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AMES WHITCOMB RILEY was born in Green

Jheld, Indiana, about 1852. He was engaged in

various pursuits until 1875, when he began to contribute verses of poetry to local papers in the Western district which gained wide popularity for him. His published works in dialect and his serious poems have also proved very popular.

A

A PEACEFUL LIFE

(LINCOLN)

PEACEFUL life; just toil and rest—
All his desire;—

To read the books he liked the best

Beside the cabin fire.

God's word and man's;-to peer sometimes
Above the page, in smoldering gleams,
And catch, like far heroic rhymes,

The onmarch of his dreams.

A peaceful life;-to hear the low
Of pastured herds,

Or woodman's axe that, blow on blow,
Fell sweet as rhythmic words.
And yet there stirred within his breast
A faithful pulse, that, like a roll
Of drums, made high above his rest
A tumult in his soul.

A peaceful life!

They hailed him even

As One was hailed

Whose open palms were nailed toward Heaven
When prayers nor aught availed.

And lo, he paid the selfsame price
To lull a nation's awful strife

And will us, through the sacrifice
Of self, his peaceful life.

WT

7ILLIAM WILBERFORCE NEWTON, born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, March, 1836. Was graduated at Franklin and Marshall College in 1853. Studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He served as Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of U. S. Volunteers in 1861-5; was Editor of the Philadelphia Press and President of the "Press" Publishing Co., from 1867 till 1878. He is the author of Vignettes of Travel and has been largely engaged in railway building in Mexico.

LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE

AW you in his boyhood days
O'er Kentucky's prairies;

SAV

Bending to the settler's ways

Yon poor youth whom now we praise-
Romance like the fairies?
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!
Leader of his people.

Saw you in the days of youth
By the candle's flaring:
Lincoln searching for the truth,
Splitting rails to gain, forsooth,
Knowledge for the daring?
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!
Leader of his people.

Saw you in his manhood's prime
Like a star resplendent,
Him we praise with measured rhyme
Waiting for the coming time

With a faith transcendent?
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!

Saw you in the hour of strife
When fierce war was raging,
Him who gave the slaves a life
Full and rich with freedom rife,
All his powers engaging?
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!
Leader of his people.

Saw you when the war was done

(Such is Lincoln's story)

Him whose strength the strife had won Sinking like the setting sun

Crowned with human glory? Hero! Hero! Sent from God! Leader of his people.

Saw you in our country's roll
Midst her saints and sages,
Lincoln's name upon the scroll—
Standing at the topmost goal
On the nation's pages?
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!
Leader of his people.

Hero! Yes! We know thy fame;
It will live forever!

Thou to us art still the same;
Great the glory of thy name,

Great thy strong endeavor!
Hero! Hero! Sent from God!
Leader of his people.

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T

HE charm which invested the life on the Eighth Circuit in the mind and fancy of Mr. Lincoln yet lingered there, even in the most responsible and glorious days of his administration; over and over again has the great President stolen an hour. . . from his life of anxious care to live over again those bygone exhilarating and halcyon days . . . with Sweet or me.' -Henry C. Whitney in his Life of Lincoln.

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ILBUR HAZELTON SMITH was born in the

WILB

town of Mansfield, New York, March 28, 1860. His early education was obtained from the district school and he began teaching at the age of sixteen. After completing an academic course he went to Cornell University from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1885.

He at once became a teacher and after a few years started the first Current Topic paper in the state, The Educator. Later he edited a teachers' paper, The World's Review. Perhaps he is best known as publisher of the Regents' Review Books used in nearly every school in the United States. His death occurred October 19, 1913.

U

LINCOLN

NLEARNED in the cant and quip of schools,
Uncouth, if only city ways refine;

Ungodly, if 'tis creeds that make divine;

In station poor, as judged by human rules,
And yet a giant towering o'er them all;
Clean, strong in mind, just, merciful, sublime;
The noblest product of the age and time,
Invoked of God in answer to men's call.

O simple world, and will you ever learn,

Schools can but guide, they cannot mind create?
'Neath roughest rock the choicest treasures wait;

In meanest forms we priceless gems discern;
Nor time, nor age, condition, rank nor birth,
Can hide the truly noble of the earth.

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