"No, Len, I can't beat him for the Senate, but I'll make him beat himself for the Presidency." Douglas did gain the prize, but he lost his chances in the presidential race by alienating the whole Southern vote.--(Related by Mr. Leonard Swett, the "Len" above, to Mr. Augustus C. Buell.) * * * * * THE TAIL OF THE KITE. "Congress, like the poor, is always with us!"--(To General Grant. "Grant's Memoirs.") * * * * * NO DAY WITHOUT A LINE. "I don't think much of a man not wiser to-day than he was yesterday."--(A. Lincoln.) * * * * * TRUTH AND THE PEOPLE. "The people are always much nearer the truth than politicians suppose."--(A. Lincoln.) * * * * * "CALL ME 'LINCOLN.'" Like the Friends, Abraham Lincoln had a dislike for handles to a name, and at the first incurred criticism in fastidious Washington circles by his using the last name and not the Christian one to familiars. To an intimate friend he appealed: "Now, call me 'Lincoln,' and I'll promise not to tell of the breach of etiquette, if _you_ won't (Ah, how well he knew the vanity of great men's Horatios!), and I shall have a resting spell from _Mister_ Lincoln!" * * * * * THE ELOQUENT HAND. The colonel of the famous Massachusetts Sixth, which fought its way through Baltimore, risen in riot, B. F. Watson, led fifty men to cleave their way through "the Plug-uglies," vile toughs. On reporting at the capital he found Commanding General Scott receiving the mayor of Baltimore, hastening to sue for the sacred soil not being again trodden on by the ruthless foot of the Yankees. President Lincoln happened in and, recognizing Colonel Watson, who was only second in command then, complimented him on his "saving the capital," and introduced him to the company. Presuming that his quality would awe a young and amateur soldier, the unlucky mayor had the audacity to require his confirmation of his story. He said that he had dared the mob, and, to shield the soldiers, marched at their head, etc. But the officer, still warm from his baptism of fire, truly replied that he could not give a certificate of character. He related how the riff-raff had assailed the volunteers, wonderfully forbearing about not using their guns, and that the police and other officials had sworn that they should not pass alive, while the head and front, as he called himself, marched only a few yards--quitting on the pretext that it was too hot for him!