Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-10-02
LINCOLN's KINDNESS.
Helen Nicolay, Daughter Of Martyr
ed Presidents Secretary, Gives
New Anecdote.

ceremony, but 30 serve the people,
made Lincoln feel that he must be
freely accessible to them. writes Hell
en- Nicolay in the Century, telling
characteristic anecdotes of the mar
tyred President. So no matter how
dark the shadow that lay across his
threshold, or how heavy the burden
of care, his door was almost daily
opened between certain hours,
and all who would might enter and
speak with him. This brings me to
perhaps the most interesting of all
notes that of a conversation with
the Hon. James Speed. m of Mr..
Lincoln's oldest friends in which
he told of a happening in the execu
tive Office during n of my fathers
infrequent absences.
1T is extremely difficult" said Mr..
Speed, ito portray adequately the ex-
quisite pathos of Mr.. L~incoln's char
acter as manifested in his action
from time to time. There was for in
stance, the incident of granting a
discharge to the woman's sons"
us that all?" he asked Of Edward,
the usher, after the usual multitude
of daily visitors had entered and
presented their requests, petitions, or
grievances.
There is one poor woman there
vet. Mr.. President" replied Edward.
I"She has been here for several days
and has been crying and taking on.
and hasn't got a chance to come in
Iyet."
LET her in" said Mr.. Lincoln.
The woman came in and told her
story. 1t was just after the battle Of
Gettysburg. She had a husband and
three SON in the army and she was
left alone to fight the hard battle OF
life. At first her husband had regu-
larly sem her a part of his pay, and
she had managed to live. But gradu-
ally h had yielded to the tempta-
lions Of camp life, and no more re-
mittances came. Her boys had become
scattered among the various armies,
and she was without help. Would not
the President discharge one Of them,
that he might come to her
While the pathetic recital was go
ing on the President stood before the
fireplace, his hands crossed behind
his back and his head bent in ear
nest thought. When the woman end
ed and waited a moment for his re-
ply, his lips opened, and he spoke,
not indeed as if he were replying to
what she had said, but rather as If
he were in distracted and uncons-
cious self-communion.
81 have two, and you have none"
That was all he said. He walked
across to his writing table at which
he habitually sat, and, taking a blank
card wrote upon 1t an order for the
sons discharge: and upon another
paper he wrote put in detail where
she should present it to what de-
partment at what Office, and to what
kffstal, giving her such direction
that she might personally follow
the red-tape labyrinth.
A few days later, at a similar close
of the general reception for the day
Edward said: THAT woman, Mr..
President is here again, and still cry
ing"
Let her in" said Lincoln. What
can be the matter now"
Once more he stood in the same
place before the fireplace and for
the second time heard her story. The
Presidents card had been like a ma
gic passport to her. By it's help she
had found the headquarters, camp,
regiment and company. But instead
OF RlFluS u LHOLueT y embrace 10 a
lost son restored. she had arrived
only in time to follow him to the
grave. And now would not the Presi-
dent give her the next n of her
boys?
Once more Mr.. Lincoln responded
with sententious curtness, as If talk
ing to himself, II have two, and you
have none," sharp and rather stern,
the compression of lips marking the
struggle between official duty and
human sympathy. Then he again
walked to his little writing table
and took up his pen 10 write for the
second time an order which would
give the pleading woman one of her
remaining boys. And the woman, as
If moved by a filial impulse she could
not restrain, moved after him and
stood by him at the table as he wrote,
and with the fond familiarity of a
mother placed her hand upon the