246 pe 5 nn ron PP ee wo ae NA On February 12, 100 years will have passed since Abraham Lincoln, considered by many the greatest fig- ure in American history, came into the world. It is an old story, the life of Abraham Lincoln, yet an ever fas- cinating one. To the younger gener- ation Abraham Lincoln’ has already become a half mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of out- line and feature.: This is indeed, the common lot of popular heroes. As | the state of society in which Abra- ham Lincoln! grew up passes away, the world will read with: increasing wonder ‘of the mah, whos not only of the humblest origin, but remain- ing the simplest and most unpretend- ing of citizens, was raised to a posi- Hbrabam Lincoln, ations Greatest Dero. their consent. As a politician and a statesman he took no cteps in ad- vance of the great mass of our peo- ple. At times I thought that he was timid, over-cautious; but in the end he was right and I was wrong.” From an address delivered by Jos- eph H. Choate, before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, November 13,:1900: ‘‘He was born great, -as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, men- tal, moral And physical, having’ been’ recognized iy thé educational intelli- gemce of=aTffee~ people, they happily chase hinr for their.Tuler in'a day of deadly peril.” y .. ‘A Man of True Greatness. Hon. George BE. Boutwell; ex-Sec- retary of the -Treasugy: . ‘His chief 2 et HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN WAS BORN. It was situated in.what #s now La Rue County, Ky. tion of unprecedented power in qur history; who was the gentlest and most peace loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a pang in his own heart, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; and who, in his heart the best friend _ of the defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him Tor its most cruel enemy. : It is almost needless to rehearse the events in the life of this illus- trious hero. He was born in what is now La Rue County, Ky., on Feb- ruary 12, 1809, and all readers are familiar with his early life in that State and in Indiana and Illinois, his career as a rail splitter, soldier in the Black Hawk War, as student, store- Keeper, postmaster, surveyor, lawyer and statesman. As time passes the character of Lincoln becomes mellowed and al- most sanctified by the growing gen- eration, and it is interesting to record the estimates placed upon him by as- sociates and those who had been from time to time brought into per- sonal contact with the great Ameri- can. The tributes found below are from men who had occasion to view the character of Lincoln from various, standpoints, and it is notable that in all these separate views of it, there is nothing that breaks the harmony of the whole. From every side at which we are called to look upon his character we see something ncble. He is small nowhere. A Wonder of History. “Whether it was in the small things or in the great things with ;- which he had to deal,” said the Hon. | --. Henry L. Dawes, former United States Senator from Massachusetts, “he was equally matchless. And all this was born in him. Neither edu- cation nor experience nor example had anything to do with the produc- tion of this great central, controlling force in the greatest of ‘all the crises that ever came upon the naticn. He grew wiser and broader and stronger as difficulties thickened and perils multiplied, till the end found him the wonder in our history.” From His Law Associate. From Mr. Herndon, for twenty-five years Mr. Lincoln’s law partner: *“Mr. Lincoln was conscientious, just, truthful and honest, and hence thought that every other person was just, truthful and honest; but in this belief he was often sorely disappoint- ed. He had an infinite faith—trust —in the people, and in their instinct of, and mental insight into, the fun- damentals of government. He trust- ed the people and saw no creature made purposely to rule them without title to enduring fame must rest upon his service, his pre-eminent service, in the causes of liberty and the Union. It is not enough to say that in his office as President the oppor- tunity came to him to save the Union and to emancipate millions from slavery. Another man as President might have done as much; but Mr. Lincoln so conducted affairs during the period of war that no stain rests upon him, so conducted affairs that the nation is not called upon to make explanations, nor to invent apolo- gies.” : ; . Hon. Thomas L. James, ex-Post- master-General: ‘Mr. Lincoln looked forth upon the world, as we of to-day realize, with almost Shakespeare’s eves; and it was, perhaps, that great- er quality of his, that subtle capacity to fathom the human heart, to under- stand its weakness and its capacities, and so understanding to be guided by them in his own’ direction of af- fairs, and in the discipline which