File:When Lincoln kept store (1922) (14801821383).jpg

Identifier: whenlincolnkepts00sous (find matches)
Title: When Lincoln kept store
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Sousley, Clarence
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Publisher: (Chicago) : (Dry Goods Reporter)
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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havecaused him to go broke. Apparently he took the job as clerk in the Offut store be-cause he recognized it as a place where he would have plentyof leisure, in which to read and study. And when Mr. Offut engaged Willie Green as his assistant,this assured Lincoln of this leisure. I dont know how much wages he got as head clerk in theOffut store, but it couldnt have been what wc would call con-siderable. His wage as flat boat pilot down the river to New Orleanswas $10 a month and his keep. I went into the replica of the old Offut store and steppedoff its 14x16 feet, and made a mental calculation of the amountof merchandise it could carry of the particular kind of mer-chandise carried in those days, and as head clerk in this pioneeremporium, I dont believe that Lincoln could have earnedmore than $25.00 a month. I doubt that as clerk, he really earned that much—although hemight have received it—for I am reliably informed that:when they entered the store Abe lay at full length on the
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The Offut Goieral Store, ichere Abraham Lincoln first clerked.This store room was about 14x16 feet. 12 WHEN LINCOLN KEPT STORE counter, his head resting on a bolt of blue demin, as he studiedthe book in his hand. He wore the same shirt and worn suspen-ders and lengthy trousers. But his feet were covered only byhis blue yarn socks. That shows me pretty plainly that Abraham Lincoln wasthinking more of his comfort and convenience and future hopes,than he was thinking about being full of pep and on the job tosell goods for Denton Offut. Early in life he developed an ambition to become a man ofdistinction, and realized that to do so, he must educate himself,and that to educate himself he must have a position where therewas enough leisure time between jumps to allow him to study. Today if we had a salesman like that working for us, wemight call him lazy, but I have every reason to believe thatAbraham Lincoln was not lazy, for the villagers of New Salemallowed that at the time he clerked in

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