Mr. Green pointed out the spot where Lincoln had the Joneses, Greens and others had planned to try Lincoln's wrestling match with the Armstrongs.

"The Clary Grove boys, composed of the Armstrongs, pluck; they challenged him to wrestle. Jack Armstrong, the biggest one, took him in hand and tried to throw him. He tried all sorts of tricks, got foul holds and inside leg hitches, all in vain. Then Lincoln said that if they were for enemies, he was ready; or friends, as it suited them. Big Jack Armstrong slapped him on the back and said, ‘Oh, we were only in fun.' It was the son of those very Armstrongs (Duff) that Lincoln defended and saved from conviction of murder by producing the old almanac by which the jury was convinced that the moon did not shine as witnesses had testified. They acquitted the prisoner in five minutes. Duff Armstrong is still living.

"These were the Armstrongs that wrecked Radford's store. I can tell the story in a few minutes. Radford had a store right over (in the weeds). It was the first put up. A friend told him to look out for Clary Grove boys or they would smash him up. He said he was not afraid. He was a great big fellow. But his friend said, 'they don't come alone. If one can't whip you two or three can; and they will do it.' One day he left the store in charge of his brother with the injunctions that if the Clary Grove boys came not to let them have more than two drinks. All the stores in those days kept liquors to sell, and had a corner for drinking. The store was nicely fitted up and had many things in glass jars nicely labeled. The Clary Grove boys came in and took two drinks. The clerk refused them any more as politely as he could. counter and helped themselves. They got roaring drunk and went to work to smash everything in the store.

Then they went behind the

The

fragments on the floor were an inch deep. They left and went off on their horses whooping and yelling. Coming

across a herd of cattle they took the bells from their necks and fastened them to the tails of the leaders and chased them over the country, yelling like mad. Radford heard them, and mounting, rode in hot haste to the store. I had been sent that morning with a grist to Lincoln's mill. It was at the dam you see down there, and I had to pass the store. I saw Radford ride up. His horse was in a lather of foam. He dismounted and looked in on the wreck through the open doors. He was aghast at the spectacle and said, 'I'll sell out this thing to the next man that comes along.'

"I rode up and looking through the window that had been smashed, said, “I'll give you $400 for it.”

"Done," said he.

I said, “But I have no money, I must have time."
"How much?"

"Six months."
"Agreed."

He drew up a note for $400 at six months and I signed it. I began to think I was stuck. The boys came in, among them Lincoln.

"Cheer up, Billy," said he, "it's a good thing; we will take an inventory."

"No more inventories for me," said I, not knowing what he meant.

He explained that he should take an account of the stock to see what was left.

We found it amounted to $1,200. Lincoln and Berry consulted over it and offered me $750 for my bargain. I accepted it, stipulating that they should assume my notes. You see I always wanted to keep up my credit.

Berry was a wild fellow-a gambler; had a fine horse and a splendid saddle and bridle. He turned over the horse as part pay. They gave me $250 in silver. I stowed this under my hunting shirt and rode off at night for home. I had sent my grist to mill by a boy who carried home the

story of my purchase. As I rode along I was pleased with my horse, and especially with the ribbon on the bridle. My father was in bed when I arrived. He sang out, "So, Billy, you are a merchant, are ye's? You git along to bed and I'll come and thrash the merchant out of you mighty quick."

"I went to the kindling pile and raked over the coals that had been covered up and made a light. Then I said: 'Pop, have sold out and I got this.' I pulled out a dollar and showed it to him, and then another and another, one by one, till I had out $250. He raised up and said, 'I must take a chaw.' He pulled out a plug from under his pillow and called out to mother: 'Liz, get up and get this young fellow a first-rate supper, he has had a hard day's work.'

"Lincoln let Berry run the store and it soon ran out. I had to pay the note. Lincoln said he would pay it some day. We used to talk about it as the National debt. Finally he paid it with interest."

Mr. Goff remarked: "The Clary Grove boys were always up to some mischief. They trimmed the manes and

tails of horses, cut bridles so that but a little remained to break at the first pull; cut girths, put stones under saddles so as to cause riders to be thrown mounting. Right here in front of Offit's store they rolled James Jordan down that hill. You see it goes down at an angle of 45 degrees. Then it reached down to the river 200 feet, and there was no road there as there is now. He used to come here for whisky 15 miles, and he would get his fill.

When drunk

the Armstrongs headed him up in a hogshead. He was a large, fat fellow, and nearly filled it. Then they sent it rolling down the hill. It went with increasing velocity, threatening to go into the river, when it was caught under a leaning white oak, and their victim liberated. Lincoln was here, surrounded by tough fellows of this stamp, but even then he had his eye on the future. He was studying to be a lawyer. All had confidence in his judgment and

honesty. He didn't drink like the others, yet he was not a total abstainer.

"I won my first hat on a bet that he could take a drink of whisky from the bung of a 40-gallon barrel. You see a man named Estep had a trick. He twisted his fingers in a knot, and then bet you couldn't mark his little finger. I had lost several bets on it, when Lincoln said he would help me get even with him. He showed me how he could lift

Growing in the Cellar of Lincoln's Store at Salem, III.

a barrel of whisky on his knees and put his mouth to the bung hole. He told me to take a keg and hold it up as if drinking and bet a fur hat that Lincoln could take up a barrel of whisky and drink from the bung hole. Estep took the bet and lost.

"Lincoln came to Salem on a flat-boat. Offit had built a flat-boat at the head of the river, loaded it with bacon, corn, hogs and goods of all sorts, and set out to go to New

Orleans. Lincoln was put in charge. He started down in the spring flood. Arriving at the dam opposite Salem the scow struck. It was unloaded and a store set up on the

bank.

"At one time there were three stores here, and a church serving as a school house. Now all is desolate. Petersburg, started by George Warburton and Peter Lukinstook the wind out of its sails. It was abandoned for a short time. "The roof-tree moulded on the crumbling wall. Then all disappeared, and only a few holes are left to show where the houses and stores once were."

A move is on foot to revive the memory of Old Salem and have a park laid out embracing the old site. It would be an attraction to tourists, and of those who wish to see from what humble beginnings and under what circumstances greatness could spring.

HOW LINCOLN CURED CHARLES REVIS FROM

SWEARING

Mr. Lincoln, though not a church member, and never made a profession of religion, was always disgusted and shocked when he heard men making use of profane language, and a circumstance will illustrate. It took place when Lincoln was keeping postoffice and store in New Salem. A young man by the name of Charles Revis, about twenty years of age, lived with his father, John Revis, on the bluff of the Sangamon River a few miles north of Salem. Charlie, as he was familiarly called, was in the habit of coming to Salem about every other day and would make the post office his headquarters. Here he would sit and spin out his yarns to the men who would gather around him. As he had at one time been a hand on a keel-boat he had contracted the habit of using profane language. He