Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1890 — LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLY. [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLY.

Ills Sympathetic Nature and His Early Misfortunes. Those who saw much of Abraham Lincoln during the later years of his life were greatly impressed with the expression of profound melancholy his face always wore in repose. Mr. Lincoln was of a peculiarly sympathetic and kindly nature. These strong characteristics influenced, very happily, as it proved, his entire political career. They would not seem, at first glance, to be efficient aids to political success; .but In the peculiar emergency which Lincoln, in the providence of God, was called upon to meet, no vessel of common clay could possibly have become the “chosen of the Lord.” Those acquainted with him from boyhood knew that early griefs tinged his whole life with sadness. His partner in the grocery business at Salem was “Uncle” Billy Green, of Tallula, 111., who used at night, when the customers were few, to hold the grammar while Lincoln recited his lessons. It was to his sympathetic ear Lincoln told the story of his love fer sweet Ann Butlidge; and he in return, offered what comfort he l could when poor Ann died, and Lincoln’s great heart nearly broke. “After Ann died,” says “Uncle” Billy, “on stormy nights when the wind blew the rain against the roof, Abe would set thar in the grocery, his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, and the tears runnin’ through his fingers. I hated to see him feel bad, an’ I’d! say, ‘Abe don’t cry;’ an’ he’d look up an’ say. ‘I can’t help It, Bill, the rain’s a failin’ on her.’ ” There are many who can sympathize with this overpowering grief, as they th(nk of a lost loved one, when “the rain’s a failin’ on her.” What adds poignancy to the grief some times is the thought that the lost one might have been saved. Fortunate, Indeed, is William Johnson, of Corona, L. 1., a builder, who writes June 28, 1890: “Last February, on returning'from church one night, my daughter complained of having a pain in her ankle. The pain gradually extended until her entire limb was swollen and very painful to the touch. We called a physician, who, after careful examination, pronounced it disease of the kidneys of long standing. All we could do did not seem to benefit her until we tried Warner's Safe Cure; from the first she com- 1 menced to improve. When she commerced l taking it she could not turn oter in bed*, and could just move her hands a little, but to-day she is as well as she ever was. I believe I owe the recovery of my daughter to its use.”