The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-07-18
SHORT STORIES
OF LINCOLN.
They Were HomeIy and Old Fashioned
and Full of Humor.

ton. There were homely and old
fashioned which terms will ex-
press their general character.
This is only natural and to be ex-
pecteG, in view of his rude sur
roundings in early life, before tele-
graph had done more than thread
its slender way through the forests
and over the prairies of our broad
land, bringing in its later develop
ment the current news of the
world for the enlightenment of the
masses and calling for attention
with each successive edition of the
daily press. In those almost
primitive days Of our nations his
tory, the pOst-office, the country
store, and the court house were
the rendezvous, especially Of the
young men who, ten or twenty
years later would be the leaders
of public opinion; and around the
blazing fire in these places of re-
sorts during the winter days and
nights, or on the street or sidewalk
close by in the summer time, were
Congregated the takers, listeners
of the town, and the man who
could hold his own in argument or
command the attention of the
crowd, whether politics, religion,
or gossip was the topic of discus
sion, was the most ready with a
story to illustrate point of paral-
lei some other story that had
just commanded a general laugh.
In these trials of wit and humor,
Lincoln, from all accounts, must
have been at the head of his class;
and the habits thus formed held
their grip upon him even to the
end; for in his last public address,
on the evening of April II, 1865,
which he delivered from the porch
of the White House, and which l
had the pleasure of listening to on
my way home from the War De-
partment, he made this remark
concerning the progress of recon-
struCtiOn measures in louisiana
"Concede that the new govern
ment of Louisiana is only to what
it should be as the egg is to the
fowl, we shall sooner have the
fowl by Matching the egg than by
smashing it.
This form of argument left no
sting behind it; and the opponents
Of his Louisiana reconstruction
plan, at least those of his own po-
litical party, must have admitted
later that his policy of malice to-
ward none; with charity for all J"
was superior to theirs.
A great many anecdotes and
stories have been attributed to
Lincoln. 1t is certain that not all
so called were his. Indeed, it is
probable that the most of them
were not. AS the years go by it
is becoming more and more diff
cult to decide which are genuine
that is to say, those which origin
ated w'th Lincoln or were known
to have been repeated by him.
Many stories said to be Lincoln S
were no doubt his own by right of
first calling; others may also be
called his because OF his apt selec-
ton and manner of telling, with
his own unique wording and APP
plication: but it is probable that
by far the larger number of stories
now current are associated with
his name merely because he hap
pened to be present when they
were told by some one else.
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