Short stories, American; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Can mortal mind conceive of such an act? It cost him seven months of a
living death, and all for a man with whom he was not even intimately
acquainted.
And now for the other side of the picture. Ever since the close
of the war, until a few months ago, when Hank died, these two men
have lived right here in Wayne County, Hank with a home and family,
Louis with neither; have met occasionally, but at no time did Hank
ever refer to the act in Millen Prison that set him free and saved
his life; never invited him to his home; never alluded to the past,
or addressed his savior other than as a mere acquaintance. On his
death-bed, however, he told the story, and asked his relatives if they
ever had an opportunity, to befriend Louis for his sake. It was tardy
acknowledgement of one of the noblest acts the world has ever known.
SOME OF LINCOLN’S JOKES.
President Lincoln has been made responsible for so many jokes, writes
Ben. Perley Poore, that he reminds one of a noted Irish wit who, having
been ruined by indorsing the notes of his friends, used to curse the
day when he learned to write his name, as he had obtained such a
reputation for willingness to oblige that he could not refuse. Mr.
Lincoln might well have regretted ever having made a joke, for he was
expected to say something funny on all occasions, and has been made
answerable for all manner of jests, stories and repartee, as if he
had combined all the elements of humor, commonplace heartlessness and
coarseness, mingled with a passion for reviving the jokes of Joe Miller
and the circus clowns. Yet he did say many excellent things. On one
occasion Senator Wade came to him and said:
“I tell you, Mr. President, that unless a proposition for emancipation
is adopted by the government, we will all go to the devil. At this very
moment we are not over one mile from hell.”
“Perhaps not,” said Mr. Lincoln, “as I believe that is just about the
distance from here to the Capitol, where you gentlemen are in session.”
On one occasion, at a reception, when the crowd of citizens and
soldiers were surging through the salons of the White House, evidently
controlled by the somewhat brusque Western element, a gentleman said to
him:
“Mr. President, you must diminish the number of your friends, or
Congress must enlarge this edifice.”
“Well,” promptly replied Mr. Lincoln, “I have no idea of diminishing
the number of my friends; but the only question with me now is whether
it will be best to have the building stretched or split.”
At one of these receptions, when a paymaster in full major’s uniform
was introduced, he said:
“Being here, Mr. Lincoln, I thought I would call and pay my respects.”
“From the complaints made by the soldiers,” responded the President, “I
guess that is all any of you do pay.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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