The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-04-06
LINCOLN'S PLUG HAT.
A VERITABLE Joint OF STOVEPlPE"
WITH ROMANTIC BRlM.


as a Football For Ladies.
There are enough of funny incidents
reported of Mr. Lincoln's hat to make
it "fabled in song and illumined in
story" For example, it served as a
football on the night of his election to
the presidency, when the ladies at the
old homestead testified their glee over
his good fortune. The scene would have
done credit to the great game between
Yale and Princeton on Manhattan field.
This is the story as told by an eyewit-
ness:
"a few of us ladies went over and
helped Mrs. Lincoln prepare little sup
per for the friends of Mr.. Lincoln, who
had been invited in to hear the returns.
Every half hour or SO we would pass
around coffee and cakes. About D. clock
in the morning enough had been learned
to warrant the belief that the rail split
ter had been elected. l think it was
when we heard the news from New
York. The men rushed on Mr.. Lincoln
and shook his hands, while some of the
women actually Rugged him, and-I
might as we'll admit it kissed him.
''Then some one went into the hall
and took from the rack the old silk hat
that he wore, and which was as long as
joint of stovepipe and about as shape
ly to my mind, and it was thrown up to
the ceiling. AS it came down some one
gave it kick, and then the women
joined in the fun, and we played foot
ball with that hat until it was an indis-
tinguishable mass. We were simply be-
yond control. What ridiculous scene
it would have been to one looking IN
without knowing what prompted it!
ut was all the more so, SO far as /
was concerned, for originally had been
a Seward woman. While the conven-
ton was in session in Chicago we were
waiting to hear the news. 1t had been
arranged in case Lincoln received the
nomination to fire cannon. My near
est neighbor was Mrs. Dubois, with
whom l had several friendly spats dur
ing the campaign preceding the nomi-
nation. | heard the cannon shot, and
the next moment l saw Mrs. Dubois
running across the street. She had been
making shirt for her husband, who
was about the size Of the late Judge Da-
vid Davis, so you may have some idea
of the size of the garment she was wav
ing. She rushed into the house and
Haunted it in my face. 1t made me
mad, and sat down and began crying.
The good woman put her arms around
me, begged my pardon and kissed me,
and from that time we were Lincoln
women. She took part in the football
match.
AS if not content with his feet 4 or
inches of gaunt stature, Lincoln had
his now historic hat made fully foot
high, with brim almost as big as a
southern somblero. 1t seemed to have
been combination of all styles then in
existence, and in this respect it reflected
his own early experience in having been
a storekeeper, soldier, surveyor and
finally a solicitor. 1t was a veritable
"joint of stovepipe," and it's remarka-
BILE and romantic brlm made it alike
serviceable in rain or shine. It might
have been called with propriety plug
ugly" after the name Of the mob in
Baltimore that threatened him in his
journey to the capital.
During Lincoln's great debate with
Douglas the hat fairly doomed into
space. The smallness of the latter's
stature caused him to be nicknamed
1.-THE Little Giant" and when Lincoln
stood beside him with his hat on the
difference between the two seemed all
but Unreasonable. Curiously enough,
when Mr.. Lincoln came to be inaugu-
rated at Washington and took off his
hat on the stand preparatory to making
his inaugural address Douglas held the
high hat SO that no careless person might
put his foot in it.
Representative Springer, who halls
from Lincoln's old home, knew the hat
we'll, and in speaking of it recently said:
"Mr. Lincoln's high hat was the most
indispensable thing of his whole outfit.
In it he carried all his valuable papers.
In fact, it was sort Of file rack. Here
were all the briefs of his various law
cases. Curiously enough, he carried the
accounts in his head, and that is why
he lost so much money. Had he re-
versed the process and kept his accounts
in his hat and the cases in his head, he
would have been better off. His hat
served for his satchel on journey, and
all that was needed besides this were
his saddlebags and his horse. 1t was
large and capacious, and a great many
documents and data could be crowded
into it without seriously discommoding
the wearer.
But Mr.. Lincoln had still better use
for his valuable tile, which seems to
have had more virtues than those re-
hearsed in the nursery tale of Jack and
the Beanstalk." When be was post
master at New Salem, his hat became
most important part of his Office equip
ment. AS soon as the mail was received
each day the young postmaster would
put the letters in his hat and take
stroll through the village. The villa
gers knew that he was peripatetic
postoffice, and of course rybody was
anxious to know the contents of the hat,
which seemed to promise as much to
them as hat in the hands of sleight
of hand performer. w Washington Cor.