made. it possible for him in great the grand sublime passages in litera- ture were familiar to him. so strong was his sense of humor that no ridiculous event or situation es- caped his notice.” Hon. John T. Morgan, United States Senator from Alabama, and an ex-Confederate general: “The char- acter of Mr. Lincoln was clearly dis- played in his conduct of the war, but he was deprived of the opportunity for its full development in a period of peace and security. His most con- spicuous virtue, as commander-in- chief of the army and navy, was the absence of a spirit of resentment, or oppression, toward the enemy, and the self-imposed restraint under which he" exercised the really abso- lute powers within his ‘grasp. For this all his countrymen revere his memory, rejoice in the -excellence of his fame, and: those who failed in the great struggle hold him in grateful esteem.” Carl Schurz: ‘There never has been a President in such constant and active contact with the public opin- ion of the country as there never has been a President who, while at the head of “the: Government; remained so near ‘to the ‘people. . Beyond the circle of those.who had long known him, the feeling steadily grew. that the man in the White Housé was -‘honest Abe Lincoln still, and that every citizen might approach with complaiit, -expostulation or ‘advicej without ‘danger "of meeting a“rebuff from power-proud authority; or hu- miliating condescention, ®and this privilege was used by so many and with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience could have endured it all.” Hi General Sherman’s Tribute. General ‘Sherman: “Lincoln was the purest, the most generous, the most magnanimous of men. He will hold a place in the world’s history loftier than that of any king or con- queror. It is no wonder that the par- liaments of Europe, that the people throughout the civilized world should everywhere speak of him with rev- erence; for his work was one of the greatest labors a human intellect ever sustained. I have seeg and heard many of the famous orators of our country, but Lincoln’s ‘unstudied speeches surpassed all that I ever heard. I have never seen them equalled, or even imitated. It was not scholarship; it was rhetoric; it was not elocution; it was the unaf- fected and spontaneous eloquence of the heart. There was nothing of the mountain torrent in his manner—it was rather the calm flow of the riv- er.” Henry Watterson, at the recent banquet of the Confederate veterans, held at New York: ‘His was the genius of common sense. Of perfect intellectual aplomb, he sprang from a Virginia pedigree, and was bora in Kentucky. He knew all about the South, its institutions, its traditions last throughout the angry debates preceding the war, amid all the, pas- sions of the war itself, not one ,vin- dictive, proscriptive word fell from his tongue or pen, whilst during its progress there was scarcely a day when he did not project his great per- sonality between some Southern man or woman and danger. Yet the South does not knew, except as a kind of EASTMAN JOHNSON'S PASTEL, Presented to Berea Coliege by Mrs. Mary Billings French. hearsay, than this big brained, big “THE BOY LINCOLN,” consideration of him as fresh, invig- those great affairs of which he was the master were occupying the coun- try’s eye.” General Egbert L. Viele: Mr. Lin- coln was a man of the highest de- gree of self-culture, in so far as re- gards a knowledge of the most beau- tiful and sublime writings in the English language. His memory was photographic in character. He could repeat from memory almost any pas- sage after he had read it once, and nothing delighted him so much as to sit dos. n of an evening among his im- mediate friends and repeat whole stanzas from Byron or ‘Browning or the plays of Shakespeare. their Most of | tongue.” emergencies to stand forth as a man |souled man was a friend, a friend at of true greatness, which makes the | court, when friends were mcst in need, having the will and the power orating and timely as it was when to rescue it from the wolves of bru- tality and rapine whom the history of all wars tell us the lust of victory, the very smell of battle, lures from their hiding to prey upon the help- less, the dying and the dead.” From a public address by Ralph Waldo Emerson: ‘He is the’ true history of the American people in his time. Step by step he walked before them; slow with their slowness, quickening his march by theirs; the true representative of the continent; an entirely public man; father of his country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the thought of minds articulated Ly his And yet, and its peculiarities. ~ From first to | REELFOOT LAKE. ’ “Strange History of Spot Where Night = Riders’ Crime Occurred. “The physical history of Reelfoot .Lake of night rider fame is not with- out a certain interest of its own. The lake came into existence as the result of a