MR. LINCOLN’S FAVORITE POEM.
One evening when Mr. Carpenter, the artist, was alone with Mr. Lincoln
in his study, the President said: “There is a poem that has been a great
favorite with me for years, to which my attention was first called when
a young man, by a friend, and which I afterward saw and cut from a
newspaper and carried in my pocket till, by frequent reading, I had it
by heart. I would give a great deal to know who wrote it, but I could
never ascertain.”
He then repeated the poem, now familiar to the public, commencing, “Oh!
why should the spirit of mortal be proud?”
This poem, which was written by William Knox, a young Scotchman, a
contemporary of Sir Walter Scott, suits well the thoughtful, melancholy
mood habitual to Mr. Lincoln. It is said that a man may be known by his
favorite poem. Whether this can be said of men in general may be
doubted. In the case of Abraham Lincoln I think those who knew him best
would agree that the sadness underlying the poem found an echo in the
temperament he inherited from his mother. I am sure my readers will be
glad to find the poem recorded here, even though they may have met with
it before:
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around and together be laid;
And the young and the old, the low and the high,
Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie--
The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant’s affection who proved:
The husband, that mother and infant who blest--
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest.
The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye
Shone beauty and pleasure,--her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.
The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.
The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.
The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
So the multitude goes--like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes--even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.
For we are the same our fathers have been;
We see the same sights our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we view the same sun,
And run the same course our fathers have run.
The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling,--
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.
They loved--but the story we can not unfold;
They scorned--but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved--but no wail from their slumber will come;
They joyed--but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.
They died--ay, they died; we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.
’Tis the wink of an eye--’tis the draught of a breath--
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud:--
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
The last stanza will call to mind the startling suddenness with which
Abraham Lincoln, the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, passed from the
summit of power to the solemn stillness of death. Was it a sad,
prophetic instinct that caused the mind of the great martyr to dwell so
constantly upon these solemn strains?
No man seems to have been more clearly indicated as the instrument of
Providence than Abraham Lincoln. It seems strange in the eyes of men
that a rough youth, born and reared in the backwoods, without early
educational advantages, homely and awkward, and with no polish of manner
save that which proceeded from a good heart, should have been selected
as the Guide and Savior of a great nation. But God’s ways are not as our
ways, nor is His choice as ours. Mr. Lincoln had this advantage,--coming
from the ranks of the people, he never lost sight of his sympathy for
his class. His nature and his sympathies were broad and unconfined.
He has been well described by one reared like himself, in the free
atmosphere of the West: “Nearly every great figure of history is a kind
of great monstrosity. We know nothing about Washington. He is a steel
engraving. No dirt of humanity clings to his boots. Lincoln lived where
men were free and equal, and was acquainted with the people, not much
with books. Every man is in some sort a book. He lived the poem of the
year in the fields, the woods, the blessed country. Lincoln had the
advantage of sociability. He was thoughtful, and saw on the horizon of
his future the perpetual star of hope. To him every field was a
landscape; every landscape a poem; every poem a lesson, and every grove
a fairy land. Oaks and elms are far more poetical than streets or
houses. A country life is in itself an education. It gives the man an
idea of home. He hears the rain on the roofs, the rustle of the breeze,
the music of nature’s fullest control. You have no idea how many men
education spoils. Lincoln’s education was derived from men and things,
and hence he had a chance to develop. He had many sides. He not only
had laughter, but he had tears, and never that kind of solemnity which
is a wash to hide the features. He was not afraid to seek for knowledge
where he had it not. When a man is too dignified he ceases to learn. He
was always honest with himself. He was an orator; that is, he was
natural. If you wish to be sublime you must keep close to the grass. You
must sit close to the heart of human experience--above the clouds it is
too cold. If you want to know the difference between an orator and a
speaker read the oration of Lincoln at Gettysburg, and then read the
speech of Everett at the same place. One came from the heart, the other
was from out of the voice. Lincoln’s speech will be remembered forever.
Everett’s no man will read. It was like plucked flowers.
“If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power.
Any man can stand adversity--only a great man can stand prosperity. It
is the glory of Abraham Lincoln that he never abused power only on the
side of mercy. When he had power he used it in mercy. He loved to see
the tears of the wife whose husband he had snatched from death.”
I draw near the close of my task, having given, as I hope, some fair
idea of one whose memory will always remain dear to the hearts of his
countrymen. In that chequered life there is much to imitate, much to
admire, little to avoid or censure. Happy will be the day when our
public men copy his unselfishness, his patriotic devotion to duty!
