ROI
Che
”
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
[eeeemammen lv SCORES of cities and villages
ut the United States and
foreign countries stand
ind other memorials to the
great An n whose birthday we
will celet
of th
in February 12. Most
been "erected to
iis services as Presi
dent during a critical period In the
nation’s history and his world le renown as A
great humanitarian, portray hin bearded
man of mature year
the Great Emanci
the martyr,
In recent years
tendency to perpetu
the “candida
the “Young Sta
The ne
tues is the one v h was et od last
the plaza of the Lincoln National Life Insurance
company at Fort Wayne, Ind, and which por
travs *1 ] #? Hangler ‘outh.” It Is
work of the fai 18 $4
The main facts of Lincoln’ r
well known to most Americans, thanks to
painstaking labor of y bi ers as Rev,
William E. Barton, Senator Albert J
and arl Sandhn who
have brought to light every single fact
was significant In maki! incoln the man that
he became, But it Is « ul if
interesting has ever heen
riod of Lincoln's
“overlooked
west
year on
the
the
ograpl
tle
Beveridge
others seem to
which
anything more
written about that pe.
report of an
iis F. Hanks,
life an ti eo
interview” with Den
a cousin and close companion of Lineoln, which
was set down by Robe re, an attorney
of Mattoon, Ill, In May. 1802, a copy of which
has recently come into the hands of the author
of this article. The interview in part follows:
I found him hale and erect, ready to recount
for the benefit of a younger generation, the in-
cidents which marked the youth of the martyred
President. His name is Dennis F. Hanks, and
he is a cousin to Lincoln. Uncle Dennis, as he
ia called, 1s a typical Kentuckian, born in Har.
din county, 17090. His face is sun-bronzed and
plowed with furrows of time: a resolute mouth
with firm grip of the jaw: broad forehead above
a pair of unweariable eyes, The eves seem out
of place, in the weary, faded face; they glow
and flash like two diamond sparks, set In ridges
& dull gold. he a serions one, but
the play of light in the eyes, unquenchable by
time, betrays the nature full of sunshine and
elate life. A sidewise glance at the profile shows
a face strikingly Lincoin-like, prominent cheek
bones, temples, nose and chin; but best of all
that twinkling drollery in the eye that flashed
in the White House the dark days of
the Civil war. To my query he replied cheerily:
“Certainly, certainly, sir, I'll talk to you about
Abe. I kin talk, too, bein’ ns 1 am the only livin®
man that knows all about him”
“How old was Mr,
met him?"
“About 24 hours, hardly that; I rekolect 1 ran
all the way, over two miles, to see Naney Hanks’
boy baby. "Twas common then for connexion to
gether In them days to see new bables, Her
name was Nancy Hanks before she married
Thomas Lincoln. I held the wee one a minnit. 1
was ten years old, and it tickled me to hold the
pulpy, red, little Lincoln.”
“When did you move to Indiana?”
“When Abe was about nine, Mr, Lincoln moved
first, and built a camp of brush in pencer coun-
ty. We came out a year later, and he then had
a eabin up, and he gave us the shanty, On this
spot Abe grew to manhood.”
“How far apart were your cabins?” ;
“About fifteen rods. Abe killed a turkey the
day we got there, an’ couldn't get thro tellin’
or it. The name was pronounced Linkhorn
face Is
during
Lincoln when you first
W»
Lincoln, the Rail-Splitter
(In ‘Garfield Park, Chicago)
- LN
2)
Sd
Lincoln, the Captainin the
Black HawkWwar (nDixon, lll)
FEOVIND Ta
Lincoln, the Candidate
(Un Cincinnati, Ohio)
3 + folks then We :
er a spell we learned be
“In the ‘Life of Lincoln’ published after his
nomination, it is stated that you taught him to
read.”
“Yes,
by the cated. Aft.
was all unedd
»”
oe
er,
sir, 1 did. 1 taught him to spell, read
and cipher. He knew his letters pretty wellish;
but no more, His mother taught him his let.
ters, If ever there was 2 good woman on earth
she one, a true Christian of the Baptist
church; but she died soon after we arrived, and
his father couldn't
Was
teacher:
left him without a
read a
“Is It possible he had no schooling?”
“Only about one-quarter; scarcely that. I then
get in to help him: 1 didn't know much, but I
did the best [ guid.”
“What read first
“Webster's speller, When I got him through
that, I only had a copy of Indiana statutes. Then
he got hold of a book ; 1 ean't rikkolect the name;
maybe you kin if I tell you somethin’ et was
in it. It told a yarn about a feller, a nigger or
suthin’, that salled a flatboat up to a rock, and
the rock was magnetized and drawed the nails
ont of his boat, and he got a duckin’, or drowned,
or suthin’, 1 forgot now.”
