Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1907 — Lincoln the Emancipator. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Lincoln the Emancipator.

The hour was on ns; where the man? The faithful sands unfaltering ran, And up the way of tjears He came into the years, Our pastoral captain. Forth he came. As one that answers to his name; Nor dreamed how high his charge, His work how fair and large— To set the stones back in the wall Lest the divided house should fall, And peace from men depart, Hope and the childlike heart. We looked on him; “ ’Tis he,” we said, “Come crownless and unheralded, The shepherd who will keep The flocks, will fold the sheep.” Unknlghtly, yes; yet ’twas the mien Presaging the immortal scene, Some battle of His wavs Who sealeth up the stars. Nor would he take the past between His hands, wipe valor’s tablets clean, Commanding greatness wait

Till he stand at the gate; Not he would cramp to one small head The awful laurels of the dead, Time's mighty vintage cup, And drink all honor up. No flutter of the banners bold Borne by the lusty sons of old, The haughty conquerors Set forward to their wars. __ Not his their blare, their pageantries, Their goal, their liberty, was not his; Humbly he came to keep The flocks, to fold the sheep. The need comes not without the man; The prescient hours unceasing ran, And up the way of tears He came into the years. Our pastoral captain, skilled to crook The spear into the pruning hook, The simple, kindly man, Lincoln, American. —John Vance Cheney, in New York —lndependent