Show w W 11 I 1 ll at t h e si d e n c 4 do D 6 U 1 11 M to i 0 A IL T illinois ve M chev douglas ia 4 a a c ater lass 1859 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ha PHIL 14 is the anniversary of one of the treat great in Amerl american caa history hl stori for it was on oa that date just 05 deais idars iga ago that the bullet of k john wilkes booth is tf struck down abraham lincoln and plunged a whole nation nation rejoicing that four years i ears of war was at lust last ended into the deepest sorrow sor row ever since that day there has haa been endless speculation us as to what might have been if ho he h had ail been spared would the north have been a more generous victor and the south have been spared the ruin and 0 of o f tile the reconstruction era would the tha wounds of tile the most terrible civil war in history have been more quickly healed during those next four mo years it If there had been at the head of the nation the man who had said with malice toward nae none with C charity for all with firmness in the right as god gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in no one can answer those quest questions ioni posit positively vely but there can be but little doubt in mind that chiw the adver answer in each cise case Is yes yea useless though such speculation may be it suggests another interesting possibility suppose john wilkes booth had bad been balked in trying to carry out his mad scheme and the tragedy of that terrible night nigh tin in ford raids a theater had bad been averted might not death in some other guise than the assassins bullet have prevented abraham lincoln from realizing his ambition to finish the work we wa are in for such a possibility v la Is not so probable improbable I 1 m as it may seem at first thought it has become almost axiomatic that the presidency of the united states la ls a man killing job for ex presidents the avera average ge length of ute life after t turning urna over the reins to their successors has been a little over 11 years but when there la Is added to the heavy duties of the presidency the crushing cr burden of leading the nat nation ion in a great war even that span of years Is greatly reduced woodrow wilson the world war president left the white house in 1921 a brogen br olied prematurely ely aged man who was in his grave three years later so with this recent tragic example before us tt it Is s not no beyond yond the realm of belief that a similar fate might have awaited abraham lincoln who was called li upon pon to bear the most crushing load of responsibility and sorrow borrow ever placed upon the shoulders of any american not even excepting those of george washington in the darkest days of the american revolution some interesting evidence of the heartbreaking task which was lin coins and of the fact that not even evea ill his S great strength could have much longer endured it Is presented in tho the reproduction of photographs which illustrate emil kall ludwigs lincoln published recently by little brown and company five f these ure ahre shown above and they more ore vividly than words tell that story although it Is a familiar story which the tha distinguished german writer friter tells in hla his biography of lincoln it has a particular interest at this time when the anniversary of 0 athe the great emancipators death recalls to americans the tragedy of his whole lif life e Lincol ns career more than that of any other man in history Is so no gr grandly andly conceived by F fate aie that the first act Is illuminated by the last and every scena scene Is bound to together ether by dra marlc atle intensity writes ludwig in one of the word pictures of lincoln ifil which c h ludwig presents he la Is a comedy figure albeit a tragic comic one the scene Is tile the inauguration on march 4 esco on a platform to in front of the east portico of the cap ditol what do the audience see t they I 1 hey look up at the speaker but his 18 friends are little pleased by his na as hect writes L u dwig who then quales the words of one who witnessed that icene scene and alid wrote na as follows ala newly grown beard was short and stubby like a shoe brush grizzled stiff and hideous a face nee that without it expressed power and deep feeling ile he wore a brand new sult butt with a swallow tall instead of the customary frock coat he had a very shiny stovepipe hat evidently just taken inken out of the bandbox and a huge ebony stifle with a gold erold head as large tar ge A rhe speaker Sp ealer at gettysburg the man of sorrows 1863 1663 1665 U POK am tall LU IL 1 lincol cut c courtly u t DRO BROWH and co cc as an egg in this unusual rig ale out he looked so go uncomfortable that it was quite pathetic matters were even worse when he reached the phit platform forin for or he be did not know what on earth to do with his bis hat and his stick there lie be stood a target for thousands of eyes holding these two encumbrances the image of hopeless perplexity to that ludwig adds this comment there he ha stands burdened with things which his fashionable wife must have forced upon him too elegantly attired lest lent he should look like al 0 backwoodsman a man used to wearing his cothes thes just any anyhow ow decked out with a useless w walking nt stick transformed into a come comedy figure and all cne che more a mark of silent eat sarcasm there he stands tor for the first brat time he Is to speak to the nation as a whole for he Is embarrassed by this fine new stick with agold a gold knob and ad the terribly shiny top hat what Is he to do dreadful moments but fate has sent him hla his longtime enemy who as aa if f in irony Is watching his plight a at close hand band douglas it I 1 Is who co comes mes to his bis rescue douglas as a valet douglas who stretches out