series of earthquakes which be- gan’ in December, 1811, and contin- ued until June, 1812. Some authorities say that the earthquakes merely heaved up a great ridge of land across the path of the Reedfoot River, which runs into “the Mississippi, and that this dam caused the water to back up and broaden out and form a lake, but the favorite account in the neighborhood is to the effect that the ground sank, springs were opened up, neighboring creeks diverted from their course and the overflowing waters of the Missis- sippi rushed in during the flood sea son of the spring of 1812. a : It is said that for an. hour and a Half the waters of the Mississippi flowed up hill while filling up the de- pression caused hy the earthquakes. Both accounts likely have this much of truth in them that the entire con- figuration of the ground wasthanged by the earthquakes. Big Lake, west of” the Mississippi, in said to have been formed in-the;same ‘way at the same time. Fra .. . Reelfoot Lake is sixteen or eigh- regular in shape and covers from 35, 000 to 40,000 acres of land. ries “in width from a mile in some places to four or five miles in others. The northern end is extended by a series’ of sloughs and bayous Kentucky. The most distinctive feature of the lake's appearance, the feature which first impresses and stays longest-with the observer's fancy, is a certain gro- tesque effect as if a set of crazy men had been operating a pile driver there for the last century, for the irunks, stumps and stark branches of dead trees stick out of it everywhere in desolate parody of some such human handiwork; far below the surface the fish dart among the boles and branches where the squirrels frolick- ed a hundred years ago. There are beautiful spots here and there, but the effect as a whole is not beautiful; at its best, when the mist rises and myriad protruding tree trunks are white and ghostly in the moonlight, it is weird; the general remembrance is of something un- couth. It is a kind of sloven lake that has preferred to sit down with its hair uncombed all day long, but at night it does manage to achieve a touch of wizard dignity. Are You Long-Lived? It is a generally accepted fact among doctors that every person bears physical signs cf his prospect of a short or a long life. - By-the practiced eye, & long-lived person can be distinguished from a short- lived one at a glance. “The primary conditions of long- evity,”. says a physician, “are that the heart, lungs and digestive organs, aswell as the brain, should be large. If such be the case, the body will be long and the limbs short. ® Therefore, the person will appear tall when sit- ting and short when standing. - The hand will also have a long and rather heavy palm, but short fingers. “The nostrils denote large lungs if large and open. A small or pinched nostril usually indicates a weak chest. These are, in general, the signs of longevity, but, of course, there are the usual individual ex- ceptions.” Bacon, the philosopher, believed in outward signs of long life. He put his faith in the following: Slow growth, coarse hair, a rough skin, with deep wrinkles in the forehead, firm flesh, a large mouth, wide nos- trils, strong teeth set closely together and a hard, gristly ear.—Answers. Cleaned the Stables, At one army post where a number of recruits were temporarily sta- tioned, an old sergeant was ordered to ascertain to what religious sect 1 each man belonged, and to see that he joined the party told off for that particular form of worship. Some of the men had no liking for church, and declared themselves to be athe- ists.- But the sergeant was a Scots- man and a man of experience. ‘Ah, weel,” said he, ‘‘then ye hae no need to kape holy the Sabbath, and the stables hae na been claned oot late- ly.” And he ordered them to clean out the stables. This occupied prac- tically the whole day and the men Jost: their usual Sunday afternoon’s leave. Next Sunday a broad smile crept over the face of the sergeant when he heard that the atheists had joined the Church of England. A Time Limit, A New England man tells of an elderly citizen in a New-Hompshire town who long bore the reputation of being the meanest man in the country. This old chap was proprie- tor of a hotel, the rules whereof pro- vided that everything should be kept under lock and key, the result of which was that no hanger-on could get his hands on a newspaper, a bit of hotel stationery, a free wash, or, in fact, anything free at all. To cap the climax, the old man one day came in and posted the following no- tice above the only clock in the place: “This clock for use of hotel guesis only.”—Harper’'s Weekly. Uncle Allen. “I’ve noticed,” remarked Uncle Al- len Sparks, ‘that the feilow who swears ofi fiom his bad habits ‘t go around advertising foreband.”’