Show v I r rA A Man for the Ages A Story o of f the Builders o of f Democracy By y IRVING BACHELLER bt ss H u vt CHAPTER XI XI Continued 12 12 One evening In J of ot that summer Ab Abe came out to the with a 8 letter letter letter let let- ter In his hat for tor Sarah Bows Hows bu business Samson asked Going to peter out I reckon Abe answered with a sorrowful look It will wW leave me badly In debt I wanted wanted wanted want want- ed something that would give me n a a. a chance for tor study tudy and I got It It By Dy I It looks as If it I was going to tobare hare bare years ears of ot study trying to get over ocr k k nave have you got cot any work to rive give he heme me mo 7 You know I can split rails mils about as fast tast as the next nest man and Ill I'll take my pay In wheat or corn You may give me all the time you youcan ou can aln spend outside the store said Samson St That evening they had a talk about the whisky business and Its relation to the Ule character of Eliphalet Biggs and to sundry Infractions of ot law and order In th their r community Samson had deli de- de li J.- J. dared Blared that It was wrong to sell liquor All that kind of ot thing can be safety safe- safe ty 11 j left lett to the common sense of ot our our I people eople said Abe The remedy Is I td education on not revolution re Slowly the theople people ople will have to set down all nil the Kerns Items In the ledger of ot common sense that passes from sire to son By Dy and andy ty y some generation will strike a bal bal- ince That lul may not come In a hun- hun Ired red years Soon or late the majority major maJor- ity of the people will reach rench a reckonIng reckoning reckoning reckon reckon- ing with John Barleycorn If It theres there's too much n against him they will act rural Joy plight might t as well try to stop a gla glacier la- la cier cler by t a dam In front of It It They rhey have opened an account with slavery ery too By and by they'll deride de- de tide ride Its fate Such was his faith in the common folk of America whose way of ot learnIng learning learning learn learn- ing and whose love of ot the right he knew as ns no man has known ItIn it In this connection the New r Englander Englander Englander Eng- Eng lander wrote In n his diary lIe He has spent his boyhood In the South and his young manhood In the North He lIe has Ims studied the East and antI lived In the West He lIe Is the people I r sometimes think think and and about as os slow slow- m to make up his mind As Isaiah says lIe He does not judge after aCter the sight of ot othis his e eyes es neither reprove after the hearing hearing hear hear- ing lag tf It his ears Abe has to think It It I nAj 11 Abe wrote another address A The th the voters announcing that he be was wasa a candidate for a seat In the legislature Late that month Harry walked with him to where a crowd had assembled to attend a public sale At one place there were men In the we crowd who knew Harrys Harry's record In the war They called on on him for a speech He lie spoke on the need Ded of ot the means menns of ot transportation In Sangamon county count with such insight and dignity and convincing candor that both Abe and the audience hailed him as a coming man Abe and he heere were ere often seen together those days R In New Salem they were called the disappointed lovers It was known there that Abe was very fond of Ann Rutledge although he had not as yet openly confessed to any not anyone one one not not even evento evento evento to Ann there Ann there being no show of ot hope for tor him Ann nn was ns deeply In love with John McNeil the McNell the genial handsome and successful young Irishman The Time affair had reached time the stage of oC tr frank frank- i t d rII II r c m y f t L 1 I I The Girl Wept as If Her Heart Would Break I ness lIess of ot an open discussion of plans r i of fond affection expressing Itself in caresses quite indifferent to ridicule For Ann It had been like warm sunlight sun sun- light on the growing rose rosl She waa wa was a EI neater ater In dress lovelier In form torm ant and color olor more graceful In movement mo and voiced than ever eer she had been heen r It h Is lIS the old way ay that Nature tans has of oft t preparing g the young loun to to come out upon the ile lace of or real re life lIte and ond to tu act net In Its ln movie scenes ren a. a Abe manfully gave lave hi his ht best hest r wishes and when be b wI nf of r Ann It Ir l vu u ur dens r e very t tea teai a- a I i t deny derly The Jook of ot sadness which all nil had noted In his moments of ot abstraction abstraction abstraction tion deepened and often covered his face with Its veil nil That is another way that Nature has of ot preparing the young For these the roses have fallen and only the thorns remain They are not lured they seem to be driven en to their tasks but for tor all soon or orate late ate her method changes s. On a n beautiful morning of June 1834 John McNeil left the village Abe Lincoln and Harry arr and Samson and Sarah and Jack Kelso am and his his wife stood with the In the thc dooryard of ot the tavern when he rode rodt away He was going back to his home In the time East to return in the time autumn autumn au au- and make Ann Ann his bride The girl Irl wept as If her heart would would break brenk when