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"MOTHER, HE'S JUST THE SAME OLD ABE,"

"It was during the dark days of 1863," says Schuyler Colfax, "on the evening of a public reception given at the White House. The foreign legations

were there gathered about the President.

A young English nobleman was just being presented to the President. Inside the door, evidently overawed by the splendid assemblage, was an honest-faced old farmer, who shrank from the passing crowd until he and the plain-faced old lady clinging to his arm were pressed back to the wall.

The President, tall, and, in a measure, stately in his personal presence, looking over the heads of the assembly, said to the English nobleman: "Excuse me, my Lord, there's an old friend of mine."

Passing backward to the door, Mr. Lincoln said, as he grasped the old farmer's hand:

"Why, John, I'm glad to see you.

I haven't seen

in

you since you and I made rails for old Mrs. Sangamon County, in 1837. How are you?" The old man turned to his wife with quivering lip, and without replying to the President's salutation, said: "Mother, he's just the same old Abe!"

"Mr. Lincoln," he said finally, "you know we had three boys; they all enlisted in the same company; John was killed in the seven days' fight'; Sam was taken prisoner and starved to death, and Henry is in the hospital. We had a little money, an' I said, 'Mother, we'll go to Washington and see him. An' while we were here,' I said, 'we'll go up and see the President.'"

Mr. Lincoln's eyes grew dim, and across his rugged,

homely, tender face swept the wave of sadness his friends had learned to know, and he said:

"John, we all hope this miserable war will soon be over. I must see all these folks here for an hour or so, and I want to talk with you." The old lady and her husband were hustled into a private room, in spite of their protests.

"TIME LOST DON'T COUNT.”

Mr. Weed, the veteran journalist and politician, relates how, when he was opposing the claims of Montgomery Blair, who aspired to a cabinet appointment, when Mr. Lincoln inquired of Mr. Weed whom he would recommend, "Henry Winter Davis," was the response. "David Davis, I see, has been posting you up on this question," retorted Lincoln. "He has Davis on the brain. I think Maryland must be a good State to move from." The President then told a story of a witness in court in a neighboring county, who, on being asked his age, replied, "Sixty." Being satisfied he was much older the question was repeated, and on receiving the same answer the court admonished the witness, saying, "The court knows you to be much older than sixty."

"Oh, I understand now," was there joinder, "you're thinking of those ten years I spent on the eastern shore of Maryland; that was so much time lost, and didn't count."

CABINET RECONSTRUCTION.

The President had decided to select a new war minister, and the leading Republican Senators thought the

occasion was opportune to change the whole seven Cabinet ministers. They, therefore, earnestly advised him to make a clean sweep, and select seven new men, and so restore the waning confidence of the country. The President listened with patient courtesy, and when the Senators had concluded he said, with a characteristic gleam of humor in his eye:

"Gentlemen, your request for a change of the whole Cabinet because I have made one change, reminds me of a story I once heard in Illinois, of a farmer who was much troubled by skunks. His wife insisted on his trying to get rid of them. He loaded his shotgun one moonlight night and awaited developments. After some time the wife heard the shotgun go off, and, in a few minutes, the farmer entered the house. 'What luck have you?' said she. 'I hid myself behind the wood-pile,' said the old man, 'with the shotgun pointed towards the hen roost, and before long there appeared not one skunk, but seven. I took aim, blazed away, killed one, and he raised such a fearful smell that I concluded it was best to let the other six go.'' The Senators laughed and retired.

HE'S ALL RIGHT; BUT A CHRONIC SQUEALER. One of the Northern Governors was able, earnest, and untiring in aiding the administration, but always complaining. After reading all his papers, the President said, in a cheerful and reassuring tone:

"Never mind, never mind; those dispatches don't mean anything. Just go right ahead. The Governor is like a boy I saw once at a launching. When every

thing was ready, they picked out a boy and sent him. under the ship to knock away the trigger and let her go. At the critical moment everything depended on the boy. He had to do the job well by a direct, vigorous blow, and then lie flat and keep still while. the boat slid over him.

"The boy did everything right, but he yelled as if he were being murdered from the time he got under the keel until he got out. I thought the hide was all scraped off his back; but he wasn't hurt at all.

"The master of the yard told me that this boy was always chosen for that job, that he did his work well, that he never had been hurt, but that he always squealed in that way. That's just the way with Governor Make up your mind that he is not hurt, and that he is doing the work right, and pay no attention to his squealing. He only wants to make you understand how hard his task is, and that he is on hand performing it."

.

SECRETARY STANTON'S UNCOMPLIMENTARY

OPINION.

Mr. Lovejoy, heading a committee of western men, discussed an important scheme with the President, and was then directed to explain it to Secretary Stanton. Upon presenting themselves to the Secretary, and showing the President's order, the Secretary said, "Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?" "He did, sir." "Then he is a dd fool," said the angry Secretary. "Do you mean to say that the President is

a d-d fool?" asked Lovejoy, in amazement. sir, if he gave you such an order as that."

"Yes,

The bewildered Illinoisan betook himself at once to the President and related the result of the conference. "Did Stanton say I was a dd fool?" asked Lincoln, at the close of the recital. "He did, sir, and repeated it." After a moment's pause, and looking up, the President said: "If Stanton said I was a d- -d fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right, and generally says what he means. I will slip over and see him."

LINCOLN'S MODESTY.

Secretary Chase, when Secretary of the Treasury, had a disagreement, and the Secretary had resigned.

The President was urged not to accept it, as "Secretary Chase is to-day a national necessity," his advisers said. "How mistaken you are!" he quietly observed. "Yet it is not strange; I used to have similar notions. No! if we should all be turned out to-morrow, and could come back here in a week, we should find our places filled by a lot of fellows doing just as well as we did, and in many instances better.

"As the Irishman said, 'In this country one man is as good as another; and, for the matter of that, very often a great deal better.' No; this Government does not depend upon the life of any man."

AN INCIDENT IN LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGU.

RATION.

Noah Brooks, in his "Reminiscences," relates the following incident:

While the ceremonies of the second inauguration were in progress, just as Lincoln stepped forward to

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