The Arizona champion., 1884-04-26
"REMINISCENCES.
BY BEN: pERLEy POoRE.

President Lincoln has been made responsible for SO many jokes that he reminds one of noted Irish wit, who having been ruined by indorsing the notes of his friends, used to curse the day when he learned to write his name as he had obtained such reputation for willingness to oblige that he could not refuse. Mir Lincoln might well have regretted ever having made joke, for he was expected to say something funny on all occasions, and has been made answerable for all manner of jests, stories, and repartees, as if he had com bined all the clements of humor, com monplace heartlessness and coarseness, mingled with passion for reviving the jokes of Joe Miller and the circus clowns. Yet he did say many excellent things On one occasion when Senator Wade came to him and said;
 'I tell you, Mir President, that unless proposition for emancipation is adopted by the Government, we will all go to the devil; at this very moment We are not over one mile from hell"
 "Perhaps not" said Mr. Lincoln, as l believe that is just about the distance from here to the Capitol, where you gentlemen are in session"
 On one occasion, at reception, when the crowd of citizens and soldiers were surging through the saloons of the White House, evidently controlled by the somewhat brusque Western element, a gentleman said to him:
 "Mr. President, you must diminish the number of your friends, or Congress must enlarge.this edidce."
 "Well," promptly replied MT. Lin coin, 'I have no idea of diminishing the number of my friends, but the only question with me now is whether it will be best to have the building stretched or split"
 At one of these receptions, when a paymaster in full majors uniform was introduced, he said;
 "Being here, Mir. Lincoln, 1 thought l would call and pay my respects"
 "From the complaints made by the soldiers" responded the President, "1 guess that is all any of you do pay"
 Ward Lamon, when Lincoln had ap- pointed him Marshal of the District of Columbia, accidentally found himself in a street fight, and, in restoring peace, he struck one of the belligerents with his fist, weapon with which he was notoriously familiar. The blow was a harder one than Lamon intended, for the fellow was knocked senseless, taken up unconscious, and lay for some hours on the border of life and death. Lamon was alarmed, and the next morning re- ported the affair to the President.
 'I am astonished at you, Ward, |" said Mir. Lincoln: "you ought to have known better. Hereafter, when you hit man, use club and not your fist. Y"
 Mir. Lincoln's largest professional fee was one of 5000, paid him i for twice arguing the case of the county of Mclean against the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The opinion of the Court sustained his view of the case, holding that the provision in the charter of the company by which it's property was exempted from taxation on the pay ment of certain portion of its earnings, was constitutional. The Central Rail road Company owned nearly 2,000,0 1000 acres of land which had been granted to it by Congress, and the road passed through twenty-six counties, so that had the decision been averse to the company, half-million of dollars put at interest would scarcely have paid the taxation.