the early pioneers of the West to have been an ignorant and rude people.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  Undoubtedly there were some dull persons among them.  There are in all communities.  But a vast majority of the early pioneers of the West were of average intelligence with the people they left back in the States from which they emigrated.  And why should they not have been?  They were educated among them, and had all the advantages of those by whom they were surrounded.  But in some respects they were much above the average of those among whom they dwelt in the older communities east of the Alleghany Mountains.  The country into which they were about to go was known to be crowded with dangers.  It was a wilderness, full of savage beasts and inhabited by still more savage men—­the Indians.  It is evident that but few other than the brave and most daring, would venture upon a life in such a wilderness.  The timid and less resolute remained in the security of an older civilization.

The lives of these early pioneers abounded in brave deeds, and were often full of startling adventures.  The women of that period were as brave and heroic as were the men—­if not more so.  It is doubtless true Mr. Lincoln’s mother was one of that splendid type of heroic pioneer women.  He was brave and good because his mother was brave and good.  She has since become distinguished among American women because her child, born in a lowly cabin in the midst of a wild Western forest, has since been recognized as the greatest man of the century—­if not of all centuries.  It was fortunate for our common country that Mr. Lincoln was born among that pioneer people and had his early education among them.  It was a simple school, and the course of studies limited; but the lessons he learned in that school in the forest were grand and good.  Everything around and about him was just as it came from the hands of the Creator.  It was good, and it was beautiful.  It developed both the head and the heart.  It produced the best type of manhood—­both physical and mental.  It was in that school he learned lessons of heroism, courage, and of daring for the right.  It was there he learned lessons of patriotism in its highest and best sense; and it was there he learned to love his fellow-man.  It was in the practice of those lessons his life became such a benediction to the American nation.

The story of that people among whom Mr. Lincoln spent his early life will always have a fascination for the American people; and it is a matter of congratulation so much of it has been gathered up and put into form to be preserved.

The portraits the work contains give a very good idea of that pioneer race of men and women.  The one given of Mr. Lincoln’s step-mother is a splendid type of a pioneer woman.  A touching contribution are the brief lines of which a facsimile is printed: 

“Abraham Lincoln his