THE CINCINNATI COMMEMORATION

AT

T Cincinnati, preparations for the celebration began as far in advance as October, 1908, when, at a meeting of the Cincinnati Schoolmasters' Club, it was suggested that steps be taken to properly observe the Lincoln Centenary. A Committee was appointed by President E. D. Lyon to confer with the various civic, business, educational, and other bodies of the city. At the conference held to form the plans, there were present representatives from over fifty organizations. This joint conference formed an organization, and adopted the name "The Lincoln Centenary Memorial Association," and under its auspices, with Mr. W. C. Washburn as the able President, the Centenary celebration was planned and carried out. The funds necessary for carrying out the elaborate plans of the Association were provided by the organizations represented in its membership.

On the Centenary day, memorial exercises were held in all the schools; and special exercises were held by order of Archbishop Moeller in the Catholic parochial schools of the Cincinnati diocese; all the municipal buildings, and many of the business houses, were fittingly decorated, and the whole atmosphere of the city breathed the spirit of tribute and commemoration.

The principal meeting of the day was held in Music Hall, in the afternoon. At two o'clock members of the Grand Army of the Republic, four hundred strong, marched to the hall and took seats in the section especially reserved for them. Dr. J. M. Withrow, President of the Board of Education, presided, and a choir of seven hundred and fifty school children, accompanied by an orchestra of fifty pieces, rendered the patriotic airs and War-time melodies which have come down to us from the day of Lincoln. One of the special features was an ode "Our Lincoln"-by W. C. Washburn, rendered by this children's choir, under the direction of Professor Joseph

Surdo, composer of the music. The orator of the day was Bishop William Fraser McDowell, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago, who delivered to an enthusiastic audience, "An Appreciation of Lincoln."

In the evening, members of the Loyal Legion gave a banquet, with commemorative exercises, in their quarters at Masonic Hall, where Judge Frederick A. Henry, of Cleveland, acted as the speaker of the occasion.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN-AN APPRECIATION

BISHOP WILLIAM F. MC DOWELL

BRAHAM LINCOLN was an American product. The world itself has seen nothing finer. America has not done it twice. When one speaks of Lincoln he speaks of something that only happened once. He is one of the surprises of history. No land but America has produced his like. When he was born, a hundred years ago, we had about seven millions of people. When he died, forty-four years ago, we had thirty-five millions of people. To-day we number ninety millions.

Those who knew Lincoln are few in number now, but he is enshrined in the nation's heart as no one else is. He died at the end of a civil war whose passions were bitter, whose bitterness is not wholly gone, but we can honor this leader of that war without awakening bitterness anywhere. His name is the symbol of peace, his character an inspiration to union, his life a perpetual call to charity and fraternity.

That life began in Kentucky, continued in Indiana and Illinois, and flowered out in splendor at last upon the nation and the nations. His parents were so poor that life was all they could give their son; so poor that they could give the world nothing except their son. We praise him to-day, but can not forget his mother, Nancy Hanks

Lincoln through the days of its fiercest testing. One pushed the door of liberty ajar, the other opened it wide and "saved the last best hope of earth." One led the colonies to the Declaration of Independence, the other fulfilled that early declaration by these immortal words, "In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. One set a nation out on its wide way among nations. The other taught us that a nation worth creating is worth saving, and worth saving all the time. Of each it can be said, "His palms never itched for a bribe, his tongue never blistered with a lie." Each came when he was needed, and each met the need fully. Need alone does not produce such men. Barrenness, want, selfishness, or ambition can not bring to a nation men like these. Washington rose not because our fathers needed a soldier who could win battles, but because the colonies needed a man of truth and tranquillity, "a standard to which the wise and just should repair." Lincoln arose, not because our later fathers needed a debater, but because they needed a truth teller; not because they needed a conqueror, but because they needed one to whom peace was a sacrament and mercy a divine force; not because they needed a man who could win an election or finance a war, but because they did sorely need in a day of strife one who could show "charity for all and malice to none.

Thus William of Orange arose in the Dutch Republic, Washington and Lincoln in the American Republic, each of them "tranquil in the midst of raging billows."

Measured by any of the real tests, our Abraham, friend of God like the old Abraham, appears to be one of the mightiest figures seen in a thousand years. He was a real leader of men-not a tyrant driving them, nor a weakling following them, nor a visionary getting out of touch with them. He perfectly knew the average mind and the strong mind. He knew how valuable were men like Seward, and Stanton, and Chase, and many others who did not agree with him. Many strong men abused him, many tried to override him. He was silent under abuse and always master of his own soul and his own policies. Men said his clothes did not fit him, that

he did not know what to do with his hands, but they learned at last that his mind fitted him perfectly, and he used his hands for his supreme tasks.

We are obliged to go back to the Bible for the words to describe him, "He was a shepherd who had led his flock according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.' He kept in close touch with the common people, and kept ahead of them. He kept in touch and moved on. He used all the strong men in all parties, and was used by none of them. He has been called by one biographer, "The Master of Men." But never was any man less of a tyrant. His mastery was due to that gentleness which made him great. He could neither be a tyrant nor a tool, a slave driver nor a slave. He led, not because he wanted to be served, but because he wanted to serve. His secrets were few because his purposes were great. Without arrogance, without vanity, with eternal charity, and without malice, as God gave him to see the right, he held on his steady way. Men were impatient; his Cabinet was vexed; he was assailed by the radicals and by his compromisers; he endured the storms of ridicule, of slander, of scorn; insult and accusation were heaped upon him like a mountain; news from the front broke his heart, scramble for spoils cursed his days; he lived through passion and prejudice, relieving his melancholy soul with stories that brought more criticism, and at last "he heard the hisses turn to cheers" and stood alone in a glory no man could endure.

He had a genius for stating eternal matters in such a way that men felt as under a call to battle. Away yonder on the plains of Palestine, the saddest man of history declared that a "house divided against itself shall not stand." Long afterward, on the plains of Illinois, this Lincoln reached back to that other's word and said: "A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this government can not permanently endure half slave and half free." Friends urged him not to say it. It was too clear, too plain and unmistakable. It was not good politics to say it. But Lincoln replied, "It is true, and I will deliver it as written." There