Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-05-19
elere We're no LAZY members in III.
ciety: -'0 90
Whatever sspiteful fools may say.
Each Jealous, ranting yeiper.
No woman eycr went astrav


ant His legislative career, his sisnu,
victory IL the debate at the Presbvtassss'pa
church, when he measured swords -, r.sa
Douglas, Lamborn and Calhoun ~"
his marked success at the bar gave b;ss
a prominence not easily earned IN ~
growing society of the state capital D. ns
dowed with the same ambition VIII
any other young man would have no.
sessed had he fiourished amid the san .a,
environments, we are prepared IN laasS
that he now began to contemplate viii
true philosophic reasoning the vaI1a
and propriety Of marriage. Anne Pns
ledge was i'll her grave, the flirtatio,,
with discreet Mary Owens had nassod
and fate now leads him a sutton for ~.
hand of Mary Toddl OF this tempestr ~
GUS and reactionary courtship, and .,
its Importance as factor in Mr. LIN
coin fortunes, but little is left for =.
to say. What Mr.. Herndon. wboss
knowledgs and Eources of informatoo
have been unchallenged, has omitted r.
say On that subject has, it occurs to mo
been fully supplied by the late Adam
Badeau and certain others who have al.
ready testified. The strange commip.
Cling of passion and pathos, the uneaten
wedding supper, the surprised and dis.
appointed guests, the melancholy groom
wandering half demented through tha
woods at midnight the proud broken
hearted expectant bride led in tears to
her chamber. These all constitute a
drama scarcely paralleled anywhere in
history.
might have shed some light on the
Hitherto unexplained features Of this
courtship myself, for 1 located some
time ago most important witness-a
participant i'll fact in the drama, who
had outliyed all the others-but she was
woman, and, with woman's deter.
mination, refused to testify. She proved
invincible alike to coercion and en-.
treaty, and although, for time |
hoped the knowledge Of the good she
might do history would ultimately in.
duce her to Enseal her lips, yet was
obliged at last to 6 We rn n despair.
She was the widow Of Simeon Francis,
who for years was the editor of The San.
CANON Journal. Her tact and diploma
ey brought together under her own root
Lincoln and Mary Todd in the summer
Of 1912, after their unfortunate estrange.
ment, and thus effected reconciliation.
Perhaps if Mrs Francis had never Civ
en- her party and had not brought these
strange lovers together by her cordial
reintroduetion they might have contin.
ued in their paths, then SO far diver
gent, and never have met again, and if
things had SO happened, according to
the reasoning Of Herndon, Matheny
and others, Lincoln never would have
been president Indeed, the marriage
Notwithstanding this meeting, might
not have taken place when it did but
for the intervention of what is known as
the duel with James Shields.
This seriocomic, if not grotesque, af-
fair has been SO CLOSED over by most Ct
Mr.. Lincoln's bicgraphers, only two Ct
whom give any Ct the correspondence,
one might almost believe it myth
Time and place forbid the narrative i'll
detail here, but I cannot refrain, in
view Of its importance in connection
with other peculiarly human episodes
in Mr.. Lincoln's life, from giving it
something more than a passing notice.
The following extract from one Of the
letters published in The Sangamon Jour-
nal Will serve to indicate the general
character Of the publications which
aroused Mr.. Shields ire and led at last
to the challenge. The letter is signed
tRebeeca, +" and is supposed to be the
lament Of q poor widow in Lost town
ship who, unable to meet her taxes, is
disposed to criticise the so called extray-
agance of the Democratic state govern.
ment The most conspicuous figure in
the political horizon at Springfield then
was James Shields, the auditor. on
whose head she lays all the blame for
her depressed financial condition.
II seed him when I was down in
Springfield last winter" she writes.
''They had sort Of gatherin there one
night among the grandees they called
fair. All the gals about town was there,
and all the handsome widows and mar
ried women tinickin about tryin to look
like gals, tied as tight in the middle
and pulled out at both ends like bundles
Of fodder that hadn't been stacked yet,
but wanted staclcin pretty bad And
they had tables all around the house
kivered over with caps and pincushions
and $50, 600 snch little knickknacks,
tryin to sell 'em to the fellows that
was bowin and scrapin and kungeeriE
about EN-. They wouldn't let no Dem.
ccrats in for fear they'd disgust the la
dies CT scare the little girls or dirty the
loor. l looked III at the window, and
there was this same fellow Shields float.
in abcnt in the air without heft OF
earthly substance, just like lot Of cat
fur where cats had been fightin. = Y
And the sweet distress he seemed to be
inl His very features in the ecstatic
agony Of his soul spoke audibly and dis
tinctly: Dear girls, it is distressin,
but cannot marry you all Too well
know how much you suffer. but do dc
remember it is not my fault that an
so handsome and interestin. AS this
last was expressed by a NEST exquisite
contortion of the face, he seized one q
their hands and squeezed and held on
to it about quarter Of an hour. -
Both Veterans.
The Colonel-Why not take me foi
better or for worse, Miss Flghty? We're
aiilxa in opD rocroo+ - ~