The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-06-28
SKETCHES OF LINCOLN.
Incidents of His Home and Office
Life.
RIPPLEs ON THE DOMESTIC SEA.

RIPPLES ON THE DOMESTIC SEA
Sunday In the Office With the Boys-Tht
Servant Ouestion-Sympathy For Mrs
Owens Opinion.
from ''The Life of Lincoln by William FL
Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. Copyright, 1885,
by Jesse W. Weik. Copyright, 1892, by d. APP
pleton s. Co..
A knowledge of Lincoln's personal
views and actions, glimpse through
the doorway of his home and more
thorough acquaintance with his marked
and strong points as they developed
will aid us greatly in forming our gen.
eral estimate of the man. When Mr..
Lincoln entered the domain of investi-
cation, he was severe and persistent
thinker and had wonderful endurance;
hence he was distracted and for that
reason at times was somewhat unsocial,
reticent and communicative. After
his marriage it cannot be said that he
liked the society of ladies-in fact, it
was just what he did not like, though
one of his biographers says otherwise.
Lincoln had none of the tender ways
that please a woman, and he could not,
lit seemed, by any positive act OF his
own, make her happy. If his wife was
happy, she was naturally happy or made
crita Of on11ntlpcS
backs He was, however, a good has
band in his own peculiar way, and in
his own way only.
Conjugal Infelicity.
If exhausted from severe and long con-
tinued thought, he had to touch the
earth again to renew his strength. When
this WEAKNESS set in, he would stop
thought and get down and play with a
little dog or kitten to recover, and when
the recovery came he would push it aside
to play with it's own tail. He treated
men and women in much the same way.
For fashionable society he had marked
dislike, although he appreciated its
value in promoting the welfare of
man ambitious to succeed in politics.
If he was invited out to dine or to
mingle in some social gathering and
came in contact with the ladies, he
treated them with becoming politeness,
but the consciousness of his shortcomings
as a society man rendered him unusual
~ diffident, and at the very first oppor
tunity he would have the men separated
from their ladies and crowded close
around him in one corner of the parlor,
listening to one of his characteristic
stories. That lady as proud and as am
bilious to exercise the rights of suprem-
acy in society as Mary Todd should
repent of her marriage to the man |
have just described surely need occasion
no surprise in the mind of any one.
Both she and the man whose hand she
accepted acted along the lines of human
conduct, and both reaped the bitter har
vest of conjugal infelicity. In dealing
with Mr.. Lincoln's home life perhaps
am revealing an element of his charac-
ter that has heretofore been kept from
the world, but in doing SO feel sure
am treading on no persons toes, for all
the actors in this domestic drama are
dead, and the world seems ready to hear
the facts. AS his married life, in the
opinion of all his friends, exerted pecul-
lar influence over Mr.. Lincoln's polit-
ical career, there can be no improperly,
I apprehend, in throwing the light on
it now. However cold and distracted
her husband may have appeared to 9TH
ers, however impressive, when aroused,
may have seemed his Indignation in
public, he never gave vent to his feel
ings at home. He always meekly &C
cepted as final the authority of his wife
in all matters of domestic concern. This
may explain somewhat the statement of
Judge Davis that, "as a general rule,
when all the lawyers of Saturday even
ing would go home and see their fami-
lies and friends, Lincoln would find
some excuse and refuse to 60. We said
nothing, but it seemed to us all he was
not domestically happy" He exercised
no government of any kind over his
household His children did much as
they pleased. Many of their antics he
approved, and he restrained them in
nothing. He never reproved them or
gave them fatherly frown. He was the
most indulgent parent 1 have ever
known.
Sunday at the Office.
He was in the habit, when at home
on Sunday, of bringing his two boys,
Willie and Thomas-or Tad"-down
to the Office while his wife attended
church. He seldom accompanied her
there. The boys were absolutely unre-
strained in their amusement If they
pulled down all the books from the
shelves, bent the points of all the pens,
overturned inkstands, scattered law pa
pers over the floor or threw the pencils
into the spittoon, it never disturbed the
serenity OF their fathers good nature.
Frequently absorbed in thought, he
never observed their mischievous but de- |
structive pranks-as his unfortunate
partner did, who thought much, but
said nothing-and even if brought to
his attention he virtually encouraged
their repetition by declining to show
any substantial evidence of parental dis
approval After church was over the
boys and their father, climbing down
the office stairs, ruefully turned their
steps homeward. They mingled with
the throngs of well dressed people re-
turning from church, the majority of
whom might well have wondered if tie