country and the cause; at this day it is doubtful if it can even be called a weakness. It is apparent, from the vantage-ground of a quarter of a century that the President's course was the wiser one.

In his personal habits he was abstemious and simple. He wore the plainest and most unpretentious garments and was satisfied with a simple and homely fare. Charges of drunkenness, which were at one time made against him, never had less foundation in fact.

When Mr. Lincoln was visited at Springfield by the committee appointed to notify him of his nomination, he thought, at the close of the ceremony, that custom would require him to treat the committee with something to drink. Opening a door that led into a room in the rear, he called out, "Mary, Mary!" A girl responded to the call to whom Mr. Lincoln spoke a few words in an undertone. In a short time the girl returned bringing a large server, upon which were a pitcher and several glasses, and placed it upon the table. Mr. Lincoln arose and gravely addressing the company, said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual healths in the most healthy beverage God has given to man. It is the only beverage I have ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the spring." Raising his tumbler, he pledged the company in a cup of cold water.

His first printed composition, written when a mere boy was a vigorous denunciation of the evils of intemperance among the settlers in the frontier, and from that time he was a total abstainer. At one time during the war, a number of gentlemen clubbed

together and bought a large assortment of the finest wines and liquors and sent them as a gift to the President. The gift was courteously acknowledged and immediately transferred to the city hospitals where it was put to a worthy use.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN stands before the world as one of the most remarkable characters in modern history, such an one as America alone could produce. In no other country could a boy, born in the lowest walks of life, oppressed by seemingly hopeless poverty and without any external advantages save those which nature furnished, aspire to so lofty a career. And even here it is still a marvel that the ragged, ignorant and uncouth backwoods boy may yet become President.

From his earliest boyhood Lincoln's intellectual growth was regular and vigorous. His adverse surroundings only served to stimulate him to increased effort. He had the heart of a pioneer and was not afraid to forsake the paths which had been trodden by his ancestors to strike out into roads which were as dangerous as they were unknown.

His boldness in ignoring precedent, and his confidence in his own ability to overcome the difficulties with which he was surrounded, had their origin in the hardships and privations of his early life. The barren farm and the gloomy woods were hard training schools, but they were thorough and effective, and his whole life showed their influence. Had he been brought up under more favorable surroundings, his

character could never have developed the peculiar traits which made his career possible. The strength of the oak was in his frame, and the brightness and originality of Nature in her simplicity and purity were in his mind.

In his daily life he frequently showed a lack of culture, but his rudeness was like the rough bark of the oak which proclaims, while it conceals, the solid timber within. The very ruggedness of his character was rendered attractive by the nobility of his nature and kindliness of his disposition.

One remarkable feature of his life is that he was always in advance of his surroundings. His mind was so sensitive and vigorous that, while he did not despise the circumstances by which he was surrounded, he was filled with a discontent which was continually urging him onward to increased exertions. Of this feeling he seldom spoke, but there is abundant evidence of its presence throughout the whole of his earlier life.

The constant tendency of his environment was to bind him down to a dull, plodding life. If he had been content to remain the creature of circumstance his name would have been unknown to the world. Even before he was old enough to recognize the presence of aspirations he had a vague consciousness that the life he was living was not the best attainable. As this consciousness developed into a fixed ambition, evidences of its power and influence multiplied.

In school he was the leading scholar in his classes and easily outranked those whose advantages were far superior to his own.

An illustration of his intellectual superiority over

his associates is given by a lady who was a former schoolmate of his.

"One evening," says she, "Abe and I were sitting on the banks of the Ohio; I said to him that the sun was going down. He replied: 'That's not so; it doesn't really go down; it seems so. The earth turns from west to east and the revolution of the earth carries us under; we do the sinking as you call it. The sun, as to us, is comparatively still; the sun's sinking is only an appearance.' I replied, 'Abe, what a fool you are!' I know now that I was the fool, not Lincoln. I am now thoroughly satisfied that Abe knew the general laws of astronomy and the movements of the heavenly bodies. He was better read then than the world knows or is likely to know exactly. He was the learned boy among us unlearned folks."

His family and associates were easily content with their humble station and had little ambition to rise in the world. They were satisfied to toil unceasingly if they could thereby win their scanty fare and humble raiment. For more they cared not. But young Lincoln was of different mould. He was not content to live for the present alone, but worked and thought and planned for the future. While others slept he

studied.

He was moved by vague and restless aspirations, to what end he hardly knew; but, like a drowning man, he grasped at every straw hoping that in some way he might lift himself a little above the dead level of his surroundings. From boyhood the purpose was strong within him to excel his companions and if possible to make himself distinguished.