Youngstown News, 1909-02-12

              THE YOUNGSTOWN NEWS. VOL. XXIII. NO. 11. YOUNGSTOWN, NIAGARA COUNTY. N. Y., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1909. $1.00 PER YEAR IN ADYSKCE "LINCOLN'S WAV." Large and loving, rudely tender, with a heart that knew no fear, Stern as granite for a principle, yet melting at a tear— Father Abraham, they called him, this sublime yet simple man, in whose veins the ardent humanhood of Old Kentucky ran. Dear to -him the cause of Freedom, for the black man as the white; Dear to him the common soldier who was with him in his fight; But if one perchance should falter, with his life he must atone; tie was past all human pardon, save the President's alone. Now a father, poor and aged, bowed alike with years and woe, Crushed by all the pain and sorrow that a parent's heart can know, Brought, despairing, his petition; he would plead in Lincoln's ear; knd he prayed to heaven for mercy, that, through God's love, man might hear. 'My two sons, my only children, to the Union's cause I gave; Dne lies buried in Virginia in an unknown soldier's grave. knd the other, last and dearest—for what error, I know not— Is condemned as a deserter, and is sentenced to be shot." 'My old friend," said Lincoln, kindly, "there has inquiry been made, A.nd the execution, meanwhile, I have caused to be delayed, Until further orders from me. This one fact at least, I know: young man can serve us better here above ground than below." 'God be thanked! " the old man,trembling, cried, "and blessing on your name: But—but—what if they should execute him when your orders came?" 'Never fear! before I order that," said Lincoln, grim and sage— 'Well, your son will beat Methuselah, or die of sheer old age!" , -,-llenry Tyvrcll, 'in ','oilier's Weekly r* Sincoln's Social Isolation [Mr. Whitney was an intimate friend of Lincoln from 1859 till the atter's death. His "Life on the Cir>.uit With Lincoln" and "Lincoln's wast Speech" are among his best mown works. He is a lawyer by profession and has held several political jffices.—Editor.] On May 27, 185 6, Mr. Lincoln and ! were staying over night at Decatur, ind in the evening we walked out to ihe public square, and when we had reached a particular spot, after verifying it, he said, partly to himself md partly to me, "Here, on this exact spot, twenty-six years ago, I stood ilone by our wagon, which contained ill that my father and I owned in the (vorld." This incident, and his manaer of viewing it, was typical and symbolical of his entire career; lor, although his life was largely hedged in by crowds and his career and destiny wrought out in co-operation with others, yet his essential self, the thinking part, was passed in .social Isolation. When he had a difficult case to develop and mature he would be missing; this was more especially true of nis life on the circuit, or when he desired to make an extra effort he would hide somewhere, and in silence, isolation and secrecy, by reflection and self-introspection, mature his plans. Nor would he have any stated or especial place to conceal himself; the unused back-room of a (aw office, or an obscure corner of a clerk's, treasurer's or sheriff's office <—or a lonely bedroom of some of the traveling bar—the obscure streets of the village, or the woods or country toads; each and all were alike and Serviceable, and equally put in requisition by him; and by lonely drill and mental discipline, he would grasp and comprehend the whole scope and plan, and all essential details of the case within the compass of his mind in an orderly manner. As a law student (if his sparse efforts in that line may warrant such designation), it was the same; he would perch himself on top of a •wood-pile in the shade, and, as the sun intruded, would grind around 3n the shade. One day Russell Godby, an irreverant farmer (whom Lincoln used to habitually help in- hogkilling time) saw him on top of a wood-pile, with a book in' his hand. He was astonished at the spectacle. "Mawnin', Abe!" "Mawnin'!" "What's yer readin'?" said he, curiously. "I hain't a readin' — I'm etudyin' "—was replied. "What's yer studyin'?" asked Godby. "Law," said Abe, laconically. Godby was almost jbHialyzed: "Good God Almighty!" gasped he. His conception, scheme, method and chronology of emancipation were subjected to the same rigorous law. Several of his generals, as well as others of his supporters, attempted to forestall him in this. He brushed all away and in the secrecy of social isolation matured and promulgated the final plan alone. To mention a minor matter; the house-dividedagainst-itself speech was incubated and brought forth, full-fledged, in the silence and secrecy of social isolation; nor could the utmost efforts Of his most ardent friend stay its advent.On January 5, 1859, the Legislature elected Senator Douglas to be his own successor in the United States Senate, over Lincoln, who was the candidate of the opposition; after which the Democrats proceeded to paint the city very red. I repaired at once to the law-office of Lincoln & Herndon, expecting to find the junior partner for the sympathetic offices of condolence; but found instead, Lincoln, alone and dejected, brooding over Ms adverse political defeat. I regret to remember, that, instead of condoling with him. so as .to lighten his discomfiture, I abused him, as being the cause of his and his friends' undoing. And I can never forget the sad and spiritless way in which he defended himself from my attacks. We sat together in the cheerless, dismal office till after dark, when he went with me to my hotel, and, in fact, remained with me till a late hour. He said with bitterness: ''I