The Lincoln Story Book | Page 2

Lincoln told, and repeat it at the recess.
Mrs. Lincoln, the first to weigh this man justly, said proudly, that
"Lincoln was the great favorite everywhere."
Meanwhile his fellow citizens stupidly tired of this Merry
Andrew--they "sent him elsewhere to talk other folks to death"--to the

State House, where he served several terms creditably, but was mainly
the fund of jollity to the lobby and the chartered jester of the
lawmakers.
Such loquacious witchery fitted him for the Congress. Elected to the
House, he was immediately greeted by connoisseurs of the best stamp--
President Martin van Buren, "prince of good fellows;" Webster, another
intellect, saturnine in repose and mercurial in activity; the convivial
Senator Douglas, and the like. These formed the rapt ring around
Lincoln in his own chair in the snug corner of the congressional
chat-room. Here he perceived that his rusticity and shallow skimmings
placed him under the trained politicians. It was here, too, that his
stereotyped prologue to his digressions--"That reminds me"--became
popular, and even reached England, where a publisher so entitled a
joke-book. Lincoln displaced "Sam Slick," and opened the way to
Artemus Ward and Mark Twain. The longing for elevation was fanned
by the association with the notables--Buchanan, to be his predecessor
as President; Andrew Johnson, to be his vice and successor; Jefferson
Davis and Alex. H. Stephens, President and Vice-President of the C. S.
A.; Adams, Winthrop, Sumner, and the galaxy over whom his solitary
star was to shine dazzlingly.
A sound authority who knew him of old pronounced him "as good at
telling an anecdote as in the '30's." But the fluent chatterer reined in and
became a good listener. He imbibed all the political ruses, and returned
home with his quiver full of new and victorious arrows for the
Presidential campaign, for his bosom friends urged him to try to gratify
that ambition, preposterous when he first felt it attack him. He had
grown out of the sensitiveness that once made him beg the critics not to
put him out by laughing at his appearance. He formed a boundless
arsenal of images and similes; he learned the American humorist's art
not to parade the joke with a discounting smile. He worked out Euclid
to brace his fantasies, as the steel bar in a cement fence-post makes it
irresistibly firm. But he allowed his vehement fervor to carry him into
such flights as left the reporters unable to accompany his sentences
throughout.
He was recognized as the destined national mouthpiece. He was not of
the universities, but of the universe; the Mississippi of Eloquence,
uncultivated, stupendous, enriched by sweeping into the innumerable

side bayous and creeks.
Elected and re-elected President, he continued to be a surprise to those
who shrank from levity. Lincoln was their puzzle; for he had a sweet
sauce for every "roast," and showed the smile of invigoration to every
croaking prophet. His state papers suited the war tragedies, but still he
delighted the people with those tales, tagging all the events of what
may be called the Lincoln era. The camp and the press echoed them
though the Cabinet frowned--secretaries said that they exposed the
illustrious speaker to charges of "clownishness and buffoonery."
But this perennial good-humor--perfectly poised by the people--
alleviated the strain of withstanding that terrible avalanche threatening
to dismember and obliterate the States and bury all the virtues and
principles of our forefathers.
Even his official letters were in the same vein. Regarding the one to
England which meant war, he asked of Secretary Seward if its language
would be comprehended by our minister at the Victorian court, and
added dryly: "Will James, the coachman at the door--will he understand
it?" Receiving the answer, he nodded grimly and said: "Then it goes!"
It went, and there was no war with the Bull.
Time has refuted the purblind purists, the chilly "wet-blankets"; and the
Lincoln stories, bright, penetrative, piquant, and pertinent are our
classics. Hand in hand with "Father Abraham," the President next to
Washington in greatness, walks "Old Abe, the Story-teller."

LINCOLN CALENDAR.
Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Kentucky.
"Lincoln Day."
1817--Settled in Perry County, Indiana; father, mother, sister, and self.
1818--October 5, Mrs. Thomas Lincoln (Nancy Hanks) died; buried
Spencer County, Indiana. In 1901, a monument erected to her memory,
the base being the former Abraham Lincoln vault. Schooling, a few
months, 1819, '20 and '28, about six months' school.
1819--Thomas (father of A. L.) marries again: Mrs. Johnson (Sally
Bush) of Kentucky.
1830--March, Lincoln family remove into Illinois, near Decatur.
1831--Works for himself: boatbuilding and sailing, carpentering,
hog-sticking, sawmilling, blacksmithing, river-pilot, logger, etc., in

Menard County, Indiana.
1831--Election clerk at New Salem. Captain and private (re-enlisted) in
Black Hawk War. Store clerk and merchant, New Salem. Studies for
the law.
1832--First political speech.