From

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Foully murdered, April 14, 1865

By TOM TAYLOR in London Punch
May 6, 1865

You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier!
You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace,
Broad for the self-complacent British sneer,
His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face.
His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease,
His lack of all we prize as debonair,

Of power or will to shine, of art to please;

Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet
The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew,
Between the mourners at his head and feet,
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you?
Yes; he had liv'd to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen,
To make me own this hind of princes peer,
This rail-splitter, a true-born king of men.
My shallow judgment I had learn'd to rue,
Noting how to occasion's height he rose;

How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true;
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows;
How humble, yet how hopeful he could be;
How in good fortune and in ill the same;
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.

So he went forth to battle, on the side
That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's,
As in his peasant boyhood he had plied

His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights, —

The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,

The iron bark that turns the lumberer's axe, The rapid that o'erbears the boatman's toil, The prairie hiding the maz'd wanderer's tracks, The ambush'd Indian, and the prowling bear,Such were the deeds that help'd his youth to train: Rough culture, but such trees large fruit may bear, If but their stocks be of right girth and grain.

So he grew up, a destin'd work to do,

And liv'd to do it; four long suffering years'
Ill fate, ill feeling, ill report, liv'd through,
And then he heard the hisses change to cheers,

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,

-

And took both with the same unwavering mood, Till, as he came on light from darkling days, And seem'd to touch the goal from where he stood,

A felon hand, between the goal and him,

Reach'd from behind his back, a trigger prest And those perplex'd and patient eyes were dim, Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest. The words of mercy were upon his lips,

Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen,

When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse

To thoughts of peace on earth, good will to men.

A COURSE IN LINCOLN

Some of the more notable Lincoln books, by means of which a course of reading may be planned and the most inspiring ethical lesson in American biography may be studied. A long line of side reading. Lincoln in poetry.

I HAVE ventured to borrow the title and text of this chapter from Charles E. Hughes, who, speaking as the Governor of New York, at a Lincoln Birthday meeting, expressed the wish that "in our colleges, and wherever young men are trained, particularly for political life, there could be a course in Lincoln."

My purpose is twofold. I wish to make some acknowledgment, inadequate as it necessarily must be, of the sources from which I have derived inspiration and material for this narrative, and at the same time to point inquiring readers the way to a fuller knowledge of Lincoln than may be gained from any single story or interpretation of his life.

There is no more companionable figure in history, and, for my own part, my memory dwells with gratitude on the very titles of most of the books to which I owe what knowledge I have of him, and with which I have passed so many pleasant and

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profitable hours while pursuing a course in Lincoln."

Whether an eminent British educator was gifted with prophecy when he said that in the future “morals will be taught only through biography," the character and career of Lincoln present an inspiring ethical lesson such as Americans, at least, cannot draw from any other man in history. He lived the life of America so completely as to touch it at every grade, and in nearly all its phases.

Moreover, the elements were so varied and mixed in his nature as to make him in an unusual degree "all things to all men." Numerous as the books about him already are, it is to be hoped they and the readers of them will continue to increase and multiply, for no two writers depict the same man in the same mood.

Foremost among the works to which Lincoln writers and readers alike are indebted stands that monumental structure, "Abraham Lincoln, A History," by his secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Nicolay and Hay have not only left in their ten volumes a life of the man, but as well a history of his times.

William H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, aided by Jesse W. Weik, compressed into his two volumes a work which is unique in American biography. In its

intimacy, its sincere criticism, and its thoroughness, this life of Lincoln offers an extraordinary portrait.

Ida M. Tarbell's Life, which is published in four volumes and in two volumes, deservedly ranks high among Lincoln books, not only because of the vitality of Miss Tarbell's story, but as well by reason of the diligent and enterprising research that it represents, and which seems to have sought out and exhausted every neglected witness.

"The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln," by Francis F. Browne, has a wealth of anecdote and reminiscence in its single volume, while William Eleroy Curtis's "True Abraham Lincoln" abounds in entertaining and graphic pictures of the man, derived from men who knew him in the flesh. Norman Hapgood's "Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People" is a virile exposition of the subject, while John Tyler Morse's Life, in two volumes, is an able and critical study of Lincoln and his work.

Isaac N. Arnold, in preparing his Life, well improved an advantage only second, if not equal, to Herndon, and Nicolay and Hay, for as a brother lawyer at the bar of Illinois, and as a member of Congress in war time, he was long associated with Lincoln. Ward H. Lamon's Life is another book based on a personal relationship with the subject. Henry J. Raymond's Life is specially interesting