Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 43He astonished Graham with the speed with which he masteredKirkham's rules. Thirty years later this schoolmaster saidhe had taught more than five thousand students, but that Lincolnwas the "most studious, diligent, straightforward youngman in the pursuit of knowledge and literature" he had evermet."I have known him," said Mentor Graham, "to study forhours the best way of three to express an idea."Having mastered Kirkham's Grammar, Lincoln devourednext Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Rolling"Ancient History," a volume on American military biography,lives of Jefferson, Clay, and Webster, and Tom Paine's"Age of Reason."Dressed in "blue cotton roundabout coat, stoga shoes, andpale-blue casinet pantaloons which failed to make the connectionwith either coat or socks, coming about three inches belowthe former and an inch or two above the latter," thisextraordinaryyoung man drifted about New Salem, reading, studying,dreaming, telling stories, and making "a host of friends whereverhe went."The late Albert J. Beveridge, the outstanding Lincoln scholarof his time, says in his monumental biography:"Not only did his wit, kindliness and knowledge attract thepeople, but his strange clothes and uncouth awkwardness advertisedhim, the shortness of his trousers causing particularremark and amusement. Soon the name of 'Abe Lincoln' becamea household word."Finally the grocery firm of Lincoln & Berry failed. This wasto be expected, for, with Lincoln absorbed in his books andBerry half groggy with whisky, the end was inevitable. Withouta dollar left to pay for his meals and lodging now, Lincoln hadto do any kind of manual labor he could find: he cut brush,pitched hay, built fences, shucked corn, labored in a sawmill,and worked for a while as a blacksmith.Then, with the aid of Mentor Graham, he plunged into theintricacies of trigonometry and logarithms, prepared himself tobe a surveyor, bought a horse and compass on credit, cut agrape-vine to be used as a chain, and started out surveying townlots for thirty-seven and a half cents apiece.In the meantime the Rutledge tavern also had failed, andLincoln's sweetheart had had to go to work as a servant in a