A bleeding nation, rent by wanton strife, Till, at the summons of a traitor's blow, The noble Lincoln yielded back his life. The sun that rose in shadow set in blood; Hope for the world, of freedom bravely won, Not Lincoln dead, but Lincoln born, we love, WHEN LINCOLN WAS A BOY. E began his life under a workman's hat, Without feathers or braid-and I can do that. He worked and struggled, till obstacles ranThat's how I shall do when I am a man. But perhaps I had better be thinking of how For they say that his being a hero began He learned very early to tell what was true, How many more things it would tire us to tell HAIL LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY. IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. HE birthday of Lincoln! we hail it once more, THE And come to do homage to him as of yore, The voice of the nation with us shall unite In eloquent praises his deeds to recite. O slavery! Abraham Lincoln, the brave, Ah, could we forget what our Lincoln has done? How modest, forgiving, and gentle he was, How honors became him! nor did he once boast "With malice toward none," let his motto be ours, OUR ELOQUENT DEAD. IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. WITH pride and affection we gather again In honor of Lincoln, the noblest of men, And here on his birthday our hearts shall proclaim Devotion and love to his excellent name. To-day shall the laurel and ivy entwine In grateful remembrance from your heart and mine, We'll never forget him, though seasons decay, Oh, lift up the flag! let the Stripes and the Stars In honor of Lincoln, Our Eloquent Dead! FEBRUARY GAVE US LINCOLN. HERE comes the jolly February, Month of storms and month of thaws, Month when winter slips his fetters, Spite of ice-king's sternest laws, Bring us clouds or bring us sun, DE MASSA LINKUM BY DE HAN'. [Tune: "Little Old Log Cabin in, the Lane."] ESE eyes are gettin' old an' dim, this world's just like de snow, I won't be in your road so very long; Befoh anoder winter comes, de ole man's gwine to go De joy dat rises in dis heart am hid from mortal view. But when I gets to heaven's gate an' de Angel let me froo Foh many long an' weary years, befoh de soldiers come I toiled beneath de sun in Tennessee. Oh, how us darkies shouted when we heard de beatin' drum, An' I knows dat when I finds him in dat heaven so far away Den soun' yoh trumpet, Gabriel, an' call de ole man home! I want to go to heaven where no more in grief I'll roam, An' when I gets inside de gate, I's gwine right out to hunt An' when I sees dat good ole man, I'll march right up in front When Lincoln was about to tell an anecdote during a meal, he would lay down his knife and fork, place his elbows upon the table, rest his face between his hands and begin with "That reminds. me." S. C. Busey. M GETTYSBURG SPEECH A LESSON IN ORATORY. OST S. S. CURRY, PH. D. men to-day think of Lincoln as the iron will and the statesman, and forget the time when he was regarded as little more than a popular orator. Yet that was the light in which he was held by most men when he was nominated for the presidency. That Lincoln was a great orator is shown by his address at Gettysburg. The orator who was chosen to make the great address on that occasion was Edward Everett, but his formaland may we not say stilted oration?—his rhetoric and finely turned phrases are forgotten; while the few simple words spoken by Lincoln will live as long as we are a people. In his first sentence he presented the ideal of our nation from its foundation. In his second sentence he expressed the ideal of those who fought to save the Union. In the third sentence he referred in the fewest possible words to the sacred ground on which they stood. In the fourth sentence he showed the purpose for which they had come together. In the next four short sentences he showed that the ground had already been consecrated by those who had died, and that the audience gathered there on that day could only recognize the deeds of the nation's heroes. In his last two sentences he turns all their thoughts and their feelings to themselves, to their own personal duties. He touched the deepest chords of patriotism and inspired the whole nation for all time to a truer realization of the dignity of its mission. Here we have an example of the very highest oratory. It was short, as great oratory ever is. He said what everybody felt, and put his ideas in such simple and definite language that he strengthened and ennobled the emotion he expressed. The greatest oratory draws out a vague feeling or conviction in a multitude of men and expresses it in such a way that it becomes a strong motive for conduct. The tendency of oratory in our time is to exhaust a subject and entirely to waste feeling by multitudes of words and exuberance of expression; but true oratory never exhausts a |