he turned far tar down the road and waved his hand to her Oh my pretty lass InSi 1 Do you not hear the birds singing in the mend mead owe r said Jack Kelso Think of the he happiness all around you and of the he greater grenter happiness that is coming when he returns Shame on you l lIm Im afraid hell he'll never ne'-er come back Ann sobbed Nonsense 1 Dont Don't get a maggot In your brain and let the crows go walking walk walk- Ing ng over o your face Come well we'll take a ride In the meadows meadows' and If It I 1 dont don't bring you Ou back laughing you you- may call me no prophet prophet- So the event passed Harry Darry traveled about with Abe a good deal that summer electioneer electioneerIng lag Ing ng as they called It from farm to arm Abe Used to go into the fields with the men whose favor tavor he sought and bend his long back over ocr a sc scythe the theor or a cradle and race Ih them m playfully across the field of ot grain cutting a n wider swath than any other and andal always al al- ways holding the lead Every man was out of breath at the thc end of his swath and needed a few minutes for Cor recuperation That gave ga Abe a chance for tor his statement of ot the county's counts needs and his plan of satisfying f them lie He had ind met and talked with a majority of the voters oters before the campaign ended In his election In August At odd times that summer he hind had been surveying a new road with Harry Harry Har Har- ry Needles r for his helper In September Sep- Sep the they resumed their work upon It t in the vicinity of New ew Salem and und Abe began to carry the letters in his lint hat mt again I Every ery du day Ann was 1001 look look- Ing ng for him as he came by in the dim light Ight of the earl early morning on his wa way to work An Anything for tor me she would ask No r mall In since I saw you sou ou Ann Aun Amin was the time usual answer Often Otten he would say Im afraid not but here here here- you here ou take tale these letters Jetters and look through em and make sure Ann would take tale them In her hands hand trembling with eagerness and run Indoors Indoors Indoors In In- doors to the candlelight and look them over oer Alwa Always s 's she came back with the little bundle of letters cr very slowly as If It her disappointment were a hea heavy burden Therell be one next mall if It I ha have to write It t myself Abe Ahe said one morning In October as he went on To Harry Needles who was with him that morning he said I wonder r why that fellow dont don't write to Ann I couldn't believe bellee that he has been fooling her but now I dont don't know what hat to think of him I wonder what nas has happened to the Cell fellow ow Time TIle mall mail stage was late that evening eve eve- e ning As it had hud not come at nine Mr Ir Hill went home and left lett Abe Ahe in the time store to wait for tor his mall mail The stage e arrived a n few minutes later Abe Aile examined examined examined ex ex- the little bundle of oC letters letter and newspapers which the driver had hud left with him Then he took a paper and and sat down to read In the Hi firelight client While he lie was thus engaged the door opened softly and Ann e en- en The postmaster ter was not aware mare of her pretence presence until she touched his Ids arm Please give me mite a letter she said Sit down Ann sold said he heery very ery cr gently gently gent gent- I ly as he lie placed a chair In the fire fire- glow She Site took it turning toward him with a n look toole of f fear ar and hope Then he added Im sorry but hut the truth Is It didn't come It is terrible Ann that I have bave to help In this breaking of your our heart that Is going on I seem teem to he be the head o of the hummer that hits you Ou so to hard but the handle is In other hands Honestly Ann I 1 wish I could do the suffering for you you every every bit of It and It-and and give In your our poor heart a rest Hasn't he written you this summer Not r since July tenth she an an- Then 8 she he confided to Abe that her lover told her before he went wenta a away way that his name was not McNeil but that he be had changed his name to keep keep- clear of or his hlll family until he had bad made a success that he had hod gone East to g get t his father and mother and bring them back with him lastly she came to the thin timing that worried her most the most the suspicion of her father and mother that John was not honest They say that he probably had bad a wife wIre when he lie he came here her that here that that U La why he dont don't write to me me Then after s little silence she plead ed cd You dont don't think that do you jou oU Abe Aber No said the latter giving her herthe herthe herthe the ad advantage e of ot every doubt John did a n foolish thin thin- but we must not condemn him without a knowledge of the facts The young often orten do foolish things and sickness s would account for his silence You go hone hore and go to sleep and stop worrying Ann You'll get that letter one of ot these dU days duys 8 A day or two later Abe and Harry went to Springfield Their reason for forthe forthe the trip la lay In a talk between the postmaster postmaster postmaster post post- master and Jack Kelso the night before before before be be- fore as fiS they sat by the latter's letters tire fire sl side erye e. e