his coat-tail and hailed him with: Say, Mister Captain! I wish you would just stop your boat a minute-I've lost my apple overboard !'" Philosophy of Canes--The Kind Lincoln Made and Carried When a Boy. A gentleman calling at the White House one evening carried a cane, which, in the course of conversation, attracted the President's attention. Taking it in his hand, he said: "I always used a cane when I was a boy. It was a freak of mine. My favorite one was a knotted beech stick, and I carved the head myself. There's a mighty amount of character in sticks. Don't you think so? think so? You have seen these fishing-poles that fit into a cane? Well, that was an old idea of mine. Dogwood clubs were favorite ones with the boys. I suppose they use them yet. Hickory is too heavy, unless you get it from a young sapling. Have you ever noticed how a stick in one's hand will change his appearance? Old women and witches wouldn't look so without sticks. Meg Merrilies understands that." Stories Illustrating Lincoln's Memory. Mr. Lincoln's memory was very remarkable. At one of the afternoon receptions at the White House, a stranger shook hands with him, and, as he did so, remarked, casually, that he was elected to Congress about the time Mr. Lincoln's term as representative expired, which happened many years before. "Yes," said the President, "you are from men tioning the state. "I remember reading of your election in a newspaper one morning on a steamboat going down to Mount Vernon." At another time a gentleman addressed him, saying, “I presume, Mr. President, that you have forgotten me?" "No," was the prompt reply; "your name is Flood. I saw you last, twelve years ago, at," naming the place and the occasion. "I am glad to see," he continued, "that the Flood flows on." Subsequent to his re-election a deputation of bankers from various sections were introduced one day by the Secretary of the Treasury. After a few moments of general conversation, Mr. Lincoln turned to one of them, and said: "Your district did not give me so strong a vote at the last election as it did in 1860." "I think, sir, that you must be mistaken," replied the banker. "I have the impression that your majority was considerably increased at the last election." "No," rejoined the President, "you fell off about six hundred votes." Then taking down from the book-case the official canvass of 1860 and 1864, he referred to the vote of the district named, and proved to be quite right in his assertion. Common Sense. The Hon. Mr. Hubbard, of Connecticut, once called upon the President in reference to a newly invented gun, concerning which a committee had been appointed to make a report. The "report" was sent for, and when it came in was found to be of the most voluminous description. Mr. Lincoln glanced at it, and said: "I should want a new lease of life to read this through!" Throwing it down upon the table, he added: 66 Why can't a committee of this kind occasionally exhibit a grain of common sense? If I send a man to buy a horse for me, I expect him to tell me his points-not many hairs there are in his tail. how Lincoln's Confab with a Committee on "C Grant's Whisky." Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg, a self-constituted committee, solicitous for the morale of our armies, took it upon themselves to visit the President and urge the removal of General Grant. In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, "For what reason?" Why," replied the spokesman, "he drinks too much whisky." "Ah!" rejoined Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower lip. "By the way, gentlemen, can either of you tell me where General Grant procures his whisky? because, if I can find out, I will send every general in the field a barrel of it!" A "Pretty Tolerable Respectable Sort of a Clergyman.” Some one was discussing, in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, the character of a time-serving Washington clergyman. Said Mr. Lincoln to his visitor: He reminds "I think you are rather hard upon Mr. me of a man in Illinois, who was tried for passing a counterfeit bill. It was in evidence that before passing it he had taken it to the cashier of a bank and asked his opinion of the bill, and he received a very prompt reply that it was a counterfeit. His lawyer, who had heard the evidence to be brought against his client, asked him, just before going into court, Did you take the bill to the cashier of the bank and ask him if it was good?' "I did,' was the reply. “Well, what was the reply of the cashier?' "The rascal was in a corner, but he got out of it in this fashion: He said it was a pretty tolerable, respectable sort of a bill."" Mr. Lincoln thought the clergyman was a pretty tolerable, respectable sort of a clergyman." |