The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-11-20
One Of Lincnlns S Stories.

There was q certain Missouri regis
ment commanded by Gen. Fisk. Ii
was largely composed of those chaps
picked up on the levee of st. tIons;
rough. nncouth, ready for almost any
thing, in word. but good hearted
fellows. Gen. Fish was pious and
good man. He found he was he Co.'s
onel of the profanest regiment IN the
whole army. After he had been with
them long enough to find them out, and
they to find him out, he called them to-
cether once and said: Now. l want to
make one proposition to ynu. One of
the first orders that General Washing
ton issued to his army was one against
profanity. Now, I don't intend to ls-
sne any order of that kind, but i'll
tend to let yon vote about it. l am
the Colonel Of this regiment, and am
going to do all the swearing for it.
"Now, willRyou agree by vote that
you will not swear, but will leave me
to do all the swearins?" The boys vot-
ed that they would do it, and there was
n Elimination in the swearing of that
regiment for some time. But Que
night there was a Kentucky mnle>dryer
and can tell you Kentucky mule
driver can swear some His six-mnle
team got stalled Just as he was coming
no with the Generals tent and heads
anarters' articles, and the stream OF
profanity that poured ont of the mouth
of that Kentucky mule driver really
freighted and burdened the air. After
it was all over Fisk called him to his
tent. He said to the soldier, Don't
YOU know that it was agreed by vote
of the regiment that was to do all the
swearing. loud enough to be heard
through all the surrounding camps.
"That's all right Colonel; that's all
right" said the man. 81 know we vote
ed that way, but the swearing had to
be done then and yon were not there. .
One day in the lecture>room in Wash>
ingtnn city, among the winters of 1864
and 1865. Col. Fisk told that story IN a
little lecture. Abraham Lincoln was
sitting on one of the front seats with
his hand clasped over his knee, enjoy
ing it very much. and laughed at it as
he would at any good anecdote. 1t
happened that there came to him an
UnIDfGUtiai6 ON lHuys "uO o''i>a 81 y
must tax with the President. She
told him her son in the East, Finn,
who bad gone into the Union army,
wher coming near his home, had gone
off to visit his mother, or perhaps, his
sweetheart, and the army, instead OF
marching on in the direction he thought
it would, took another route, and he
was gone three or four weeks.
He was finally arrested as deserter,
convicted and sentenced to be executed.
There had been good deal OF that
sort of thing. There must be no more
of this weak ~hearted policy. She told
her story, and Lincoln says: "There
is good deal in this: give me the pa
pers you have;I / sympathize with you
and will take the papers and ask the
Secretary of war, Stanton. to look into
it. and we will see what we can do fol
yon." But,' says she, "the execution
takes place next Friday, and you mus
give me the pardon now" "Why.
said Lincoln, "that reminds me of
| little story and then he went on ant
told her the whole story, and the pool
woman stood there while he told the
story I have been telling You. Aftel
ENJOYING the story as Lincoln did, ht
picked mp an old. yellow envelope ant
! wrote on it "Let John Thomas be par
doned,' and sent it to the ward de
partment, and the mother was happy.