—Chicigo Daily Tribune. it be- >t bership of 670. Arkansas, ¥s{- = 32 teen .miles long, writes Don- Marquis, .in Uncle Remus’'s Magazine, very ir-’ It va-] intoy “gays that he strugk Scott because the vention of the United States Govern- ‘ment, and he was set free. PENNSYLVANIA Interesting Items from All Sections of the Keystone State. NEW CHURCH DEDICATED Pittsburgers Take Part in Exercises at Sharon. Sharon. —At exercises attending the dedication of the United Presbyterian church last Sunday morning the ser- mon was delivered by the Rev. Dr. J. K. McClurkin of Pittsburg. In the afternoon the Rev. R. M. Russell president fo Westminster college, preached and Dr. McClurkin spokew again in the.evening. E. Curtis Clark, vice president of the Mozart club of Pittsburg, sang at the morn- ing and afternoon meetings: The church ig; of buff brick with stone trimmings. At is of Gothic design and cost $32,009. It has a seating - capacity eof 1,000. The church had a ;membership of 180 when the Rev. L. K. Peacock assunied ‘the pastorate four years ago. . It now has a mem- CQNFESSES MURDER Arrested for Stealing Soap, Little Tells of Killing Man. > Philadelphia. — Arrested on the charge of stealing soap and vege- tables, IE. R. Little confessed to-the police authorities that he was guilty of killing John Scott on the 15th of last July. Scott had been knocked "don and: his “skull fractured. Littie latter has sold him a worthless pawn ticket. A man named Sweeney, who had been arrested at the time, but subsequently discharged, said that Scott and he had beem held up and robbed by two men, one of whom had struck the fatal blow. FOUR BABES IN 14 MONTHS Wilkes-Barre Wrests Championship from Pittsburg. Wilkes-Barre.—Mr. and Mrs. Ber- nard McCabe, a young couple living in the East End section of this city, have beaten all available records as the parents of twins, and have quite put in the shade the Pittsburg par- ents, who were boasting of two sets of twins in 20 months. Fourteen months ago Mrs. McCabe gave birth to two girls, who are now well and hearty, and today presented her husband with twin boys. They are strong well-formed littie chaps. LEROY G. CANNON FREE Roosevelt Saves Pennsylvanian from Death in Honduras. Harrisburg.—A telegram received here states that Leroy G. Cannon, son of a resident of this city, has been released from prison in Hondu- ras, where he was arrested as a revo- lutionist. When arrested the gov- ernment confiscated his plantatiop and sentenced him to death. Through a letter to - President Roosevelt his mother obtained the in- Mill “Officials Quit.’ Sharon,—Five department superin- tendents of the American Steel and Wire Company’s plant here have re- signed. The reasons are not given out. The retiring men are E. M. Billings, superintendent of the wire mill; Frank I. Carney, superinten- dent of brick construction; Benjamin Jarrett, superintendent of* labor; John Cole, superintendent of boilers; Thomas Thomas, . fuperintendent of the field fence department. Blind Musician Robbed of $500. Washington.—It was learned that Charles Bakody, a blind street mu- sician, has been robbed of $500, all his savings of 20 years. Bakody, who is often seen in Pittsburg streets, | employed a boy to lead him. Tir- | ing of his job the boy last week quit. | Bodoky and his wife say while they ! slept someone entered their home and | took their savings from a trunkg: One Result of Gipsy Smith's Work. New Kensington.—With a view to bringing every adult of Parnassus in- to the church ranks, the pastors to- | gether with a committee of 50 work- ers, will take a religious census this week. In the house-to-house canvass | denominational © leanings will be learned. The project is a result of Gipsy Smith’s recent meetings in Pittsburg. Marianna Mine Ready Again. The work of overhauling the Agnes | shaft of the Pittsburg and Buffaio | Company at Marianna, following the ! disastrous explosion on November 28, has been completed and a large ship- ment of coal will be made soon. The shaft has been cased from top to bot- tom and the framework strengthened wherever required. Woman for School Controller. New Castle.—Mrs. Isaac Harlan has been nominated by the Democrats of Scott township for the office of school controller. If she is elected she will be the first woman to hold such an office in this county. Scott town- ship is normally Democratic and her chances appear good. Great Decrease in Typhoid. | The health bureau’s report shows ; there were 74 cases of typhoid rever | in Greater Pittsburg during January, | as compared with 418 cases in Jan- ! uary, last year. Deaths from this | disease last month were five, as | against 43 in January, 1908. Poisoned His Child by Mistake. Philadelphia. — Thomas Sargeant, aged 26, administered a teaspoonful | of carbolic acid in mistake for cough medicine to his three-year-old son. The little boy died within two hours. | morial to her | lin B. Gowen, formerly president of | division, LEGISLATIVE NOTES. Harrisburg.