The quarrelers were hushed, thinking if Douglas, the Little Giant, had preceded or should follow their colossus of six feet three!
LINCOLN'S OPINION AT THIRTY.
Diffident, but having been twice disappointed in love-making, Abraham wrote in support of a Miss Owen rejecting him: "I should never be satisfied with any one blockhead enough to have me."
THE BLANK BIOGRAPHY.
Lincoln had been reading from Edmund Burke's life, when he threw down the book with disrelish. He fell into his habit of musing, and on reviving, said to his associate, Herndon:
"I've wondered why book publishers do not have blank biographies on their shelves, always ready for an emergency; so that if a man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written--but with blanks. These blanks they can fill up with rosy sentences full of high-sounding praise."
He sent the "Dictionary of Congress" his autobiography in a single paragraph of fifty words--as an example(?).
"THE HOMELIEST MAN UNDER GOVERNMENT."
When General Lee surrendered to General Grant, one point was noticed by the spectators which, it was held, distinguished the Cavalier from the Puritan. Grant was in his fighting clothes and his every-day sword by his side, while General Lee, dressed faultlessly as a soldier should always be, carried a court sword, presented him as a honor by the Southerners. So, in wars, Providence does not flourish the showy weapon, but uses a strong and sharp blade without ornamental hilt. Abraham Lincoln was the instrument of Heaven for work--ceaseless, bloody work, hard, for it was that least to his taste.
From boyhood the looks of the wood-chopper and river boatman were subjects of jeering. Whether the budding genius spurned such adventitious aids as graces of person in his career, or was already a philosopher who believed that handsome is that handsome does is a winning motto, we may never know. It is enough that he joined in the laugh and kept the ball rolling.