Mr. Taylor's close connection with Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Taylor at the time of the letter was Mayor of Keokuk, Iowa.

"Hawkins Taylor, Esq. "My dear Sir:

Springfield, Ill., Sept. 6, 1859.

* * It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat if I neglect my business this year as last."

Mr.

Elihu B. Washburne gives the reminiscence. Lincoln when a Congressman borrowed of the Librarian of the Supreme Court some law books. He piled them on a table wrapped them with a bandana handkerchief and through a knot in the handkerchief he ran a stick which he brought for the purpose. He shouldered the bundle. In a few days he returned the books by the same method.

Many a true word is spoken in jest. Once a jest was the medium of prophecy. It was Mr. Lincoln's reference to himself as a candidate for President. It was in a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, July 27, 1848.

"By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know that I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war, I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass' career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near to it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges. upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it is more than I did, but I had a good many bloody

struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I have never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry.

"Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever, our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about me, and, thereupon, they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero."

The inaugural ball at the induction of Zachary Taylor into the Presidency was held Monday, March 5, 1849. The structure for it was at the west of the City Hall. It to that time was the most brilliant. Mr. Lincoln with Elihu B. Washburne and a few others made a party. It to Mr. Lincoln was a scene of novelty and of splendor. Towards three or four o'clock the party went to the cloak room. Mr. Lincoln found his cloak but after an hour's search not his hat. Mr. Washburne says: "Taking his cloak on his arm, he walked into Judiciary Square, deliberately adjusting it on his shoulders, and started off bareheaded for his lodgings. It would be hard to forget the sight of that tall and slim man, with his short cloak thrown over his shoulders, starting for his long walk home on Capitol Hill at four o'clock in the morning without any hat on."

Twelve years later in the same square, Lincoln attended another inaugural ball.