The Washington critic., 1890-04-08
A STORY OF LINCOLN.
He Played BalI the Day Before the
Convention.

He Played Rail the Day Before the
Convention
One among many memories Of prom
inent public characters stored away by
Mr.. Edward W. Cox Of the Dennison
House is q recollection of having played
hand bail at Springfield, ILL.,, with
Abraham Lincoln the day before the
latter was nominated for the Presi-
denoy. Mr.. Cox, by the way, was a
cousin of the late Sunset Cox and is
now engaged in preparing series of
"reminiscences of the boyhood of the
New York statesman to be used at the
Congressional eulogy on the Sd of next
month.
One of Mr.. Cox's sons is Rev. George
Clarke Cox, assistant rector of the
Church of the Holy Trinity at Harlem,
N. Y. Before the nomination of Mr..
Lincoln, Mr.. Cox was travelling In the
West for an oil house. During his
travels he for several days used trains
which were full of people bound for
the Chicago convention. Mr.. Cox and
q fellow-drummer, who was out for q
GAINESVILLE ink house, polled all the
travellers they could reach and found
the utmost enthusiasm for the Illinois
lawyer.
Thoroughly convinced that Lincoln
would be the nominee the pair of drum
mers took a run down to Springfield to
see the coming man. They found no
excitement there and on asking to see
Mr.. Lincoln were told he could be
found the next day, which was the one
before the convention, down at the ball
park playing handball, game of which
Mr.. Lincoln was passionately fond.
Next day they visited the park and
there they found the man of destiny
busily engaged in batting a ball against
blank brick wall and endeavoring to
strike It in such way that IL would re-
bound out of reach of his opponent.
There was quite crowd sitting about
watching the game.
Mr.. Lincoln wore, among other gar
ments, long. tailed, black coat and an
old felt hat, which tended to magnify
his tall, ungainly form and prominent
features and he looked quantity pict-
uresque as he danced about, now hit
ting the sphere hard blow and again
''babying IT. so easily that 1t barely
reached his antagonists. When Mr..
Lincoln sat down on the players bench,
having finished triumphant turn, Mr..
Cox was introduced to him. Mr.. Lin
coin received him cordially, asked if he
ever played the game, commiserated
with him when Mr.. Cox said he
didn't understand it and offered to
teach him. Mr.. Cox, however, was
thinking of the convention and said:
''AIr. Lincoln, believe you will be
the nominee" Mr.. Lincoln laughed
and said: II think not. | believe that
those Eastern chaps will euchre us out
Of it, but you are very kind to think l
will be nominated, and l am much
obliged to you"
Finally one of the players dropped
out and Mr.. Lincoln invited Mr.. Cox
TO ''take hand" Mr.. Cox of course
did so, for he was anxious to play with
the man he was sure would be nomi-
mated, and the game lasted some time,
Mr.. Lincoln displaying great skill and
strength. When the game was finished
Mr.. Lincoln kept score for another set
of players by notcbing the points on a
stick and calling out "score" in loud
voice.
That evening Mr.. Cox spoke to an ac.
quaintance of Mr.. Lincoln about the
next days convention. This friend
said he hadn't the least idea of Lincoln
being nominated, and ''that if thing
was right all h couldn't keep Lincolr
from doing ii, while if it was wrong all
h couldn't make him do it," Will
this culogy of his friend the speaker
moved away. On the morning Of con