The Lincoln Story Book Part 14

Speaker Mullenberg, at the first Presidency, p.r.o.nounced on the question at a dinner where Washington was sitting.

"Why, general, if we were certain the office would always be held by men as large as yourself (how cleverly he shunned the use of either "great" or "grand!") or Mr. Wynkopp there, it would be appropriate enough! But, if by chance a President as small as my opposite neighbor should be elected, his high mightiness would be ridiculous!"

The quarrelers were hushed, thinking if Douglas, the Little Giant, had preceded or should follow their colossus of six feet three!

LINCOLN'S OPINION AT THIRTY.

Diffident, but having been twice disappointed in love-making, Abraham wrote in support of a Miss Owen rejecting him: "I should never be satisfied with any one blockhead enough to have me."

THE BLANK BIOGRAPHY.

Lincoln had been reading from Edmund Burke's life, when he threw down the book with disrelish. He fell into his habit of musing, and on reviving, said to his a.s.sociate, Herndon:

"I've wondered why book publishers do not have blank biographies on their shelves, always ready for an emergency; so that if a man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written--but with blanks. These blanks _they_ can fill up with rosy sentences full of high-sounding praise."

He sent the "Dictionary of Congress" his autobiography in a single paragraph of fifty words--as an example(?).

"THE HOMELIEST MAN UNDER GOVERNMENT."

When General Lee surrendered to General Grant, one point was noticed by the spectators which, it was held, distinguished the Cavalier from the Puritan. Grant was in his fighting clothes and his every-day sword by his side, while General Lee, dressed faultlessly as a soldier should always be, carried a court sword, presented him as a honor by the Southerners. So, in wars, Providence does not flourish the showy weapon, but uses a strong and sharp blade without ornamental hilt.

Abraham Lincoln was the instrument of Heaven for work--ceaseless, b.l.o.o.d.y work, hard, for it was that least to his taste.

From boyhood the looks of the wood-chopper and river boatman were subjects of jeering. Whether the budding genius spurned such advent.i.tious aids as graces of person in his career, or was already a philosopher who believed that handsome is that handsome does is a winning motto, we may never know. It is enough that he joined in the laugh and kept the ball rolling.

On the loss of a first love, one Annie Rutledge--a name he said he always loved--his friends were alarmed for his health and sanity.

They took away the knife every man carried in the West, and discovered it was the obligatory one presented to the ugliest man and not to be disposed of otherwise than to one still homelier.

There is a record of the clerical gentleman to whom Lincoln was justified in offering it, who died with it in his uncontested possession, in Toronto.

As is the custom, an office-holder going out of his seat calls on the President with his successor to transfer the seals and other tokens.

The unlucky man enumerated the good qualities of his subst.i.tute, and was surprised that Mr. Lincoln should dilate upon his with excessive regrets that he was going to leave the service. This Mr. Addison was indeed a first-cla.s.s servant, but uncommonly ill-favored.

"Yes, Addison," said the chief, "I have no doubt that Mr. Price is a pearl of price, but--but nothing can compensate me for the loss of _you_, for, when you retire, I shall be the homeliest man in the government!"

BETTER LOOKING THAN EXPECTED.

(Related by the President to Grace Greenwood):

"As I recall it, the story, told very simply and tersely, but with inimitable drollery, ran that a certain honest old farmer, visiting the capital for the first time, was taken by the member of Congress for his 'deestrict,' to some large gathering or entertainment. He went in order to see the President. Unfortunately, Mr. Lincoln did not appear; and the congressman, being a bit of a wag, and not liking to have his const.i.tuent disappointed, designated Mr. R., of Minnesota.

He was a gentleman of a particularly round and rubicund countenance.

The worthy agriculturist, greatly astonished, exclaimed:

"Is that old Abe? Well, I du declare! He's a better-lookin' man than I expected to see; but it do seem as how his troubles have druv him to drink!'"

LINCOLN AND SUPERSt.i.tION.

Childhood's impressions are ineffaceable, though they may be for a time set aside. Abraham Lincoln with all his lofty mind, acquiesced in the vulgar belief when he took his son Robert to have the benefit of a "madstone," at a distance from where the boy was dog-bitten. He made the pact with the Divine Power as to the Emanc.i.p.ation Act, with a sincerity which robbed worldly wisdom of its sting, and he had dreams and visions like a seer.

LINCOLN'S DREAM.

"Before any great national event I have always had the same dream. I had it the other night. It is a ship sailing rapidly."--(To a friend, in April, 1865. See "Ship of State," a pet simile.)

LINCOLN'S VISION.

Abraham Lincoln had been nominated for the Presidency. The consummation of his ambition had naturally a deep impression upon him.

He came home and threw himself on the lounge, expressly made to let him recline at full-length. It was opposite a bureau on which was a pivoted mirror happening to be so tilted that it reflected him as he lay.

"As I reclined," he says, "my eye fell upon the gla.s.s, and I saw two images of myself, exactly alike, except that one was a little paler than the other. I arose and lay down again with the same result. It made me quite uncomfortable for a few minutes, but some friends coming in, the matter pa.s.sed out of my mind.

"The next day, while walking in the street, I was suddenly reminded of the circ.u.mstances, and the disagreeable sensation produced by it returned. I determined to go home and place myself in the same position--as regards the mirror--and if the same effect was produced, I would make up my mind that it was the natural result of some principle of refraction or optics, which I did not understand, and dismiss it. I tried the experiment with the same result; and as I had said to myself, accounted for it on some principle unknown to me, and it then ceased to trouble me. But the G.o.d who works through the laws of nature, might surely give a sign to me, if one of His chosen servants, even through the operation of a principle of optics."

This, seeing one's simulacrum, or double, was so common, especially when looking-gla.s.ses were full of flaws, designedly cast faulty to give "magical" effects for conjurors, that old books on the black art teem with instances. Lincoln was right to demonstrate that the vision was founded on fact, and no supernatural sight at all. His trying the repet.i.tion was like Lord Byron's quashing a similar illusion, but of a suit of clothes hung up to look like a friend whom he believed he saw in the spirit. A more widely read man would have dismissed the "fetch"

like the President-elect, but with a laugh.

"IT IS A POOR SERMON THAT DOES NOT HIT SOMEWHERE."

President Lincoln was wont to carry his mother's old Bible about with him in the Capital City. Often he would be consulting it in mental plights. He said that the Psalms was the part he liked best. "The Psalms have something for every day in the week, and something for every poor fellow like me."