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Edited by J. B. McCLURE,

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"Edison and His

Compiler of" Moody's Anecdotes; Moody's Child Stories;'
Inventions;" Entertaining Anecdotes; "Mistakes of Ingersoll;"
Ingersoll's Answers: etc., etc.

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CHICAGO:

RHODES & McCLURE, PUBLISHERS.

1879.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by

J. B. MCCLURE & R. S. RHODES,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

All Rights Reserved.

Electrotyped and Printed by

OTTAWAY & COMPANY.

DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY,
Binders.

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119

REFACE.

SAID Mr. Lincoln, to Dr. Gulliver, on a certain occasion when the versatile Doctorad highly complimented the then coming President concerning one of his speeches:

“I should very much like to know what it was in my speech which you thought so remarkable, and which interested my friend, the Professor (of Yale College), so much?”

"The clearness," answered Dr. G., " of your statements, the unanswerable style of your reasoning. and especially your illustrations, which were romance, and pathos, and fun, and logic, all welded together."

The great Lincoln thanked the clerical celebrity, and said: "That reminds me of a story," and then proceeded to tell how the Yale Professor had taken notes on his New Haven speech, and had lectured his class, and had followed him to Meriden for further " notes," etc.

Thus is demonstrated the superior value that attaches to Mr. Lincoln's "illustrations," which, as all the world knows, were made of pointed, pungent, pithy and practical stories, drawn from an inexhaustible source, and always available on every possible occasion. Perhaps there never lived a greater story-teller than Abraham Lincoln, and one who told them always with such magic effect. With him, the "appropriate story was a power, and his remarkable faculty in telling them was an essential factor in his greatness.

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In this volume the compiler has aimed to present, in a conveniently classified form, the Anecdotes and Stories of this wonderful man, as narrated by him to the lowly and the great, in peace and war, at the fireside and bar, in the wilderness and White-house, with that zest and potency which made Mr. Lincoln such a remarkable man. It is our sincere desire that in this form the book may be of real interest and prove a further means of usefulness to every reader.

Our indebtedness is specially acknowledged for aid found in F. B. Carpenter's "Six Months in the White-house;" J. G. Holland's "Life of Lincoln;" the Press, and to the many friends who have contributed. J. B. MCCLURE.

CHICAGO, ILL., July 4, 1879.

296460

ONTENTS

EARLY LIFE.

A Batch of Lincoln's Reminiscences.

A Hard Tussle with Seven Negroes-Life on a Mississippi Flat
Boat

A Humorous Speech-Lincoln in the Black Hawk War............
A Pig Story-Lincoln's Kindness to the Brute Creation....

An Honest Boy-Young Lincoln "Pulls Fodder " Two Days for a
Damaged Book.....

An Incident of Lincoln's Early Hardships..

An Incident or Two Illustrating Lincoln's Honesty.
Captain Lincoln-How he Became Captain...............

49

27

39

26

14

18

22

38

Elected to the Legislature-Lincoln Walks to the State Capitol...
General Linder's Early Recollections of Lincoln..
How Lincoln Earned his First Dollar....

41

46

13

How Lincoln Helped to Build a Boat-How he Loaded the Live
Stock

23

How Lincoln Piloted a Flat Boat over a Mill Dam..
Lincoln and his Gentle Annie-A Touching Incident..
Lincoln's First Political Speech....

34

20

40

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Lincoln Splits Several Hundred Rails for a Pair of Pants...

28

Lincoln's Story of a Girl in New Salem....

29

Little Lincoln Firing at Big Game Through the Cracks of his

Cabin Home.....

Mrs. Brown's Story of Young Abe..

Remarkable Story-" Honest Abe" as Postmaster..

Returning from the Legislature-A Joke on Lincoln's Big Feet..
Showing How Lincoln Resented an Insult..

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