HE KNEW LINCOLN AND OTHER BILLY BROWN STORIES [Illustration] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO HE KNEW LINCOLN AND OTHER BILLY BROWN STORIES BY IDA M. TARBELL AUTHOR OF “LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN” New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 _All rights reserved_ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1907 By McCLURE, PHILLIPS & COMPANY Copyright, 1907, 1908 and 1909 By THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1909 By MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY New York Copyright, 1920 By AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS New York Copyright, 1920 and 1922 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK CITY TO MY SISTER INTRODUCTION More than one clue must be unravelled to reach an understanding of Abraham Lincoln. Among them there surely must be reckoned his capacity for companionship. None more catholic in his selections ever lived. All men were his fellows. He went unerringly and unconsciously for the most part, to the meeting place that awaited him in each man’s nature. There might be a wall, often there was; but he knew, no one better, that there is always a secret door in human walls. Sooner or later he discovered it, put his finger on its spring, passed through and settled into the place behind that was his. His life was rich in companionships with unlikely people, often people who began by contempt or semi-contempt of him. There was the town bully of his youth, whom he soundly thrashed for trying a foul in a wrestling match, and who rose from the dust to proclaim Lincoln the best man who ever broke into camp; thirty years later there was his own Secretary of State, with his self-complacent assumption of the President’s unfitness for leadership and of his own call to direct the nation, put gently but firmly in his place and soon frankly and nobly declaring, “He’s the best of us all.”