day after Mr. Lincoln had spoken in Cooper Institute, and an intimate friend told him of the wonderful eloquence of Mr. Lincoln, and besought him to get him to come to Norwich, as he was so sure he would be a wonderful success in speaking to the people. Accordingly, Colonel Osgood got his friend, Gen. Henry N. Birge, a nephew of Governor Buckingham, to go to Hartford, where Lincoln was to speak that night and secure him. This he did, and created the same impression that he had made elsewhere. The Hon. Amos W. Prentice presided, and Daniel P. Tyler, of Brooklyn, who had made the Western circuit with Mr. Lincoln, spoke at the public meeting, and also Mr. John F. Trumbull, of Stonington. After the meeting there was quite a reception at the Wauregan House, and these gentlemen sat together and told stories with Mr. Lincoln till late at night. Mr. Trumbull was a famous story-teller, and about one o'clock, after Mr. Lincoln had gone to his room, another story had come to Mr. Trumbull, and he went to Mr. Lincoln's door and said: "Mr. Lincoln, I have just thought of another story I want to tell you." Mr. Lincoln said, "Come in." He was sitting down half undressed, and there they sat exchanging stories until after three o'clock. The late Prof. John P. Gulliver, in an unpublished letter, says:

"I remember that, in introducing Mr. Lincoln that evening, Mr. Prentice said: 'I trust that after the next Presidential election we shall see the orator of the evening presiding in the Senate over his old opponent, Stephen Arnold Douglas,' when some one said: Hurrah for Abraham Lincoln for Vice-President!' and we all laughed and shouted, thinking it a capital joke. How little we realized what pathos and tragedy, what suffering and glory, our careless compliments were calling down upon the long, ungainly, rollicking man who was laughing with us, and as heartily

as any of us. But when he rose to speak, his expression and attitude created an instant hush. His first sentence, 'My fellowcitizens, there is, in fact, but one political question before the people of this country, and that is, Is slavery right, or is it wrong?' impressed us as the proclamation of a great captain on the battle-field, much as the words of Napoleon may have awed the army of Egypt-'Soldiers! from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries are looking down upon you!''

His closing sentence rose to the climax of moral sublimity, and it seemed that an old Hebrew prophet had come back to earth when, with profound emotion, he rolled forth the majestic words:

"Men of America! history through the centuries has been teaching us that might makes right. Let it be our mission in this nineteenth century to reverse the maxim, and to declare that right makes might!"

ANECDOTES OF LINCOLN.

STORIES ABOUT HIM-CHOICE STORIES BY HIM-SOME OF HIS APT ILLUSTRATIONS - HIS EPIGRAMMATIC SAYINGS.

We have gathered the following stories told of Lincoln and by Lincoln from various sources, including Nicolay and Hay's voluminous work,* Carpenter's "Six Months in the White House," Raymond's, Thompson's and other lives of Lincoln. We have included none which are not

believed to be genuine.

A SPECIMEN OF RIDICULE.

In the campaign of 1848 Mr. Lincoln made a number of speeches. Referring to the attempt to glorify General Cass for his services on the frontier in the war with Great Britain, he thus humorously referred to his own military experiences in the Black Hawk War:

"Did you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero? In the days of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled and came away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none

* Abraham Lincoln: A History; by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. In ten volumes. New York, The Century Co., 1890. The extracts are quoted from it by permission of the authors.

to break; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. If ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of blackcockade Federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero."

A GENTLE OFFICIAL REPRIMAND.

The President was called upon to deliver a reprimand to an officer who had been tried by court-martial for quarrelling. It was probably the "gentlest," say his biographers, Nicolay and Hay, ever recorded "in the annals of penal discourses." It was as follows:

"The advice of a father to his son, 'Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee!' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite."

LINCOLN AS A LAWYER.

As a lawyer, according to Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, Mr. Lincoln, notwithstanding "all his stories and jests, his frank, companionable humor, his gift of easy accessibility and welcome, was, even while he travelled the Eighth Circuit, a man of grave and serious temper, and of an unusual innate dignity and reserve. He had few or no special intimates, and there was a line beyond which no one ever thought of passing." They thus describe him in the courtroom :

"He seemed absolutely at home in the court room; his great stature did not encumber him there; it seemed like a natural symbol of superiority. His bearing and gesticulation had no awkwardness about them; they were simply striking and original. He assumed at the start a frank and friendly relation with the jury which was extremely effective. He usually began, as the phrase ran, by giving away his case'; by allowing to the opposite side every possible advantage that they could honestly and justly claim. Then he would present his own side of the case, with a clearness, a candor, an adroitness of statement which at once flattered and convinced the jury, and made even the bystanders his partisans. Sometimes he disturbed the court with laughter by his humorous or apt illustrations; sometimes he excited the audience by that florid and exuberant rhetoric which he knew well enough how and when to indulge in; but his more usual and more successful manner was to rely upon a clear, strong, lucid statement, keeping details in proper subordination and bringing forward, in a way which fastened the attention of court and jury alike, the essential point on which he claimed a decision. Indeed,' says