"'Dat isn't in my line, sa--cookin's my profeshun.' "'Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?' "'Reputation's nuffin to me by de side ob life.' "'Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?' "'It's worth more to me, sa.' "'Then you must value it very highly?' "'Yes, sa, I does, more dan all dis wuld, more dan a million ob dollars, sa, for what would dat be wuth to a man wid de bref out ob him? Self-preserbation am de fust law wid me.' "'But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?' "'Different men set different values on their lives; mine is not in de market.' "'But if you lost it you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you died for your country.' "'Dat no satisfaction when feelin's gone.' "'Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?' "'Nufin whatever, sa--I regard them as among the vanities.' "'If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the government without resistance.' "'Yes, sa, dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn't put my life in de scale 'g'inst any gobernment dat eber existed, for no gobernment could replace de loss to me.' "'Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been killed?' "'Maybe not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sojers, let alone a dead nigga--but I'd a missed myse'f, and dat was de p'int wid me.' "I only tell this story," concluded the President, "in order to illustrate the result of the tactics of some of the Union generals who would be sadly 'missed' by themselves, if by no one else, if they ever got out of the Army." =LOST HIS CERTIFICATE OF CHARACTER= Mr. Lincoln prepared his first inaugural address in a room over a store in Springfield. His only reference works were Henry Clay's great compromise speech of 1850, Andrew Jackson's Proclamation against Nullification, Webster's great reply to Hayne, and a copy of the Constitution. When Mr. Lincoln started for Washington, to be inaugurated, the inaugural address was placed in a special satchel and guarded with special care. At Harrisburg the satchel was given in charge of Robert T. Lincoln, who accompanied his father. Before the train started from Harrisburg the precious satchel was missing. Robert thought he had given it to a waiter at the hotel, but a long search failed to reveal the missing satchel with its precious document. Lincoln was annoyed, angry, and finally in despair. He felt certain that the address was lost beyond recovery, and, as it lacked only ten days until the inauguration, he had no time to prepare another. He had not even preserved the notes from which the original copy had been written. Mr. Lincoln went to Ward Lamon, his former law partner, then one of his body-guards, and informed him of the loss in the following words: "Lamon, I guess I have lost my certificate of moral character, written by myself. Bob has lost my gripsack containing my inaugural address." Of course the misfortune reminded him of a story.