e
ethnographic consideration of mankind.

Very sincerely,

T.H. BARTLETT.

An eminent member of the Illinois bar, one who has been closely
identified with the legal history of Illinois for nearly sixty years,
and who is perhaps the best living authority on the history of the
State, writes:

That portion of the biography of Mr. Lincoln that appears in
the November number of McCLURE'S MAGAZINE I have read with
very great interest. It contains much that has not been
printed in any other life of Lincoln. Especially interesting
is the account given of pioneer life of that people among whom
Mr. Lincoln had his birth and his early education. It was a
strange and singular people, and their history abounds in
much that is akin to romance and peculiar to a life in the
wilderness. It was a life that had a wonderful attractiveness
for all that loved an adventurous life. The story of their
lives in the wilderness has a charm that nothing else in
Western history possesses. It is to be regretted that there
are writers that represent the early pioneers of the West to
have been an ignorant and rude people. Nothing can be further
from the truth. Undoubtedly there were some dull persons among
them. There are in all communities. But a vast majority of the
early pioneers of the West were of average intelligence
with the people they left back in the States from which
they emigrated. And why should they not have been? They were
educated among them, and had all the advantages of those by
whom they were surrounded. But in some respects they were much
above the average of those among whom they dwelt in the older
communities east of the Alleghany Mountains. The country
into which they were about to go was known to be crowded
with dangers. It was a wilderness, full of savage beasts and
inhabited by still more savage men--the Indians. It is evident
that but few other than the brave and most daring, would
venture upon a life in such a wilderness. The timid and less
resolute remained in the security of an older civilization.

The lives of these early pioneers abounded in brave deeds,
and were often full of startling adventures. The women of that
period were as brave and heroic as were the men--if not more
so. It is doubtless true Mr. Lincoln's mother was one of that
splendid type of heroic pionee