Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-02-01

upon my shoulder and make me swing corners
swift, and his arms so long ard strong Myi
how he could chop His ak would flash and bite
into a sugar tree or sycamore, and down 1t
would come. If you heard him fallin' trees in q
%clearin' you would say there was three men at
work by the way trees fell. But he never was
sassy or quarrelsome, I've seen him walk into a
crowd of sawin' rowdies, and tell some droIe
yarn. and bust them all up. 1t was the same
when he was a lawyer; all eyes, whenever he
rZ were on him there was a suthfn' peculiar
some about him.
what did you teach him TO write with? 2"
Sometimes he would write with a piece Of
charcoal or the pint of a burnt stick on the
fence or floor. We got a little paper at the
country town, and | made ink out of black
bury briar-root and a little copperas in 1t. 1t
was 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 scrawlin' his name everywhere; some
times he would write 1t In the white sand down
on the crick bank, and leave 1t till the freshet
would blot II out"
"Did you have any idea of his future great
nessT'
mo; 1t was a new country, and he was a 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 1t 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, 1t 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 a great
deal and had a wonderful memory. wonderful.
Never forgot anything"
How did the lad fare for food and clothing?"
"Plenty. such as 1t as-co dodger, bacon.
and game, some fish, and wild fruits. I'VE often
seen him take a dodger to the field and gnaw at
It when blowing. We had very little wheat flour.
The nearest mill was IS miles a boss mill it
was, with a plug pullin' a sweep around and
Abe used to say his hound could stand and eat
the flour all day as fast as It was made. and
then be ready for his supper. For clothing he
had jeans; he was grown before he wore all
wool pants"
Did you move with him to nlinoIs?"
Yes; | bought a little Improvement near him.
six miles from Decatur. Here the famous rails
were split that were carried around I'm the cam
paign. They were called his rails; but nobody
can tell about that. | split some OF 'em. and we
had a rail frolic and folks came and helped us
split. He was a master-hand maulIn rails. I
heard him say In a speech one day about these
ralls-H | 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 one parent or both ~
Both his strong will from his father. III
tell you an incident His father used to swear
a little. and one day his baby girl picked up a
foul oath and was bruIsin' the bitter morsel in
her sweet mouth, when Nancy called 'Thomasr
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
q mothers boy"
SO ] bade the old man good-by, pressing
once more the palsied hand that guided the pen
that wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
20 by Western Newspaper Unisn,