A MAN FOR THE AGES

By IRVING BACHELLER

A STORY OF THE BUILDERS OF DEMOCRACY

AUTHOR OF THE LIGHT IN THE CLEARING, KEEPING UP WITH LIZZIE, ETC.

1919

TO MY DEAR FRIEND AND COMRADE ALEXANDER GROSSET

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK IN TOKEN OF MY ESTEEM

_Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built._

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. _March 21, 1864._

A Letter

TO THE AGED AND HONORABLE JOSIAH TRAYLOR FROM HIS GRANDSON, A SOLDIER IN FRANCE, WHEREIN THE MOTIVE AND INSPIRATION OF THIS NARRATIVE ARE BRIEFLY PRESENTED.

_In France, September 10, 1915._

Dear Grandfather:

At last I have got mine. I had been scampering towards the stars, like a jack-rabbit chased by barking greyhounds, when a shrapnel shell caught up with me. It sneezed all over my poor bus, and threw some junk into me as if it thought me nothing better than a kind of waste basket. Seems as if it had got tired of carrying its load and wanted to put it on me. It succeeded famously but I got home with the bus. Since then they have been taking sinkers and fish hooks out me fit only for deep water. Don't worry, I'm getting better fast. I shall play no more football and you will not see me pitching curves and running bases again. No, I shall sit in the grandstand myself hereafter and there will not be so much of me but I shall have quite a shuck on my soul for all that. I've done a lot of thinking since I have been lying on my back with nothing else to do. When your body gets kind of turned over in the ditch it's wonderful how your mind begins to hustle around the place. Until this thing happened my intellect was nothing more than a vague rumor. I had heard of it, now and then, in college, and I had hoped that it would look me up some time and ask what it could do for me, but it didn't. These days I would scarcely believe that I have a body, the poor thing being upon the jacks in this big machine shop, but my small intellect is hopping all over the earth and back again and watching every move of these high-toned mechanics with their shiny tools and white aprons. My mind and I have kind of got acquainted with each other and I'm getting attached to it. It is quite an energetic, promising young mind and I don't know but I'll try to make a permanent place for it in my business.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Man for the Ages by Irving Bacheller
• 2: Can be quite aware of the perils and resources of Democracy
• 3: It will be the theme of themes
• 4: A Man for the Ages by Irving Bacheller
• 5: In the early summer of 1831 Samson Traylor and his wife
• 6: Samson shouted to the man at the door step
• 7: For years Sarah had resisted it
• 8: Pete was always looking for food and perils
• 9: The loaded musket and the dog Sambo lying beside him
• 10: Samson peeled some bark and repaired the roof and
• 11: Broke the hold of Sambo and tossed aside the mongrel
• 12: Elijah Brimstead was a friend o' my father
• 13: Brimstead thoughtfully scuffed the sand with his bare foot
• 14: While Brimstead was bringing the team
• 15: Samson seized the gun and followed him
• 16: With Sambo clingin' to his tail
• 17: He got a hard knock after we met the Brimsteads
• 18: Soon they came in view of the famous Erie Canal
• 19: But Samson had to help him back with a rope
• 20: Samson built a rude camp by the roadside
• 21: Then I heard Samson say 'Well
• 22: Flowering prairies and up a long
• 23: Abe asked as he and Samson were unhitching
• 24: He can holler louder than any man in the state
• 25: When they entered it Abe lay at full length on the counter
• 26: Traylor over to Jack Kelso's to night
• 27: ' I guess that Yankee had one more hog than he'd counted
• 28: That the man Webster is a prophet
• 29: Kelso opened it and said Hello
• 30: I haf a vonderful line o' goods vonderful
• 31: Abe standing on top of the log and Samson beneath it
• 32: Abe knelt before him and comforted the boy
• 33: Lukins continued with a dreamy look in her eye
• 34: Jack Kelso is going to look after the store to morrow
• 35: This mortar he rolled into layers called cats
• 36: Some were wigging their leader Jack Armstrong to fight Abe
• 37: Harry had hit Bap McNoll the cock fighter
• 38: Every community is like the thousand friends of Thebes
• 39: As Kelso would say 'He rode the prancing steed of Rhetoric
• 40: That they had heard what Samson had said to Abe
• 41: He thought of the threat of Bap McNoll
• 42: I do wish you could raise a mustache
• 43: It was partly the fear of ridicule
• 44: They say McNoll has left the country
• 45: Sarah enjoyed fixing up the cabin
• 46: I won't have none o' yer' weevily wheat
• 47: They act so rough an' make sech a noise
• 48: Going about those days and the detector was in great request
• 49: They stood looking at Santa Claus
• 50: Lovejoy had sent them to Erastus Wright of Springfield
• 51: Brimstead came down the ladder and they shook hands
• 52: I didn't know Traylor them days
• 53: Slavery was a relic of ancient imperialism
• 54: You might spyle the skunk with that club
• 55: Ann went to the ladder and called Bim
• 56: Bim has to milk a cow that's the reason
• 57: Eliphalet Biggs met the pretty daughter of Jack Kelso
• 58: Kelso rose and went home to supper
• 59: Kelso chided her husband for being hard on Mr
• 60: Bim touched her pony with the whip and rode away
• 61: Samson had gone to the woods to split rails
• 62: Allen were the guests of the Kelsos
