973.7L63 He Watched Lincoln 
 RH34 Write His Name, 
 
 or, The Boy Who Saw 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 [WCTU handout, ca. 193©] 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
He Watched Lincoln Write 
 His Name 
 
 or 
 
 THE BOY WHO SAW ABRAHAM 
 LINCOLN 
 
 If you had been a little boy when your 
 great grandfather was a little boy; and if 
 you had lived in a log cabin way off in the 
 country with only your father and mother; 
 and if your boy friend from the nearest 
 neighbor's house had come along and said, 
 "Come on, let's go over to the new school 
 house; there is to be a meeting there this 
 afternoon," what would you have done? 
 
 Just what Cleophas Breckenridge did 
 many years ago, when your great grand- 
 fathers were ,boys. He asked his father and 
 mother if he might go. They said, "Yes," 
 and away he went with his chum, across 
 the fields and through the woods to the new 
 school house. The word "new" meant a 
 great deal to them, because until then there 
 had been no school house and no school in 
 this new country where Cleophas lived, and 
 so he had never been to school. 
 
 It was a hot summer afternoon, so when 
 the two boys came in sight of the new 
 school house they saw the people who had 
 come to the meeting sitting around outside 
 on stumps and logs that had been left over 
 after the log school house was built. 
 Among the people was a tall young man 
 whom Cleophas had never seen. Some one 
 told the boys that this was the man who 
 was to speak to the meeting, and that his 
 name was Abraham Lincoln. 
 1 
 
That name did not mean as mueh to 
 Cleophas and his friend as it does to you 
 boys and girls. He did not know he was 
 looking at the man who was to be one of 
 the great presidents of the United States, 
 whose name would be known and honored 
 all over the world. It was not until years 
 afterward that €leophas knew he had good 
 reason to remember that day at the new 
 log school house. 
 
 iSoon Abraham Lincoln began to speak. 
 He talked to the people about the harm and 
 unhappiness caused by alcoholic drinks. 
 The harm does not always stop with the 
 drinker, lit may cause him to do harm to 
 other people. He may want his drink so 
 much and spend so much of his money for 
 it that his family "becomes very poor and 
 friends and neighbors have to give them 
 food and clothes. 
 
 Then Mr. Lincoln told them why it was 
 better not to use any alcoholic drinks. He 
 told them of the better health, the happier 
 homes and the better pleasures that the 
 money saved from drink would buy. 
 
 Of course Cleophas could not remember 
 every word of Abraham Lincoln's speech 
 that afternoon. It was not taken down by 
 some one and printed so that all the world 
 could read it, like the famous speech he 
 made at Gettysburg years afterward when 
 he was President. But Cleophas remem- 
 bered very clearly one thing which hap- 
 pened at the close of that school house 
 speech which shows that the people must 
 have thought well of what was said. Taking 
 a folded, printed paper from his pocket, 
 Abraham Lincoln told the people that it 
 was a "pledge," a promise not to use alco- 
 holic drinks. Many thousands of people, 
 he said, had signed it. He had signed it 
 himself, and he would be glad if the people 
 
at this meeting who wished to do so would 
 sign it, too. He read the pledge to the peo- 
 ple and this is what it said: 
 
 "Whereas, the use of alcoholic liquors as 
 a beverage is productive of pauperism, 
 degradation, and crime, and believing that 
 it is our duty to discourage that which pro- 
 duces more evil than good, we therefore 
 pledge ourselves to abstain from the use of 
 intoxicating liquors as a beverage." 
 
 The paper containing the pledge was 
 placed on the top of a broad stump and 
 many people came up and signed their 
 names. Cleophas wanted very much to sign 
 it. 
 
 All at once he looked up and saw Mr. 
 Lincoln standing in front of him. 
 
 "Sonny, don't you want your name on 
 this pledge?" Mr. Lincoln asked him. 
 
 "Yes, sir," Cleophas answered. 
 
 "You know what it means, that you will 
 not use alcoholic drinks?" 
 
 "Yes sir, I know," Cleophas replied, "but 
 I have never been to school and I don't 
 know how to write my name." 
 
 "Then I will write it for you," said Mr. 
 Lincoln. "If you stand right here and 
 watch me do it, it will be just as good as 
 if you did it. 
 
 So Cleophas looked on and saw his name, 
 Cleophas Breckenridge, written below the 
 other names, in Abraham Lincoln's own 
 handwriting. 
 
 Then, placing his hand on the boy's head, 
 Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "Now, sonny, you keep that pledge and it 
 will be the best act of your life." 
 
 And Cleophas kept the pledge as long as 
 he lived. 
 
 1. This story was originally announced as 
 "The Boy Who Saw Abraham Lincoln." It 
 has been written for reproduction by pupils 
 
 .3 
 
in the fourth school year, in the W. C. T. U. 
 prize essay contest for 1926-27. It is to be 
 told or read to the children, retold by them 
 in their own words and then written. It 
 may be illustrated by cut-out pictures or b$ 
 original drawings. 
 
 2. This pledge should be written on the 
 blackboard for the children to copy into 
 their reproduction of the story, as it is too 
 long to expect them to remember exactly. 
 It contains some words that will probably 
 need previous explanation. It is desirable 
 that the meaning of the pledge should be 
 made clear, and it may serve as the subject 
 of a temperance lesson as to how the ef- 
 fects of alcohol lead to the want and spoiled 
 lives, and injury to others which the pledge 
 describes as "pauperism, degradation and 
 crime." 
 
 Department of Scientific Temperance Instruc- 
 tion. Price, 2 cents; per 50, 25 cents; per 100, 
 45 cents. 
 
 NATIONAL W. C. T. U. PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 Evanston, III. 
 
 8615 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 062501876