⚫ those who gauged men by their physical endurance and courage; while his affable manners, his unfailing cheerfulness, his ready wit, and his stories, made him a favorite with all. A store was soon his own; but he was too honest and too kind-hearted to drive sharp bargains, and soon found himself in difficulties which it required years of subsequent struggle to clear away, but which he allowed to stand no longer than till he had ability to discharge them. Honest Abraham Lincoln knew no bankrupt's discharge, but a receipt in full on payment in full."

Another noticeable fact in Mr. Lincoln's history is thus mentioned by the same writer: "The office of postmaster of New Salem, a petty office indeed, was his first public position, and one which gave him intense pleasure from the opportunity of reading it afforded him; and it is not a little remarkable that he began life, we may say, by serving the General Government in a civil, and soon after in a military capacity."

The writer of the "Lincoln Memorial" thinks that the fact of Lincoln's captaincy was significant, and almost symbolical. "This early choice," he says, " of one who was at most a clerk and hand in a country store, shows how clearly his fellow-citizens had recognized him as one born to be a ruler of men. At the next election for members of the legislature, he was taken up as the candidate of his district, and so completely united the votes of all parties in his precinct, that he received every vote but seven out of two hundred and eighty-four; and though he was defeated in the district at large, it was the only occasion in which he failed in such an election."

While acting as postmaster, Mr. Lincoln continued his studies, and improved his increased opportunities for extensive reading. He is said to have written out a synopsis of every book he read, and thus to have fixed the contents in his memory.

About this time, John Calhoun, afterwards President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, and prominent in the troubles in Kansas, came to New Salem. He soon formed the acquaintance of the best conversationist in the place, and advised him to learn surveying, – the work in which he himself was engaged. Mr. Lincoln did so, and soon obtained employment as a sur veyor, thus unconsciously imitating him whose place as the head of a great nation he was afterwards to occupy. Little thought Washington or Lincoln, as they drove their stakes or stretched their chains over their neighbors' lands "for a consideration," that they should one day, so to speak, drive the stakes of their tent in the Capitol of the nation, and stretch the chain of their influence over the whole broad country. But God "putteth down one, and setteth up another;" and he upon whose brow God has ordained a crown should rest will surely wear it in the fulness of time, though he may have been born in a hovel or a manger.

Difficulties beset the path of the future President. He had not the never-empty purse of Fortunatus, nor the power of the Phrygian king to turn every thing he touched to gold; and therefore he often found himself embarrassed in financial matters; and at one time, it is said, even his instruments used in surveying were actually seized for debt.

"He still took an active part in politics; and in August, 1834, he was elected to the legislature by a large majority. In this new field he learned much. He was a persistent student, and had already, by close applica tion, made up for much of the deficiency of his early education. He analyzed all he read, and gave up nothing till he had thoroughly mastered it. This gave him a correctness and precision of thought which never

failed him. Naturally modest, he discharged his legisla tive duties without any of the parade or elation which makes some inexperienced members mere tools of the wily politician, or personally ridiculous. His clearness and eloquence struck the Hon. John T. Stuart, one of his fellow-members, and he urged the young member to study law. Acting on this advice, he set himself to Blackstone with ardor, his favorite retreat being a wooded knoll in New Salem, where, stretched under an oak, he would pore over the doctrines of common law, utterly unconscious of all passing around him, and impressing some, at least, of his neighbors with doubts of his entire sanity."

The author of the "Pioneer Boy" thus refers to this period of study: "He canvassed the whole subject in the beginning, and he resolved to spend no evenings in social entertainments. He saw that he must do it from sheer necessity, as he would be obliged to use up the night-hours much more economically than the laws of health would permit. And now he was inflexible. His purpose was fixed, and no allurements or promises of pleasure could make him swerve a hair's-breadth therefrom.

"Springfield was twenty-two miles from New Salem; and yet Lincoln walked there and back on the day proposed. He made a long day of it, and a wearisome one too. On the following evening, Greene called upon him to learn how he made it.

"What!' he exclaimed, 'did you bring all those books home in your arms?' They were Blackstone's Commentaries,' in four volumes.

"Yes, and read one of the volumes more than half of the way,' Lincoln replied. 'Come, now, just examine me on that first volume.' He had a faculty of perusing

a volume when he was walking, and he often did it. He gained time thereby.

"I don't see what you are made of, to endure so,' continued Greene. 'It would use me all up to carry such a load a quarter part of that distance.'

"I am used to it, you know; and that makes the dif ference. But, come, just see what I know about the first part of that volume.' And he passed the first volume to him.

"If you pass muster, you'll want I should admit you to the bar, I suppose,' responded Greene humorously. 'That I shall be glad to do.'

"So he proceeded to examine Lincoln on the first volume; and he found, to his surprise, that he was well posted on every part of it that he had read. By his close attention, and the ability to concentrate his thoughts, he readily made what he read his own.

"Thus Lincoln began and continued the study of law, alternating his time between surveying and study; going to Springfield for books as often as it was necessary, and often pursuing his reading of law far into the night. People were universally interested in his welfare, and all predicted that he would make his mark by and by.

"With such devotion did he employ his time in study and manual labor, denying himself of much that young men generally consider essential, that he might have said with Cicero, 'What others give to public shows and entertainments, to festivity, to amusements, nay, even to mental and bodily rest, I give to study and philosophy.' Even when he was engaged in the fields surveying, his thoughts were upon his books, so that much which he learned at night was fastened in his mind by day. He might have said again with Cicero, 'Even my leisure hours have their occupation.""

In 1836 he obtained a law-license, and in April, 1837, he removed to Springfield, and became the law-partner of Mr. Stuart; and, when the latter went to Congress, he became a partner of Judge Logan. One touching incident of his law-practice, which paints in vivid colors the character of Lincoln as a man and his ability as a lawyer, is thus narrated in a Cleveland paper: "Some few years since, the eldest son of Mr. Lincoln's old friend, Armstrong, - the chief supporter of his widowed mother, the good old man having some time previously passed from earth, was arrested on the charge of murder. A young man had been killed during a riotous mêlée in the night-time, at a camp-meeting, and OLʊ of his associates stated that the death-wound was inflicted by young Armstrong. A preliminary examination was gone into, at which the accuser testified so positively, that there seemed no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and therefore he was held for trial. As is too often the case, the bloody act caused an undue degree of excitement in the public mind. Every improper incident i the life of the prisoner, each act which bore the least semblance of rowdyism, each school-boy quarrel, was suddenly remembered and magnified, until they pictured him as a fiend of the most horrible hue. As these ru mors spread abroad, they were received as gospel truth, and a feverish desire for vengeance seized upon the infatuated populace, whilst only prison-bars prevented a horrible death at the hands of a mob. The events were heralded in the county papers, painted in the highest colors, accompanied by rejoicing over the certainty of punishment being meted out to the guilty party. The prisoner, overwhelmed by the circumstances under which he found himself placed, fell into a melancholy condition bordering on despair; and the widowed mother, looking