IN LINCOLNS CHAIR - 1920 - YES, sir he was what I call a godly man. Fact is, I never knew anybody I felt so sure would walk straight into Heaven, everybody welcomin him, nobody fussin or fumin about his bein let in as Abraham Lincoln. It was Billy Brown talking. We were seated by the stove in his drug store on the public square of Springfield, Illinois, he tilted back in a worn high-back Windsor, I seated properly in his famous Lin colns chair, a seat too revered for any body to stand on two legs. It was a snowy blustery day and the talk had run on uninterruptedly from the weather to the campaign. The year was 1896, and Billy, being a gold Democrat, was gloomy over politics. We had finally arrived, 3 5H I Z, we always did when we met, at when Mr. L l-icoln was alive, and Billy had been dwelling lovingly on his great friends gentleness, goodness, honesty. You know I never knew anybody, he went on, who seemed to me more interested in God, more curious about Him, more anxious to find out what He was drivin at in the world, than Mr. Lincoln. I reckon he was allus that way. There aint any doubt that from the time he was a little shaver he grabbed on to everything that came his way-wouldnt let it go til he had it worked out, fixed in his mind so he understood it, and could tell it the way he saw it. Same abollt religion as everything else. Of course he didnt get no religious teachin like youngsters have nowadays-Sunday schools and church regular every Sunday-lessons all worked out, and all kinds of bool s to explain em. Still I aint sure but what they give so many helps now, the Bible dont get much show. It want so when R9r. Lincoln was a boy. ATo, sir. Bible was the whole thing, and thereaint any doubt he knew it pretty near by heart, knew it well before he ever could read, for Lii colihl ad a good mother, thats sure, the kind that wanted more than anything else in the world to have her boy grow up to be a good man, and she did all she knew how to teach him right. I remember hearin him say once how she used to tell him Bible stories, teach him verses-always quotin em. I can see him now sprawlin on the floor in front of the fire listenin to Nancy Hanks tellin him about Rfoses and Jacob and Noah and all those old fellows, tellin him about Jesus and his dyin on the cross. I tell you that took hold of a little shaver, livin like he did, remote and not havin many books or places to go. Filled you chuck full of wonder and mystery, made you lie awake nights, and sometimes swelled you all up, wantin to be good. Must have come mighty hard on him havin her die. Think of a little codger like him seein his mother lyin dead in that shack of theirs, seein Tom Lincoln holdin his head and wonderin what hed do now. Poor little tad He must have crept up and looked at her, and gone out and throwed himself on the ground and cried himself out. Hard thing for a boy of nine to lose his mother, specially in such a place as they lived in. I dont see how he could get much comfort out of what they taught about her dyin, sayin it was Gods will, and hintin that if youd been what you ought to be it wouldnt have happened, never told a man that if he let a woman work herself to death it was his doins she died - not Gods will at all-Gods will she should live and be happy a, nd make him happy But I must say Mr. Lincoln had luck in the step-mother he got. If there ever was a good woman, it was SarahJohnston, and she certain did her duty by Tom Lincolns children. Twant so easy either, poor as he was, the kind that never really got a hold on anything…