Within a few months, on the eighteenth anniversary of Mr. Lincoln’s
assassination, a poem was read at his grave by John H. Bryant, of
Princeton, which will fitly close my story of the Backwoods Boy:
Not one of all earth’s wise and great
Hath earned a purer gratitude
Than the great Soul whose hallowed dust
This structure holds in sacred trust.
How fierce the strife that rent the land,
When he was summoned to command;
With what wise care he led us through
The fearful storms that ’round us blew.
Calm, patient, hopeful, undismayed,
He met the angry hosts arrayed
For bloody war, and overcame
Their haughty power in Freedom’s name.
’Mid taunts and doubts, the bondsman’s chain
With gentle force he cleft in twain,
And raised four million slaves to be
The chartered sons of Liberty.
No debt he owed to wealth or birth;
By force of solid, honest worth
He climbed the topmost height of fame
And wrote thereon a spotless name.
Oh! when the felon hand laid low
That sacred head, what sudden woe
Shot to the Nation’s farthest bound,
And every bosom felt the wound.
Well might the Nation bow in grief,
And weep above the fallen chief,
Who ever strove, by word or pen,
For “peace on earth, good-will to men.”
The people loved him, for they knew,
Each pulse of his large heart was true
To them, to Freedom, and the right,
Unswayed by gain, unawed by might.
This tomb, by loving hands up-piled,
To him, the merciful and mild,
From age to age shall carry down
The glory of his great renown.
As the long centuries onward flow,
As generations come and go,
Wide and more wide his fame shall spread,
And greener laurels crown his head.
And when this pile is fall’n to dust,
Its bronzes crumbled into rust,
Thy name, O Lincoln! still shall be
Revered and loved from sea to sea.
India’s swart millions, ’neath their palms,
Shall sing thy praise in grateful psalms,
And crowds by Congo’s turbid wave
Bless the good hand that freed the slave.
Shine on, O Star of Freedom, shine,
Till all the realms of earth are thine;
And all the tribes, through countless days,
Shall bask in thy benignant rays.
Lord of the Nations! grant us still
Another patriot sage, to fill
The seat of power, and save the State
From selfish greed. For this we wait.
* * * * *
_THE CREAM OF JUVENILE FICTION_
_THE_ BOYS’ OWN LIBRARY
A Selection of the Best Books for Boys by the Most Popular Authors
The titles in this splendid juvenile series have been selected with
care, and as a result all the stories can be relied upon for their
excellence. They are bright and sparkling; not over-burdened with
lengthy descriptions, but brimful of adventure from the first page to
the last--in fact they are just the kind of yarns that appeal strongly
to the healthy boy who is fond of thrilling exploits and deeds of
heroism. Among the authors whose names are included in the Boys’ Own
Library are Horatio Alger, Jr., Edward S. Ellis, James Otis, Capt. Ralph
Bonehill, Burt L. Standish, Gilbert Patten and Frank H. Converse.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BOYS’ OWN LIBRARY
All the books in this series are copyrighted, printed on good paper,
large type, illustrated, printed wrappers, handsome cloth covers stamped
in inks and gold--fifteen special cover designs.
_146 Titles--Price, per Volume, 75 cents_
For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by
the publisher,
DAVID McKAY,
610 SO. WASHINGTON SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
* * * * *
HORATIO ALGER, Jr.
One of the best known and most popular writers. Good, clean, healthy
stories for the American Boy.
Adventures of a Telegraph Boy
Dean Dunham
Erie Train Boy, The
Five Hundred Dollar Check
From Canal Boy to President
From Farm Boy to Senator
Backwoods Boy, The
Mark Stanton
Ned Newton
New York Boy
Tom Brace
Tom Tracy
Walter Griffith
Young Acrobat
C. B. ASHLEY.
One of the best stories ever written on hunting, trapping and adventure
in the West, after the Custer Massacre.
Gilbert, the Boy Trapper
ANNIE ASHMORE.
A splendid story, recording the adventures of a boy with smugglers.
Smuggler’s Cave, The
CAPT. RALPH BONEHILL.
Capt. Bonehill is in the very front rank as an author of boys’ stories.
These are two of his best works.
Neka, the Boy Conjurer
Tour of the Zero Club
WALTER F. BRUNS.
An excellent story of adventure in the celebrated Sunk Lands of Missouri
and Kansas.
In the Sunk Lands
FRANK H. CONVERSE.
This writer has established a splendid reputation as a boys’ author, and
although his books usually command $1.25 per volume, we offer the
following at a more popular price.
