The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-02-08

NcoN years old but it is doubtful If he
paid much attention to the ami
versary. Nor is it likely that his felow-legis-
lators, if indeed they knew about it, took the
trouble to congratulate him and wish him many
happy returns of the day." For he was just an
obscure member of the lower house from Sanga-
mon county.
He had been an honest but unsuccessful store
keeper in the little hamlet of New Salem and
captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war
But he had no particular distinction in that
unimpOrtant conflict nor had his brief military
career helped him much politically. An unsuc-
cessful candidate for the legislature in the au-
tumn of 1882. he had split rails and done various
other odd jobs to make living while studying
law by himself Chosen postmaster of New Sa-
lem he had been successful in his second attempt
TO win a seat in the general assembly, but dur
ing the session now coming to a close he had
done nothing to single him out among his fell
lows as conner"
They knew him as dron fellow who could set
a group off into gale of laughter with one of
his funny stories told in his high-pitched, sing
song, nasal voice. Yes, Abe Lincoln good
company" but there was reason to believe
that he would ever become famous. So the fact
that February IL was his birthday didn't mean
a thing to the men who sat beside him in room
IL the little two-story brick building in VAN
dalia-the capital Of the sovereign state of ILL.,
nOis If they could have looked into the future
and seen how that date was observed In every
part of the United States, how their eyes would
have bulged with surprise! Can't you hear them
exclaming: in honor of Abe Lincoln? Why,
faint possible, no-how!"?
So the celebration" of Lincolns birthday a
hundred years ago no celebration at all, for
the very good reason that one, not even the
man himself, considered it of any Importance.
But it is worthy of remembrance for the reason
that his biographer. Albert ]. Beveridge, has
pointed out in this paragraph from his abraham
Lincoln 1SO9-1S5S" (Houghton Mifflin company:
Finally, by the dim light of candles, the gen.
eraI assembly finished its work and sometime
before midnight, February 13, 1885, adjourned
sine die. His first legislative experience thus
ended, Lincoln went back to New Salem and
again took up his surveying and handling of the
scanty mail. The sum of his sojourn in VAN
daIia had been the making of friends, lessons
in legislative procedure and manipulation, and
the acquiring of basic procedure and constitu-
tfonal principles. He had heard great questions
discussed by able and informed men. He had
met cultivated women too, and in short, had
visited new world. Small wonder that, when
he reached New Salem. he plunged into study
with such abandon that his health suffered and
his friends thought him mentally affected. Hence
forth the logcabin hamlet on the Sangamon
held little or nothing that was attractive to the
aspiring young Lincoln"
So perhaps IL Is not 100 mucn 10 say JnaJ the
greatness that was to be Abraham Lincoln's
dates from that February day, hundred years
ago. when he turned his back on the scene of
his first appearance on the stage of public af-
fairs. Neither the scene nor his appearance upon
it were especially impressive. Beyeridge has
given us an excellent description of both. He
writes:
Upon the west bluff of the Kaskaskia river,
sixty feet above high water, stood in 1884, per-
wood, some of them frame structures, but most
of them log cabins A little frame Presbyterian
church house, without a steepe, nestled on a
side street while a still smaller building served
for all other religious denominations well
for school purposes and public gatherings
Five or six of the bigger houses were taverns
or boarding places two of them would accommo-
date thirty or forty persons, though they were
not entirely finished. watch and a clock
member had a shop and three four stores and
groceries the latter heavily stocked with all
kinds of liquors. supplied the wants of the town
and countryside. A jail had just been finished.
THE most pretentious structure in the place
was brick building of two stories, in which the
general assembly of Illinois met, when in session,
members of the house in the lower story and
those of the senate in the upper story. On a
street near by a smaller brick building orig
inally meant for a bank, was divided into few
rooms occupied by public officials. Two weekly
newspapers one Democratic and the other Wing,
were published; and there was school for
Lads and Young Gentlemen
about eight hundred people, including chill
dren, lived in the town. and the adjacent country
was seantily settled; but marriages were fire.
quent. For the most part the surrounding land
was heavily timbered, but TO the north and west
rolling prairies stretched into the horizon. The
river bottoms were covered thickly with great
trees vines and all manner of rank vegetation;
and from this valley came at the seasonable
time clouds of mosquitoes.
The streets of the village we're eighty feet
in width. deep with mud or dust. according to
the weather. There were no sidewalks. Two main
roads ran through the place, one the National
road scarcely opened yet in this section,
from Washington seven hundred and eighty-one
miles distant to St Louis eighty-two miles TO
the southwest Mails from Philadelphia and
other eastern cities were between two and three
weeks on the way.