Part 7 (1/2)
HE DID NOT KNOW HIS OWN HOUSE.
In 1842 Abraham Lincoln married Miss Mary Todd, a Kentucky lady, at Springfield, where he took a house for the wedded life. Previously, while qualifying for the bar, he had dwelt for study over a furniture-store.
On account of his attending the traveling court, which compelled a horse, since he could not afford the gig a.s.sociated with the chief lawyers' degree of respectability, he was frequently and for long spells away from home. In one of these absences his wife deemed it fit for his coming dignity of pleader to have a second story and roof of a fas.h.i.+onable type set upon the old foundations. Under a fresh coat of paint, too, this renovation perplexed the home-comer when he drew up his horse before it. At the sound of the horse's steps he knew that some one was flying to the parlor window, but, affecting amazement, he challenged a pa.s.ser-by:
”Neighbor, I feel like a stranger here. Can you tell me where Abraham Lincoln lives? He used to live here!”
THE ONLY ONE WHO DARED ”PULL WOOL OVER LINCOLN'S EYES.”
While Mr. Lincoln was living in Springfield, a judge of the city, who was one of the leading and most influential citizens of the place, had occasion to call upon him. Mr. Lincoln was not overparticular in his matter of dress, and was also careless in his manners. The judge was ushered into the parlor, where he found Mr. Lincoln sprawled out across a couple of chairs, reclining at his ease. The judge was asked to be seated, and, without changing his position in the least, Mr. Lincoln entered into conversation with his visitor.
While the two men were talking, Mrs. Lincoln entered the room. She was, of course, greatly embarra.s.sed at Mr. Lincoln's offhand manner of entertaining his caller, and, stepping up behind her husband, she grasped him by the hair and twitched his head about, at the same time looking at him reprovingly.
Mr. Lincoln apparently did not notice the rebuke. He simply looked up at his wife, then across to the judge, and, without rising, said:
”Little Mary, allow me to introduce you to my friend, Judge So-and-so.”
It will be remembered that Mrs. Lincoln's maiden name was Mary Todd, and that she was very short in stature.--_Leslie's Monthly._
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT.
The contrast between the statures of the Lincolns, man and wife, was palpable, but this hardly substantiates the story of the President appearing with his wife on the White House porch in response to a serenade, and his saying:
”Here I am, and here is Mrs. Lincoln. That's the long and short of it!”
”ALL A MAN WANTS--TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!”
In one of his messages to Congress, the President foretold and denounced the tendency of wealth acquired in ma.s.ses and rapidly by the war contractors and the like as ”approaching despotism.” He saw liberty attacked in ”the effort to place capital on an equal footing with--if not above--labor in the structure of government.” It is never to be forgotten that neither he nor his Cabinet officers were ever upbraided for corruption; [Footnote: It is true that Lincoln's first war minister, Simon Cameron, was accused of smoothing the way to certain fat war contracts, a wit suggesting Simony as the term, but no charges were really brought. Lincoln said that if one proof were forthcoming, he would have the Cameronian head--but Mr. Cameron died intact.] some, like Secretary Stanton, though handling enormous sums, died poor men comparatively. It is in accordance with this honesty of the ”Honest Old Abe” rule that he said to an old friend whom he met in New York in 1859:
”How have you fared since you left us?”
The merchant gleefully replied that he had made a hundred thousand dollars in business. ”And--lost it all!” with a reflection of Lincoln's and the Western cool humor. ”How is it on your part?”
”Oh, very well; I have the cottage at Springfield, and about eight hundred dollars. If they make me vice-president with Seward, as some say they will, I hope I shall be able to increase it to twenty thousand. That is as much as any man ought to want!”