Vol. XXI.

IN

N the last year of the fifties, I decided to take some well-worn advice of Horace Greeley, "Go West", and finish certain law-studies. My brother was already there, and felt anxious that I should go into the office of an acquaintance of his in Springfield, "named Lincoln." Of this man I did not know very much, except that he was a successful lawyer, a popular stump-speaker, and had once been in Congress during the unexpired part of a term. When I arrived at the law-office, I found what seemed to me the oddest mortal I had ever met. He was sitting down when I came in, and I should have said that he was about of my height-five feet eight; but when he rose to greet me, it was upon a pair of legs that lifted him to an altitude of six feet and four inches.

"Glad to see you, young man", he said, giving me a cordial grasp of the hand. like him, only more so: and that's enough. "Your brother says you are a good deal like him, only more so: and that's enough. go ahead." "Billy" was Lincoln's partner-William H. Herndon, an agreeable, scholarly man: and I felt duly installed, within a moment's time.

It was not long before I found myself sitting at the same table with these two exponents of the law-each engaged in

No. 6.

study-while six pedal extremities of various sizes adorned the aforesaid table. "We ought to concentrate enough magnetism, in this way to run a whole courtroom", Herndon used to say.

Lincoln was fifty; Herndon was forty; and I twentyfive-a gradation of years that made one of them seem to me like a brother, and the other like a father: and they were certainly all these.

I found myself studying Lincoln more and more as the days went on. "The most unique man I ever knew", was my verdict, over and over again. He has been called awkward and ungainly—but this was not true. He was simply odd and original, in his own inimitable way. All the powers of Nature never could have made another one. His clothes were of good material, but never looked "stylish": he not only had, but was a style of his own. His tall silk hat was not always exquisitely groomed, and generally came down close to his ears. His old-fashioned calfskin boots were not invariably up to the most exquisite polish; but it was the man and not the clothes that occupied your thought.

With all his apparent simplicity and Doric straightforwardness, a shrewder mortal than Lincoln has seldom if ever

lived. His cunning expedients were constantly in evidence-not to the world in general, but to those nearest him. He had ways of bringing about whatever he desired. "His 'cunning' fairly enters the borders of inspiration"-Evarts said, not many years afterward, in a sentence exceedingly short and terse, for Mr. Evarts. But it might better have been called the trinity of shrewdness, tact, and lightningquickness of expedient. He would have been a dangerous character, but for the deep-seated and inexorable honesty which was his most winsome characteristic.

"You have no case; better settle❞: I have heard him tell would-be clients, again and again. He would not advocate a cause if he thought it was in the wrong. I used to think he was losing much business in that way; but found that he was very likely to get the other side of the case thus having the incalculable advantage of being in the right.

His practice extended throughout a large circuit, and he was always picking up new stories, which lost nothing by their terse and epigrammatic rendering. Often have I seen him look up from a case into which he was studying, with the remark, "This fellow reminds me of such and such a story" and the little anecdote always fitted, like a lady's glove.

The law-office was a plain uncarpeted back room, with only a moderate number of books. The state-house library was just across the street, however, and to this we often referred, when our own resources of information proved too meagre.

I never noticed that, outside of his lawtomes, Lincoln was very much of a reader. There were three books, however, in which he could have been thoroughly examined, and come out with honors: and those were the Bible, Shakespeare, and Robert Burns' Poems. He was a close stickler for his

own private opinion as concerned literary merit. I have heard him argue at great length to prove that the passage in Hamlet, commencing,

"Oh my offense is rank: it smells to Heaven"

was su erior to the one beginning,

"To be or not to be: that is the question."

I frequently listened to him and Herndon arguing about the subject of Slavery. Strange to say, the man who was destined within five years to liberate millions of negroes by a stroke of his pen, was not nearly as fervid an Abolitionist as his partner. He wished the evil abolished, but was willing to wait for public sentiment and the force of law, in gradually bringing about that result.

When, in 1860, he made his now-famous speech at Cooper Institute, New York, he began to be whisperingly suggested as President. He had already attracted national attention by his close senatorial campaign with Douglas; and, of course, we in the office began to build White-house castles for him. With all the exuberance of young-manhood, I used to tell him that he was sure of it. He would laugh indulgently, and say, "John, I haven't a chance in a hundred."

