I had occurred at Decatu Republicans named him as Presidency. An old Demo as southern Illinois was cal Lincoln and said, "So you'ı "Yes, that is my name." "They say you're a self-m "Well, yes; what there is "Well, all I've got to say man, after a careful survey candidate, "is that it was

When the Republican Con about to be held in Chicag home in Auburn. When whether he would go to the he replied, quaintly, “I am a candidate to go, and not candidate to stay away; bu believe I will not go.

During the sitting of the Chicago Convention Lincoln had been trying, in one way or another, to keep down the excitement which was pent up within him by amusing himself and telling stories. When the news actually reached him he was in the editorial office of the Journal. He got up at once and allowed a little crowd to shake hands with him mechanically, then said:

"I reckon there's a little woman down at our house that would like to hear the news," and he started with rapid strides for home.

When it became an assured fact that he was elected, the President-elect got ready for his eastward journey, and he and Mrs. Lincoln paid a brief visit to Chicago, where his wife bought a silk dress for the inaugural ceremonies. When they got home, and were unpacking their purchases, Mr. Lincoln said: “Well, wife, there is one thing very likely to come out of this scrape, anyhow. We are going to have some new clothes."

It cannot be charged that Mr. Lincoln was a husband to grace fashionable society. He hated clothing of all sorts, and it was his habit, on reaching his office or his home, to take off his boots, as he naïvely expressed it, "to allow his feet to

breathe," and very often he would receive the friends of his wife at the door in his shirtsleeves. He was a thoroughly informal man. At the time of the Chicago visit just referred to, a prominent lady called by appointment to see Mrs. Lincoln. He received the caller and, apologizing for his wife's tardiness, explained that she would be down “as soon as she got all her trotting harness on.”

Soon after Lincoln's election he held a reception in the principal hotel in Chicago. For several hours a continuous procession of his friends and admirers passed before him, mány of them old and intimate acquaintances. It was amusing to observe Lincoln's unfeigned enjoyment, and to hear his hearty greeting in answer to familiar friends who exclaimed, "How are you, Abe?" he, responding in like manner with "Hello, Bill!" or "Jack!" or "Tom!" alternately pulling or pushing them along with his powerful hand and arm, saying, "There's no time to talk now, boys; we must not stop this big procession, so move on.'

One day after his election, while a group of distinguished politicians from a distance were sitting in the Governor's room at Springfield,

Ill., chatting with Lincoln, the door opened and an old lady in a big sunbonnet and the garb of a farmer's wife came in.

Lincoln," she said, “and

I

"I wanted to give you something to take to Washington, Mr. these are all I had. spun the yarn and knit them socks myself." And with an air of pride she handed him a pair of blue woolen stockings.

Lincoln thanked her cordially for her thoughtfulness, inquired after the folks at home, and escorted her to the door as politely as if she had been the Queen of England. Then, when he returned to the room, he picked up the stockings, held them by the toes, one in each hand, and with a queer smile upon his face remarked to the statesmen around him:

"The old lady got my latitude and longitude about right, didn't she?"

When the election was over and his friends begged him to assure the South that he contemplated no adverse action, he resisted the temptation and said that it reminded him of one of his experiences on the circuit when he saw a lawyer making frantic signals to an associate who was making blundering admissions to the jury, utterly oblivious of the wreck he was making of the case.

1861:

"My friends, no one in the sadness I feel at this p I owe all that I am. Here a quarter of a century. H born, and here one of ther not how soon I shall see assume a task more difficu devolved upon any other Washington. He never except for the aid of Div which he at all times reli not succeed without the which sustained him; and Being I place my reliance hope you, my friends, wil receive that Divine assis I cannot succeed, but w certain. Again I bid you well."