Gold of Flat Top Mountain
Happy-Go-Lucky Jack
Heir to a Million
In Search of An Unknown Race
In Southern Seas
Mystery of a Diamond
That Treasure
Voyage to the Gold Coast
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
HARRY COLLINGWOOD.
One of England’s most successful writers of stories for boys. His best
story is
Pirate Island
GEORGE H. COOMER.
Two books we highly recommend. One is a splendid story of adventure at
sea, when American ships were in every port in the world, and the other
tells of adventures while the first railway in the Andes Mountains was
being built.
Boys in the Forecastle
Old Man of the Mountain
WILLIAM DALTON.
Three stories by one of the very greatest writers for boys. The stories
deal with boys’ adventures in India, China and Abyssinia. These books
are strongly recommended for boys’ reading, as they contain a large
amount of historical information.
Tiger Prince
War Tiger
White Elephant
EDWARD S. ELLIS.
These books are considered the best works this well-known writer ever
produced. No better reading for bright young Americans.
Arthur Helmuth
Check No. 2134
From Tent to White House
Perils of the Jungle
On the Trail of Geronimo
White Mustang
GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
For the past fifty years Mr. Fenn has been writing books for boys and
popular fiction. His books are justly popular throughout the
English-speaking world. We publish the following select list of his
boys’ books, which we consider the best he ever wrote.
Commodore Junk
Dingo Boys
Golden Magnet
Grand Chaco
Weathercock
ENSIGN CLARKE FITCH, U. S. N.
A graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and thoroughly
familiar with all naval matters. Mr. Fitch has devoted himself to
literature, and has written a series of books for boys that every young
American should read. His stories are full of very interesting
information about the navy, training ships, etc.
Bound for Annapolis
Clif, the Naval Cadet
Cruise of the Training Ship
From Port to Port
Strange Cruise, A
WILLIAM MURRAY GRAYDON.
An author of world-wide popularity. Mr. Graydon is essentially a friend
of young people, and we offer herewith ten of his best works, wherein he
relates a great diversity of interesting adventures in various parts of
the world, combined with accurate historical data.
Butcher of Cawnpore, The
Camp in the Snow, The
Campaigning with Braddock
Cryptogram, The
From Lake to Wilderness
In Barracks and Wigwam
In Fort and Prison
Jungles and Traitors
Rajah’s Fortress, The
White King of Africa, The
LIEUT. FREDERICK GARRISON, U. S. A.
Every American boy takes a keen interest in the affairs of West Point.
No more capable writer on this popular subject could be found than
Lieut. Garrison, who vividly describes the life, adventures and unique
incidents that have occurred in that great institution--in these famous
West Point stories.
Off for West Point
Cadet’s Honor, A
On Guard
West Point Treasure, The
West Point Rivals, The
HEADON HILL.
The hunt for gold has always been a popular subject for consideration,
and Mr. Hill has added a splendid story on the subject in this romance
of the Klondyke.
Spectre Gold
HENRY HARRISON LEWIS.
Mr. Lewis is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and has
written a great many books for boys. Among his best works are the
following titles--the subjects include a vast series of adventures in
all parts of the world. The historical data is correct, and they should
be read by all boys, for the excellent information they contain.
Centreboard Jim
King of the Island
Midshipman Merrill
Ensign Merrill
Sword and Pen
Valley of Mystery, The
Yankee Boys in Japan
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
* * * * *
LIEUT. LIONEL LOUNSBERRY.
A series of books embracing many adventures under our famous naval
commanders, and with our army during the War of 1812 and the Civil War.
Founded on sound history, these books are written for boys, with the
idea of combining pleasure with profit; to cultivate a fondness for
study--especially of what has been accomplished by our army and navy.
Cadet Kit Carey
Captain Carey
Kit Carey’s Protegé
Lieut. Carey’s Luck
Out With Commodore Decatur
Randy, the Pilot
Tom Truxton’s School Days
Tom Truxton’s Ocean Trip
Treasure of the Golden Crater
Won at West Point
BROOKS McCORMICK.
Four splendid books of adventure on sea and land, by this well-known
writer for boys.
Giant Islanders, The
How He Won
Nature’s Young Nobleman
Rival Battalions
WALTER MORRIS.
This charming story contains thirty-two chapters of just the sort of
school life that charms the boy readers.
Bob Porter at Lakeview Academy
STANLEY NORRIS.
Mr. Norris is without a rival as a writer of “Circus Stories” for boys.
