nearly all of them built of logs. New Salem's population probably
never exceeded a hundred persons. Its inhabitants, and those of the
surrounding country were mostly Southerners--natives of Kentucky and
Tennessee--though there was an occasional Yankee among them. Soon
after Lincoln left the place, in the spring of 1837, it began to
decline. Petersburg had sprung up two miles down the river, and
rapidly absorbed its population and business. By 1840 New Salem was
almost deserted. The Rutledge tavern the first house erected, was the
last to succumb. It stood for many years, but at last crumbled away.
Salem hill is now only a green cow pasture.--_Note prepared by J.
McCan Davis._]

Governor Hoyt tells an excellent story illustrating Lincoln's interest
in muscle and his involuntary comparison of himself with any man who
showed great strength. It was in 1859, after Lincoln had delivered a
speech at the State Agricultural Fair of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The
two men were making the rounds of the exhibits, and went into a tent
to see a "strong man" perform. He went through the ordinary exercises
with huge iron balls, tossing them in the air and catching them, and
rolling them on his arms and back; and Mr. Lincoln, who evidently had
never before seen such a thing, watched him with intense interest,
ejaculating under his breath every now and then, "By George! By
George!" When the performance was over, Governor Hoyt, seeing Mr.
Lincoln's interest, asked him to go up and be introduced to the
athlete. He did so; and, as he stood looking down musingly on the
fellow, who was very short, and evidently wondering that a man so much
shorter than he could be so much stronger, he suddenly broke out with
one of his quaint speeches. "Why," he said, "why, I could lick salt
off the top of your hat."