* * * * * A "STATIONARY" ENGINE. Lincoln said of the much-promising General McClellan: "He is an admirable engineer, but he seems to have a special talent for a _stationary_ engine." He also cited him as a scholar and a gentleman. Nevertheless, as the education lavished on the Army of the Potomac to make it earn foreign military critics' praise at reviews, was not thrown away, but made sound soldiers which in time were invaluable to General Grant, Lincoln did him justice by quaintly, but earnestly, saying: "I would like to borrow _his_ arm if he has no further use for it." (General Franklin heard this.) But "Little Mac" had no design on the dictatorship, being surely a lover of the Union, too. * * * * * SHOVELING FLEAS. On account of the looseness and corruption attending the raising of soldiers at the first, the President, noting the difference between the number of men forwarded to General McClellan for the Army of the Potomac, and the number reported arrived, said: "Sending men to that army is like shoveling fleas across a barn-yard--half of them never get there." * * * * * THE GEORGIA COLONEL'S COSTUME. "On account of this sectional warfare," Senator Mason, of Virginia, announced his resolve to wear homespun, and dispense with Yankee manufactures altogether. That made Lincoln laugh, and say: "To carry out his idea, he ought to go barefoot. If that's the plan, they should begin at the foundation, and adopt the well-known Georgian colonel's uniform--a shirt-collar and a pair of spurs!"--(In, speech, New England tour, 1860.) * * * * * COARSE FEED FIRST! Secretary Whitney wrote: "In July, 1861, I was in Washington, where I merely said to President Lincoln: 'Everything is drifting into the war, and I guess you will have to put _me_ in the army.' (He was in the Indian service at the time.) "The President looked up from his work, and said good-humoredly: "'I'm making generals _now_! In a few days I will be making quartermasters, and then I'll fix you.'" * * * * * "AIN'T I GLAD TO GIT OUT O' DE WILDERNESS!"