HEARTY WELCOME OF DENNIS HANKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

Dennis Hanks was once asked to visit Washington to secure the pardon of certain persons in jail for participation in copperheadism. Dennis went and arrived in Washington, and instead of going, as he said, to a "tavern," he went to the White House. There was a porter on guard, and he asked:

"Is Abe in?''

"Do you mean Mr. Lincoln?" asked the porter.

"Yes; is he in there?" and brushing the porter aside he strode into the room and said, "Hello, Abe; how are you?''

And Abe said, "Well!" and just gathered him up in his arms and talked of the days gone by.

Oh, the days gone by! They talked of their boyhood days, and by and by Lincoln said:

"What brings you here all the way from Illinois?'' And then Dennis told him his mission, and Lincoln replied:

"I will grant it, Dennis, for old-times' sake. I will

send for Mr. Stanton. It is his business."

Stanton came into the room, and strolled up and down, and said that the men ought to be punished more than they were. Mr. Lincoln sat quietly in his chair and waited for the tempest to subside, and then quietly said to Stanton he would like to have the papers next day.

When he had gone Dennis said:

"Abe, if I was as big and as ugly as you are, I would take him over my knee and spank him.”

Lincoln replied: "No, Stanton is an able and valu

able man for this nation, and I am glad to bear his anger for the service he can give this nation."

THE INTERVIEWS.

Modesty and obscurity are mingled with arrogance of pride and distinction in the interviews that the Chief Executive of the nation is forced to endure.

One day an attractively and handsomely-dressed woman called to procure the release from prison of a relation in whom she professed the deepest interest.

She was a good talker, and her winning ways seemed to be making a deep impression on the President. After listening to her story, he wrote a few words on a card: "This woman, dear Stanton, is a little smarter than she looks to be," enclosed it in an envelope and directed her to take it to the Secretary of War.

On the same day another woman called, more humble in appearance, more plainly clad. It was the old story.

Father and son both in the army, the former in prison. Could not the latter be discharged from the army and sent home to help his mother?

A few strokes of the pen, a gentle nod of the head, and the little woman, her eyes filling with tears and expressing a grateful acknowledgment her tongue could not utter, passed out.

A lady so thankful for the release of her husband was in the act of kneeling in thankfulness. "Get up," he said, "don't kneel to me, but thank God and go."

An old lady for the same reason came forward with tears in her eyes to express her gratitude. "Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln," said she; "I shall probably never

She had the

see you again till we meet in heaven." President's hand in hers, and he was deeply moved. He instantly took her right hand in both of his, and following her to the door, said, "I am afraid with all my troubles I shall never get to the resting-place you speak of; but if I do, I am sure I shall find you. That you wish me to get there is, I believe, the best wish you could make for me. Good-bye." Then the President remarked to a friend, "It is more than many can often say, that in doing right one has made two people happy in one day. Speed, die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I have always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow."

THE PRESIDENCY NOT A BED OF ROSES.

An old and intimate friend from Springfield called on the President and found him much depressed.

The President was reclining on a sofa, but rising suddenly, he said to his friend:

"You know better than any man living that from my boyhood up my ambition was to be President. I am President of one part of this divided country at least; but look at me! Oh, I wish I had never been born! I've a white elephant on my hands, one hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear to contend with, the jealousies of the military commanders, and not receiving that cordial co-operative support from Congress that could reasonably be expected with an active and formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life-blood of the Government, my position is anything but a bed of roses."

UNHEALTHY GROUP OF OFFICE SEEKERS.

A delegation was pressing the claims of a gentleman as commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. Among the many points urged was that the applicant was in poor health. The President closed the interview with the good-natured remark: "Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker than your man.'

THE OLD LADY AND THE PAIR OF STOCKINGS.

An old lady from the country called on the Presi dent, her tanned face peering out from the interior of a huge sunbonnet. Her errand was to present Mr. Lincoln a pair of stockings of her own make a yard long.

Kind tears came to his eyes as she spoke to him, and then, holding the stockings one in each hand, dangling wide apart for general inspection, he assured her that he should take them with him to Washington, where (and here his eyes twinkled) he was sure he should not be able to find any like them. The amusement of the company was not at all diminished by Mr. Boutwell's remark, that the lady had evidently made a very correct estimate of Mr. Lincoln's latitude and longitude.

THE PRESIDENT WIELDS AN AX AT THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARDS.

One afternoon during the summer of 1862, the President accompanied several gentlemen to the Washington Navy Yard to witness some experiments with a