The Red Cloud chief., 1879-11-27
One Of LincOln's Stories.

There was a certain Missouri rcgi,
mem commanded by Gen Fisk. IL was
largely composed Of those chaps picked
up on the lcvcc Of st. Louis; rough, I'M,
couth, ready for almost any thing, in a
word, but good hearted fellows. Gen.
Fisk WAS a pious and good man. He
found he was the Colonel Of the pro-
fancSt regiment i'm the whole army. AZ
ter hc had been with them long enough
la find them out, and they To find him
out, he called them together once and
said "Nuw, ! want Ia make one prop
o>ition Ia you. One of the first orders
that General Washington issued to his
army was one against profanity. Now,
| don't intend 10 issue any order of that
kind, but | intend Ia let you vote about
it. | am the Colonel of this regiment,
and | am going 10 do all the swearing
for il.
"Now, will YOU agree by a vote that
YOU will moi swear, but will leave me 10
do all the swcarin@?" The boys voted
thai they would do il, and there was a
diminution in the swearing of that regi-
mcnt for some time. But one night
there was a Kentucky mule-drivcr-and
| can tell You II Kentucky mule-driver
can swear some. His six-mule team got
stalled just rs he was coming up with
the Generals tents and headquarters
articles, and the stream of profanity
that poured out of the mouth of that
Kentucky mulc-driver really frcightcd
and burdcned the air. After il was all
ovcr Fisk called him Ia his tent. He
said Ia the soldier, "Don't You know
that il was agreed by a vote Of the rcgi-
mcnt that | was Ia do all the swearing
of the rcgimcnt?'' Yes" said the man.
.'Wcll, here YOU are swearing loud
enough 10 he heard through all the sur
rounding camps"
"That's all right, Colonel; that's all
right" said the man. al know we
voted that way, but the swearing had Ia
he done then and you were not there"
One day in the lecture-room in Wash
ington 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, enjoying il
very much, and laughed at il Us he
would at any good anecdote. 1t hap
pcned that there came To him an unfor-
tunate old lady, who said she must talk
with the President. She told him her
son in the East, Finn, who had gone
into the Union Army, when coming near
his home had gone off to visit his moth
or, or, perhaps, his sweetheart, and the
army, instead of marching on in the
direction he thought il would, took an
other route, and he was gone three or
four weeks. He was finally arrested as
a deScrter, convicted and sentenced Il
be executed. There had been a good
deal of that sort of thing. There must
iY no more of this weak-heartcd policy.
She told her story, and Lincoln says:
=. There is Il good deal in this; give me
the papers YOU have; Isympathize with
you, and | will take the papers and ask
the Secretary of War, Stanton, to look
into il, and we will see what we can do
for YOU" "But," says she, "the exc
takes place mex Friday, and You
must give me the pardon now"
: Why >" said Lincoln, "that reminds
of a little story" and then he went
on and told her the whole story, and
the poor roman stood there while he
told the story | have been telling YOU
After enjoying the story rs Lincoln did,
he picked up IN old, yellow envelope
and wrote on it "Let John Thomas be
pardoned," and Sent il To the War De-
partment, and the mother was happy
fHicqgO Times,