expect every one to desert me." Mr. Lincoln was a model citizen, in the sense of being a citizen of the whole State, and ultimately of the whole Nation, although, at the outset of his career, his affiliations were purely local and quadrated with Sangamon alone. Yet, with larger experiences, his social and political horizon expanded and enlarged, and he was no more intimately in touch with the people of Springfield or Sangamon County than with those of Logan or Champaign. He deemed himself to be as much obligated to the people of any other village in the bestowment of official or other favors as to those at his immediate home. And in his entire administration at Washington it was, in principle, the same; he really wanted a Cabinet Minister—Judd—rfrom his own State, but he considered that his State had had enough consideration in his own election. He had no more regard, in the matter of executive favors, for Illinois than for Maine. Geographical propinquity and social propinquity had no alliance in his mind; his social area embraced the whole State and ultimately the entire Nation. His field was the world. He dwelt in principles and institutions. To him men were but agents or media, to originate, promulgate or enforce principles, and a man's locality had naught to do with his efficiency in that respect; and the acme and high-water mark of such social pastimes as he allowed himself was achieved on the circuit with the "boys" (as we were called) during court-time. This catholicity (as contradistinguished from anything special) of association and consequent failure to localize his social and political attachments, will serve to explain, in some sort, the lack of that ardent sympathy for him at home which sometimes (and especially on election day in November, 1860) cropped out. The bitterness of partisan politics, especially on the part of those who deemed his anti-slavery sentiments as recusant to the land of his fathers, aided this feeling, and his omission to recognize his home neighbors sufficiently in the distribution of Federal offices all combined to engender a considerable social alienation, and 5 prevented him from being, as abstractly and on his individual merits 3 he would have been, an ideally popu> lar citizen. Not that he was unpopl ular, but he should have been popu-1 lar to the verge of enthusiasm, as I he was when news of the location of t the capital at Springfield reached the . then insignificant little village. I He was a most rigid supporter of i all laws, those which were conventional and unimportant, as well as E those which were vital; paid his - debts and taxes promptly; did not allow his little real estate to get on - the delinquent list, nor violate or 3 omit any other political duty. He 3 drank no liquor at any period of his 3 life and did not visit a saloon (alf though it was a lawyer-like habit to 3 do so) on any pretense whatever; neither did he obtrude advice or a u pertinacious temperance lecture u ) those who did so. We were once in vited to visit a primitive vineyard in t Vermillion County, and to taste the - several varieties of home-made wine. - It affected no one but Lincoln, but it , did affect him: "Fellers, I'm getting . drunk," said he, comically. ABRAHAM LINCOLN--By Augustus Saint Gaucens The Land Swindler's Victims Score another victim for the writer of the vivid land prospectus. A wealthy old farmer recently appeared before a district judge in a western Kansas county and asked for a judgment against a land firm in Chicago because they had swindled him on a deal in old Mexico. The judge questioned the old man, who, by the way, a fortune of over $50,000 by honest and hard work on the farm in his own community. "How is it you purchased this land without seeing it?" the judge inquired of the farmer. "Well, the writin' sent me by this firm said I could double my profits in a year, and that's a whole lot better than havin' my money in the bank. And these fellers said the banks were not safe, either. That is why I bought the land. I bought it before I saw it, because they said it might all be gone if I waited a week longer." Thus it goes—stung, stung, stung. Farmers and city men, too, for that matter, fall a prey to the lurid writing of the land prospectus builder. This new crater, or grafter, in the wor4d of business is making hay while the sun shines. He is reaping a rich reward for his labor. Bankers say hundreds and thousands of dollars ' are leaving their vaults to go into the coffers of so-called big land firms who are selling out large tracts of Viild land in the West. They have the farmer and investor believing land is a better investment than a bank account. And so it is—if the land is all that is said for it. Fortunes have been made in Western land in the last few years. There are farmers in many sections of the Middle West who have gone into Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere and taken up cheap land and sold it again for big profits. These men talk about it, and the ever present 'JUid booklet writer takes their story and sends it all the country, magnifying and color ( to suihis particular section, of course. A satisfied customer in Western lands is a gold mine to a good "wild cat" land company. They often sell some few responsible men in each community land at a low price, and resell it for them in a few months at a profit in order to get their indorsement. They can afford to buy the land in themselves. Land is sold in these modern times through advertising largely. The old system of having hundreds of sub-agents scattered over the country rounding up the purchasers and taking them West on free railroad passes has been eliminated