Daily globe., 1881-11-29


ter, against 48,Ol1 quarters at As Sd per quar-
| ter for the corresponding week last year.
MRS. LINCOLN.
She Denies Her Reported Af2Me,sce, and
Tells What She Has Done Nth Her
Money.
IN. Y. Special, Nov. 1851
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln at present resides at
No. 80 West Twenty-sixth street, this city,
where she is undergoing course Of electrical
treatment Her physical condition, while not
for she is troubled with spinal difficulty that
renders it impossible for her to walk, and
! which will questionably keep her on her
back the remainder of her days. Mentally
Mrs. Lincoln is active and clear, talks with
rapidity, and is pleased to meet her friends
who may call to visit her. spent two hours
with her this afternoon, the conversation
turning mainly upon the subject now upper
most in her mind, and which has during the
past week received and excited great amount
of criticism, which is
THE POSSIBLE INCREASE OF HER PENSION BY
CONGRESS.
Mrs. Lincoln says she has felt much grieved
to hear that the people of Illinois shonld give
expression to any such statements as have
found their way into the press concerning
| her, and she knows full well the particular
| source from which these reports have emanat-
ed and the personal feelings which have
prsmpted them. This government, she says,
owes it to her to see that she is provided for
in manner that her wants may be fully met,
and there is no reason why she should
not receive the same consideration at
the hands or the nation that may be con-
templated for another. Not on her own ac-
count so much, as an act of justice to the
memory of man to whom this nation owes a
great debt of gratitude-Abraham Lincoln.
So far as her present financial condition is
concerned, Mrs. Lincoln says most positively
that she has not enough from the govern
ment to maintain her She is under expenses,
medical and other, which are large no matter
how simply she may live, and as for being
CHARITY sUBJECt
on the hands of her relatives, she will never
consent to that. Some had criticised her
son Robert because he did not take
care of her. She did not desire to
have him do so, for he had his own
brood to look after and had his hands full.
His kind heart had uIged this many times, and
also his wife had done the same, but she had
insisted that it was her duty to live upon her
own resources, for she did not care to take
from him that which should go to his own
family. There has been story floating about,
said Mrs. lincoln, and it was now freshly re-
peated within the past two days in Western
papers, that she had received $4,000 from
congress, and that the interest upon this sum
added to her $1,000 pension ought to be
enough to maintain her handsomely. There
never was greater falsehood uttered.
CONGRESS NEVER GAVE HER $4,000.
But Immediately after her husbands death
in 1865 that body did vote her the amount of
the presidents salary for one year, $25;OOO,
less 81, 500 which Mr. E. B. Washburne sue
ceeded IN having cut off the sum originally in
tended, and this left her $22,500 She went
to Chicago and purchased house on West
Washington street, paying therefor $4,000,
and in addition to this expenditure she laid
out a considerable amount for furniture, SO
that she had very little left after this transac-
tiOn from the original amount of the approp-
ration. She finally found that it would cost
more than she could afford to keep up the
house, SO she told her son, Robert Lincoln,
that if he would pay her 81 500 year for a
period of seven years he might have the prop
erty. He agreed to this, and
PAID THAT SUM ANNUALLY.
The property much of the time failed to
pay more than half that revenue, so he was
obliged to make the payments out Of his own
pocket. She also gave to Robert the house
| in Springfield, which was very old, her hus.
| band having bought it in 1843, and worth but
little. But she says she was prompted in both
| instances by desire that her son should have
something of what the country had given her
| in consideration for his fathers services. Not
until July Is, 1870, more than five years after
President Lincoln's death, did congress see fit
| to grant her pension. The original design
was to secure her 5000, but it was cut to
So 200, which Charles Sumner, in letter in
| forming her had been voted, advised her not
to accept, as it was
FAR BELOW WHAT OUHAT TO HAVE BEEN CIV
EN- HER.
| But she felt that even s. 600 was even better
than nothing, and her necessities compelled
| her to decline to act upon his urgent advice.
She had always endeavored to live frugally,
| and when in France she lived like peasant,
in small apartments, and lad not spent her
| time in travelling, making but infreQuent
| visits to Italy, whittier she went IN winter on
account of her health. Often of late she had
been obliged to borrow money on her pension
claim in order to meet her expenses. 1t mat
ters not, she says, what Jacob Bum has OF
hers; that is small amount and concerns
nobody. She had not enough money to live
on, and she felt that it was but the duty of
| congress to increase her pension at least to an
| amount in keeping with her necessities.
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