Although Colonel Dana, of the private branch of the War Office Intelligence Department, might have claimed exemption from active service, he never spared himself, though such a messenger ran not only the common military dangers, but of the Johnnies treating him as a spy. During the battles of the Wilderness, acute was the trepidation in Washington, where no news had come since a couple of days--Grant having "cut loose" and buried himself in the midst of the foes. Nevertheless, Dana had a train at Maryland Avenue to take him to the front, and a horse and escort to see him farther; he came to take the President's last orders. But the other had been reflecting on the perils into which he would be sending his favorite despatch-bearer. "You can't tell where Lee is, or what he is doing; _Jeb_ Stuart is on the rampage pretty lively between the Rappahannock and the Rapidan. It is considerable risk, and I do not like to expose you to it." "But I am all ready; and we are equipped, if it comes to the worst, to run!" "Well, now, if you feel that way--start!"--(E. P. Mitchell, from Dana.) * * * * * FIGURES WILL PROVE ANYTHING. Toward the finish of the Rebellion, Lincoln was asked to what number the enemy might amount. He replied with singular readiness: "The Confederates have one million two hundred thousand men in the field." Astonishment being manifested at the precision, he went on, smiling: "Every time a Union commander gets _licked_, he says the enemy outnumbered him three or four times. We have three or four hundred thousand, so--logic is logic! they are three times that; say, one million two hundred thousand." As a fact, at the grand review before the President (Johnson) the two armies of Grant and Sherman, May, 1865, two hundred thousand veterans filed past. Lincoln should have lived to see that glorious march past. * * * * * "I DON'T WANT TO--BUT THAT'S IT IF I MUST DIE!" In the ferment, as the term of Lincoln's first office-holding was terminating, the old war fever returned by which "Little Mac (McClellan), Idol of the Army" was hailed as "the hope of the country." Only this time the presage was that General Grant had only to secure that phantasm, the capture of Richmond, to be nominated and elected. This reached the President's ears through the "hanged good-natured friend," as Sheridan--the wit, not the general--calls the stinging tongue. "Well," drawled Mr. Lincoln, "I feel very much like the man who said he did not particularly want to die, but, if he had got to die, that was precisely the disease he wanted to die of!" * * * * * BEST LET AN ELEPHANT GO!