by the railroads cutting off the passes, and the land is now sold by advertising direct to the purchaser. It requires clever writers to "fix the dope." But there are clever young men in the West who know how to wield a pen in molding fanciful opinion about beautiful tracts of land open for settlement. These young men are not graduates of advertising schools; many of them have never seen the inside of a college, but they have been brought up out West and they know how to write about their country so it interests others. A tall, lean young man in Chicago, known by his friends as "TTop"—be- because he talks like a man in a cocaine dream—came from Texas. At a tender age he wrote letters to his cousin and friends in Ohio and other Eastern States, and his letters were so filled with news about the Texas home and the splendid opportunities to get rich there that many went to Texas and bought land as a result of his booming. As he grew up his letters were printed in the local newspapers and hundreds of them mailed every week by enterprising, real estate agents to Eastern folk. "Hop" saw his writings were worth money, so he hired out to the biggest firm in his home town, and before he was through high school was making 5100 a month writing booklets and impressions on the coast country of Texas. ••Hop" was wise and soon engaged in business for himself. He optioned a tract of land just about the time he came of age and sold it out by advertising. Small tracts of five acres each at $5 a month was the burden of his song. Five acres, he claimed, was enough to make any man rich, hut it didn't. "Plop" paid $5 an acre for land and sold it for $20. Of course, he is rich—such a foolish question. Pudes in autos, wears trig diamonds, and acts for all the world like the story-book grafter. He ";ould never succeed as a direct salesman. His methods are too rank, •md he has the bearing of a get-richjuick man. In selling by mail he has the advantage of his customers— Lhey never see him, and by his lurid .-lescription of himself and his proposition a great many of the unwise get the idea he is something great. This is only one of the many. Lote of young men with ordinary training have got a start in the land business by writing booklets. They follow the "frame-up" of some older and wiser head, and then run in a lot of talk that means nothing, but sounds awfully good. The dollars begin to flow into their coffers, of course. It is a marvel to a conservative man to read the incoming mail of one of the big mail-order land concerns. The nuniber of people who insist upon sending their money to these firms for land before they have seen the property is unbelievable. I can relate an actual experience that came to my personal attention. A man living in Mississippi wa3 a subscriber to a Pacific coast daily. This Pacific coast daily carried the two-inch advertisement of a Chicago land firm selling lands in New Mexico. The Mississippi man answered the ad. and got the beautiful illustrated booklet and the selling talk. He at ones bought a bank draft for $6000, the first payment required on a certain tract of land, and remitted it to Chicago. I know this transaction occurred within a week's time— just time enough for the mails to handle the deal, I saw the letters written by the customer down in Mississippi and saw the draft. The Mississippi mqjii had never been in New Mexico, knew no one there, and did not know the firm with whom he was doing business—they were not rated in any mercantile report and the man who sent the draft was assistant cashier in a bank. Such transactions as this travel quickly—the advertising agents hear, about it and they tell other aspiring land grafters how easy it is to get money by mail, and so the story induces others to "get busy." The man who can write a lurid land booklet that will bring in lots of money and still so represent the conditions near enough as to "stick" is the* man sought by the near-honest promoter who wants to take the people's money, but has a horror of a fraud order, a jail sentence, or having to refund any of his ill-gotten gains. It is the man who writes so neat the lie and yet keeps within the pale and at the same time gets results who is paid big money for his work. Frequently writers of such books get $1000 a month, others work on a commission. I know a young man who gets one cent for every acre sold as a result of his literary efforts; he is living easy at big hotels, and his profits are piling up so fast that he cannot spend them. Land promotion is one of the important fields of endeavor in Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, St. Louis and smaller cities surrounding. You will find all of the big office buildings crowded with land men—they always have the best suites and the finest equipment for business. Their offices are luxuriously furnished and they themselves are examples of fitness. Their bigh-salaried prospectus writers have private offices and only work when the "muse" aits them. In writing selling talk they are perhaps the most successful modern advertising writers, but they do not work along the same principles of most advertising writers—they do not lose any sleep sticking to t*hs truth. The land publicist is a man created for the purpose. When the investor finds it is best to investigate where he buys Western land this creature of circumstance will pass into oblivion.