Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1915 — Page 3

T is difficult to think of Abe Lincoln, r« I born in a small log cabin, surrounded ||!| by hardships and sorrows in early youth, who won success by hard Ol Mi struggling,’ and whose last years jbH No were full of the most serious proolems that ever confronted any presldent, as a humorist. This is the more unusual because his counteI nance was extremely worn and sadl ■ -J looking, and his nature was so ten-

der and sympathetic as to often make him appear melancholy. No man ever felt the responsibilities our nation had intrusted to his care so much as he did, and no president ever succeeded in acting according to popular opinion without being swayed by popular whims and caprices, better than did he. Though often completely weighted down by the cares and trials of the nation during the most critical period of Its history, he succeeded in cheering himself, those about him and the people. There are many charming and humorous stories intertwined with his early boyhood, several told by the colored mammy who worked for them. She says that he often sprawled himself out on the floor and worked to write his name. He was no more easily satisfied with these early efforts _ than with his later undertakings. But after he had worked and struggled and knew he had done his best, he got up and began to criticize his work. “Den he sez to me many a time, ‘Look at that will you, Abraham Lincoln. Don’t look a blamed bit like me.* And he’d stand an* study it a spell.’’ Though he did not mind hard work and while still a young boy could swing an ax with the ease of a grown man, he was happiest when he had a book near him. As his mammy says: “Seems to me now I never seen Abe after he was twelve that he didn’t have, a book some’er round. He’d put. a book Inside his shirt and fill his pockets with corn dodgers an’ go off to plow or hoe. When noon came he’d set down under a tree an’ read an’ eat. An* when he come to the bouse at night he’d take a cheer back by the chlmbly, put his feet on the rung, set on his backbone and read.’’ “Aunt Salry’d never let the children pester him She always said that Abe was goin’ to be a great, man some day and she wasn’t goln* to have him hindered.” When Lincoln started out to make a living and a name for himself, he soon learned that life •is not all sunshine for the boy or girl who must accomplish everything by their own hard conscientious effort and work. Though the situation often looked exceedingly dark and his work often resulted In failure, he had more friends to help him on than he at first knew. He was wonderfully strong. What exhausted other men seemed to act on him as a tonic. Once he was working In a small town where there was a man by the name of Armstrong. When a new man came to the place his strength and courage were sure to be tested with- Armstrong. The newcomers were always put through this same ordeal, and Abe with the rest. Much to the surprise of both camps Armstrong was defeated. Everybody was of the one opinion that Abe Lincoln was the best and strongest man that ever broke Into the eamp. To show that there was no pride and boast in this victory,, he became a friend of the Armstrong family. Mrs. Armstrong soon grew so fond of him that she treated him as a relative, and the children loved to climb onto his knees'and brush away the sadness from his face by hugs and kisses. Abe Lincoln did not have to work long to discover that he was an exceedingly poor business man. One failure came after another. These showed the real strength and character of the man. He never complained nor fretted because success was not coming his way. He was determined, however much luck turned against him, to be honest and keep his ledger clean. He often told his friends that* he preferred to go without a square meal than to lose a night’s rest disturbed by an annoyed conscience. • The following story is one of the many Illustrations that he lived up to this statement. ItjS'as while he was doing business as a merchant that a farmer’s wife bought something of him which needed weighing and computation. She had come some miles from home. It was only after she left ho discovered that he had overcharged her thirty cents, and he walked four miles to correct the mistake. A friend hearing, of the incident joked with him about It, when the humorous 'Aber answered, “This is not a joke, but a serious matter I know that this, customer needs the thirty cents more than do I." Though this sense of humor was natural to him, he realized when still a young boy that a pleasant way and a good joke do wonders for making life easier and sweeter. He loved to listen to a good joke and loved to tell one. He had a wonderful memory, and this helped him in making other

HUMOROUS INCIDENTS in the LIFE of LINCOLN

folks’ stories his own. Good stories were so highly prized by him that he stored them away in his memory with jealous care, and used them as the occasion presented Itself. As he himself said: “I believe that genuine humor is a plaster that heals many a wound. I remember a good story when I hear it, but I never invent anything orig Inal. lam only a retail dealer. A pinch of mental snuff.” When his friends complimented him on the way he looked or something he had done he loved to laugh it away with a joke, to show that he appreciated their friendship and still that he refused to be spoiled by flattery. The following is a story in point. One day a friend shook hands with him and said: “Mr. President, it is some time since I saw you in Illinois.” “Yes,” came the jovial answer. "I am about the same as the old horse who was put in a pasture to graze. A neighbor, seeing the horse after she had been there some time, said: ‘Well, you put this horse in here to recuperate, but she looks now about the same as when you first put hey in. She neither recupes nor decupee!’ That’s just about the way it is with me.” Two qualities kept him the same unassuming man after he was made president of the United States that he was when he began to make a career for himself. One was his sense of humor, which never allowed him to become self-conscious, and the other his wonderful faith in God and tn his fellow men. His friends never hesitated to approach him to ask him a favor nor tell him a funny story. A friend says: “One day on board ship I showed him in Harper’s Weekly a funny little rhyme which was so amusing that the president sat down and sprawled himself on the deck and said: ’Lend me your penknife.’ I handed him the knife and he cut the piece from the paper, saying: ‘Not a very dignified position for th© president of the United States, but eminently comfort- . able for that purpose.* ” Music was another of his favorite recreations. He loved to hear the boys sing their songs in camp. He loved homely ballads and simple ditties. The greatest favor a friend or soldier could show him was to sing simple tunes. As one friend admits: "Often have I seen him in tears while I was rendering in my poor way a homely •melody.” " He found great delight in the laughter and pranks of children. He allowed his own boys great freedom in the White- House. He often let their misdemeanors go unpunished, because everything about children gave him recreation and pleasure. The keeper in the White House tells this story showing his love for children: “We were walking over to the war department. Just as we got to the door a nurse holding one infant and having another at her-side got in our way. I took hold of the little tot gently and put her to one side so the president could pass. “ ‘That’s all right, that’s all right,' the president said, as though he was displeased that I had disturbed the child.”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND,

It was his sense of humor that enabled him to bear poverty lightly. Elegant surroundings did not appeal to him; he was as content in the log cabin where he was born as in the White House The plainest suite pleased his tastes. Greediness of wealths was wholly unknown to him; if he was greedy about anything it was knowledge and noth- , lng more. The following story is told about him and well proves this point. He was asked to give a lecture in the Illinois college for the library fund. When the lecture was over and the people passed out he went up to the librarian and said “I notice that there are not many listeners here tonight; I don’t think we made much on this lecture.’’ In reply the official said: “When we pa> for the rent of the hall, music and advertising and your compensation there will not be much left for the libfary.” Sir. Lincoln replied: “Well, boys, be hopeful * r pay me my railroad fare and the fifty cents that my supper cost me and you can have the rest.” This joviality was largely because he felt the sorrows and hardships that come to most men and women, and he did everything in his power to lighten their burden. As he said to a friend: “When I am dead I wish my friends to remember that I always pluck a thorn and plant a rose when possible.” He was beloved by thousands and thousands of people. Many who believed in slavery appreciated the grand character of the man. And it was his strong and courageous personality that converted thousands of men to believe that slavery was wrong. But no one loved him so well as the colored people, his words were always on their lips. An old colored man once said at a meeting in South Carolina: “Brederin’, you don’t know nosen what you’se talkin’ about. Now you. just listen to me. Massa Linkin he’s everywhere. He know eberyting. He walk de ears like de Lord.” When his soul was most troubled he would try and ease himself by a joke. There was so much sadness in his make-up that he found this the best safety-valve. This sense of humor gave him wonderful faith and courage. He was one of the last to advocate drastic measures in deciding the slave question But when once begun he never gave up hope There were times when situations looked ex tremely dark, he could not see clearly which wav was the best, but when his reason failed him his sublime faith guided him right. He believed that God would be on the side of the just and the right. The Hon. George Curtis tells this story, which shows the man’s sublime faith: "One day I called on the president with a representative from congress. Mr. Lincoln received us in his office, the large room on the second floor. He was dressed in black and wore slippers. On a table at his side were maps and plans of the seat of war, and pins with blue and gray heads representing the positions of the soldiers on both sides. “When we arose to leave he shook my hand with paternal kindness and said good-by with a paternal kindness and evident proud conviction. *We shall beat them, my son; we shall beat them.’ But the air and tone with which he said the words were so free from any unworthy feeling that the most resolute and confident of his opponents would have been deeply impressed.” He believed in prayer, he believed it eased the troubled mind and soul, and changed failure to success as much as does a healthy sense of humor. One day General Sickles called on him and asked the president ’if he had not been anxious during the battle of Gettysburg?' The president thought some minutes and then answered: "Yes, but I did not give up my faith. I went into my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told him it was his war and our cause his cause, but that Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville could not hold out another day. And then I made a solemn vow to Almighty God that If he would stand by our boys at Gettysburg I would stand by him, and he did, and I will." It was this faith in God and in all his children that made Lincoln work, struggle and die to free the slaves. As he once told a friend, when he was making a trip from Louisville to St. Louis bv boat, there was a dozen slaves on board, shackled together with irons, so they eould not get away. • He explained * “I knew that this was all wrong. God had never intended that any of his children should be shackled, and I knew the time would come when I should be given a part in freeing them.” < . ~ y These stories and humorous incidents help to analyze a character that might otherwise seem strange and inconsistent. Lincoln loved his Creator and humanity. He believed that with patience all things turned out right in the end. and that with humor and love the trials and hardships become easier and Car more bearable.

