The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-02-15
MARRIED In LINCoLN's COAT.
The Garment Made For the First In
auguration, but Col. Mccoy Got IL.

Inc Oarmcnt Ndue For the FIRST IN
auguration, but Col. Mccoy Got IL.
One OF the notablos Of the convention
of tho National Stock Growers Associa-
tion. now In session ia the city, Is Joseph
q. Mccoy, kansan of ScotchI Irish Ten
nessee- * entucky descent. lie is man
whose personal appearance would mako
him conspicuous In any assenblage. He
Is over six feet tall, anu his hair Is q
weather-worn gray-not the silver gray
which covers the heads of men who grow
old in offices or studios. but the tawny.
vigorous gray that an old man has VINO
has spent his life sailing seas or penetrat-
ing little known lands.
You know hs is q Southern man before
he speaks. lhe soft hat, the big Chester
field coat, the high hesled boots with the
soft calfskiu bootleg wrinkling down
about the ankle, all proclaim the mans
descent-and yet he was married in and
still cherishts the coat that Abraham
Lincoln Was To have worn when he was
inaugurated. The faces of men who have
gone with the vanguard into new coun-
tries, who have toilsd day by day on the
sun burnt plains ana lain by night under
the open skies-the faces OF these men
are book; and the book almost always
reads OF courage and honesty, Of fortitude
ana faith, and determination and man
hood
Colonel Mccoy is one OF these faces
and figures; almost patriarch under
the tale OF his years and yet young
enough to glory in his strength.
one Of the colonePs msditative occupa-
tions is to asc rtain the strain of blood in
his breed. His people have been Scotch
Irish through all the descent, and his
father was Tennessean and his mother
kentuckian. He was born in Illinois
and moved into Kansas in lS67-"and in
the kingdom OF heaven whose wife was
she9" asks the colonel with pathos in his
voice.
The colonel took part In two important
campaigns in 1858. In one OF these he
helped "Abs" Lincoln to beat Stephen A.
Douglas, and in the other he laid siege
to charming young woman of the same
province and captured her. lie cele-
bratsd the Lincoln Inauguration by
marrying the maid. and he married her
clad In the coat the Springfield tailor
had made for "A be" TO be inaugurated
in. He got the tailor to hustle up
another coat for Abe" in which to take
the oath, and when A be was swearing in
Washington to do his duty by Uncle
Sam young Mccoy was, on or about the
same time, msekly promising to love,
honor and implicitly and forever, with
out question or kicking" to obey a
charming young woman Of Abe's own
town; and he was wearing the coat Abe
was TO have worn.
Some Of Colonel McCoy's friends insist
that the garment fitted the groom better
than 1t did the president. which. they de-
clare, is not saying that the colonel
would have made n better president for
the coat than Abe Lincoln, but simply
that he was possessed OF better figure.
That may be true, for in his young man s
q man among men.
Colonel Mccoy some years ago pub
Iished volume OF "reminiscences OF the
plains and its men and herds, and it IL
said to be rarely interesting in it's color
and dramatic spirit. Tho colonel is now
cattle inspector for the state of Kansas at
the Kansas City stockyards, and has slso
established an agency for the collection
and adjustments of the excess
charges OF the yard com pany
above the rates fixed by the Kansas law
for feed and ysrdags. He has risen high
on one side Of fortunes e wheel. and held
on long enough 90 be thrown hard on the
opposite side. His friends now hope
that be is on the rising side of the wheel,
aud that he will soon be in position to
let go and retire from business and its
cares. lie is q great hearted man, of un-
impsachablc integrity, happy tempera-
ment, kind, courtsous chivalrous, ener-
getic. courageous. and gentleman Of the
old school-Dsnver Times.