A Little Soldier Boy.

"President Lincoln," says the Hon. W. D. Kell, "was a large and many-sided man, and yet so simple that no one, not even a child, could approach him without feeling that he had found in him a sympathizing friend. I remember that I apprised him of the fact that a lad, the son of one of my townsmen, had served a year on the gunboat Ottawa, and had been in two important engagements; in the first as a powder-monkey, when he had conducted himself with such coolness that he was chosen as captain's messenger in the second; and I suggested to the President that it was within his power to send to the Naval School annually three boys who had served at least a year in the navy.

He at once wrote on the back of a letter from the commander of the Ottawa, which I had handed him, to the Secretary of the Navy:

"If the appointments for this year have not been made, let this boy be appointed."

The appointment had not been made, and I brought it home with me. It directed the lad to report for examination at the school in July. Just as he was ready to start his father, looking over the law, discovered that he could not report until he was fourteen years of age, which he would not be until September following.

The poor child sat down and wept. He feared that he was not to go to the naval school. He was, however, soon consoled by being told that "the President could make it right."

It was my fortune to meet him the next morning at the door of the Executive Chamber with his father.

Taking by the hand the little fellow-short for his age, dressed in the sailor's blue pants and shirt-I advanced with him to the President, who sat in his usual seat, and said:

"Mr. President, my young friend, Willie Bladen, finds a difficulty about his appointment. You have directed him to appear at the school in July; but he is not yet fourteen years of age."

But before I got half of this out, Mr. Lincoln, laying down his spectacles, said:

"Bless me! Is that the boy who did so gallantly in those two great battles? Why, I feel that I should bow to him, and not he to me."

The little fellow had made his graceful bow.

The President took the papers at once, and as soon as a postponement until September would suffice, made the order that the lad should report in that month. Then, putting his hand on Willie's head, he said:

"Now, my boy go home and have good fun during the two months, for they are about the last holiday you will get."

The little fellow bowed himself out, feeling that the President of the United States, though a very great man, was one that he would nevertheless like to have a game of romps with.

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Sallie Ward's Practical Philosophy.

When the telegram from Cumberland Gap reached Mr. Lincoln that firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville," he remarked that he was "glad of it." Some person present, who had the perils of Burnside's posi

tion uppermost in his mind, could not see why Mr. Lincoln should be glad of it, and so expressed himself.

"Why, you see," responded the President, "it reminds me of Mrs. Sallie Ward, a neighbor of mine, who had a very large family. Occasionally one of her numerous progeny would be heard crying in some out-of-the-way place, upon which Mrs. Ward would exclaim:

'There's one of my children that isn't dead yet.""

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Pardons a Soldier.

The Hon. Mr. Kellogg, representative from Essex Co., N. Y., received a dispatch one evening from the army to the effect that a young townsman who had been induced to enlist through his instrumentality had, for a serious misdemeanor been convicted by a court-martial and was to be shot the next day. Greatly agitated, Mr. Kellogg went to the Secretary of War and urged, in the strongest manner, a reprieve. Stanton was inexorable.

"Too many cases of the kind had been let off," he said, "and it was time an example was made."

Exhausting his eloquence in vain, Mr. Kellogg said: "Well, Mr. Secretary, the boy is not going to be shot, of that I give you fair warning!"

Leaving the War Department, he went directly to the White House, although the hour was late. The sentinel on duty told him that special orders had been issued to admit no one whatever that night.

After a long parley, by pledging himself to assume the responsibility of the act, the Congressman passed in. M. Lincoln had retired, but indifferent to etiquette or cerimony, Judge Kellogg pressed his way through all obsta

cles to his sleeping apartment. In an excited manner he stated that the dispatch announcing the hour of execution had but just reached him.

"This man must not be shot, Mr. President," said he. "I can't help what he may have done. Why, he is an old neighbor of mine; I can't allow him to be shot!"

Mr. Lincoln had remained in bed, quietly listening to the vehement protestations of his old friend (they were in Congress together). He at length said:

"Well, I don't believe shooting will do him any good. Give me that pen."

And so saying "red tape" was uncerimoniously cut, and another poor fellow's life was indefinitely extended.

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Lincoln's Vow.

The following incident, remarkable for its significant facts, is related by Mr. Carpenter, the artist:

Mr. Chase, said Mr. Carpenter, told me that at the Cabinet meeting immediately after the battle of Antietam and just prior to the issue of the September proclamation, the President entered upon the business before them by saying:

"The time for the annunciation of the emancipation proclamation could be no longer delayed. Public sentiment would sustain it-many of his warmest friends and supporters demanded it—and he had promised his God he would do it!"

The last part of this was uttered in a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one but Secretary Chase, who

was sitting near him.

rectly understood him.

He asked the President if he cor

Mr. Lincoln replied:

'I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crowm the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves."

In February, 1865, a few days after the constitutional amendment, I went to Washington and was received by Mr. Lincoln with the kindness and familiarity which had characterized our previous intercourse.

I said to him at this time that I was very proud to have been the artist to have first conceived of the design of painting a picture commemorative of the Act of Emancipation; that subsequent occurrences had only confirmed my first judgment of that act as the most sublime moral event in our history.

"Yes," said he-and never do I remember to have noticed in him more earnestness of expression or manner"as affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century.

On a certain occasion the President said to a friend that he was in great distress; he had been to General Mc Clellan's house and the General did not ask to see him; and as he must talk to somebody he had sent for General Franklin and my self, to obtain our opinions as to the possibility of soon commencing active operations with the army of tho Potomac. To use his own expression, if something was not done soon the bottom would fall out of the whole affair; and if General McClellan