—Detroit News-Tribune. The Cheapness of Life. During last year labor in the United States lost nearly 35,000 lives in the course of employment. There were also about 2,000,000 accidents. Most industries involve risks, some greater than others. The accident rate of electricians is excessive. That of coal miners is 3.10 per 1000 in the United States to 1.29 per 1000 in the United Kingdom. This proportion holds among the railroad employes. We lost 2.50 per 1000 to Germany's .98 per 1000. In other words, we slaughtered on the average 915 more coal miners than England and 1735 more railroad employes than Germany.Two conditions account for this excessive death rate that runs throughout all our departments of labor. First, the reckless indifference and carelessness, united with an inherent dislike to obedience, that characterize our American workmen. Second, the unwillingness of employers to install accident saving devices, and to compel military obedience to preventive orders. Germany has a permanent exhibition of accident 3aving devices which has been productive of great benefit to life. This feature England is copying.—Boston Post. Rural Diplomacy. "Judgin' from the price ye charged me, neighbor, ye put three gallon uv m'lasses in a two-gallon jug. Naow I ain't b'grudgin' the money, but I don't cal-late ter hev the jug stretched.—Judge. TASMANIAN RABBIT 3. Government Importation of Wire Netting Urged to Curb This Pest. In a debate in the Parliament of Tasmania with reference to wire netting protection against the rabbit pest the remarks which were made suggest the excellent market Tasmania would afford for wire netting. One member stated that they were endeavoring to promote closer settlement on Crown lands, giving advances to settlers, promoting immigration, and doing their best to induce people to go on the land and keep them there. But they were doing nothing to cope with the great evil small farmers had to contend against—the rabbit pest. The Government lands were overrun by the pest and little was done to keep them down by poisoning. They had tried trapping, shooting and poisoning in some quarters, but the pest still multiplied, while the birds and the flocks and herds were poisoned. In the district he represented this was a matter that affected the very life of the farmers. One man had written to him that he had been farming twenty years and it was questionable if he could go on any longer because of the rabbits. The only effectual way to deal with the pest, he held, was with wire netting. .The settlers did not want one penny from the Government, but they asked that the Government import wire netting, sel! it to the settlers at cost price and give them a reasonable time to pay for it. Another member said that he thought the Government should help to exterminate the rabbit pest just as it was trying to do with the San Jose scale, and if the Government would only import a few hundred miles of wire netting, it would be able to get it much cheaper than any settler who wanted a few miles only of the fencing. The Government should at least try to prevent the small farmers from being ruined by rabbits bred on the Crown kinds. Another member said that the laying of rabbit poison did a great deal of harm by the wholesale --destruction of native birds, kangaroo, wallaby and other game. Years ago the black and white magpies, most useful birds to the farmers,  (be seen in .imlrt-ds, while very few could be seen. For caW and caging one of these magpies there was a heavy fine, yet they were poisoned wholesale. If the Government would provide the settlers with wire netting at cost price, it would be an immense boon. Some of the members doubted whether the Government could properly go into the business of selling wire netting and whether it could afford the big expense of wire netting the Crown lands. It was urged on the other hand that the Government of New South Wales had purchased wire netting and sold it to farmers at cost price and Tasmania ought to do the same. The Premier of Tasmania said that the proposal to provide wire netting for settlers and others who would wire net their lands would receive the serious consideration of the Government.—Prom Daily Consular and Trade Reports. Doom of the Big Hat. The feminine hat with the dangerous reach, the headpiece with the spearlike feather and the creation whi.ch obscures the scenery from view, will soon be no more. Chicago milliners have banded as the Milliners' Association with a resolve to wipe out the giant hat evil, and with the motto, "Mutual protection and more artistic millinery." "By means of our organization we will put an end to the cutthroat tactics employed among milliners," a?.Ld Mme. Marie, elected president of thev association at the Palmer House lg,st night. "By this means and by turning out more artistic hats, we will be able to uphold Chicago's reputation as the millinery centre of the country. "—Chicago Record-Herald. ' ' A Needed Change. .1 • The Navy Department recently received from the commander-in-chief of the fleet an official communication relative to certain changes recommended by him to be made in the uniform shirt of the enlisted men. In accordance with custom this letter was forwarded to various officers for comment or expression of opinion, the remarks of each officer being appended on an indorsement slip. Each indorsement introduces the subject matter of the letter in a brief, and one of them thus tersely explained :he contents: "Commander-in-chief desires to change shirt."—Lippincott's.Not So Easy a Problem. The traveler met an old colored man with a balky mule. "What's the matter with him, uncle?" asked the traveler. "Full of pure cussedness, sah. He'll stay right in dat same position foh two or three houahs, sah." "That so? Why don't you build a fire under him?" "What? A fire under dat mule! Lands, mister, if Ah built a fire under dat mule he'd ntay here all day oo wahm himself."—Chicago News.