He Knew Lincoln, and Other Billy Brown StoriesTarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
General
He Knew Lincoln, and Other Billy Brown Stories
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes
“Well, sir, it was the funniest thing to see Mr. Lincoln’s face pucker
up and his eyes twinkle and twinkle. He took them socks and held ’em
up by the toes, one in each hand. They was the longest socks I ever
see. ‘The lady got my latitude and longitude ’bout right, didn’t she,
gentlemen?’ he says, and then he laid ’em down and he took Aunt Sally’s
hand and he says tender-like, ‘Aunt Sally, you couldn’t a done nothin’
which would have pleased me better. I’ll take ’em to Washington and
wear ’em, and think of you when I do it.’ And I declare he said it so
first thing I knew I was almost blubberin’, and I wan’t the only one
nuther, and I bet he did wear ’em in Washington. I can jest see him
pullin’ off his shoe and showin’ them socks to Sumner or Seward or
some other big bug that was botherin’ him when he wanted to switch off
on another subject and tellin’ ’em the story about Aunt Sally and her
flapjacks.
[Illustration: “_Aunt Sally, you couldn’t a done nuthin’ which would
have pleased me better_”]
“‘Was there much talk about his bein’ killed?’ Well, there’s an awful
lot of fools in this world and when they don’t git what they want
they’re always for killin’ somebody. Mr. Lincoln never let on, but I
reckon his mail was pretty lively readin’ sometimes. He got pictures
of gallows and pistols and other things and lots of threats, so they
said. I don’t think that worried him much. He was more bothered seein’
old Buchanan givin’ the game away. ‘I wish I could have got down there
before the horse was stole,’ I heard him say onct in here, talkin’ to
some men. ‘But I reckon I can find the tracks when I do git there.’ It
was his cabinet bothered him most, I always thought. He didn’t know the
men he’d got to take well enough. Didn’t know how far he could count on
’em. He and Judge Gillespie and one or two others was in here one day
sittin’ by the stove talkin,’ and he says, ‘Judge, I wisht I could take
all you boys down to Washington with me, Democrats and all, and make
a cabinet out of you. I’d know where every man would fit and we could
git right down to work. Now, I’ve got to learn my men before I can do
much.’ ‘Do you mean, Mr. Lincoln, you’d take a Democrat like Logan?’
says the Judge, sort of shocked. ‘Yes, sir, I would; I know Logan. He’s
agin me now and that’s all right, but if we have trouble you can count
on Logan to do the right thing by the country, and that’s the kind of
men I want--them as will do the right thing by the country. Tain’t a
question of Lincoln, or Democrat or Republican, Judge; it’s a question
of the country.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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