“That is the story of Sinbad, In the ‘Arabian
Nights'."
“That's it: that's the book. Abe would lay on
the floor with a chair under his head and laugh
over them Rabian Nights by the hour. 1 told
him It was likely lies from end to end, but he
learned to read right well in it"
“Had he any other books?’
“Yes, I horrowed for him the ‘Life of Wash
ington’ and the ‘Speeches of Henry Clay.” They
had a powerful Influence on him, He told me
afterwards, in the White House, he wanted to
lve like Washington, His speeches show that;
but the other book did the most amazing work.
He was a Democrat, like his father and all of
us, when he began to read it. When he closed
it he was a Whig, heart and soul, and he went
step by step till he became leader of the Re
publicans.”
“Will you describe him when a boy?”
word ™
books did he ”
6 feet 2 inches high, He was 6 feet 414 when
grown—tall, lathy and gangling--not much ap-
pearance, not handsome, not ugly, but peculiar,
This kind of a feller: If a man rode up horse.
back, Abe would be the first ore out, up on the
fence asking questions, till his father would give
him a knock side o his head; then he'd go
and throw at snowbirds or suthin’, but ponderin’
all the while”
“Was he active and strong?”
“He was that, I was ten years older, but I
couldn't rassle him down. His legs was too long
for me to throw him, He would fling one foot
QA Louisville, Kit)
PNM AEgN gE
times he wonl
on the crick
would bint
“vid you has
ness ™
“No
boy: rather a bright an’ likel:
world ahead of h
goin’ had it in him,
never
“I'vid he take to
“No, we had to
he got a taste, It
pull the sow's ears to git her to
pull her tail to git her away. He
deal and had a wonderful mer
Never forgot ans ng.”
“How did the lad fare for food and el
“Plenty, such as it
and game, some fish, and wild fruits
seen him take a dodger to the fie]
it when plowing. We had very little
The nearest mill was 18 miles:
was, with a plug pullin’ a
Abe used to say his hound conid
the flour all day as fast ax it was n
then be ready for his supper,
had jeans: he was grown b
wool pants”
“Did you move with him to liiinols?
it was a8 new counirs
seemed far
but he
suspected it”
folks,
books eageriy 7”
hire him at fis
a
was the old story
t
thing?
baeg n
I've often
was—corn dodger,
and gnaw at
wheat flour.
a boss mill It
and
qd eat
sweep around:
stand
ade,
elore he wore all
six miles from Decatur,
were split that were carried around in the eam
paign, They were called his rails: but nobody
can tell about that. I split some of ‘em. and we
had a rall frolic and folks came and helped us
split. He was a master-hand maulin rails, 1
heard him say In a speech one day about these
rails—If 1 didn’t make these, I have made many
Just as good.’ Then the crowd yelled.”
One more question : “Did he got his rare sense
and sterling principles from one parent or both?’
“Both; his strong will from his father. I'll
tell you an incident: His father used to swear
a little, and one day his baby girl picked ap a
foul oath and was bruisin’ the bitter morsel in
her sweet mouth, when Nancy called “Thomas!
and sald: ‘Listen, husband He stopped that
habit thar; never swore again, But Abe's kind.
ness, humor, love of humanity, hatred of rlavery,
all came from her. I am free to say Abe was
a mother's boy.”
So I bade the old man goodby, pressing
once more the palsied hand that guided the pen
that wrote the Emancipation Proclamation,
(© by Western Newspaper Union )
lle about the size of
caught, a
trian angler took
f
remorse, The fish was really so big
(he wrote In a farewell note) that
there was no need to exaggerate its
fish he had |size, Death, he added, was the only
Aus. | way to wipe the stain on his
out
Tale 1 or 2 Bayer
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2 3
If throat is sore,
crush and dissolve
3 Bayer Aspirin
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glass of warm water
and gargle accord-
ing {o directions.
Drinl: Full Glass of
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chances wil
nostrums. A «¢
to take chances on.
The simple
above is the wa
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check an ordinary
fast as vou cz
That is be
5
after. If th:
This Way
't take and dissolved in a ball glass of
rm waler, rep I very 2 or
rs as necessary re throat
eases this way in a few minutes, in-
. credible as this n
pictured e >
Ask your doctor abou
when you buy, s ‘
aa real BAYE
he QUICK- ive sl
work almost
ke them
Baver
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