Keppler, Mrs. J. H. Honan, Miss Carrie F. Smith, Miss Idelle Morrison, Mr. Günther Thomas.

An interesting personality present was Philip Loewenthal, of New York, a veteran of the Civil War who went out with Lincoln's corps of volunteers in 1861.

A second, more general, celebration of the Lincoln Centenary took place in the afternoon at the home of the American Ambassador and Mrs. Hill. A general invitation had been extended to all Americans who desired to honor the memory of Lincoln, with the result that about five hundred Americans filled the reception-rooms at Bismarck Strasse 4. Patriotic feeling ran high, and there was an immense amount of enthusiasm during the rendering of the programme, which included the singing of "My Country "T is of Thee," the "Star Spangled Banner," and "Dixie," and the rendering of several selections of a thoroughly American order by individual musicians.

The speakers of the occasion were Ambassador David Jayne Hill, Consul-General Thackara, and Professor Felix Adler.

Professor Davis, who has up till now been known on "Colony" occasions only as a humorous speaker, came out in a new vein, reading a set of verses on Lincoln of which he himself was the composer, and which called forth sincere appreciation. Professor Felix Adler's address was on the same lofty scale as at the midday celebration at the University, and was again greatly enjoyed. It remained for the Ambassador to deliver the address which was the feature of the afternoon. Dr. Hill, who spoke last, had originally intended merely to thank the previous speakers and the musicians of the afternoon, adding just a few words in honor of Lincoln. But the general enthusiasm of the occasion and the exceptionally large American gathering, added, no doubt, to the unanimously expressed desire that he should speak at length, prevailed upon the Ambassador to continue. The result was a masterpiece of simple eloquence, such as Lincoln himself might have delivered, and which cannot be reproduced in cold print with any justice. Dr. Hill re

ferred to the original erroneous idea of Lincoln, which represented him as a despot and a tyrant, as a hard, self-willed man, and showed how biographical research had proved the utter fallacy of this view. He compared Lincoln to "a great rock in a surging sea,” as he stood calm and determined amidst the passions of North and South, and referred to Lincoln's political philosophy. Abraham Lincoln represented the political rights of all people, from the lowest stratum upwards; but how, asked Dr. Hill, did Lincoln come to represent this particular form of political philosophy? Simply because he himself, in his own unique life and personality, represented all the people. He himself had lived the life of every class in turn, from the lowest to the highest; "like a river which gathers unto itself a thousand rivulets and rivers as it flows on full-breasted to the sea, "Lincoln gathered unto himself all the wisdom, the wit, the pathos, the humor, and the everyday philosophy of the common people. His personality was the incarnation of all these elements; and when Lincoln's soul reached Heaven its claim for admittance was based on no Order, on no title or patent of nobility, but on the simple fact that the man was the elected representative of the majesty of the common people.

In addition to the large gathering of Americans, the following notabilities were observed among the audience: Herr von Holleben, former Ambassador at Washington; Excellenz von Versen; Frau von Hegermann-Lindencrone, wife of the Danish Minister, who had just returned from witnessing the departure of the King and Queen of England at the Lehrter Bahnhof; and Professors Paszkowski and von Martius, of Berlin University.

LINCOLN'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY

February 12, 1909.

WILLIAM MORRIS DAVIS

Harvard Exchange-Professor at the University of Berlin.

We name a day and thus commemorate

The hero of our nation's bitter strife;

The martyr who for freedom gave his life.

We feel the day made holy by his fate.

The wheels of time then turn their ceaseless round,

And slowly wear our memory away:

The holy day becomes a holiday;

Its motive changes with its change of sound.

Let not our purpose thus be set aside:

An hour, 'twixt work and pleasure, let us pause,
And consecrate ourselves to serve the cause
For which our hero strove, our martyr died.

He lived to reunite our severed land;
To liberate a million slaves he died,
And that the great experiment be longer tried
Where each one ruled, in ruling has a hand.

What tho' the pessimists, amid their fears,
The great experiment to failure doom.
Let us recall his trust in time of gloom,
And steadfast persevere a thousand years.

Tho' sure that vict'ries new will yet be won,
Like those our fathers gained laboriously,
"T is not for us to boast vaingloriously
As if our battles were already done.

Our elders might have sung with better grace
The verse that vaunts us ever free and brave,
Had not our land so long oppressed the slave,
Stolen from over sea, to our disgrace.

Yet in our pride, how little right have we
To blame our elders for an ancient wrong
That gave the weak in bondage to the strong.
Are we ourselves so wholly brave and free?

Yes, with primeval courage, brave and strong, When banded 'gainst a foe; yes, free from kings— But not so brave in smaller things

That we should celebrate ourselves in song.

Not that it counts for naught that we have grown

To be the leaders of a continent,

And not that we could be for long content

'Mid any other folk except our own.

But that we must not lightly over-rate
Our qualities: if on our faults I lay
A certain emphasis, 't is not to-day
Ourselves, but Lincoln whom we celebrate.

For he was brave, a true American-
Unselfish, kindly, patient, firm, discerning,
His honest, homely wisdom outweighed learning;
He stood for service to his fellow man.

How think of him and not condemn the use
Of public office turned to private ends,
Of petty fraud, for which each one pretends
To find in others' frauds his own excuse?

How can we think of him and not repent

The shaded line we draw 'twixt wrong and right;
Of him, and not resolve, with all our might,
To carry on the great experiment?

If most of us have no great tasks to do,
Let us, like him, be faithful in things small.
Our nation's drama makes us actors all;
If only splitting rails, we 'll split them true.

If troubles thicken, let us still deserve
To solve them all as Lincoln would to-day;
If dangers threaten, let us not betray
The cause that Lincoln, living yet, would serve.

Here in a distant foreign land we pause,
"Twixt work and pleasure, to commemorate
His noble life. How better than to consecrate
Ourselves to play our part in Lincoln's cause?

THE

THE MAN FOR THE HOUR

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY THACKARA

HE literature inspired by Lincoln's record is vast in quantity and rich in quality, and to do justice to talent, requires talent. It is not for me to speak of his distinction as a lawyer, his achievements as a statesman or of his historie guidance of a nation in the most trying time of its existence.

From a stump speaker and corner grocery debater, he lived to take his place in the front rank of immortal orators, whose lucidity of speech surprised and enthralled his hearers. He rarely failed to seize an opportunity to illustrate a situation by substituting a story for an argument, and left his listeners to make their own deductions.

We are all familiar with his humor, his melancholy, his strange mingling of energy and indolence, his unconventional