Lincoln Story Book, The

<h3>SOMEWHAT OF A NEWSMAN.</h3> <p>Innately attached to letters, and precocious, Abraham Lincoln soon learned his letters and drank in all the learning that his few books could supply. Hence at an early age he became the oracle on the rude frontier, where even a smattering made him handy and valuable to the illiterate backwoodsmen. Besides, as working at any place and at any work, he rarely abided long in any one spot, and had not what might be called a home in his teens.</p> <p>Dennis Hanks, his cousin, said of Abraham, at fourteen to eighteen: "Abe was a good talker, a good reader, and a kind of newsboy." Hence he was a sort of volunteer colporteur distributing gossip, as a notion pedler, before he was a store clerk where centered all the local news. It was on this experience that he would mingle with the newspaper reporters and telegraph men fraternally, saying with his winning smile and undeniable "push":</p> <p>"Let me in, boys, for I am somewhat of a news-gatherer myself."</p> <p>And then he would fix his footing by one of his stories, always--well, often--uttered with a view to publication. <br/> <br/> <br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />