, 1890-04-13
DENNIS HANKS, TORY.
n. csII-i on President lincoln and Had
an Interesting Experience.

n. csII-i on President Lincoln and Had
an Interesting Experiences.
Depnis Hanks, cousin and early com
panion Of Abraham Lincoln, still lives,
at the age of OIL, near Charleston, Ills,
and at intervals talks with much ANNA
ton of Lincoln's early life. Though ten
years older, he has long outlived the
martyr president. He gives this &C
count Of his only visit to Washington:
when l went down to Washington to
see him it was about a neighbOr that had
got into trouble. Tho folks here sent me
to speak to Abe about him. 1t was durin'
the war, and thar was a lot o soldiers
around the White House stickin' their
guns in everybody's face. / went to a
door-thar's only one, though looked
round fur a back door, thinkin' to sneak
in. A porter stopped me, and asked as
smart; Who do you want TO seer
Il want to see Abe Lincoln, l says.
"..You can't see him this time o. day
he SAYS as smart.
".You bet | kim / answered him.
Hes not goin' back on Dennis Hanks,
his cousin, and the boy he's r9ssled with,
II he Is the president. l hain't come here
from Illinois to be told / can't see Abe
Lincoln
He grinned and showed me the Office.
There was "A lot of fellers waitin', but l
waded through 'em and opened the door,
and thar sot Abe, as tails his own shad-
der. writin' at a old desk he tux from
Illinois.
".Heyr ! hullered. You're a purity
president, amt your Git up hyur and
shake hands. | amt after no office yit,
Abe
"'well, Dennis, is that you? I'm glad
you don't want an office. Most OF them
DO. You've got a big heart, but no head
for an office. Then he run and jist geth-
cred. me in to him like they did in the
Bible, and 50 l wept a little so l had to
take my bandanner out. He looked
kinder tired. When l told him what l
wanted he said:
I'm busy today, but I'll get Stanton
to fix that up. You go down and Mary
will give you something to eat and a
s~hakedown.'
81 knowed it was too fine for me
where Mary was. She was a good wo-
man. but was too h~ighfalutin' for me; so
/ list went to n tavern and put up. Next
mornin' Abe had a lot of papers for my
case and told me to take 'em TO Stanton.
ABE says 1. blamed if l know
where the plagueoned place is So he
called n Teller and sent the papers, and
pretty soon Mr.. Stanton come lookin'
like n jaybird in n spike tailed coat, and
snarled about them papers, but Abe got
him to sine 'em. He acted sc ugly that
when lie went out | said:
"'Abe, if Is as big as you would take
that little Teller over my knee and spank
him Abe, he laughed and said he
guessed Stanton was a bigger man han
he WAS in some respects. / came home
then and the next spring ALI was shot.
II heard Of it this IA way. l was sit
ting in my shop peggin' away at a shoe
when a man came in and said: Dennis,
Honest Abe is deadl
dead, dead. Old Abe dead | KEEP
sayin to myself. My God, it amt sol
| went out to see Sairy where she lived
all alone after Tom died, and said,
Grandmother, Abe's dead Yes, /
know. says she. I've ben a waitln' fur
it. knowed they'd kill him. and she
never asked any questions. A body'd a
thought the earth stopped whirlin' fur a
few days, the way everybody went on.
1t was like, even here in Charleston, like
a black cloud that covered the SUM-" The
dim old eyes became blurred by the sad
memory.-Exchange.