Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-03-21
LINCOLN'S PECULlARITIES.
Some Anecdotes of the Great Emancipa-
tor Told by Artist Conant Who
Painted His Portrait.
4 T. Conant. the artist. recalls som

A. j. Conant, the artist, recalls some
interesting stories about Lincoln,
whose portrait he once painted for the
first exhibition of the Western Acad-
envy of Art in st. Louis. 1t was his
custom he said, in painting this to go
to Mr.. Lincoln's office in the old State
building, as MIR. Lincoln was at that
time (1S60) busted with political af-
fairs and could not find time for for
NAL sittings. The first time Mr.. Co.
nant visited Mr.. Lincoln for this pur-
pose he found the exposition upon his
face quite the reverse of the melancholy
and serious one he supposed he wore.
1t was so bright, animated and genial
that Mr.. Conaut at once made up his
mind to depict it if he could. With this
in view, it was his custom to tell
humorous stories, which. when they
touched Mr.. Lincoln's fancy, made
him forget for the time his absorbing
affairs. One day Mr.. Lincoln told
how, when running" as he termed it,
his grocery store at Salem, near
Springfield he got his first taste for
law A farmer drove up with a brok-
en-down horse and wagon filled with
household ''plunder," and asked him
what he would give ''for the hull load"
Lincoln looked over the lot of old pots,
pans, kettles and stuff, and gave him
half dollar. The man went off and
Lincoln stored the stuff. Some weeks
after the purchase Lincoln had occa-
sion to use one of the barrels, which
were filled with some of the old
struck" bought in the 50-cent pur-
chase, and as he turned out the con-
tents of one of them, under the old
rusty pans dilapidated copy of Black.
stones Commentaries came to light.
Lincoln eyed it curiously and laid it
aside. Later in the afternoon ne
picked the book up and began to
read. He soon became absorbed in it,
and from that day on he read all the
long leisure hours which fall to the lot
of a country grocer. This was the
first inkling he had of any taste in the
direction in which he afterward attain
ed such success. Another story the
artist told was one which he said he
had himself told Lincoln, and which
he had used on several occasions, on
two of which he had been interrupted
before he had got to the point, "and,"
said the artist, ''if there was anything
which annoyed Mr.. Lincoln it was this.
1t caused him to always remember the
man from whom he got the story. The
story was of a Missouri man who went
to a stable to get horse to take him
to a convention to which he was going
as delegate with hope of nominal
ton. The stable keeper was man of
different political persuasion and gave
him horse which he calculated would
break down before he got there. His
calculation proved true and the man
lost the nomination. On his return to
the stable, the disappointed Missourian
asked the stable man if he was train
ing that horse for hearse. The man
said "Kinder guessed he wasn't.
"Well," said the man, eff you are he'll
never do it, for he wouldn't get a
corpse to the cemetery in time for the
resurrection" This story Lincoln had
twice tried to tell, once from the rear
of train. and was carried away by it
before he got to the point, and second
time, when present at a gun testing,
when the gun was fired just as he
reached the Missourian's reply.