Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed]

EXECUTION OF THE CONVICTED PRISONERS IN THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATIONThis remarkable negative is a silent witness of the end of one of the world's greatest tragedies-Taken by Alexander Gardner while those who paid

THE GLORY OF A MAN WHO LOVES HIS FELLOW-MEN

W

HAT, then, do we learn from the life of such a man as Abraham Lincoln? It is the simplest, plainest truth in all history-the greatest man in the world is the man who loves his fellow-men. Kings come and go; nations rise and fall; military glory and political eminence flare for their moment and then die away. Men may erect great monuments to their memory; genius may leave its marvels behind it; masters may build their powerful institutions, but there is only one living force that pulsates through the ages and that is the heart of man himself.

Let your eyes rest upon Lincoln, not with the din of battle in your ears, not with the shout of victory nor the pangs of defeat in your heart, but as a man who knew no malice, who knew no envy, who knew no glory, but who knew only that he loved his fellow-men and that he was one of the most humble among them.

The funeral train moves slowly from the nation's capital; watch-fires blaze in the darkness as it passes; bells are tolling. Was there ever a procession like this nearly two thousand miles of a people's tribute! Twenty-five million fellow-men bowing their heads in prayer.

Now he is home at last-home again in Springfield, where he longed to rest after his work was done. It is May-day the fourth. Tenderly, they are bearing him to the foot of the wooded knoll; they are laying him in the shade of the oaks.

From

Hark! Can you hear the melody? From every mountain and valley; from every state and clime-the solemn strains of the dirge are swelling. The sun drops over the hills. Twilight bathes the blossoming foliage and gathers its darkening shadows about the tomb. The world has lost a simple, honest man-and immortality has gained one. From every nation and from every people, from farm and bench and throne of monarchs, come tributes of his greatness; for days and months they came; for years and for decades they have been coming, and ever will as long as memory shall last and men shall love an honest heart.

This is the true Lincoln-the Lincoln that you should know; the Lincoln the generations will know when they have forgotten that blinding war of brother against brother, and come to grasp the hand of this great, strong, homely man among men. This is the Lincoln that the world will love the common heritage of all races and times-the man with a heart big enough to hold the whole world.

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed]

Bier on which President Lincoln rested in state while men, women, and children wept over their lost leader on his funeral day on April 19, 1865, when twenty-five million people throughout the country bowed their heads in tributeOriginal negatives by Alexander Gardner now deposited in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts

[graphic][merged small][graphic][subsumed]

Photog. aph while Lincoln's body lay in state before great throngs at City Hall in New York

[graphic][subsumed]

Photograph of the funeral car bearing the dead Lincoln back to Springfield, Illinois Prints from the Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York

[graphic][merged small][graphic][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »