The Coolidge examiner., 1933-02-03

upon my shoulder and make me swing corners
swift, and his arms so long and strong! My I!
how he could chop His Ak would fash and bite
into sugar tree or sycamore, and down 1t
would come. II you heard him fallin' trees in a
clearin' you would say there three men at
work by the way trees fell. But he never was
sassy or quarrelsome, I've seen him walk into
crowd Of sawin rowdies, and tell some drole
yarn. and bust them all up. 1t the same
when he was a lawyer; all eyes, whenever he
riz were on him; there was suthin' peculiar
some about him"
What did you teach him TO write with?"
Sometimes he would write with piece Of
charcoal the pint of burnt stick the
fence or floor. We got a little paper at the
country town. and / made ink out of black
bury brlar-rOot and little copperas in it. 1t
black but the copperas would eat the paper
after awhile | made his first pen out of a turkey
buzzard feather; them's good for pens We had
no geese them days. After he learned to write
he was scrawin his name everywhere; some
times he would write 1t in the white sand down
on the crick bank. and leave it till the freshet
would blot ii out"
did you have any idea of his future great
ness?"
NO; it was new country, and he was raw
boy: rather a bright an likely lad but the big
world seemed far ahead of him. We were slow
goin' folks but he had it in him, though we
never suspected it."
did he take to books eagerly?"
mo we had to hire him at first But when
he got a taste, it was the old story-we had to
pull the sow's ears to git her to the trough and
pull her tail to git her away. He read great
deal and had wonderful memory, wonderful
Never forgot anything"
How did the lad fare for food and clothing?"
"Penty. such as 1t was-corn dodger, bacon,
and game, some fish, and wild fruits I've often
seen him take a dodger to the field and gnaw at
1t when plowing. We had very little wheat -four.
The nearest mill Is miles: boss mill it
was. with a plug pullin' sweep around; and
Abe used to say his hound could stand and eat
the -four all day fast as it was made and
then be ready for his supper For clothing he
had jeans; ne was grown before he wore all
wool pants.'
did you move with him to nlinois?"'
Yes bought little Improvement near him.
six miles from Decatur. Here the famous rails
were split that were carried around in the cam
paign. They called his rails; but nobody
can tell about that. split some of EN- ard we
had rail frolc and folks came and helped us
split. He was master hand marlin rails I
heard him say in a speech one da1 about these
rails-Tf didn't make these have made many
just as good Then the crowd yelled"
One more question: did he get his rare sense
and sterling principles from parent or both ~
Both; his strong will from his father. III
tell you an incident His father used to swear
little. and one day his baby girl picked up
foul oath and bruisin' the bitter morsel in
her sweet mouth when Nancy called Thomas y
and said: Listen. husband He stopped that
habit thar; never swore again. But Abe's kind
ness. humor, love of humanity, hatred of slavery
all came from her. am free to say Abe was
a mothers boy"
So I bade the old good-by pressing
once more the palsied hand that guided the pen
that wrote the Emancipation Proclamation
&c by Western Newspaper Union)