LINCOLN AND THE CHILDREN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 18, 6 May 1909, Page 718

LINCOLN AND THE CHILDREN

Children liked President Lincoln. Their keen eyes seemed to penetrate his sad and rugged countenance and see the good-natured man behind it. Simple persons, young as well as old, instinctively felt a kinship with him and stood in no awe of him. Babies in their mothers' arms reached out trustingly toward him, and romping youngsters were not stilled in his presence. He delighted n their bold freedom and did not care if they were noisy.

He looked upon the hard privations of his own boyhood as an example to be avoided and not followed. For that reason, he was not given, to preaching from the familiar text, ' When I was a boy I had to do this and that.'

His four children were all boys. Their shouts at play were the only notes of joy that came to the ears of their care-burdened father. Their voices, however loud, did not annoy him, and he never seemed to be impatient t>f their intrusions upon him, no matter how grave might be the business which he had in hand. Often he went out into the grounds and joined in their games, regardless of his dignity and the- amazement of the lookers-on. Sometimes he played ball with them and their playmates, running the bases with his long legs, as if he had no other purpose in life.