"General McClellan's attitude is such that in the very selfishness of his nature he cannot but wish to be successful, and I hope he will! And the secretary of war (Stanton) is in precisely the same situation. If the military commanders in the field cannot be successful, not only the secretary of war, but myself, for the time being master of both, cannot but be failures."--(Speech, August 6, 1862, at Washington.) * * * * * "THE SKEERED VIRGINIAN." A reviewing-party, of which the President was the center, was stopped at a railroad by Harper's Ferry, to let a locomotive pass, and look at the old engine-house where John Brown, the raider, was penned in and captured. The little switching-engine ran past with much noise and bustle, the engineer blowing the ludicrous whistle in salute to the distinguished visitors. Lincoln referred to the recollections of the scene, where old "Pottowatomie" thrilled the natives with panic lest he raised the negroes to revolt, and remarked, as the engine flew away: "You call that 'The Flying Dutchman' do you? They ought to call that thing 'The _Skeered_ Virginian!'"--(By General O. O. Howard, a hearer.) * * * * * "HE WHO FIGHTS AND RUNS AWAY--" Shortly after the scandalous rout of Bull Run, the participants in the panic began to try to palliate the disgrace. The President, listening with revived sarcasm to the new perversion, remarked: "So it is your notion _now_ that we _licked_ the rebels and then ran away!" * * * * * NO SUNDAY FIGHTING. As the first Battle of Bull Run, a sanguinary defeat to the Unionists, was fought on the Sabbath day, the President forbade in the future important movements on the day desecrated. But with singular inconsistency in a sage so clear-headed, he did not see that the Southerners chuckled, "The better the day, the better the deed," in their victory. * * * * * LET A GOOD MAN ALONE! General Howard, in taking command before Washington, incurred the hostility of certain officers of the convivial, plundering, swashbuckling order, who objected to his piety and orderliness. They tramped off to badger the President with their censure. But he who had appreciated the new leader in a glance, reproved them, saying: "Howard is a _good_ man. Let him alone; in time he will bring things straight." That was what caused the general to reverence him and love him. * * * * * THE "BLONDIN" SIMILE. One of the universal topics of the early sixties was the feats of the acrobat Blondin. This daring rope-walker crossed the waters by Niagara Falls on a slack wire. On one occasion he carried a man on his back, to whom he imparted the caution, "grappling as with hooks of steel": "If you upset me with trembling, I shall drop you! I shall catch the rope and be safe! As for you, inexperienced one--_pfitt!_"