Good Stories for Holidays Part 5

Mr. Lincoln made the great speech of his famous senatorial campaign at Springfield, Illinois. The convention before which he spoke consisted of a thousand delegates together with the crowd that had gathered with them.

His speech was carefully prepared. Every sentence was guarded and emphatic. It has since become famous as "The Divided House" speech.

Before entering the hall where it was to be delivered, he stepped into the office of his law-partner, Mr. Herndon, and, locking the door, so that their interview might be private, took his ma.n.u.script from his pocket, and read one of the opening sentences: "I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free."

Mr. Herndon remarked that the sentiment was true, but suggested that it might not be GOOD POLICY to utter it at that time.

Mr. Lincoln replied with great firmness: "No matter about the POLICY. It is TRUE, and the nation is ent.i.tled to it. The proposition has been true for six thousand years, and I will deliver it as it is written."

MR. LINCOLN AND THE BIBLE

BY Z. A. MUDGE (ADAPTED)

A visitor in Was.h.i.+ngton once had an appointment to see Mr. Lincoln at five o'clock in the morning. The gentleman made a hasty toilet and presented himself at a quarter of five in the waiting-room of the President. He asked the usher if he could see Mr. Lincoln.

"No," he replied.

"But I have an engagement to meet him this morning," answered the visitor.

"At what hour?" asked the usher.

"At five o'clock."

"Well, sir, he will see you at five."

The visitor waited patiently, walking to and fro for a few minutes, when he heard a voice as if in grave conversation.

"Who is talking in the next room?" he asked.

"It is the President, sir," said the usher, who then explained that it was Mr. Lincoln's custom to spend every morning from four to five reading the Scriptures, and praying.

HIS SPRINGFIELD FAREWELL ADDRESS

It was on the morning of February 11, 1861, that the President-elect, together with his family and a small party of friends, bade adieu to the city of Springfield, which, alas! he was never to see again.

A large throng of Springfield citizens a.s.sembled at the railway station to see the departure, and before the train left Mr. Lincoln addressed them in the following words:--

"MY FRIENDS: No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again.

A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Was.h.i.+ngton. He never would have succeeded except by the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine a.s.sistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I bid you an affectionate farewell."

SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY

(FEBRUARY 14)

SAINT VALENTINE

The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270.

At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honor of a heathen G.o.d.

On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavored to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by subst.i.tuting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feast.

So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this wise.

A PRISONER'S VALENTINE

BY MILLICENT OLMSTED (ADAPTED)

Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, and detained in England twenty-five years, was the author of the earliest known written valentines. He left about sixty of them. They were written during his confinement in the Tower of London, and are still to be seen among the royal papers in the British Museum.

One of his valentines reads as follows:--

"Wilt thou be mine? dear Love, reply-- Sweetly consent or else deny.

Whisper softly, none shall know, Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?

"Spite of Fortune, we may be Happy by one word from thee.

Life flies swiftly--ere it go Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?"

A GIRL'S VALENTINE CHARM

AS TOLD BY HERSELF

(FROM THE CONNOISSEUR, 1775)

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, and I'll tell you what I did the night before. I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow, and the fifth to the middle; and then if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we would be married before the year was out.

But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk, and filled it with salt, and when I went to bed ate it, sh.e.l.l and all, without speaking or drinking after it.

We also wrote our lovers' names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be our valentine. Would you think it? Mr. Blossom was my man, and I lay abed and shut my eyes all the morning, till he came to our house, for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world.