As a fruit of incessant study Abraham Lincoln fitted himself to accept
the post of clerk at Offutt's store, in New Salem, in 1831. It was a
responsible position, requiring strict honesty, intelligence, glib
talk, attention, and courtesy to the few dames in the population of
twenty households, "with the back settlement to hear from." In fact,
Lincoln's gifts and cultivated acquirements made him such a favorite
that the list of customers from out of town was extensive. This
promotion of a newcomer nettled the bad element of the region. They
were located from congeniality in a suburb termed Clary's Grove. Like
the tail which undertakes to wag the dog, this tag constituted itself
the criterion and proposed "initiating" any accession to the
inhabitants. To take the conceit out of the upstart who had leaped from
the flatboat deck to behind the counter at the store--the acme of a
bumpkin's ambition--they selected their bully. This Jack Armstrong was
held so high by Bill Clary, "father" of the Grove boys, that he bet
with Offutt, over-loud in praise of his help, that Jack could beat Abe,
"and your Abe has got to be initiated, anyway!"
Abraham refused under provocation to have anything to do with
"rough-and-tumble" fighting--as also known as "scuffle and tussle," and
"wooling and pulling"--in short, these agreeable features promise to
include all brutalities save gouging, which was unfashionable so far to
the North. But a man could not live quietly on the frontier without
showing to such ruffians that his hands could shield his head. For the
honor of the store, the clerk had to stand up to the opponent.
The bout came off. In the first attack, Lincoln lifted the foe, though
heavier, clean off his feet, but he was unable to lay him down in the
orthodox manner, consisting in placing him flat on his back, with both
shoulder-blades denting the earth. The semi-victor amicably said:
"Let's quit, Jack! You see I cannot give you the fall--and you cannot
give it me."
The gang shouted for a resumption of the "sport," thinking this was
weakness of the competitor. They joined again, but Armstrong, having
his doubts, resorted to foul play--kicking or "legging," as the
localism stands. Indignantly, Lincoln drew him up again and shook him
in mid-air as a terrier does a rat. The rowdies, seeing their champion
bested, shouted for him to make a _fight_ of it, and probably they
would have "mixed in" and made a "fight for all" in another minute. But
Jack had his doubts set at rest as to the prospect of overcoming a man
who could hold him out and off at arm's length; and, begging to be set
down, grasped his antagonist's hand in friendship and proclaimed him
the best man "who had ever broke into" that section. The two became
friends, and the gang gradually dwindled by this recession from their
ranks of their Goliath.
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