CHAPTER XXXIII.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CONTINUED) HIS FAILURESTHE FARM LABORER-THE FLAT-BOATMANTHE FIGHTER-THE MERCHANT-THE SURVEYOR.

THE temptation is strong to linger over many of the incidents of his youth, but I must touch only upon those which perceptively influenced his career. At the age of nineteen he made a voyage to New Orleans on a flat-boat. Himself and the son of his employer constituted the officers and crew. On the voyage they were attacked by seven negroes who intended to capture the valuable cargo. Spurning all but the arms which nature had given him, Lincoln whipped the whole attacking party.

In New Orleans an event occurred which has been much distorted in many Lincoln biographies. He there attended a slave auction and saw a picture, never in this republic to be exhibited again. It was a young colored woman who stood on the auction block to be sold. Her limbs and bosom were bare. Traders in human flesh felt the density of her muscles as if she had been a quadruped. No doubt the young Kentuckian was disgusted, but there is no proof that this was his first object-lesson in human slavery, or that, as so often has been asserted, he turned to his companion and said, "If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I will hit it hard." Such an

expression from a flat-boatman would have been absurd. In its proper place I will give what his intimate friends suppose was the exhibition which converted him from an indifferent spectator of its horrors into a firm advocate of the abolition of slavery.

Nor am I able to find any proof of another event, by many supposed to have occurred about this time. It has been said that his fortune was told by a Voudoo woman, who said he was divinely commissioned to destroy slavery, which would cease to exist within a few years after he became President. I have never met with any reliable evidence in support of this statement.

After a second and uneventful voyage to New Orleans he assisted his father, who now removed a third time, to build a new log-cabin and to clear and fence another farm. This was in the year 1831, when, if ever, he earned the title of "The Railsplitter." For the benefit of those who have written and who believe that Mr. Lincoln was proud of and frequently adverted to this title as evidence of his humble origin, it is proper to say that the story has so slight a basis of truth that it might almost be called apocryphal. I do not find that he ever referred to it but once. the State Convention in 1860, where he was to speak, two rails, adorned with banners and preceded by music, were brought into the hall. The declaration of the bearers that they were genuine created a wild enthusiasm. The statement that they were split by the hand of Lincoln made some reference to them necessary. It was made by Mr. Lincoln in these modest terms:

At

"Fellow-citizens! It is true that many, many years ago John Hanks and I made rails down on the

Sangamon. We made good, honest rails, but whether this is one of them, at this distance of time I am not able to say."

At the age of twenty-two Abraham Lincoln had no trade or occupation. He had tried several experiments, all of which were failures. He had been a farm hand, a ferryman, a flat-boatman. Then for a few months he was clerk in a country store and a superintendent of a flouring mill. He enlisted in the Black Hawk war, and his election as captain of his company gave him the supreme pleasure of his life. The war was a short one. He purchased and operated the county store. In this business he failed and was sold out by the sheriff. Then he studied surveying and became a land surveyor. In this occupation he did not succeed. His failure must have been complete, for his horse, his compass, and his instruments were sold upon an execution by the sheriff. One Bolin Greene, almost a stranger, purchased and sent his horse, compass, and instruments to him with a kindly message to "pay for them when he was able."

Incidents are related of what may be called the experimental period of Mr. Lincoln's life which deserve to be recorded. It was while he was doing business as a merchant that a farmer's wife made purchases from him which required weighing and computation. She had departed for her home some miles away when, upon a revision of the transaction, Lincoln became satisfied that he had overcharged his customer some thirty cents. Some merchants would have waited until the customer complained before reopening the transaction. Not so Abraham Lincoln.

He walked the four miles, corrected the error, and then with a clear conscience went about his busi

ness.

A new post-office was established and he was appointed postmaster. The income was so insignificant that he was not called on to pay the amount due to the Government until some years later when he was established as a lawyer in Springfield. A friend, who thought it would be inconvenient for him to pay the money on so short a notice, went to him with an offer to advance it. To his friend's surprise Mr. Lincoln produced from the drawer of his desk a package containing the identical coins to which the department was entitled. He had been very poor during the intervening years, but never poor enough to use one penny of the money which belonged to the United States.

We now touch the turning-point in Mr. Lincoln's career. The age of twenty-five is given by his biographer Mr. Arnold as the end of the unsuccessful portion of his life. Before this time he had failed in everything he had undertaken. But his life had not been altogether wasted. By the inflexible integrity of all his dealings he had fairly earned the name of "Honest Abe Lincoln." He had learned how to be thorough. His studies of grammar and logic were eventually to make him a celebrity in the world of letters. Much of his hard work in the past was to become invaluable to him when, as his friends declared, his "luck had turned" and he began to travel the highway of success.

An incident which exerted a powerful influence upon his professional success will close our sketch of the unsuccessful period of Abraham Lincoln's career. He was not a fighting man. But in those days a man of his stature would have been deemed a coward if he was not able to defend himself. He was the

tallest and the strongest man in the township and he necessarily became the champion of New Salem. The nearest village had the name of Clary's Grove. This village had a champion, a good-natured giant of a fellow, by name John Armstrong.

The betting and bragging of the two villages over the merits of their respective champions had made it apparent that nothing but a fair, square fight would determine which was the better man. Personally the champions did not wish to fight, but the honor of their respective villages was involved and the contest became inevitable. The combatants did not go into training like the athletes of the modern science of self-defence, but the excitement ran high and the villages backed their respective favorites with money as well as their clamorous opinions. Neutral ground was selected and the day named for the fight. It came off in the presence of a great multitude, comprising the entire male population of the two villages. It was to be a rough-and-tumble combat, in which the first man who should "down" his adversary was to be the victor. There was but one rule. It was no grasping or hitting below the belt, no weapons but those of nature."

In the first round Armstrong grasped the body of his adversary and converted the contest into a wrestling-match, in which he was supposed to be invincible. Lincoln appeared to be dazed and to give his whole strength to an effort to maintain his upright position. Armstrong put forth all his strength; he moved him from right to left, forward and backward, tried very hard to trip him, but all his struggles were useless. The tall figure of Lincoln was moved in every direction, but he stood upright as