t is a loss to a man not to
have grown up among books."

"Men of force," the visitor answered, "can get on pretty well without
books. They do their own thinking instead of adopting what other men
think."

"Yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "but books serve to show a man that those
original thoughts of his aren't very new, after all."

This was a point the caller was not willing to debate, and so he cut his
call short.

LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH.

Lincoln made his first speech when he was a mere boy, going barefoot,
his trousers held up by one suspender, and his shock of hair sticking
through a hole in the crown of his cheap straw hat.

"Abe," in company with Dennis Hanks, attended a political meeting,
which was addressed by a typical stump speaker--one of those loud-voiced
fellows who shouted at the top of his voice and waved his arms wildly.

At the conclusion of the speech, which did not meet the views either
of "Abe" or Dennis, the latter declared that "Abe" could make a better
speech than that. Whereupon he got a dry-goods box and called on "Abe"
to reply to the campaign orator.

Lincoln threw his old straw hat on the ground, and, mounting the
dry-goods box, delivered a speech which held the attention of the crowd
and won him considerable applause. Even the campaign orator admitted
that it was a fine speech and answered every point in his own "oration."

Dennis Hanks, who thought "Abe" was about the greatest man that ever
lived, was delighted, and he often told how young "Abe" got the better
of the trained campaign speaker.

"ABE WANTED NO SNEAKIN' 'ROUND."

It was in 1830, when "Abe" was just twenty-one years of age, that
the Lincoln family moved from Gentryville, Indiana, to near Decatur,
Illinois, their household goods being packed in a wagon drawn by four
oxen driven by "Abe."

The winter previous the latter had "worked" in a country store in
Gentryville and before undertaking the journey he invested all the money
he had--some thirty dollars--in notions, such as needles, pins, thread,
buttons and other domestic necessities. These he sold to families along
the route and made a profit of about one hundred per cent.

This mercantile adventure of his youth "reminded" the President of a
very clever story while the members of the Cabinet were one day solemnly
debating a rather serious international problem. The President was in
the minority, as was frequently the case, and he was "in a hole," as
he aft