New-York tribune., 1885-07-05

plank. sOh" said I, this will not do gentlemen"
and gentleman was passing IN SAID 10 nun;
the door" He rushed in to President Lincoln ana
almost IN less than half minute was invited
into tho East Room of the White House. A perfect
sea Of beauty and elegance too it was; The ladies
were in very fine attire. and Mrs. Lincoln was
standing there. l could not have been more than
ten feet from him when Mr.. Lincoln saw me; ms
countenance lighted up and he said in voice when
was heard all around Here comes my friend Doug
lass" As 1 approached him he reached ont H ms
lass saw you in the crowd to-day listening TO my
inaugural address There IS no ,6an's opinion that
| said Mr. Lincoln l cannot stop here to talk
with You, as there are thousands waiting TO snake
you by tho hand = but he sad again: ;. nat ana
sacred effort" and then walked of. =" am glad
you liked it, he said. That was the last time saw
In all nv interviews with Mr. Lincoln i'm
pressed with his entire freedom against popular
prejudice against the coiored race lie was the iirst
great man that talked with In tie United states
freely. who in single instance reminded me oil the
difference between himself and myself, OF she dii-
ference OF color and thought that al inc re more
remarkable because he came from state where ere
there black laws account partially ior ms nis
Kindness to me because of the similarity with whch
lowest ronnd OF the ladder must say this for Mr..
Lincoln that whenever met him he was IN very
serious mood. heard of those stoTcs he used 10
tell but no never told mo story. / remember OF
ono of Mr. Lincoln's stories being told mo by Cen
eral Grant. had called on him and he said:
little incident. When came to Washington first
one of the first things that Mr. Lincoln said to me
was. Grant have you ever read the BOOK by Urphems
c. Kerr Well no. never did said |. Mr. Lin
coin said 'You lght to read IT, it is very inter
csting book / have had good deal of satisfaction
reading that oooR Il t1gre % Is Dn poe The
of IL being that the animals and dragon. or some
dreadful thing. was near by and had to be con-
oncred and it was question rs to who woull un-
dertakc the job. BY and by a monkey stepped for
ward and proposed to do the work up. The monkey
said he thought he could do 1t If he could get an
inch or two more put on his tail The assrmGlago
voted him a few inches more to his tail. and he
went ont and tried his had. lie was unsuccessful
and returned. stating that he wanted lew more
and he went again. His second effort was fiilnre
lie asked that inches be put on his tail and he
Grant. 1t got through my head what Lincoln was
aiming at. as applying to my wanting more men.
and finally said Mr. LINCOLN don't want any any
more inches put on my t,il" 1t was hit at Me-
Clean. and General Grant told me the story with
a good deal OF gnsto. L got the DooK aiter"aru
and read the lines of Orpheus G. Kerr
There was one thing concerning Lincoln that |
was impressed with. and that was that statement
of his was an argument more convincing than any
amount of logic He had nappy faculty OF stating
a propositian. of stating il SO that 1t needed no
argument. 1t was rough KIND oi reasoning. put u
went right to the point Then. too. there wa, was
another feeling that had with reference to him.
and that was that while felt in his presence was
in the presence of very great man. ~ great as the
greatest felt though could 90 and put my hand
shoulder OF course did not do 1t. but felt that
could. | felt though was in the presence of
big brother and that there was safety III his atnos-
phcre.
It was often said during the war that Mrs Lincoln
did not sy,npathizo fully with her husband III his
anti-savcry feeling. but never believed this con
cerning har and have COOL reason for being con-
iirmel in my impression of her by tho fact that
when Mr. Lincoln died and she was about leaving
tho White House. she selected his favorto walking
cane and said : " know of 10 one that wonld ap-
preciate this than Fred. Douglass She sent
i. to me at Rochester and have 1t in my house to-
day aud expect 10 keep il there as long as live
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.