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or evening dresscoat, with tightly fitting sleeves to exaggerate his long, bony arms, and all supplemented by an awkwardness that was uncommon among men of intelligence.

ā€œSuch was the picture I met in the person of Abraham Lincoln. We sat down in his plainly furnished parlor, and were uninterrupted during the nearly four hours that I remained with him, and little by little, as his earnestness, sincerity and candor were developed in conversation, I forgot all the grotesque qualities which so confounded me when I first greeted him.ā€

 

THE MAN TO TRUST.

ā€œIf a man is honest in his mind,ā€ said Lincoln one day, long before he became President, ā€œyou are pretty safe in trusting him.ā€

 

ā€œWUZ GOINā€™ TER BE ā€˜HITCHED.ā€ā€™

ā€œAbeā€™sā€ nephewā€”or one of themā€”related a story in connection with Lincolnā€™s first love (Anne Rutledge), and his subsequent marriage to Miss Mary Todd. This nephew was a plain, every-day farmer, and thought everything of his uncle, whose greatness he quite thoroughly appreciated, although he did not pose to any extreme as the relative of a President of the United States.

Said he one day, in telling his story:

ā€œUs childā€™en, wā€™en we heerd Uncle ā€˜Abeā€™ wuz a-goinā€™ to be married, axed Granā€™ma ef Uncle ā€˜Abeā€™ never hed hed a gal afore, anā€™ she says, sez she, ā€˜Well, ā€œAbeā€ wuz never a hanā€™ nohow to run ā€˜round visitinā€™ much, or go with the gals, neither, but he did fall in love with a Anne Rutledge, who lived out near Springfield, anā€™ after she died heā€™d come home anā€™ evā€™ry time heā€™d talk ā€˜bout her, he cried dreadful. He never could talk of her nohow ā€˜thout heā€™d jesā€™ cry anā€™ cry, like a young feller.ā€™

ā€œOnct he tolā€™ Granā€™ma they wuz goinā€™ ter be hitched, they havinā€™ promised each other, anā€™ thet is all we ever heered ā€˜bout it. But, so it wuz, that arter Uncle ā€˜Abeā€™ hed got over his mourninā€™, he wuz married ter a woman wā€™ich hed lived down in Kentuck.

ā€œUncle ā€˜Abeā€™ hisself tolā€™ us he wuz married the nexā€™ time he come up ter our place, anā€™ wā€™en we ast him why he didnā€™t bring his wife up to see us, he said: ā€˜Sheā€™s very busy and canā€™t come.ā€™

ā€œBut we knowed betterā€™n that. He wuz too proud to bring her up,ā€˜cause nothinā€™ would suit her, nohow. She wuznā€™t raised the way we wuz, anā€™ wuz different from us, and we heerd, tu, she wuz as proud as cud be.

ā€œNo, anā€™ he never brought none uv the childā€™en, neither.

ā€œBut then, Uncle ā€˜Abe,ā€™ he wuznā€™t to blame. We never thought he wuz stuck up.ā€

 

HE PROPOSED TO SAVE THE UNION.

Replying to an editorial written by Horace Greeley, the President wrote:

ā€œMy paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery.

ā€œIf I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.

ā€œIf I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

ā€œWhat I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

ā€œI shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause.ā€

 

THE SAME OLD RUM.

One of President Lincolnā€™s friends, visiting at the White House, was finding considerable fault with the constant agitation in Congress of the slavery question. He remarked that, after the adoption of the Emancipation policy, he had hoped for something new.

ā€œThere was a man down in Maine,ā€ said the President, in reply, ā€œwho kept a grocery store, and a lot of fellows used to loaf around for their toddy. He only gave ā€˜em New England rum, and they drank pretty considerable of it. But after awhile they began to get tired of that, and kept asking for something newā€”something newā€”all the time. Well, one night, when the whole crowd were around, the grocer brought out his glasses, and says he, ā€˜Iā€™ve got something New for you to drink, boys, now.ā€™

ā€œā€˜Honor bright?ā€™ said they.

ā€œā€˜Honor bright,ā€™ says he, and with that he sets out a jug. ā€˜Tharā€™ says he, ā€˜thatā€™s something new; itā€™s New England rum!ā€™ says he.

ā€œNow,ā€ remarked the President, in conclusion, ā€œI guess weā€™re a good deal like that crowd, and Congress is a good deal like that store-keeper!ā€

 

SAVED LINCOLNā€™S LIFE

When Mr. Lincoln was quite a small boy he met with an accident that almost cost him his life. He was saved by Austin Gollaher, a young playmate. Mr. Gollaher lived to be more than ninety years of age, and to the day of his death related with great pride his boyhood association with Lincoln.

ā€œYes,ā€ Mr. Gollaher once said, ā€œthe story that I once saved Abraham Lincolnā€™s life is true. He and I had been going to school together for a year or more, and had become greatly attached to each other. Then school disbanded on account of there being so few scholars, and we did not see each other much for a long while.

ā€œOne Sunday my mother visited the Lincolns, and I was taken along. ā€˜Abeā€™ and I played around all day. Finally, we concluded to cross the creek to hunt for some partridges young Lincoln had seen the day before. The creek was swollen by a recent rain, and, in crossing on the narrow footlog, ā€˜Abeā€™ fell in. Neither of us could swim. I got a long pole and held it out to ā€˜Abe,ā€™ who grabbed it. Then I pulled him ashore.