• 63: Whatever happens to the Sangamon
• 64: But three eels is jest a lot o' slippin' an' disapp'intment
• 65: Some days I'm plum scared o' myself
• 66: Bim started for the road at a gallop
• 67: Samson drove across country to meet the steamer
• 68: Bim and her mother are terribly excited
• 69: Soon a letter came from Bim to her mother
• 70: The horses of Harry and Abe were stolen
• 71: You're not expecting to meet Bim Kelso
• 72: Said Abe as they tramped along
• 73: He'll give us a shake down somewhere
• 74: But Hill and McNeil had no need of a clerk
• 75: I were goin' to warn 'em an' holp 'em ef I cain
• 76: Said the minister turning to McNeil
• 77: If you were rassling for the right you could flop me
• 78: Then Abe told Samson what was up
• 79: Stephen Nuckles returned as Abe was speaking
• 80: Joe asked with a look of wonder
• 81: Abe has been appointed Postmaster
• 82: Abe answered with a sorrowful look
• 83: Three dollars a day is not to be sneezed at
• 84: Ann was deeply in love with John McNeil the genial
• 85: Abe said one morning in October as he went on
• 86: Springfield had been rapidly changing
• 87: I wonder what a cassinette is like
• 88: She haf cry ven she tolt me dot
• 89: I have an inappeasable hatred of brooms
• 90: I wanted to see you private 'bout Lukins
• 91: Abe was much impressed by these kindly words
• 92: Thereupon Abe gave up the idea of going to St
• 93: Here are such men as Theodore Ford
• 94: Said Annabel turning red with embarrassment
• 95: Said Brimstead as if about to disclose another secret
• 96: A humly boy don't git tramped on an' nibbled too much
• 97: Brimstead said to Samson Say
• 98: Samson lifted Sarah in his arms again and kissed her
• 99: Came out for a talk with the Traylors
• 100: Brimstead is constructing the future of Illinois
• 101: Bim had possession of his heart again
• 102: Were the slaves they carried the property of Biggs
• 103: Brimstead met Harry outside the door
• 104: Brimstead blew out his breath and said in a low tone Say
• 105: Followed by Collar on his sorrel mare
• 106: Percy is at the door now with his buggy
• 107: Bim met them down the road a mile or so from Hopedale
• 108: Harry and Bim had put out the horses
• 109: Kelso called Bim to set the table
• 110: As she stood by the side of the buggy
• 111: Brimstead and Abe had a talk together
• 112: Rutledge and Abe tiptoed up the stairway
• 113: The wife and babies are over to Beardstown
• 114: Choring around the place and taking it easy
• 115: Lincoln had followed his conscience
• 116: Lincoln had little understanding
• 117: Men who are to make history will live in Springfield
• 118: And I don't know how Bim stands
• 119: In my opinion Bim will want you
• 120: Samson and Harry had finished their work in New Salem
• 121: Lukins handed a package to Samson
• 122: And I'd like to settle in Springfield
• 123: Brimstead was mowing the grass in his dooryard
• 124: El Dorado can make out with a canal to Lake Michigan
• 125: Bim has been teaching school in Chicago this winter
• 126: They had the same kind o' feelin's that Brimstead has
• 127: Samson shouted as he covered the man with his pistol
• 128: Riding a horse in scarlet housings
• 129: They went out to find the house
• 130: While Samson sat down for a visit with Jack Kelso
• 131: That night Harry and Bim stood by the gate talking after Mrs
• 132: Said Samson as they were going to bed
• 133: The Kelsos suffered real distress
• 134: Then for a time Bim entered upon great trials
• 135: Bim exclaimed with tears in her eyes
• 136: The day before the payment came due in December
• 137: In March Abe Lincoln had got his license to practise law
• 138: Have you heard from Bim or any of the Kelsos
• 139: Said Lincoln as he sat looking sadly into the fire
• 140: They are the towers and steeples of El Dorado
• 141: A little farther on is the cabin of Brother Cawkins
• 142: Bim Kelso is the person I seek
• 143: The Doctor entered and presently Bim came out
• 144: Bim said God bless you and Harry
• 145: Samson ate his luncheon in the darkness
• 146: Kelso could believe no evil of her benefactor
• 147: Dey don't blame you here becos you vos born
• 148: Annabel was four years older than he
• 149: It would be like the unscrupulous lawyer
• 150: ' The boy Joe has been deeply interested in this talk
• 151: They found many of Davis's notes in Tazewell County
• 152: He wrote a very tender letter to Bim that day
• 153: I honestly regret that he has disagreed with himself
• 154: He did and in time confessed to Samson Traylor that Mr
• 155: I took care of the boy until Steve Nuckles came to help me
• 156: She told me that Eliphalet Biggs had been there
• 157: Some of the leading citizens openly distrusted him
• 158: Arrived in Springfield to visit her sister
• 159: Said Abe Lincoln with a good natured laugh
• 160: Abe Lincoln liked her better for that
• 161: Bim and her mother returned to Chicago on the stage
• 162: Bim was then a little over twenty five years old
• 163: It was your misfortune that brought Bim into the store
• 164: Sarah's friends had been out in Springfield for a visit
• 165: That man looks like Stephen Nuckles
• 166: Nuckles should be on hand at the right moment
• 167: Lukins is a famous cook as you will see
• 168: Herndon a man of character and sound judgment
• 169: For him the fulness of time had arrived
• 170: Douglas was the more finished orator
• 171: Who had come to our house with Bim