Middletown transcript., 1895-03-02
ATALK WITH DOUGLAS.
He Told Stories ofLfncoln.

He IoId stories 0fLlncoln.
livery well remember my only meeting
with Frederick Douglas" said public wo
man whose lecture duties take her all ovel
the world, although it was as long ago as
the fall of 81, and meanwhile hundreds o.
Others of all races have come into my life
1t was at diplomatic reception in the
Whits House, and Mr.. Douglas was not in
good humor that night. He had recently
resigned from Hayti, and the troubles there
on account of his color, which the Uuited
States supposed would Please the Haytians,
still weighed upon him.
81 will tell you, he said when l con-
| graduated him upon long eventful life,
that mans race is never run; and some-
times the hardest place in the whole con-
| test is when he is almost at the goal. Now
supposed, when 1 was working in my
boyhood for a Southerner, who used to
beat my back into ridges every night, 'to
take the spirit out of me-" that nothing
could be much harder for man than that
And then l thought when Lincoln was
| j
eolored people to get full pay as soldiers,
instead of half wages. that Providence had
dealt its hardest blow. But now tell you
that it is harder than all to be snubbed and
thwarted in your old age. Your spirits
don't rally as they once did
Continuing about Lincoln, lie told story
after story of the famous martyr President.
In fact have always thought that Doug
lass reminiscence of President Lincoln
would make the most interesting volumne
of personal anecdotes of the day. For one
thing he said:
"I have always regarded President Lin
coin as the most polite man ever met. |
Now usually he is written about as brusque |
as uncultured, as unadmirable in the ways
that make gentleman. But I'll tell YOU |
my experience.
Il noticed in all my talks with him that
| was singula arly at ease. would contradict
him or argue with him as 1 saw fit, and in
fact, felt toward him as toward an equal
not superior. One day met friend of
of mine-a man who happened to be de-
formed. He was an agitator for the slaves
and had been interviewing the President
and he took exactly my view of Lincoln.
He said that Lincoln put him so much at
ease by never referring to his ameness or
pitying him in any way. He was the only
man who treated him like other men, and
he liked it,
You are public woman and suf-
Fragist?" asked Frederick Douglas, politely
If me-" continued the lecturer and when
told him yes, he took me by the hand,
md said:
This is the hand of man who worked
With might and main, with shovel and
with hoe, with pen and with sword for
ifty years to get what lie wanted for his
people. Take heart; you will get what you
want for your sex. You will succeed in all
hingsif you try. In your work you can
cunt on my sympathy always; and upon
ny support when l can give it. And to
he last hour of my life l shall have the I
Forking in my heart
Here his wife came up and reminded
hat seventy four years must not be at re-
options as late as tweniy-four could af-
'rd to stay. Those last words of his GENE
ack to me when l read that that the last
ublic office of Frederick Douglass life
as TO attend meeting of the National
ouncil oil Women in Washington, all hour
efore he dropped dead of heart disease" :