LINCOLN VISITS HIS BOYS
Cossette, Winifred B.
Lincoln Visits His Boys "No Wonder They Called Him Father Abraham; Such Beauty of Expression, Such Compassion Was in that Face." By WINIFRED B. COSSETTE Dear Mr*. Ijl Foflette: This is a true...
...His enlist-ment was the terror that stalked her day and night now, kept them botfe mute with averted eyes...
...The devoted wife and his mother visioned the obvious hardships, the poor chance for recovery situated as the wounded were with untrained attention from well-meaning comrades...
...They finished supper in silence...
...He revived when she came and pillowed him in her firm young arms for a rest...
...Grandfather made light of woman's fears...
...In the electro-magnetic method, an electromagnetic field is established and anomalies caused by ore-bodies are examined, stations are discovering that the advertising yohes the use «f the radio or wireless...
...Now we know that electrical prospecting is not only possible but practical...
...The most restless lay quietly that night...
...your townsmen have always ranked high in our history!' "Turning to me, 'His wife?' he asked as he took my hand...
...The Government promises to take care of their families—" "The Government is good at promises—" was all she had voice enough to say then...
...go what will I do with two little boys and my confinement only a month away...
...the father went a few days before with his company, Lottie was orphaned in infancy...
...Ijl Foflette: This is a true story, the experience ei our family nurse as related to me shortly before her death three years age, and I feel that I should not longer delay in parsing it an...
...States—one and inseparable—in- ' separable...
...I bowed my head, I could not speak for tears—he passed on silently out of my sight...
...her care was needed...
...She grasped the edge of the table as she sank slovenly to the floor in a dead faint...
...on Ben-Frank's own say-so he was getting good care and food and would come out all right...
...It was a grand occasion for the young, country-bred wife— what would be the proper way to meet him...
...With a word of cheer he stopped at each cot...
...A few more days of suffering and then Ben-Frank's flag-covered coffin was borne to the old cemetery and last taps sounded...
...Something to brag about »hen we get home, Lottie...
...Lincoln had them in mind," it was a new hold on life for dirpirited men...
...One day, like the hope of Spring in the air, came the word that the President would visit the hospital...
...The dreadful months passed and one day a letter in a strange hand came from the front...
...he was young and strong, a little more care and patience on her • part and he would go home with her on a furlough...
...She must go...
...But eturuette disposed of itself as he came to the end of the aisle where Ben-Frank lay wasting away...
...Schooling was not favored for girls in that day...
...Ore-bodies offer less resistance than rock and soil and attract the current, producing easily detected disturbances...
...At last the hospital was reached and she found Justification for her apprehension...
...he would write in a few days when the bandage was taken from his arm...
...The polential involves sending an electric current through the ground and tracing the current lines...
...His wound was not healing, and through unavoidable neglect other complications had become serious...
...His mother, who understood, would take care of the two little boys, Lottie must go to him...
...In her latter days she said to me with mischief in her smile: "Weren't I wicked to watch that boy's cough and the weather—no storm was too bad to send me out in—and reckon on my chance for another day at school...
...a new company is leaving soon...
...she was taken in by a family "across the river," bundled up and placed in a new tub, among other household goods with which the boat was laden that were purchased to better advantage on the "other side of the river," and rowed across to her new home...
...Every personal contact with that great »oul should be recorded.—Winifred B. ORE volunteers are called for, Lottie," said Ben-Frank, looking up from the newspaper, "Marble-headers always come- forward when needed...
...Two little blond rlogletted boys, as sweet and tempting as their guileful mother could make them appear, sat beside their father, their ekatter helping to smooth the way for casual conversation between the parents...
...A stifling pang went through the young wife...
...it was .winter, he was in an ill-equipped field hospital in New Jersey...
...he wandered...
...tie glamor revived the most despondent—he was coming to see "3bie boys...
...But she had »o place for discouragement...
...Ten days after her only girl-child was stillborn...
...days to get the value of their money, and she, eager to learn, made good progress in easy reading and arithmetic to their great surprise...
...phonetic spelling was easy reading and letters were a joy to both without the aid of a third j>erson now...
...Woman is by nature the hygien-ist, though it was not featured much in those days...
...she felt the war-fever was winning him from her despite her spoken and unspoken protests...
...she was arduously trained in the rhany home industries, but the boy of the family was being sent to school, payment being by the term, and no deduction for absence...
...So it came about that as the lad was "pindling" and consequently had to miss sessions, the thrifty folk sent her on thos...
...both shook hands with the President of these Unite...
...In writing, however, she got no further than "pot-hooks," and now that Ben-Frank had gone to war she set about learning to write in order to have privacy in their correspondence...
...ELECTRICAL PROSPECTING WHEN SWEDISH scientists first talked of locating ore bodies by the use of electric currents, a few years, ago, they were ridiculed as much as the original exponent of the forked switch...
...I feel like a cur, fellows I know all leaving—" "Few of them fathers, Ben-Frank...
...Lottie said sharply in her latter days as she told me her great experience: "I have no patience with people who say Lincoln was a 'homely man;' I'd like to tell them to shut their mouths, they don't know whafe-they are talking about...
...No wonder they called him 'Father' Abraham, such beauty of expression, such compassion as was in his face—I thought there is only one other who could look at brave sufferers with that light in the eyes...
...spending good money they would need later...
...He took Ben Frank's hand in his great, warm clasp, and bending over him said: " 'My boy, I am sorry to see you like this— Benjamin Franklin Reynolds, Marblehead, we thank you...
...There came an unusual spell of Inclement Weather to add to the hardships, and as she sot all night beside the dying youth her feet were frost-bitten to add to her misery...
...So, youthful, inexperienced outside of the little town, filled with apprehension of terrors by the way, "he needs me," was- the guiding light of the young wife on her lonely journey...
...The classic story of suffering at Valley Forge seems to discount all later privations, but each . succeeding war has its own harrowing tales...
...He was out later than usual that night...
...a comrade wrote that Ben-Frank had been wounded, "not seriously...
...Th^re are two main groups of electrical methods...
...Her woman's prescience of impending- fate was not abated when a few irregular lines came in his own hand...
...At last he camel , i | ^ « W { I \ il ? I Slowly he moved up the aisle, his unusual height enhanced by the tall hat he wore, a dark, folded shawl over his shoulders...
...her hand shook as she replaced the cup of tea, she was about to taste, in the saucer...
...if you...
...the shadow lay over the breakfast table next morn* iaer...
...Ben-Frank finished his breakfast, pushed back his chair and said abruptly: "I've enlisted, Lottie...
...What would she say...
...He was proud of her enterprise in this and all other matters...
Vol. 19 • January 1909 • No. 2
