SEEING
Lincoln
Presented by
Gold & Co.
LINCOLN, NEBR.
Written for The Nebraska State Journal
By Anne Longman
No. 1—O street
Come with us, all you who are new to the city or you whobid fair to live and die in Lincoln without ever having seen hervarious faces. We’ll teach you in—well, we don’t know howmany lessons—something about the city in which you are living.
Maybe we should begin with the capitol, known over theworld for its beauty. But wethink we’ll start with that handystarting and stopping place, Ostreet. Lincoln is often describedas an overgrown country town, Oits Main street. But even NewYork has its lapses into the primitive,and who doesn’t like, in mediumdoses, the simplicity and thefriendliness that spell countrytown.
When Lincoln was only a handfulof blocks flung down on theprairie for hasty habitation byearly salt seekers, restless youngCivil war veterans, the railroadadvance guard and those with anincurable pioneer fever, it huddledwithin the confines of what is nowthe most downtown part of Lincoln.Along O from Eighth toFourteenth were its beginnings.The town spread slowly, like extremelycold molasses, into an indefiniteshape with an undulatingcircumference at the present timeof about 20 miles.
So, here’s O street, looking fromTenth east. Most of Lincoln’sbuses head up O to Tenth, rollingaround government square andthen rolling back to O again. Youcan’t get lost in Lincoln. Justkeep one foot, or at least an eye,on O and say your alphabet northand south. Or on Thirteenth andsay your numbers east and west.And then there are a few streetson the edges with fancier names,just to make it a little harder.
No. 2—The Lincoln Statue
This city is one of 25 citiesor towns in the United Statessharing the name of Lincoln.Sixteen of these 25 were namedfor Abraham Lincoln. It is perhapsnot unduly vain to saythat Lincoln, Neb., is most notedof these Lincolns. To begin with,it is the capital of a state, andthat state is the geographicalcenter of the North Americancontinent.
Among other things whichhave drawn attention to thiscity of 81,000 are its illustriousone-time citizens. From thehome base of Lincoln WilliamJennings Bryan spattered thecountry with silver words aboutthe silver standard. GeneralPershing was one of the Atlaseson whose shoulders the weightof the first World war rested.Charles G. Dawes, a dynamicyoung lawyer of Lincoln in the80’s, eventually became a vicepresident. Willa Cather, precociousuniversity student in the90’s, at the height of her writingcareer was conceded to be thiscountry’s most gifted womanwriter. Charles Lindbergh isclaimed by Lincoln after afashion and with some degree ofjustification. It was here thathe learned the art of flying,after trundling into town unobtrusivelyon a day in April—AprilFool’s day in fact—1922.And there are many othernotables