Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-10
Reoninisce,spe of Lincoln.

We copy from advance sheets of Serb
aaer's MomtAly the following passages from
! Personal "reminiscences of Lincoln.n bv
| Noah Brooks:
"Lincoln particularly liked joke atthe
expense Of the dignity of some high civil
or military official, One day, not long
before his second inauguration, he asked
me if had heard about Stanton's meet
ing picket on Broad river, South Caro-
lima, and then told this story: Gen. Eos
ter, then at Port Royal, escorted the sec
rotary up the river, taking quarter
masters tug. Reaching the outer lines
on the river, a picket roared from the
| bank, who have you got on board that
tug?' The severe and dignifed answer
was, vThe secretary of war and Major
General Foster Instantly the picket
! roard back, We've got major generals
enough up here---why don't you bring us
up some hard-tack? The story tickled
Lincoln mightily,,and he told it until it
was replaced by new one.
Anything that savored Of the wit and
humor Of the soldiers was especially well
com to Lincoln. His fondness forgood sto-
ries is a we'll accepted tradition. but any
incident that showed that 'the. boys were
mirthful and jolly in all their privations
seemed to commend itself to him. He
used to say that the grim grotesqueness
and extravaganza of American humor
were its most striking characteristics.
There was story of soldier IN the ar
my Of the Potomac, carried to the rear of
battle with both legs shot off, who, seeing
aplc woman lowering about, asked, Say,
old lady. are them pies sewed or pegged?'
And there was another one Of soldier
at the battle of Charlottesville, whose
regiment, waiting to be called into the
fight, was taking coffee. The hero O
the story put to his lips crockery mug
which he had carried with infinite care
through several campaigns. A stray
bullet, just missing the coffee-drinker
head, dashed the mug into fragments and
left only its handle in his fingers. Turn
ing his head in that direction, the soldier
angrily growled, Johnny, you can't do
that againP Lincoln, relating these two
stories together, said, 1T seems as if
neither death nor danger could quench
the grim hunor of the American soldier.
ssAs rule Lincoln wrote his most i'm
portant letters with his own hand Some
of these, perhaps the most OF them, were
read over to confidential friends, and
were corrected or modified before being
ent. He kept copies of all letters of mo-
ment, and even some of these copies he
had made himself with painstaking care
In his office in the public wing of the
White House was little cabinet, the in
terror divided into pigeon holes The
pigeon-Eoles were lettered in alphabet
cal order, but few were devoted to in
dividuals. Horace Greedy, I remember,
had a pigeon-hole by himself; so did
each of the several generals who wrote
often to him. One compartment, labeled
'W.&W.,' excited my curiosity, but ne
yer inquired what it meant, and, one
night being sent to the cabinet for let
ter which the President wanted, he said,
4 see you looking at my'W. 6 W. Can
you guess what that stands FORE Of course
it was useless to guess. well, said he,
with roguish twinkle Of the eye, that's
Weed and Wood-Thurlow and Fernan-
dy.' Then he added with an indescriba-
BILE chuckle, That's pair of 'emp
IA remarkable and highly characteris-
tic letter of Lincoln's was one which he
wrote to General Hooker just after the
lat er had taken command of the army of
the Potomac. 1t was quite long, occupy
ing nearly four pages Of large letter paper
| and written entirely in the presidents
own hand. In this letter the good Lin
coin advised Hooker in the most kindly,
even afectionate manner, not in respect