Ive rye been living where there was ns no one ne to find fault tault with my parts of speech or with the thc parts of ot m my leg legs were not decently covered ered said A Abe e. e The Time sock district of ot m my person has been boen without In the legislature of at my Intellect up to Its last session Then we got a n abill abill bill through tor local improvements and und the governor Jo has approved d the appropriation Suddenly we discovered ered red that there was no money In the treasury nu But Samson Traylor has I offered to buy an nn issue of bonds of ot the amount of ot fifteen dollars Im glad to hear linear you ou declare In favor of external Improvements said Kelso Weve We all been too much absorbed absorbed absorbed ab ab- ab- ab by Internal Improvements Youre You're on the right trail Abe Youve You've b i B I r 1 b u uThe The Jew Pointed Pointed to His Hie i been hen thinking of ot the time public ear and too little of the public e eye c We must show some sons respect for tor both Sometimes I think that com comely I dress ought to go with comely diction diction diction dic dic- tion said Abe Ahe But that's a n thin thing you ou cant can't learn In hooks books Theres There's no grammarian of ot the language of dress dres Then Im I'm so M big and awkward Its It's a rath rather r hopeless problem Youre oure In good company Kelso assured him Nature guar guards s her besmen bs bes men with some sort of oC singularity not attractive to others Often OtEn she makes th them hem m odious with conc conceit or 01 deformity or dumbness or Dante was such a poor talker flint no one would ever ask him to dinner r If tr It hind had not been so I presume his muse would hn have been heen sadly crippled b by indigestion If you ou had boon been n a good dancer and a lad ladys lady's s f favorite I J Iwonder wonder If It you yon would have hAe studied and Burns and Shakespeare rl and andl Blackstone and Starkie and th the science of ot surveying and been wen elected to the legislature I wonder if It you ou could even have e whipped Jack Armstron Arm Arm- stron strong Or hn have enjoyed the trl friendship n of Bill Bm Herr Berry and acquired a national debt or have ha saved my Imp imperiled country In the war with Black Hawk Abe laugher laughed In the matter of dress the postmaster ter had hud great confidence In the taste and knowledge of his young oung friend Harry Needles who whose e neat nent appearance appear once ance Abe re regarded with serious ad nd So he asked Harry to go with him on his new mission and help to choose the goods and direct the i tailoring for It pet nit seemed d to him a highly high high- ly lr important enterprise I I Our appropriation Is only fifteen dollars said Abe as they came Insight in insight insight sight of the time big village on a warm ann bright day late In October Of Ot course I cant can't expect to make maIm myself look Jook like the President of ot the United States with such a sum but hut I want to look like JIle a respectable citizen of the United States State If It that Is possible Ill I'll give Ii-e the old Abe and antl fifteen dollars to boot for tor a new one and w well we'll JI set see what comes of It Springfield had been rapidly chang cluing ing It was still small and crude erule but hut some orue of the best lest standards of ot civilization tion had hud been set up In th that t It ity Families of wealth and nd culture In the to East Bast had bad sent their sons sans ns anda andU and a U share of ot their capital to this little metropolis of 1 land nd of ot plenty plent to go gonto gonto nto into business business- Handsome well groomed bone horses to mounted ban drawing carriages that shone ahone so au yon yoo c could uld see your our face tace In them to quote quota from Abe again we were on Its t streets street ets The two New Salem men stopped and studied a big sign In front ot of t a large store on which this announcement announcement announce announce- ment had been lettered Cloths c rel- rel vet let silks satins Marseilles waistcoat waistcoat- Ing fine calf nit boots seal and morocco pumps for g gentlemen crepe creM e lisle lace ace veils tells shawls fine prunella shoes Heads like a foreign language to tome me mc said Abe How would you like Ilke a n little Marseilles Suddenly a man touched his shoulder shoulder der with a hearty Howdy Abe It was till Ell the Wandering Jew Jev as he had been wont to call himself in the time da days 1 when he carried a pa pack k kon on the rood roni through Peters Peter's Bluff Blutt ana anti Clarys Clary's Clove and New Salem Sahara to Beardstown and buck back DIs is tn ray my store said Ell Eli Your store i Abe Ab Abe exclaimed Ya ia look at de sign The fhe Jew pointed to his sign board some fifty feet long under the cornice on which they the read rend the time legend Eli Ell Fredenberg's Emporium I Abe Abc lix ked him over from Crom head to foot and exclaimed My conscience I You Yon look as ns If you had been fixed up to b be sold sohl to th the highest bidder The hairy dust lusty dusty bow how bo le ged thread thread- barn bare peddler had be been n touched bl bj some som miraculous hand hund The Ille lavish hand jf u t the West had showered her favors favor on him They r In some degree the barbaric barbar c pearl and gold df dt the East He glowed |