LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE*

WHE

EDWIN MARKHAM

WHEN the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour
Greatening and darkening as it hurried on,

She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down
To make a man to meet the mortal need.

She took the tried clay of the common road-
Clay warm yet with the ancient heat of Earth-
Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy;
Tempered the heap with thrill of human tears;
Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff.
Into the shape she breathed a flame to light
That tender, tragic, ever-changing face.
Here was a man to hold against the world,
A man to match the mountains and the sea.

The color of the ground was in him, the red earth;
The smack and tang of elemental things;

The rectitude and patience of the cliff;

The good-will of the rain that falls for all;
The friendly welcome of the wayside well;
The courage of the bird that dares the sea;
The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn;
The mercy of the snow that hides all scars;
The secrecy of streams that make their way
Beneath the mountain to the rifted rock;
The undelaying justice of the light
That gives as freely to the shrinking flower
As to the great oak flaring to the wind-
To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn
That shoulders out the sky.

Copyright, 1909, by Edwin Markham.

Sprung from the West,

The strength of virgin forests braced his mind,
The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.
Up from log cabin to the Capitol,

One fire was on his spirit, one resolve-
To send the keen ax to the root of wrong,
Clearing a free way for the feet of God.
And evermore he burned to do his deed
With the fine stroke and gesture of a king.
He built the rail-pile as he built the State,
Pouring his splendid strength through every blow,
The conscience of him testing every stroke,
To make his deed the measure of a man.

So came the Captain with the thinking heart;
And when the judgment thunders split the house,
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest,
He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again
The rafters of the Home. He held his place-
Held the long purpose like a growing tree-
Held on through blame, and faltered not at praise.
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

THE HODGENVILLE COMMEMORATION

THE HODGENVILLE COMMEMORATION

A

CELEBRATION which focused the attention of the country, as a whole, perhaps more than any other, was that at the Kentucky town of Hodgenville, within whose outlying country lies the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. There, on the farm upon which Lincoln was born, which has been purchased by a National Association formed for that purpose, largely initiated and made successful through the untiring efforts and enthusiasm of Mr. Robert J. Collier, the log cabin in which Lincoln first saw the light has been restored. Here was held a celebration national in character, and showing the unity, to-day, of the North and South of the American nation. With the President of the United States, Mr. Roosevelt, laying the cornerstone of a memorial building being erected by popular subscription to protect the log cabin in which Lincoln was born, this gathering typifies, as well as any meeting could, the significance of the day.

Exercises were conducted under an immense spreading tent with open sides, sheltering the Lincoln cabin and the speakers' platform; while the cornerstone, a block of gray granite about three feet square, crowned with flowers, hung in the grasp of a great derrick, awaiting the signal of the President, when, at the close of the speeches of the day, it should be lowered into its place, and the first trowelful of mortar applied by the President of the United States. Beneath the cornerstone had been placed a metallic box containing copies of the Constitution of the United States and other documents of historic value, contributed by the President, by Clarence Mackay, Robert J. Collier, and Richard Lloyd Jones of New York.

In addition to the President, who spoke for the Nation, the speakers were:-Gen. Luke E. Wright, the Secretary of War, himself a soldier, who spoke on behalf of the Confederate soldiers; Gen. James Grant Wilson of New York, representing