Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1901-05-08
A STRANGE TURN-ABOUT.
HOW LINCOLN MIGHT ROT HAVE
BECOME PRESIDENT.
"reminiscences Called Out BY the Sight OF
an Unmarked Graye-What Might Have
Happened if a Boy Had Been Paid by
= LAWYER.

/. - - /. : - !.
Hard by seldom-trayeled road in
sthe state rhfch gave to this country
sits most remarkable President is an
summarized grage NSyot long ago
traveller passed over this road in a
family carryall Of other days and the
driver pointed out the neglected spot
According to the driver, several stones
have marked this grave. Each has
been knocked down and broken to
pieces, but no one ever tried to dis
cover by whom. "a tree stood near
by once" saief the man who jerked
the weather-beaten reins which guld-
ed the animal nitched to the rig, "and
it was hit three times by lightning.
: The last time the tree fell, and, as 1t
was deader than a mackerel, it caught
fire and burned to ashes right-on the
grave. Then big wind scattered the
ashes"
Nearly mile had been made before
the driver again spoke. The interlude
was broken as if there had been no
stop.
maybe he mightn't have been Pres
ident, but the man who came after
him was. Get up! Funny, what a
little thing in mans life settles his
hash"
Then followed the remainder of the
story, as it follows here:
"He stood mighty we'll in the minds
of the people when he started out.
Everything seemed fixed for him to go
right ahead. There was a lot of boy
babies named for him before he ever
run for Office. When he used to ride
over this road everybody he met
knowed him and knowed everybody
so well that he called them by their
first name.
Zone day he was in town and met a
young farmer lad, and he says to him,
calling him by his nickname: If you
want to make four bits as easy as
falling off log you go to my barn,
clean it out, and curry and saddle my
horse and fetch him in
There was circus coming TO town
the next day and the lad jumped at
the job. 1t was purity hot day. The
lad worked on his job until he looked,
Then he got through, as if he had been
doused in the creek. When he rode
the horse to town the owner. didn't
know the animal, he looked so sleek
and that fine. The owner made a
mount, and turning to the lad, he says
Much obliged and rode off, leaving
the lad by the stile-block, for every
body to laugh at.
"Tae lad got to be man and had
become a storekeeper in the town
where he had got the NIT from the
lawyer. Every farmer in this part OF
the country had bought goods from
the merchant, mostly on credit. He
had helped them sell their corn and
oats, and when the women folks went
to town to trade the merchant always
gave their children stick of candy or
lump of sugar.
"Bout this time there was an elec-
ton. The lawyer had got it into his
head that he would begin his political
career by being elected judge. One
of his hackers was a man who became
President Of the United States.
"The young merchant had kept his
mouth shut all these years, but when
the lawyer began to run for judge the
young merchant hired an extra clerk
in his place and went out into the
country. There wasn't farmhouse
where he didn't stay all night, and
when he left in the morning the law
yer lad lost as many votes as the
house had. Purity soon it got noised
abroad what the merchant was doing,
and then the man got to be President
. Of the United States went to the young
man and asked him what he meant by
legging against his candidate.
: 8 1.-THE young merchant told him how
the lawyer had beat him out of four