—The senate passed finally a bill authorizing the Gettys- burg Battlefield Memorial association, created by the Legislature eof 1907, to transfer the proposed memorial to be erected at Gettysburg by the. State of Pennsylvania to the United States Government. Bills regulating the rates of .inter- est to be charged by household loan - companies and making “thé divorce laws of Pennsylvania uniform with those of other States were introduc- ed. : . The house passed finally the fol- lowing bills: x Extending the provisions of Section. 14 of the township classification, act of April 28, 1899, to all taxes collect- ed by treasurers of first-class town- shops, so that the compensation by them shall be the same as provided by the said secfion. . Togprevert framdulent practices up-. on or by keepers of sanitoriums or private -hospitals. Ee Providing that the last will of any decedent be effective ‘against bona fide conveyances or mortgages of the real or personal estate of the dece- dent must be offered for probate with- in three years from the date of the death of the testator or beofore the date of the recording of such convey- ance or mortgage. ta " Appropriating $40,000 to the attor- ney general department to make up the deficiency incurred in prosecuting the capital graft cases. By a vote of 54 to 99 the house de- feated the bill providing for criminals to deposit money in lieu of bail. The following bills were passed finally: . Appropriating $82,000 to replace military stores at the state arsenal destroyed by fire last November. Providing fer issuing writs of es- trepement in actions of trespass. Authorizing the department of for- estry to grow and distribute young forest trees to persons who will plant and care for them. : Validating sales of real estate upon writs of levari facias awarded upon judgments obtained upon writs of scire facias sur mortgage issued sub- sequent to the passage of the act of April 23, 1903, and prior to the pas-. sage of this act. Appropriating $90,000 to the state live stock sanitary board to defray the expense of the recent campaign against apthous fever. Providing for the election and com- pensation of four additional commit- tee clerks in the house and" four in the senate. . Limiting the right of action against sureties on the bonds of administra- tors and guardians and authorizing the sureties upon such bonds to make any defense when sued in the com- mon pleas that they may make in the orphans’ court. © Appropriating $75,000 to cover the deficiency in the normal school appro- priation. . - Empowering clerks designated by county controllers to administer oaths. ’ > The act constituting the ~commis- sioners, controller and treasurer of Allegheny county. a board having the power to appoint depositories of coun- ty funds was postponed for (he pres- ent from the third reading calendar. Make Districts Conform. Harrisburg.—To readjust the sena- torial and legislative lines of Greater Pittsburg to conform with the reap- pointment of the wards in that city, bills have been prepared by Senators Joseph” A. Langfitt and Charles H. Kline which will be presented soon. [It is their purpose to have the dis- tricts described according to the new wards and election districts. No ghange will be made in the present ines. $100,000 to University. Philadelphia.—At a meeting of the board of trustees of the University | of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Esther Gowen Hood gave the university $100,000 to establish graduate fellowships in the law department. The gift is a me- father, the late Frank- the Reading Railway Company. Dairy and Food Deficit. Harrisburg—The report of Dairy | and Food Commissioner Foust for: the | year just closed shows that the divi- sion received as income from licenses and fines for viclation of food laws, $54,580 62. The expenditures of the which are made by direct appropriation, were $69,968. 20. Baggagemaster Arrested. Harrisburg.—A. F. Rinenelt, a bag- gagemaster on~the Northern .Central Railroad, was arrested here and held by Federal authorities on a charge of tampering with closed mail poiiches. Rineholt lives in Baltimore and runs irregularly between here and Balti more. L. S. Sadler Named Trustee. Harrisburg. — Governor Stuart an- nounced the appointment of Lewis S. Sadler of Carlisle, Cumberland coun: ty, to be a member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania state lu- natic hospital at Harrisburg, vice Charles H. Mullin, deceased. AGED WOWAN QUITS OFFICE Oldest Postmistress Resigns Holding Position 40 Years. After Greenville, — Mrs. Mary McCoy, | aged 86, said to be the oldest post: | mistress in the United States, has re | signed her position at Sheakleyville. She served 40 years. Mrs. McCoy was appointed by Pres | ident Johnston, and in the early years of her service carried mail from Meadville in addition te performing | her other duties. 3 Non hi .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers