was not an impure story, yet it was not one it would be seemly to publish; but rendered, as it was, in his inimitable way, it contained nothing that was offensive to a refined taste. The same story might have been told by another in such a way that it would probably have been regarded as transcending the proprieties of popular address. One characterizing feature of all the stories told by Mr. Lincoln, on the stump and elsewhere, was that although the subject matter of some of them might not have been entirely unobjectionable, yet the manner of telling them was so peculiarly his own that they gave no offence even to refined and cultured people. On the contrary, they were much enjoyed. The story he told on this occasion was much liked by the vast assembly that surrounded the temporary platform from which he spoke, and was received with loud bursts of laughter and applause. It served to place the opposing party and its speakers in a most ludicrous position in respect to the question being considered, and gave him a most favorable hearing for the arguments he later made in support of the measures he was sustaining." [Illustration: JOSHUA F. SPEED AND WIFE. From a painting by Healy, owned by Mrs, Joshua F. Speed of Louisville, Kentucky, and reproduced here by permission. Joshua F. Speed was a Kentuckian. At the time Lincoln went to Springfield he was one of the leading merchants of the town, and it was he who befriended the young lawyer on his arrival (see MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE for March). Towards the end of 1840 Mr. Speed sold his store, and soon after returned to Louisville. At his urgent invitation Lincoln visited him in the summer of 1841. He seems not to have gone back with Speed, as many biographers have stated, for in a letter of June 19, 1841, to Speed, Lincoln says: "I stick to my promise to come to Louisville." He seems, too, to have stayed a much shorter time than has frequently been stated, for he wrote back to Speed's sister, on September 27th, of his safe arrival in Springfield. The letters quoted from in this article were given by Speed himself to Mr. Herndon to publish in his "Life of Lincoln." Mr. Herndon turned them over to Lamon, who used them in his volume published in 1872. Joshua Speed and Lincoln remained intimate friends through life. Although they differed radically in 1855 on the policy to be pursued in regard to slavery, Lincoln, in writing Speed a long letter explaining his views, closes: "And yet let me say I am your friend forever."] LINCOLN'S ENGAGEMENT TO MISS TODD. Lincoln had been busy with politics and law in the years since he left New Salem, but he had by no means neglected the social side of life. Indeed, he had gone so far as to become engaged to be married to one of the favorite young women of Springfield, Miss Mary Todd, the sister-in-law of one of his political friends, a member of the "Long Nine" and a prominent citizen, Ninian W. Edwards. [Illustration: MARY TODD LINCOLN.