Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1896 — AT THE LINCOLN MONUMENT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AT THE LINCOLN MONUMENT.

(Itemlnlscences of the Hon. James Pettlof Calhoun County, Illinois.) Abe Lincoln? Wull, I reckon! not a mile f’om where we be. Right here In. Sprlngflel’, Illinois, Abe used to room with me. He represented Sangamon, I tried It for Calhoun, An' mo an’ Abe was cronies then; I’ll not ferglt It soon. I’ll uot forget them happy days we used to sort o’ batch Together In a little room that didn’ have no latch To keep the other fellers out that liked to come aud stay. An’ hear them dusted funny things Abe Lincoln used to say. Them days Abe Lincoln an’ iuysclf was pore as anything. Job’s turkey wusn’ porer; but we used to luff aud sing, An’ Abe was clean shnek full of fun; but he was sharp as tacks, Fer that there comic face o’ hls’u was fortified wltb fae’s.

Some fellers used to laugh- at Abe because his boots uud pants Appeared to bo on dtstuut terms, but when he’d git a chauce He’d give ’em sech a drubblu’ that they’d eleau ferglt his looks, Fer Abe made up In common sense the things he lacked In books. Wull, uex’ election I got beat, an’ Abe come back alone; I kep’ tt-cllnkla’ on the farm, pervidla’ fer my own. You see, I had a woman an’ two twins that called me paw. An’ Abe he kep’ a-cllnkln’ too, at politics uu’ law I didn’t hear much more of Abe out there la ole Calhoun, Fer I was out of polities an’ kind o' out of tune ’ltli things that happened, but way back I’d named my two twin boys One Abraham, one Lincoln; finest team In Illlnoise 1 Wull, here one day I read that Abe’s among the candidates (My old friend Abe) fer President o' these United' States; An’ though I had the rheumattz an’ felt run down aud blue I entered politics again an’ helped to pull him through. An’ when uex’ spring he called fer men to fetch their grit an' guns An' keep the Ship o’ State afloat, I sent him both my sons. An’ would 'a' gone myself an’ loved to make the bullets whiz 'F It hadn’ been I couldn’ walk account o’ rheumatlz. Wull. Abe, my little Abe, I mean, he start- , ed out with Grant; They burled him at Shiloh. Excuse me, but 1 can’t Help feelln' father-like, you know, fer them was likely boys; The' wasn't two another sech that wont f’om Illlnoise. An' Lincoln, my son Lincoln, he went on by hlsself A-grievin’ fer his brother Abe they’ laid upon the shelf.

An’ when he come to iVlcksburg he was all thrashed out an’ sick; An’ ylt, when there was Qghtln’, Link fit right In the thick. One night 'afore them rebel' guns my pore fioy Vent to sleep On picket dooty; no, sir, ’tain’t the shame that makes me weep; It’s bow Abe Lincoln, President, at Washington, D. C., Had time to ricolleck the days he used to room 'lth me.

don’t yon k*ow I wrote to him they'd ' mfnxA need to be shot HU a(jcsMke. Lincoln Pettigrew, In shame to rot; The eon o’ hie ole crony, an’ the last o’ the twin boys He used to plague me so about at Spring flej', illlnoise. Did he) did Abe? wull, now, he sent a telegraph so quick It burnt them bottles on the poles an’ made the lightntn' sick U "Pardon for Lincoln Pettigrew. A. Lincoln, President.” The boy bag got that paper ylt, the telegraph Abe sent. I guess I knowed Abe Lincoln! an' now I’ve come down here. Firs' time I’ve been in Sprlngflel' for nearly slaty year, To see his grave an’ tombstones, because—because, yon see. We legislated In cahoots, Abe Lincoln did, an' me. —Robertus D. Love, in New York Sun.

LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL.