White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-01-26

upon my shoulder and make me swing corners
swift, and his arms so long and strong! My!
how he could chop! His ak would flash and bite
into sugar tree or sycamore, and down 1t
would come If you heard him fallln' trees In a
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 drole
yarn, and bust them all up. 1t was the same
when he was lawyer; all eyes, whenever he
riz were him; there was suthin' peculiar
some about him."
"What did you teach him to write with?"
"Sometimes he would write with a piece Of
charcoal or the pint Of burnt stick the
fence or floor. We got little paper at the
country town, and I made ink out Of black
bury briar-root and little copperas in 1t. It
was black; but the copperas would eat the paper
after awhile made his first pen out of 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 it till the freshet
would blot it out"
"Did you have any idea Of his future great
ness"
mo: 1t was a new country, and he was raw
boy; rather bright an likely lad but the big
world seemed far ahead of him. We were slow
poin folks but he had 1t in him, though we
never suspected 1t"
"Did he take to books eagerly"
mo, we had to hire him at first But when
he got TASTE 1t was the old story-we had to
pull the sow's 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?"
"Plenty, such as it was-corn dodger. bacon
and game, some fish, and wild fruits. I've often
seen him take dodger to the field and gnaw at
It when blowing. We had very little wheat -four
The nearest mill was 10 miles; a boss mill 1t
was, with plug pullin' sweep around and
Abe used to say his hound could stand and eat
the flour all day fast as 1t 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 Illinois?"
eyes; bought little improvement near him
six miles from Decatur. Here the famous rails
were split that were carried around in the cam
palgn They were called his rails; but nobody
can tell about that. split some Of EN- and we
had a rail frolic and folks came and helped us
split. He was a master-hand maulin rails
heard him say in speech day about these
rails-'If didn't make these, have made many
Just az 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. I'll
tell you incident: His father used to swear
a little, and one day his baby girl picked up
foul oath and was bruisn' the bitter morsel In
her sweet mouth, when Nancy called Thomas =
and said: Listen. husband He stopped that
habit thar; never swore again. But Abes kind
ness humor, love Of humanity, hatred Of slavery,
all came from her. free to say Abe was
a mothers boy"
SO babe the old good-by, pressing
once more the palsied hand that guided the pen
that wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
tD bv Western Newspaper Uron)