The Greene County Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 185?-1867, 1867-03-20

mantled room, streWn with faded briefs
and leaves of law.books; no desks nor
chairs remaining; its single bracket OF
gas darkened in the centre; by whose
flame he whom our children's children
shall reverently name, prepared, per-
haps, his gentle, sturdy utterarces, and
out of its window you get a sweep OF
stableroofs and dingy back yards, where
he must have looked thousand times,
pondering Freedom and Empire with
his eye upon ash-heaps and growing
cocks and young Americans sledging
or ballplaying, As simple an Office,
even for country lawyer, as ever l saw
in my life, it Is now In the transition
condition of being prepared Tor another
tenant. In the middle of the room the
future President sat at q table side, and
in the adjoining front room this table
and all the furniture of the place is still
retained while in its back corner, look
ing medtatlvely at the cylinder stove,
you see Mr., Herndon, the partner and
authority l have referred to.
lie has given me permission to write
what | please of himself and his dead
friend, and among all the meu | have
ever met, he is the readiest to under-
stand Question and to give even and
direct answers. He resembles Mr.
Lincoln so much, and in his present
quarters, garb, and worldly condition,
Is so nearly reproduction Of A. Lin
coin, lawyer, as he lived before Fame
drove chariot through this second
story, that we may as well take turn
around the surviving man and the room
Lincoln was the taller aud older, and
senior partner. lie had been in two or
thee associations with lawyers; one of
his early partners, by fraud or misman-
agement, got him into debt and he car
ried the burden of 1t about ten years -
His latest partner, excepting llerndon,
was anxious to be a candidate tor the
legislature, and as Mr. Lincoln desired
the same honor at the same time, dis
solution was inevitable, and then to
Hernaon's greSt surprise, for he was
very young and obscure, Lincoln SAID:
BILLY let US go into business together
Herndon accepted the proposition thank.
fully. Mr.. Lincoln arranged the terms
of partnership, and the new 'shing'e'
went up directly. never to be removed
TIL the bullet OF Booth had doae It's or
rand.
How young Hernlon might have
looked twenty-five years ago we can
scarcely infer from the satron-taced,
blue-black haired man before us, bearded
bushily at the throat, disposed to shut
one eye for accuracy in conversation,
his teeth dscolored by tobacco, and over
his angular features, which suggests,
MIR. Lincoln's in ampleuess and shape,
the same halftender melancholy, the
result in both cases, perhaps, of hard
frontier work, poor pay, thoughtful ab.>
straction, and a disposition to share the
sorrows of mankind.
0, why should the spirit of mortal be proud
Is the sentiment OF Herndon's face, as it
was of Mr.. Lincolns--a gravity that
BELTS greatness well, when it comes,
and in the dress OF the firm of LIN
coin and Herndon you see this
sentiment practlcalizcd. 'Mr. Lrucoln,'
SAID Mr.. Herndon, cared so
little about clothes that sometimes he
did not put all OF them on. He was
brought up barefoot Mr.. Herndon
my parallel wears to-day bright yel,
low pair OF brceches, turned up twice at
the bottoms, and looks to be wind-
hardened farmer, rather than one of the
best lawyers in the State, and as a pub
lie man, IS charged with delivering the
best stump speeches in Illinois, on the
Republican side, during the last election.
HIS address is homely in form, com-
mencing with, Friend I'll answer you;'
and this he does without equiyocation,
with bis long fore6nger extended, and
with such fund of new information upon
the revered memory in question that
although the Lincoln biographers, from
Holland down, have talked with him, he
seems to be brmtul OF new reminiscent
ces, With extraordinary memory, great
facility oflnterence, and a sturdy origi>
nality of opinion, he had the effect upon
me to stagger all my notisns Of the dead
Presidents character. He has been a
wonderfully desultory reader. and in his
law library you may see the anomalous
companions for Prairie attorney of
Baileys Festas, Schlegels Critiques,
Colnte's Philosophy, Louis Blame and
many Of the disobedient essayists. lie
has one Of the best private libraries in
tha Vast and in Mi. raspoot l. u,l;Lo