Lincoln's fairness vied with his sympathy in giving him a peculiar influence over his fellowmen. He made peace a daily guest of the rude crowd. His method was novel in New Salem. A stranger, angered by the abuse of Jack Armstrong, struck him a blow that felled the giant. Lincoln made himself the judge of the event. "Well, Jack," said he, "what did you say to the man?" Whereupon Jack repeated the words. "Well, Jack," replied Abe, "if you were a stranger in a strange town, as this man is, and you were called a d----d liar, &c., what would you do?" "Whip him, by God!" "Then this man has done no more to you than you would have done to him." "Well, Abe," said the honest bruiser, "it's all right," and, taking his opponent by the hand, forgave him heartily, and "treated." Jack always "treated" his victim when he thought he had been too hard upon him.[55] [55] Lamon, 94-95. Esteemed for his strength he was loved for his kindness. None could resist the charm of his help to the poor and the lowly, to the waifs of misfortune. Ab, a barefooted fellow, was chopping wood on a wintry day to earn a dollar that he might buy a pair of shoes. Lincoln, seeing his plight, seized the axe, and soon the job was done. The story runs that "Ab remembered this act with the liveliest gratitude. Once he, being a cast-iron Democrat, determined to vote against his party and for Mr. Lincoln; but the friends, as he afterwards said with tears in his eyes, made him drunk, and he had voted against Abe."[56] Chandler, a poor settler, desiring to enter a small tract of land that was coveted by a rich neighbor, started for Springfield at the same time with his rival and on the same mission. On the way Chandler met Lincoln. Noticing that the horse of Chandler could not stand a forced march, Lincoln gave him his horse--fresh and full of grit. Between the two, a friendship sprang up which all the political discords of twenty-five years never shattered nor strained.[57] [56] _Ibid._, 152-153. [57] Herndon, 1, 115-116.