his short shor tarm arm to take the hat and hold it for half achour an hour like a footman till all Is over and the new president can take it back bajck from the senator with a friendly nod ad the Tho story of what lincoln endured during the ferit two years of the war his struggle to secure the coo co o operation pe ration of a wrangling discordant cabinet ills hl repeated disappointments in his generals who either fight or who fought only to be defeated disastrously and all the other factors which thwarted him at every turn Is matched as a record of despair only by what followed for when he issued the emancipation proclamation the effect was waa catastrophic confusion was widespread throughout the north there was a slump on the stock exchange the ibe elections wore adverse the democrats declared that thousands of whites were being forced to give their blood in order that their fellow countrymen thymen might be illegally deprived of prop property eity when congress was sitting in december the presidents unceasing personal struggle on two fronts the near approach of the momentous date daie fixed for the enforcement of them the proclamation the varying andhor and for the most part unfavorable fortunes of war the skepticism of then regarding the new measure and the scorn in which it was held by enemies made him weary and dispirited as well an unforgettable picture of the tha lincoln of this period to Is given by an old friend who had bad not cot sein seen him for six years and whose description of him Is cited by ludwig as allows follows the chant change r was simply appalling ills whiskers had grown and had given additional cadaverousness to his face the light seemed to have gone out of ills his eyes which were sunken far under ills his enormous brows there was over his whole face an expression of sadness and a faraway awn y look in his eyes which were utterly unlike the lincoln of former days the wonder Is that the president did riot not break under the strain for says for him private life had ceased to exist work agitations enemies at home reverses versea re abroad donger danger threatening to undo the work done by the fathers of 0 the country and to frustrate the activities of his aown own career suc such had aj been bean his lot for three or four years almost V without cessation the tree tellers fellers tall body had been qt attacked tacked from within mined as it and weakened here and there he wit wa laid up for awhile by a modified smallpox caught in a visit to the front be complained that hta his legs leea were always cold but he be would not give way very rarely indeed after a sleepless night would he lie down dow a on 03 welles dellea sofa or lay any that he was too tired to receive via visitors 1 I hardly know how to rest it may be good for th the no body but w what hat is tired in we me it lies within and cant be got at A As s the years went by the tensions increased rather than diminished if things were going well in the field he would be harassed by the violence of t the he political factions when all was quiet in that quarter the result would be a decline in recruiting and if for a moment matters matter really seemed to be making progress everywhere he would still be perturbed by the mutual jealousies of the members of the cabinet or the governors in addition he be was distressed by the dally daily sight might of sufferings caused by the war for hospitals abounded in washington and the surround surrounding ding hills were sprinkled with tents for the temporary accommodation mo dation of the sick and wounded woun dad while the stretchers seemed to pass in unending succession whenever the tha president went out tor for air pi or exercise riding was about abou his only exercise bui but even this was not safe for once he was tired fired upon by a hidden assassin we ills horse bolted and quickly bore him away from the spot and a soldier who went to the place found his hat lying on the ground with a bullet hole through the crown sometimes after riding lifto into washington in the small hours he be would spend the rest of the night at the white house writing or reading and would ride back to the soldiers home when morning came depres depressed sed la mood such depression was common enough for lincoln was incapable of taking much delight in victory or of feeling hatred tor for the enemy and civil war was doubly dle tres saing to him since the enemies were his brothers the war he said in a speech during the last year of his bis life was has carried mourning to almost every home until it can almost be said that the heavens are hung in blacki black 1 nor did the gloom lift when the end of the war finally anally came and appomattox silenced the four year clamor of the guns for as lincoln looked back upon those four years he ha could see naught but tragedy personal as well vell as national where now la Is douglas who had been so BO full of life and activity where Is in old friend baker where are his little boys wilted and perished alko 0 o halt half open buds nipped by the frost death was grinning sit at him from every corner I 1 would history speak of him only as the lord of death would history be justly entitled to give him such a name such are the thoughts which ludwig puts in his mind as he enters fords theater that night of 0 april 14 then the ahe shot the cry of ste sic semper t the acre scream im of mary lincoln and in a little house across the street the ibe next morning he be dies at seven in a strang go b bd e d like a pilgrim slain on good friday like a prophet and the tragedy of abraham Lincol ns whole life was summed e d up by his little son tad who when he stood beside the coffin in the white house said Is father in heaven now yes then I 1 am glad tor for ho he was not noa really happy here |