Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1918 — LINCOLN [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN

By JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY A peaceful life; toil, duty, rest— All his desire: — To read the books he liked the best Beside the cabin fire— God’s word and man’s;—to peer sometimes Above the page, in smouldering gleams, And catoh, like far heroic rhymes, The onmarch of his dreams. A peaceful life: —to hear the low Of pastured herds, Or woodman’s ax, that, blow on blow, Fell sweet as rhythmic words. \ And yet there stirred within his breast A fateful pulse that, like a roll Of dreams, made high above his rest A tumult in his soul. A peaceful life!—They haled him even As One was haled Whose open palms were hailed toward Heaven '• When prayers nor aught availed. And, 10, he paid the selfsame price To lull a nation’s awful strife . And will us, through the sacrifice Of self, his peaceful life.