Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1902 — One of the Marvels of History. [ARTICLE]

One of the Marvels of History.

Abraham Lincoln is assuredly one of the jnarvela of history. No land but America has produced his like. Thia destined chief of a nation In Its most perilous hour was the son of a thriftloss and wandering settler, bred in the most sordid poverty. Ho had received only the rudiments of education, and though he afterward read eagerly such works as were within his reach it Is wonderful that he should hare attained as a speaket and writer a mastery of language and a pure as well as effective style. He could look back smiling on the day whpn his long shanks appeared bare below ths shrunken leather breeches* which wars his only nether garment. Ills frame waa gaunt and grotesque, but mighty. He had a strong and eminently fair understanding, with great powers of p» tlent thought, which hs cultivated by the study of Euelld. In all his views there was a simplicity which had its source in the simplicity of his character. His local popularity was due largely te his humor. At the same time he was melancholy, touched with the pathos of human life, fond of mobrnful poetry, religious, though not orthodox, with s strong sense of aiuoverruling providence, which when he was out of spirits sometimes took the shape of fatalism. His melancholy was probably deepened by his gloomy surroundings and by misadventures in love.r-Goldwin Smith.