The Irish standard., 1905-05-13
seemed to strive, although was twen-

" years his Junior, to make MS cOm-
panionship interesting and service
able to me. l was told by him of
Z many things and stories Of the earlier
5 settlers in Illinois and also he recited
selections of poetry, one of them be-
ing the poem, why Should the Spirit
of Mortal Be Proud?' etc., of which he
was very fond, more so, think, than
he would have been had he been its
author, of which he gave no intima-
ton to me. One evening he said:
The people of Mclean County before
they became interested in railway
construction, and when Pekin, on the
Illinois River, was their market, had
very little to occupy their time, espe-
cially at some seasons of the year.
They would come to Bloomington on
Saturdays with all sorts of vehicles,
wagons, carts and on horseback and
put in most of the day in fun, horse
racing, settling old feuds in the stray
pen,' etc. When evening came and
they were about to separate and re-
turn to their homes, almost to a man.
besides being we'll filled before start
ing. carried with him a good-sizcd
brown jug in the front end of his was-
on or cart
'In this connection he told the fol-
lowing story of John NJ, afterward Il
prominent man in state affairs, who
came to town from south of Bloom
ing Grove in a cart drawn by a
fine pair of young red steers. On one
occasion John NJ. was little late
starting home, and besides his brown
Jug he otherwise had a good load on
In passing through the grove that
night one wheel of his cart struck
stump or root and threw the pole
out of the ring of the yoke. The
steers, finding themselves free, ran
away and left John M. sound. asleep
in his cart, where he remained all
night. Early in the morning he
aroused himself, and, looking over the
side of the cart and around in the
woods, as he himself told the story,
he said, If my names John, I've lost
a pair of steers; if my name amt
John, I've found cart
"On the adjournment of the Circuit
Court Mr.. Lincoln returned to Spring
field, after which l only met him Incl
dentally when visiting Springfield, un-
til the following autumn, when l be-
came the superintendent of the Chica-
go and Mississippi Railway, soon
after which I engaged the services of
Mr.. Lincoln as attorney and counselor
for the company, and thereafter had
frequent business intercourse with
him. At the time of my appointment
as superintendent Hamilton Spencer
came to Bloomington as the acting
vice president of the company, and
my remembrance is that, having re-
cited to him my acquaintance with
Mr. Lincoln, I was directed by Mr..
Spencer to engage his services. 1t is
not necessary for me to speak of his
then acknowledged ability at the bar,
but to illustrate his touch of humor
and knowledge of human nature,
which was ever present with him,
quote letter which l received from
him inclosing an expired annual pass
for nd
which was due to him as counsel for
the company:
Springfield, Feb. 10, 1856. R. P.
Morgan, Esq.:-Says Tom to John,
Here's your old rotten wheelbarrow.
I've broke it usin' on it. wish you
would mend it, case l shall want to
borrow it this afternoon" Acting on
this as precedent, say, Here's
your old 'chalked hat,' I wish you
case shall want to use it the 1st of
March," Yours truly, A. Lincoln
'T have always understood that this
letter was written to me more as an
acquaintance and friend than in my
official capacity. The expression,
'chalked hat was at that era, in rail-
roading at least, quite generally used
in connection with persons who were
fortunate enough to possess annual
passes, and when they were called up
on by the conductors the holders
would say, I have chalked hat or,
in brief, I chalk
1T was in the summer of the year
that received this letter, 1856, that
stood next to Mr.. Lincoln and heard
him say: "You can fool some of the
people all of the time, and all of the
people some of the time, but you can't
fool all of the people all of the time
He was addressing an assemblage of
about three or four hundred people
from the raised platform of the en-
trance to the Pike House in Blooming
ton, ILL.,, upon the subject of the Kans-
as-Nebraska act, and reviewing the
arguments of Douglas in support of it.
His application of his epigram was so
apt and forcible that have never for
gotten it, and believe that no verbal
modification of it would be accurate.
In his final peroration of that address,
referring again to the arguments fav-