The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-08-09

AIS. lnese DackwOons allogortes are out
Of date now, and any lawyer ambitious
to gain prominence wOuld hardly dare
thus TO entertain crowd. except at the
risk of his reputation, but with Lincoln
ii gave him In some mysterious way
sipgularly firm hold OH the people.
How Lincoln appeared and acted in
the law Office has been graphically and,
must confess. truthfully told by gen
tleman. now in New York. who was for
several years student i'm our office.
beg TO quote few lines from him: my
brother met Mr.. Lincoln in Ottawa, Ills.
one day and said TO him. Il have a
brother whom l would very much like
to have enter your office as student.
All right! was the reply. Send him
down. and We will take a look at him.
l was then studying law at Grand Rap
ids, Mich. and on hearing from my
brother l Immediately packed up and
started for Springfield / arrived there
on Saturday night. On Sunday Mr. Lin
coin was pointed out to me. l we'll re-
member this first sight Of him. He was
striding along. holding little Tad. then
about years old. by the hand, who
could with the greatest difficulty keep
up with his father. In the morning /
applied at the Office of Lincoln & Hern-
don for admission as a student.
Modest Once.
1.-THE Office was on the second floor of
brick building on the public square,
opposite the courthouse. You went up
one flight of stairs and then passed along
q hallway to the rear office, which was
a medium sized room There was one
long table in the center of the room and
shorter one running in the opposite di-
rection, forming L, and both were COW
erd with green baize. There were two
windows which looked into the back
yard. In one corner was an old fashion
ed secretary with pigaonholes and
drawer. aud here Mr.. Lincoln and his
partner kept their law papers. There
was also bookcase containing about
200 volumes of law as we'll as miscella-
neous books.
1.-THE morning / entered the office Mr.
Lincoln and his partner. Mr.. Herndon,
were both present. Mr.. Lincoln adj
dressed his partner thus: Billy. this is
the young man of whom spoke to you.
Whatever arrangement you make with
him will be satisfactory to me-. Then,
turning to me, he said: Il hope you will
not become so enthusiastic in your stud
les Of Blackstone and Kent as did two
young men whom We had here. Do you
see that spot over there?' pointing to
large ink stain on the wall. We'll, one
of these young men got so enthusiastic
in his pursuit of legal lore that he fired
an inkstand at the other ones head,
and that is the mark he made / imme-
diately began to clean up about the Office
little. Mr.. Lincoln had been in con-
gress and had the usual amount of seeds
TO distribute TO the farmers. These were
sent out with Free Soil and Republican
documents. In my efforts to clean up
found that some Of the seeds had sprout-
ed in the dirt that had collected in the
Office. Judge Logan and Milton Hay &C.
cupied the front offices of the same floor
with Lincoln and Herndon, and one day
Mr.. Hay came in and said, with appar-
eut astonishment. What's happened
here?' oh, nothing, replied Lincoln.
pointing TO me, only this young man
has been cleaning up little.
'Lincoln's favorite position when I'M
raveling some knotty law point was to
stretch both of his legs at full length
upon chair in front of him. In this
position, with books on the table near
by and III his lap, he worked up his case.
No matter how deeply interested in his
work, il any one came in he had some
thing humorous and pleasant TO say, and
usually wound up by telling joke or
an anecdote. / have heard him relate
the same story three times within as
many hours 10 persons who came in at
different periods, and every time he
laughed as heartily and enjoyed it as if
it were new story. His humor was in
fictitious. l had to laugh because
thought it funny that Mr.. Lincoln en-
joyed story so repeatedly told.
Dividing the Fees.
There was no order in the office at
all. The firm of Lincoln e. Herndon kept
no books They divided fees without
taking any receipts or making any en-
tries on books. One day Mr.. Lincoln re-
ceived S., 900 as fee in railroad case.
He came in and said, Well, Billy. ad
dressing his partner, Mr.. Herndon. here
is our fee. Sit down and let me divide
He counted out So, 500 TO his partner
and gave it to him with as much non
chalance as he would have given few
cents for a paper. Cupidity had no abid.
ing place in his nature.
II took good deal of pains in get
ting up speech which l wanted to de-
liver during political campaign. told
Mr.. Lincoln that would like to read it
to him. He sat down in one chair, put
his feet into another one and said:
John, you can fire away with that
speech. / guess l can stand it,. I'M
rolled the manuscript and proceeded