These four books are full of thrilling adventures, but good, wholesome
reading for young Americans.
Phil, the Showman
Young Showman’s Rivals, The
Young Showman’s Pluck, The
Young Showman’s Triumph
LIEUT. JAMES K. ORTON.
When a boy has read one of Lieut. Orton’s books, it requires no urging
to induce him to read the others. Not a dull page in any of them.
Beach Boy Joe
Last Chance Mine
Secret Chart, The
Tom Havens with the White Squadron
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
JAMES OTIS.
Mr. Otis is known by nearly every American boy, and needs no
introduction here. The following copyrights are among his best:
Chased Through Norway
Inland Waterways
Unprovoked Mutiny
Wheeling for Fortune
Reuben Green’s Adventures at Yale
GILBERT PATTEN.
Mr. Patten has had the distinction of having his books adopted by the U.
S. Government for all naval libraries on board our war ships. While
aiming to avoid the extravagant and sensational, the stories contain
enough thrilling incidents to please the lad who loves action and
adventure. In the Rockspur stories the description of their Baseball and
Football Games and other contests with rival clubs and teams make very
exciting and absorbing reading; and few boys with warm blood in their
veins, having once begun the perusal of one of these books, will
willingly lay it down till it is finished.
Boy Boomers
Boy Cattle King
Boy from the West
Don Kirke’s Mine
Jud and Joe
Rockspur Nine, The
Rockspur Eleven, The
Rockspur Rivals, The
ST. GEORGE RATHBORNE.
Mr. Rathborne’s stories for boys have the peculiar charm of dealing with
localities and conditions with which he is thoroughly familiar. The
scenes of these excellent stories are along the Florida coast and on the
western prairies.
Canoe and Camp Fire
Paddling Under Palmettos
Rival Canoe Boys
Sunset Ranch
Chums of the Prairie
Young Range Riders
Gulf Cruisers
Shifting Winds
ARTHUR SEWELL.
An American story by an American author. It relates how a Yankee boy
overcame many obstacles in school and out. Thoroughly interesting from
start to finish.
Gay Dashleigh’s Academy Days
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.
CAPT. DAVID SOUTHWICK.
An exceptionally good story of frontier life among the Indians in the
far West, during the early settlement period.
Jack Wheeler
The Famous Frank Merriwell Stories.
BURT L. STANDISH.
No modern series of tales for boys and youths has met with anything like
the cordial reception and popularity accorded to the Frank Merriwell
Stories. There must be a reason for this and there is. Frank Merriwell,
as portrayed by the author, is a jolly whole-souled, honest, courageous
American lad, who appeals to the hearts of the boys. He has no bad
habits, and his manliness inculcates the idea that it is not necessary
for a boy to indulge in petty vices to be a hero. Frank Merriwell’s
example is a shining light for every ambitious lad to follow. Six
volumes now ready:
Frank Merriwell’s School Days
Frank Merriwell’s Chums
Frank Merriwell’s Foes
Frank Merriwell’s Trip West
Frank Merriwell Down South
Frank Merriwell’s Bravery
Frank Merriwell’s Hunting Tour
Frank Merriwell’s Races
Frank Merriwell’s Sports Afield
Frank Merriwell at Yale
VICTOR ST. CLAIR.
These books are full of good, clean adventure, thrilling enough to
please the full-blooded wide-awake boy, yet containing nothing to which
there can be any objection from those who are careful as to the kind of
books they put into the hands of the young.
Cast Away in the Jungle
Comrades Under Castro
For Home and Honor
Zip, the Acrobat
From Switch to Lever
Little Snap, the Post Boy
Zig-Zag, the Boy Conjurer
Zip, the Acrobat
MATTHEW WHITE, JR.
Good, healthy, strong books for the American lad. No more interesting
books for the young appear on our lists.
Adventures of a Young Athlete
Eric Dane
Guy Hammersley
My Mysterious Fortune
Tour of a Private Car
Young Editor, The
ARTHUR M. WINFIELD.
One of the most popular authors of boys’ books. Here are three of his
best.
Mark Dale’s Stage Venture
Young Bank Clerk, The
Young Bridge Tender, The
GAYLE WINTERTON.
This very interesting story relates the trials and triumphs of a Young
American Actor, including the solution of a very puzzling mystery.
Young Actor, The
ERNEST A. YOUNG.
This book is not a treatise on sports, as the title would indicate, but
relates a series of thrilling adventures among boy campers in the woods
of Maine.
Boats, Bats and Bicycles
DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia.