Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-10-07

table, connect the fragments. and ther
write cut the whole speech on consecutive
6 sheets in plain. legible handwriting.
His house was an ordinary two story
frame building. with stable and yard
IL was bare, cherries sort OF place.
He nlanted no fruit or shade trees. NO
sbrphberv or flowers He did on one oc-
casion set out few rose bushes in front
of his house: but they speedily persisted,
or became upsightly for want OF attention,
Airs. Wallace, Mrs. Lincoln's sister, under
took ITO hide the nakedness" of the place
by planting some flowers, but they soon
withered and died. He cultivated a small
garden for Il single year, working in it
himself; but it did not seem to prosper,
and that enterprise was also abandoned
He had a horse and COW; the one was
fed and curried, and the other fed and
MIXED, bv his own hands. When at home
he chopped and sawed ali the wood that
was used in his house. Late one night
he returned home, after an absence OF a
week or so. His neighbor. Webber was
in bed: but, hearing an axe in use at that
unusual hour. he rose to see what 1t
meant The moon was high; and by its
light he looked down into Lincoln's yard,
and there saw him in his shirt sleeves,
a.cuttipg wood to cook his supper with"
Weber turned to his watch, and saw that
it was o'clock Besides this house and
lot. and small sum OF money, MIR. Lin
coin had no property, except some wild
land in Iowa, entered for him under war
rants, received for service in the Black
Hawk war.
- His FAMILY LIFE.
Mrs. Wallace thinks Mr. Lincoln was
"a domestic man by nature" He was not
fond of other peoples children, but was
extremely fond of his own; he was pa
tient, indulgent, and generous with them
to fault On Sundays he often took
those that were large enough, and walked
with them into the country, and, giving
himself up entirely to them, rambled
through the green fields or the cool woods,
amusing and insiructing them for whole
day at time. His method of reading is
thus quantity described: ''He would read
generally aloud Couldn't read otherwise),
would read with great warmth all fun
ny or humorous things; read Shakes
peare that way. He was a sad man, an
distracted man. He would lean back,
his head against the top of rocking
chair; sit distracted that way for min
utes,-twenty, thirty ninutes,-and all at
once would burst out into joke.
Mrs. Col. Chapman. daughter of Dem
mis- Hanks, and therefore relative OF
+ Mr.. Lincoln made him a long visit pre-
vious 10 her marriage. 'You ask me-"
says she, chow Mr. Lincoln acted at
home. can say. and that truly, he was
all that a husband, father and neighbor
should be,-kind and afectionate to his
child (''Bobn being the only one they had
when | was with them), and very pleas
ant to all around him. Never did l hear
him utter an unkind word. For instance
one day he undertook TO correct his child
and his wife WAS determined he shoulC
not, aud attempted to take it from him
but in this she failed She then triet
ongue-lashing, but met with the same
fate: for Mr.. Lincoln corrected his chile
as father ought to do, in the face of hi,
wife's anger, and that, too, without even
changing his countenance or making any
reply to his wife. His fayorte way OF
reading, when at home, was lying dowr
on the floor. fancy | see him now, ly
ing in the hall of his old house reading
When not engaged reading law-books, h,
would read literary works, and was ver'
fond oil reading poetry, and often, whel
he would be, or appear to be, in dee]
study, commence and repeat aloud SOM
piece that he had taken a fancy too sucl
as the one you already have in print, an,
The Burial of Sir John Moore" and 81
on. He often told laughable jokes an,
stories when he thought we were looking
gloomy"
Mr.. Lincoln was not supremely happy
in his domestic relations: the circumstan
ces of his courtship and marriage alone
made that impossible. His engagement
to Miss Todd was one of the great misfor.
tunes of his life and OF hers. He reaizec
the mistake too late; and when he was
brought face to face with the lie he wa:
about to enact, and the wrong he wa.
about to do, both to himself and an limo
cent woman. he recoiled with horror an,
remorse. For weeks together, he was
sick, deranged, and on the verge of sui
cide,-a heavy care to his friends, and 9
source of bitter modification to the unfor
tunate lady, whose good fame depended
in great part. upon his constancy. lii
recovered slowly, and at length returne,
to Springfield. He spoke out his feeling
frankly and truly to the one person mos
Interested in them. But he had been
from the beginning, except in the case o
Ann Kutledge, singularly inconsistent an
unstable in bis relations with the few re
fined and cultivated women who had beer
the objects of his attention. He lovet
Miss Rutledge passionately, and the mex
year imporluned Miss Owens t. be hi.
wife. Failing in his suit, he wrote an un
feeling letter about her, apparently will
no earthly object but to display his Levitt,
and make them both ridiculous. III,
courted Miss Todd, and at the moment o
success fell in love with her relative. an,
y between the two, went crazy, and though
OF ending all his woes with razor or
- pocket-knife.. 1t is not impossible tina
the feelings Of such man might have un
dergone another and more sudden change
Perhaps they did. At all events, he wa
conscientious and honorable and jus,
There was but one way of repairing tn
injury he had done Miss Todd, and h
adoptedit. They were married; but the
understood each other. and suffered tn
inevitable consequences, as other peop
do under similar circumstances. But sucl
d troubles seldom fail to fad tongue; an,
1t IS not strange that, in this case, neigh
bors and friends, and ultimately the Who'll,
country, came to know the state of thing