UNDER THE WILLOW

Story About the Man a Girl Fell jn Love With. By CLARA INEZ DEACON. It is said that no two members of the average club can sit vis-a-vis in the smoking room for five minutes without making a wager. This statement is probably exaggerated, but when a clubman refuses to make a little wager that a camel with one hump has more sentiment in his soul than a camel with two he is spoken of as a back number. In the Jefferson club it was acknowledged that Victor Winters was the most reckless among the bettors. He bet SI,OOO even that he could climb a certain church steeple, and he climbed it. He was arrested for breaking the peace of about five thousand people who gathered to see him fall, but didn’t see it, and the judge called him a fool and fined him SSO. He got odds of three to one that he couldn’t bluff a well-known prisefighter, and he not f only worked the bluff successfully, but gave the fighter a black eye. He laid a wager of $5,000 that he would kill a wild tiger within a year, and he posted off to the jungles of India and killed an extra one for good measure. A score of other incidents could be related of what was termed Winter’s mania, but these will sufiice to show that a good fellow may be a very reekless fellow. Everybody liked him, and everybody said there was no harm in him. There was just one thing that the young man refused to bet on, and that was matrimony as personally applied. He would bet that So-and-So would be married within a specified time, but when challenged on his own account he shook his head. No one could understand him in that regard. “See here, Winters,” said Captain Frayne to him as they met at the club, “that man whom they call the country Raffles is cutting a very, very wide swath.” “Yes “I am told that at least thirty officers of the law are on his trail." “Well?” “How do you want to bet —will they get him or not?” “Captain, I have been reading about him, and what they say of him makes me tired. They haven’t caught him, and yet he is a bungler!” “Is a burglar whp can rob twelve houses and not create a single alarm a bungler?” “I could do as well, and have had no experience.” The captain did not want to encourage such talk and the results that might come from it, and sought to change the conversation. Young Winters carelessly replied to two or three of his questions and then said: “This Raffles gets into a house and whatever he comes to and gets out. He even carries off plaster of parts ornaments, and he is shy of searching rooms where anyone is sleeping.” “But he’s got rich jewelry among his plunder.", „ „ “Yes, it was left for him on the dresser. He didn’t have to pull out a drawer Jo get it, and I can’t find that he has entered a house where a dog was kept. He’s a longshoreman trying his hand at a new job. Captain—” But the captain feared what was coming, and said he had an engagement. “Let it wait," was the reply. "Captain, I’ll wager you a thousand dollars even up that—” < “I won’t do it!” was the interruption. “Hold on. I’m going to out-raf-fle Raffles.” “You will do nothing so foolish as to attempt it!” “Not with criminal intent, of course, but just to prove to you that burglary is a fine art, or should be made so, and that our country Raffles ought to be driving a truck. Name a country residence that you’d like to try my hand on.” “And get shot?” “Not even be fired at.” “But if arrested?” “That’s one of the arts—to escape arrest.” “Winters,” said the captain after a long look at him, “give up any foolish idea you may have in that direc. tion. We will all agree that you could beat Raffles’ work, but don’t try it.” There are plenty of men, young and old, who will get an idea into their heads that they know is foolish, and yet they will cling to it as if it were full of sense and wisdom. Young Winters’ common sense warned him of the risks of a burglary, but the adventure of it appealed to him just as strongly. He did not talk with any of the other members of the club, but there were those who said: “Winters is plotting some ntew deviltry and will soon be bluffing us for a wager. Wonder what it will be this time?” • * Ex-Judge Purdy was a member of the Jefferson club, but as he lived in a manor house some twenty miles from the city, and as he did not drop in to the club except at long inter-vals,-she and young Winters had never met. The latter had simply heard it said one day that the former lived in the country. • -. Y One June day the iran who was