ā€œHe was almost dead, and I was badly scared. I rolled and pounded him in good earnest. Then I got him by the arms and shook him, the water meanwhile pouring out of his mouth. By this means I succeeded in bringing him to, and he was soon all right.

ā€œThen a new difficulty confronted us. If our mothers discovered our wet clothes they would whip us. This we dreaded from experience, and determined to avoid. It was June, the sun was very warm, and we soon dried our clothing by spreading it on the rocks about us. We promised never to tell the story, and I never did until after Lincolnā€™s tragic end.ā€

 

WOULD NOT RECALL A SINGLE WORD.

In conversation with some friends at the White House on New Yearā€™s evening, 1863, President Lincoln said, concerning his Emancipation Proclamation:

ā€œThe signature looks a little tremulous, for my hand was tired, but my resolution was firm.

ā€œI told them in September, if they did not return to their allegiance, and cease murdering our soldiers, I would strike at this pillar of their strength.

ā€œAnd now the promise shall be kept, and not one word of it will I ever recall.ā€

 

OLD BROOM BEST AFTER ALL.

During the time the enemies of General Grant were making their bitterest attacks upon him, and demanding that the President remove him from command, ā€œFrank Leslieā€™s Illustrated Newspaper,ā€ of June 13, 1863, came out with the cartoon reproduced. The text printed under the picture was to the following effect:

OLD ABE: ā€œGreeley be hanged! I want no more new brooms. I begin to think that the worst thing about my old ones was in not being handled right.ā€

The old broom the President holds in his right hand is labeled ā€œGrant.ā€ The latter had captured Fort Donelson, defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, Iuka, Port Gibson, and other places, and had Vicksburg in his iron grasp. When the demand was made that Lincoln depose Grant, the President answered, ā€œI canā€™t spare this man; he fights!ā€ Grant never lost a battle and when he found the enemy he always fought him. McClellan, Burnside, Pope and Hooker had been found wanting, so Lincoln pinned his faith to Grant. As noted in the cartoon, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, Thurlow Weed, and others wanted Lincoln to try some other new brooms, but President Lincoln was wearied with defeats, and wanted a few victories to offset them. Therefore; he stood by Grant, who gave him victories.

 

GOD WITH A LITTLE ā€œg.ā€

Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but god Knows When

These lines were found written in young Lincolnā€™s own hand at the bottom of a page whereon he had been ciphering. Lincoln always wrote a clear, regular ā€œfist.ā€ In this instance he evidently did not appreciate the sacredness of the name of the Deity, when he used a little ā€œg.ā€

Lincoln once said he did not remember the time when he could not write.

 

ā€œABEā€™Sā€ LOG.

It was the custom in Sangamon for the ā€œmenfolksā€ to gather at noon and in the evening, when resting, in a convenient lane near the mill. They had rolled out a long peeled log, on which they lounged while they whittled and talked.

Lincoln had not been long in Sangamon before he joined this circle. At once he became a favorite by his jokes and good-humor. As soon as he appeared at the assembly ground the men would start him to story-telling. So irresistibly droll were his ā€œyarnsā€ that whenever heā€™d end up in his unexpected way the boys on the log would whoop and roll off. The result of the rolling off was to polish the log like a mirror. The men, recognizing Lincolnā€™s part in this polishing, christened their seat ā€œAbeā€™s log.ā€

Long after Lincoln had disappeared from Sangamon, ā€œAbeā€™s logā€ remained, and until it had rotted away people pointed it out, and repeated the droll stories of the stranger.

 

IT WAS A FINE FIZZLE.

President Lincoln, in company with General Grant, was inspecting the Dutch Gap Canal at City Point. ā€œGrant, do you know what this reminds me of? Out in Springfield, Ill., there was a blacksmith who, not having much to do, took a piece of soft iron and attempted to weld it into an agricultural implement, but discovered that the iron would not hold out; then he concluded it would make a claw hammer; but having too much iron, attempted to make an ax, but decided after working awhile that there was not enough iron left. Finally, becoming disgusted, he filled the forge full of coal and brought the iron to a white heat; then with his tongs he lifted it from the bed of coals, and thrusting it into a tub of water near by, exclaimed: ā€˜Well, if I canā€™t make anything else of you, I will make a fizzle, anyhow.ā€™ā€ ā€œI was afraid that was about what we had done with the Dutch Gap Canal,ā€ said General Grant.

 

A TEETOTALER.

When Lincoln was in the Black Hawk War as captain, the volunteer soldiers drank in with delight the jests and stories of the tall captain. Aesopā€™s Fables were given a new dress, and the tales of the wild adventures that he had brought from Kentucky and Indiana were many, but his inspiration was never stimulated by recourse to the whisky jug.

When his grateful and delighted auditors pressed this on him he had one reply: ā€œThank you, I never drink it.ā€

 

NOT TO ā€œOPEN SHOPā€ THERE.

President Lincoln was passing down Pennsylvania avenue in Washington one day, when a man came running after him, hailed him, and thrust a bundle of papers in his hands.

It angered him not a little, and he pitched the papers back, saying, ā€œIā€™m not going to open shop here.ā€

 

WE HAVE LIBERTY OF ALL KINDS.

Lincoln delivered a remarkable speech at Springfield, Illinois, when but twenty-eight years of age, upon the liberty possessed by the people of the United States.

In part, he said:

ā€œIn the great journal

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