Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-02-01
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

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-WIN SCORES Of cities and villages
throughout the United States aud
In several foreign countries stand
statues and other memorials to the
kR great American whose birthday we
~ will celebrate on February IL. Most
of them, having been erected to
@ commemorate his services as Presi-
dent during a critical period In the
nations history and his worldwide renown as .
great humanitarian. portray him as the bearded
man Of mature years and benign countenance,
the Great Emancipation, the MAN of Sorrows,
the martyr.
In recent years, however, there has been a
tendency to perpetuate in bronze and stone GER
tain incidents in his earlier life which will mem
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, Ill,
the Candidate" statue In 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
Vel hnOWn " must AlnCliNdbSt biuhhS " hhS
painstaking labor of such blographers as Rev.
william e. Barton, Senator Albert ]. Beverage
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 1t is doubtful IL anything more
interesting has ever been written about that Pc
Rod OF Lincoln's life than the report of an
Overlooked interview" with Dennis f. Hanks,
a cousin and close companion Of Lincoln, which
was set down by Robert Mcintyre. an attorney
of NATION, ILL.,, In May, 1892, a copy of which
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 q younger generation, the in
cldents which marked the youth of the martyred
President. His name is Dennis #. Hanks, and
he is a cousin to Lincoln. Uncle Dennis. as he
is called, is a typical Kentuckian, born in Har-
din county, 1899. His face is sun-bronzed and
plowed with burrows Of time; a resolute mouth
with firm grip of the jaw broad forehead above
a pair of unweariable eyes. The eyes seem out
of place, in the weary. faded face; they glow
and fash like two diamond sparks, set In ridges
of dull gold. The face Is q serious one, but
the play of light In the eyes, unquenchable by
time, betrays the nature full of sunshine and
elate life. A sidewise glance at the profile shows
a face strikingly Lincoln-ike. prominent cheek
bones, temples, nose and chin but best or all
that twinkling drollery In 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 I am the only livin'
man that knows all about him."
"How old was Mr.. Lincoln when you first
met him"
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. I held the wee one a minnit. |
was ten years old, and 1t tickled me to hold the
PUPPY, red, little Lincoln"
when did you move to Indianaf"
when Abe was about nine. Mr.. Lincoln moved
first, and built a camp of brush In Spencer coun.
ty. We came out a year later, and he then had
a cabin up, and he gave us the shanty. Or this
spot Abe grew to manhood"
How far apart were your cablns7"
"About fifteen rods. Abe killed a turkey the
day we got there, an couldn't get thro telin'
about II. The name was pronounced Lnkhorn