This was a significant milestone of progress to the great end that was thereafter to be reached. CONSCRIPTING DEAD MEN. Mr. Lincoln being found fault with for making another “call,” said that if the country required it, he would continue to do so until the matter stood as described by a Western provost marshal, who says: “I listened a short time since to a butternut-clad individual, who succeeded in making good his escape, expatiate most eloquently on the rigidness with which the conscription was enforced south of the Tennessee River. His response to a question propounded by a citizen ran somewhat in this wise: “‘Do they conscript close over the river?’ “‘Stranger, I should think they did! They take every man who hasn’t been dead more than two days!’ “If this is correct, the Confederacy has at least a ghost of a chance left.” And of another, a Methodist minister in Kansas, living on a small salary, who was greatly troubled to get his quarterly instalment. He at last told the non-paying trustees that he must have his money, as he was suffering for the necessaries of life. “Money!” replied the trustees; “you preach for money? We thought you preached for the good of souls!” “Souls!” responded the reverend; “I can’t eat souls; and if I could it would take a thousand such as yours to make a meal!” “That soul is the point, sir,” said the President. LINCOLN’S REJECTED MANUSCRIPT. On February 5th, 1865, President Lincoln formulated a message to Congress, proposing the payment of $400,000,000 to the South as compensation for slaves lost by emancipation, and submitted it to his Cabinet, only to be unanimously rejected. Lincoln sadly accepted the decision, and filed away the manuscript message, together with this indorsement thereon, to which his signature was added: “February 5, 1865. To-day these papers, which explain themselves, were drawn up and submitted to the Cabinet unanimously disapproved by them.” When the proposed message was disapproved, Lincoln soberly asked: “How long will the war last?” To this none could make answer, and he added: “We are spending now, in carrying on the war, $3,000,000 a day, which will amount to all this money, besides all the lives.” LINCOLN AS A STORY WRITER.