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Show Abe Lincoln's Motto i A CENTURY ago, a . boy, who was to be crowned with immortal fame, lived on a r hilly, unfruitful farm in southern Indiana. A few days ago the governer of that state, in n reply to appeals from all over the country, de-,v de-,v cided that a Lincoln Home Trail shall be con- structed through that farm. j This highway will bring, countless thousands u of pilgrims to the spot where the boy Lincoln 11 laid the foundation for his immortal career. It i will give them Lincoln thoughts; it will cause p them to ask: (( "Whar lessons did Lincoln learn here, that he could rise head and shoulders above his rA feUows?" "I did not go to school more than six months in my We," Abraham Lincoln said years after- ward. r But he learned the greatest lessons life can teach! For he studied nature, books, nan. He ' studied life itself. " "Do it better than any one you know does J it!" 1 That was one of Abe Lincoln's boyhood i commands to himself. He became the best wrestler, the fastest runner, the hardest worker 4 Tn andTrounJGentryviIle. He was a perfect speller, so they always ruled him. out of spelling 1 matches. He was the best read man in three I counties, the best penman, the best debater, j Ida Tarbell says of Lincoln, "He could strike with a maul heavier blows" and "sink an ax deeper into the wood" than anybody else in the community. How? Why?' Oo It better than anybody else you know!" Abe Lincoln, carried . this same idea into his home life; he was a better son to his stepmother step-mother than her own son was. That is no common com-mon thing. But liis stepmother's word proves it: "Abe never gave me a cross word or look. He never refused, in fact or appearance, to do anything I requested him. I .had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys; but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or expect to see." Lessons Lincoln . learned can be learned by I any of us living today by studying what he studied nature, books, man and life itself. To "do it better than anyone else you tnow" demands effort as earnest and thorough as Lincoln Lin-coln gave back in the days when he lived on the Lincoln Home Tl ail. |