkey the
day we got there, an couldn't get thro tellin'
about it. The name was pronounced Linkhorn