Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-07
A EATAUIST,

A FATALlST.
Lincoln was a fatalist Once he
cited the case of Caesar and Brutus
| arguing that the latter was forced by
! laws and conditions over which he
+ had no control to kill the former, and
vice versa, that the former was es-
| pecially created to be disposed of by
the latter, and the gifted Herndon
adds in poetic vein, This superstit.
Gus view Of life ran through his being
| ike the thin blue vein through the
whitest marble, giving the eye rest
| from the WEAKNESS of continued I'M
varying color
| This avant courier of destiny haunt
ed him all his life Il can't help be-
ing in this way" he said. MY father
was so before me- He dreamed that
he rode through an unfrequented path
to strange house, the surroundings
and furnishings of which were wildly
impressed on his mind. At the fire
. side there was sitting a woman whose
/ features he distinctly saw. She was
engaged in pairing an apple. That WO
man was to be his wife. He could
not shake off the vision. 1t haunted
MIN necessarily until it compelled him
to go down the unfrequented way. He
quietly opened the door of what hn
recognized to be the house and saw
at. glance that it was where he had
been in his dream. There was a wo
man at the fireside engaging in pairing
an apple" And the rest of this singu-
lar dream also came to pass.
! The we'll known and oft cited Incl
dent of the double image, as told by
Mr.. Lincoln, is in exact point He
said: 1T was just after my election
in 1860, when the news had been com
ing in thick and fast all day and there
had been a great 'Hurrah, boysH SO
that | was well tired out and went
home to rest, throwing myself upon
a lounge in my chamber. Opposite to
! where l lay was a bureau, with a
swinging glass upon it, and, looking
! in that glass, l saw myself reflected
nearly at full length, but my face,
noticed, had two separate and dis
tinct images, the tip of the nose of
one being about three inches from the
| tip of the other. | was a little
startled and got up and looked in the
glass, but the illusion vanished. On
| lying down again l saw it second
| time, palmer, if possible, than before,
and then l noticed that one Of the
! faces was a little paler than the other.
| | got up, ana the thing melted away,
and in the excitement Of the hour for
| got all about it-nearly, but not
quite, for the thing would once in
| awhile come up and give me little
pang, as if something uncomfortable
had happened. When | got home, l
told my wife about it. and a few days
after | tried the experiment again
when, sure enough, the thing came
back again, but l never succeeded in
bringing the ghost back after that,
though | once tried very industriously
to show it to my wife, who was some
what worried about it. She thought
it was sign that I as to be elected to
a second term of Office, and that the
paleness of one of the faces as an
omen that l should not live through
my second term"
/ How often have l heard him repeat
this couplet, always in an earnest.
prophetic style, as if it made a deep
impression On him, as if he recognized
a law from which there was no es-
cape-that bound him, like a spell:
There's a divinity that shapes our
ends,
Rough hew them how we will.
Especial emphasis as we'll as accen,
tuated sadness is impaired to that
sorrowful incident, which was but the
prelude to
The deep damnation of his taking
off,
when he said in his cabinet meeting
On the last day: Good news is i'm
pending, for | have had my usua
dream, which has foreshadowed every
momentous event of the war.
seemed to be in a singular and in
describable vessel but always the
same, and that it was moving with
great rapidity toward a dark and in
definite shore
This melancholy refrain-this darl
cloud of preternatural grief, with it:
delusive silver lining-this more thar
ascetic sorrow, with it's stimulated
A raillery, like the harlequin's fantastic
, gear-all tended to make up the seec
9 plot from whence sprung the sombel
! spirit who was decided to pilot thu
I sorely distressed nation through thu
: engulfing waves, which momentaril,
threatened destruction