His Pen Wanted to Keep Their Hogs Safe
Just after the call for seventy-five thousand ninety-day men to subdue the outbreak after Sumter was cannonaded, a deputation of loyal Virginians waited upon the President. They expounded on this levy that the fair fields of the South would be overrun by the ragamuffins of the Northern cities, and the hen-roosts and pig-houses ravished, etc.
“But what would you have me do?” asked Lincoln, who did not then foresee his having to conduct the military movements.
“Mr. President, if you would only lend us your pen a moment—” meaning, of course, that he should write a line to calm the rising storm.
But the other pretended to misunderstand him, saying: “Lend my pen! my pen? What would you do with that?—keep your hogs safe with that?”
“HURRAH FOR YOU!”
At the Chicago reception, a little boy came into the room, with his father. No doubt he had been instructed to behave with decorum in the august presence; but he no sooner saw the tall, prominent figure than he shouted: “Hurrah for Mist’ Lincoln!”
The crowd laughed, and still the more as the object of the ovation caught up the little fellow, gave him a toss to the ceiling, and, while he was in the air, shouted out lustily:
“Hurrah for Mister You!” and, catching him, lowered him, red and panting, to the floor.
“PUT YOUR FEET RIGHT AND STAND FIRM!”
Giving a lift in his carriage to two ladies, to the Soldiers’ Home, the horses were splashing and sliding after a shower in the mire, when Mr. Lincoln assisted the frightened women to alight. He set three stones for stepping-stones in the mud, and assisted them to firm ground. He had cautioned them in making the passage:
“All through life be sure you put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm!”
Looking down on his muddy boots (Lincoln as a Westerner always stuck to leg-boots, and was never seen in the effeminate “Congress gaiters,” by the bye), he added: “I have always heard of ‘Washington mud,’ and now I shall take home some as a sample!”