envious of Rafflec toot a trip into the country, driving himself in his runabout He passed grounds after grounds, and house after house. In a furtive way he surveyed the latter and made mental notes. When he slowly passed a fine colonial mansion with an oldish man and ayoufig lady sitting on the veranda, a man running a lawn mower and two dogs lying on the grass, he smiled and said to himself: “I’ll bet that is one of the houses that that bungler, Raffles, has had to pass by as too hard a nut for him to crack.” Half a mile further on he turned about, and as he passed the house again the girl looked up and queried: “Father, that may be Raffles.” “Y-e-s? Well, I’ll give him a job at mowing the grass.” “They say he drives around by day to pick out houses to rob by night” “Well, I bought you a gun the other day, and it’s up to you to protect the house o’ nights.” “But if I shoot him, then what?” “Why, you would be a heroine and have your picture in the paper. Perhaps you could sell enough of your photographs to pay for a trip to Europe.” There was silence for five minutes, and then the girl said: “I should hate to kill Raffles.” “But you needn’t, dear,” smiled the father. “It will be just as well if you shoot him in the shoulder.” “And thenar-” “We can nurse him right here, and it will give you a chance to fall in love, marry and reform him.” . “You silly old goose! An hour later Miss Estelle Purdy asked the man who was mowing the lawn: “James, do you think Raffles will try to get into our house?” "I do, miss,” was the prompt reply. "When?” “Tonight.” “Lordy, but what makes you?” ‘Tve got a hunch that he will.” “And when will he come?” “On the stroke of midnight. If you get up at midnight and look out of the window you’ll see him stealing . under the big willow tree.” "And I’ll call to him that he is known, and that he’d better make himself scarce.” *1 wouldn’t, miss,” replied James, who kept a very sober face, but was nevertheless “joshing” a bit. "You should open fire on him without a word. If you called to him he might shoot.” "I see.” That evening the girl read until ten o’clock, and then going to her room she prepared to stand sentinel until midnight. She realized that were she to lie down for five minutes she would fall sound asleep and miss midnight and Raffles. As it was, she had hard work to fight drowsiness, and had to think of ghost stories to win out. At eleven o’clock she shaded her light. Half an hour later she carefully peered out. As the old colonial cluck down in the hall struck midnight she took her revolver from the dresser, knelt by the window, and her heart jumped into her mouth as she looked toward the big willow tree. - A man was standing under the tree. It was dark under there, but he was a darker spot against the darkness. The girl waited until she saw a movement that left her no room for doubt, and then she fired. There was an exclamation and a fall, and she ran to her father’s room and pounded on the door. “Hurry—hurry, father! I have killed Raffles!” But she hadn’t. The bullet had buried itself in his shoulder, and he was found trying to sit up. "Anything to say before we telephone for an officer?” asked the judge as the household gathered around the victim. • "Yes—don’t do it!” was replied. "Got a trick to play?" "I am not armed. Please send for a doctor instead of an officer. I’ll make things clear to you presently.” "Oh, I’m willing you should have the bullet dug out before you g$ to jail.” A number of things happened within the next few hours. The bullet was dug out; the wounded put to bed; Captain Brayne sent for; the family sworn to secrecy, and two or three councils held. As the last one broke up Miss Estelle asked her father: “Well, have you found out just who it is?” “Oh, yes.” “And it is—” “The man you are going to fall in love with and marry!” At the club they say that young Winters .isn’t making any more beta He has been told that he must drop them. (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Feeding the Soldier. The truth of Napoleon’s statement that “an army travels on its stomach** has been strikingly emphasized during the present war. It is universally admitted that the German commissariat department is the best organized, al though some of its features have been copied from other armies. The German soup kitchens on wheels, which the German soldier calls "goulash cannon,” were acquired from the Russians. These kitchens can supply two hot meals a day and one cold meal to 250 men. Many of the German field ovens are patterned upon the splendid models used in the United States army.