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Show . . ....... . . j Little Journeys in I Americana o I $ By LESTER B. COLBY 'i K-x-HH"X-:XKw:-i::-M-v:'-:":' From "Printer's Devii" to the Cabinet When Z. N. Garbutt, editor of the Pike County Free Press, borrowed bor-rowed Rev. Josiah Carter's roan mare one day back In 18-1S and rode out Into the country to round up a new subscriber or two he set into motion a train of events that led to the court of St. James, to the freeing of the slaves and to the promulgation of the Open Door of China. Listen. J nttsfield, III., wasn't much of a I town then and Garbutt's paper wasn't j much of a paper. But fate was waiting wait-ing that summer's day In a little hill- i cabin. As Editor Garbutt rode past the cabin an angry woman, with broomstick broom-stick upraised, chased a small, frightened fright-ened hoy from the cabin. The boy ran toward the road. The woman halted at sight of the stranger. Garbutt beckoned to the boy and questioned him. "She's my stepmother," replied the boy. "And she seems to like to beat me. But I don't like it." The boy was a pleasing sort of boy and the naive answet touched Garbutt. Gar-butt. After a few moments' talk he lifted tlie hoy up and placed him on the roan mare behind him. They rode into Tittsfield that night and the boy became a printer's devil. We turn the reel up a few years. The boy, John G. Nicolay, is grown now He is writing editorials, news items, "sticking" type and getting out the newspaper. He has found another boy for "devil." That boy, literary, clever, is named John Hay and he is writing some verse. He calls it "Pike County Ballads." Nicolay becomes a great admirer of a young Illinois lawyer, a tall, sallow, slender fellow who appears to have political promise. One day Nicolay, perhaps more than ordinarily Inspired, writes an editorial appealing to the nation to make Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln President. He pulls proof, laboriously, on his hand press, and mails them to editors he knows. The idea takes. There Is big talk about It. Political thunders are heard afar. Finally Lincoln is elected. Now one of Lincoln's strongest traits was his ability not to forget friends. When he went to Washington Washing-ton he took John G. Nicolay with him as his aide, first-friend, and advisor. Nicolay was. perhaps, a sort of Col- l onel House to Lincoln. ! Nor did Nicolay forget his friend. i So John Hay, too, moved to Washing- i ton. Of tlie twain, Nicolay and Hay, perhaps opportunity smiled the larger for Hay. John Hay became secretary to President Lincoln when twenty-four T7om-o rlrl hnr-011-m n ill hn ssn ftor fn tlio j court of St. James, became secretary ! of state under President MeKinley and Roosevelt, became the greatest diplomat that the United States has ever known, took time from his political duties to be, for a time, editor edi-tor of tlie New York Tribune when Horace Greeley published If. And John Hay promulgated the Open Door to j China. A treaty he negotiated wilh ! Greut Britain healed a sore of fifty years' standing. John G. Nicolay became one of tlie greatest historians of Lincoln, he-i he-i came consul to Paris and then mar-' mar-' shal of the Supreme Court of the United States. I'ittsfield, III., is today only a village; maybe 3.000 people. Few see it because no railroad passes through ; a stub line its only trans-i trans-i port. But on the courthouse square : stands a noble boulder. On it are cn-1 cn-1 graved four names: Abraham Lincoln Stephen A. Douglas John G. Nicolay John Hay Douglas, who once defeated Lincoln j for the senate, was added to the list I because he like the others, was a ! familiar sight in Piltsfield in those I prewar days when the four were carving their careers out of the rough. So 1 say to you, viewing the above apart, if you ever see a woman chasing chas-ing a frightened lillle boy wilh a broomstick, lift him up ami put him j on your roan mare behind you. Ii may lead him to the court of St. James or to the opening, perhaps, of some, door to China. Or even to a j sha.e In the making of some future Lincoln. I Si. 191'9. Lester B Colby.) |