But I kept on, and even got my discourse ready in case he was nominateda speech that I was to deliver sixty times. during the campaign that followed. I asked him to hear it and criticize it for me. He steadfastly refused, till, one afternoon, he came into the office, planted himself in a corner, and said: "Well, John, I think I feel strong enough this afternoon to stand that speech." He still laughed at the idea of his being President, and modestly insisted that the Vice-Presidency at most was good enough for him.

When at last the great event struck us, and he was really nominated, he at first seemed bewildered. He shook hands with several of his friends, in silence-the event seemed too momentous for cheering. Then he finally said: "Well, I guess I'll go and tell my wife. She's probably as much interested in this as any one": and started for home. The statement that he said: "Boys, there's a little woman over at the house that would like to hear of this", was widely circulated; but it was mythical, and merely the imaginings of a newspaper reporter.

His wife was an intensely ambitious woman, and was no doubt his greatest incentive to effort. I doubt if with a less aspiring woman he would ever have climbed into enough prominence to be considered as President. He might have been happier if he had married his first love, whom he never ceased to mourn; but the world would maybe have never heard of him, and some one else would have piloted the nation through our civil war-with or without success.

During the four years of his administration, I was not near him so continually as when in his office; but I occupied an official position in Washington, and had the entrée to the White House whenever I chose to go. The manners of the President were no less democratic than had been those of the country lawyer. "All sorts and conditions of men" were admitted to his presence for a couple of hours on nearly every forenoon-and one by one they received their answers at first hand, to any question they chose to ask. Many of his best stories were told at these interviews.

But most of Lincoln's Presidential life is world-history now, and humanity knows much of this great friend of humanity. The event of his tragical death was a ter

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rible shock to the world: imagine what it was to those most intimately associated with him!

I was not among those who congregated at the death-bed on that solemn night-indeed, I did not hear of the awful event till sunrise next day. But I knew all those present, procured sittings for their portraits, and am able to give the readers of EVERY WHERE a substantially correct picture of the deathbed of the great Abraham Lincoln-published for the first time in this periodical.

The room in which the great Liberator was himself liberated-from the cares and labors of a toilsome career-was in the now celebrated Peterson dwelling-opposite the old Ford Theatre. The bed upon which he lay was not a long one, and the President, owing to his great stature, was laid cornerwise upon it.

Many of the faces in the picture, as given here, will be recognized immediately by those familiar with American history; but the naming of them may not be uninteresting.

The first man, beginning at the left, is Ex-Gov. Farwell, of Wisconsin.

Next comes Secretary Wells, sitting in an old-fashioned rocker that happened to be in the room.

Back of him is Secretary McCulloch, and in front of the latter is Governor Oglesby, of Illinois. The tall man in front of Oglesby is Gen. Farnsworth, also. of Illinois.

Next to him, and directly in front of Wells, is the short, well-dressed figure of Andrew Johnson-then Vice-Presidentin a few minutes to be President of United States.

The one who holds the dying man's pulse is Dr. Stone, the President's family physician. The head and bust of Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, afterwards Vice

President under Grant, appears just above him.

Next to Colfax is Postmaster-General Denison; next to him Dr. Leale, a surgeon the first physician to reach the President after the shooting.

Next to Leale is John Hay-then Lincoln's private secretary-later Secretary of State. Then comes Robert Lincoln, at the head of the bed, leaning his head upon the shoulder of Charles Sumner. Beside Sumner is Dr. Taft, a surgeon in the

THE DEATH-BED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

army; who holds the head of the martyred President.

Sitting near the bed are Mrs. Lincoln, and Surgeon-General Barnes. Back of Sumner is Attorney-General Speed, of Virginia; next, with long beard, is an assistant surgeon, Dr. Crane; back of Dr. Crane is Mr. Usher, Secretary of the Interior; and the man

in front, wearing fulldress suit, is Rev. Dr. Gurley, at that time Mr. Lincoln's pastor.

Back of him are Gen. Halleck, and Gen. Au

gir, then Military Governor of the District of Columbia. The man holding his watch in hand to assist in counting the pulse, is Secretary Stanton; and the last one to the right is Gen. Meigs.

I have often been asked, "Was Mr. Lincoln a religious man?" -and I consider myself in a good position to answer that question. While in Springfield, I never knew him to attend church once; and while his behavior was