Lincoln could not sympathize with those Union generals who were prone to
indulge in high-sounding promises, but whose performances did not by any
means come up to their predictions as to what they would do if they ever
met the enemy face to face. He said one day, just after one of these
braggarts had been soundly thrashed by the Confederates:
“These fellows remind me of the fellow who owned a dog which, so he
said, just hungered and thirsted to combat and eat up wolves. It was a
difficult matter, so the owner declared, to keep that dog from devoting
the entire twenty-four hours of each day to the destruction of his
enemies. He just ‘hankered’ to get at them.
“One day a party of this dog-owner’s friends thought to have some sport.
These friends heartily disliked wolves, and were anxious to see the dog
eat up a few thousand. So they organized a hunting party and invited
the dog-owner and the dog to go with them. They desired to be personally
present when the wolf-killing was in progress.
“It was noticed that the dog-owner was not over-enthusiastic in the
matter; he pleaded a ‘business engagement,’ but as he was the most
notorious and torpid of the town loafers, and wouldn’t have recognized a
‘business engagement’ had he met it face to face, his excuse was treated
with contempt. Therefore he had to go.
“The dog, however, was glad enough to go, and so the party started out.
Wolves were in plenty, and soon a pack was discovered, but when the
‘wolf-hound’ saw the ferocious animals he lost heart, and, putting his
tail between his legs, endeavored to slink away. At last--after many
trials--he was enticed into the small growth of underbrush where the
wolves had secreted themselves, and yelps of terror betrayed the fact
that the battle was on.
“Away flew the wolves, the dog among them, the hunting party following
on horseback. The wolves seemed frightened, and the dog was restored to
public favor. It really looked as if he had the savage creatures on the
run, as he was fighting heroically when last sighted.
“Wolves and dog soon disappeared, and it was not until the party arrived
at a distant farmhouse that news of the combatants was gleaned.
“‘Have you seen anything of a wolf-dog and a pack of wolves around here?’
was the question anxiously put to the male occupant of the house, who
stood idly leaning upon the gate.
“‘Yep,’ was the short answer.
“‘How were they going?’
“‘Purty fast.’
“‘What was their position when you saw them?’
“‘Well,’ replied the farmer, in a most exasperatingly deliberate way,
‘the dog was a leetle bit ahead.’
“Now, gentlemen,” concluded the President, “that’s the position in which
you’ll find most of these bragging generals when they get into a fight
with the enemy. That’s why I don’t like military orators.”
“ABE’S” FIGHT WITH NEGROES.
When Lincoln was nineteen years of age, he went to work for a Mr.
Gentry, and, in company with Gentry’s son, took a flatboat load of
provisions to New Orleans. At a plantation six miles below Baton Rouge,
while the boat was tied up to the shore in the dead hours of the night,
and Abe and Allen were fast asleep in the bed, they were startled by
footsteps on board. They knew instantly that it was a gang of negroes
come to rob and perhaps murder them. Allen, thinking to frighten the
negroes, called out, “Bring guns, Lincoln, and shoot them!” Abe came
without the guns, but fell among the negroes with a huge bludgeon and
belabored them most cruelly, following them onto the bank. They rushed
back to their boat and hastily put out into the stream. It is said that
Lincoln received a scar in this tussle which he carried with him to his
grave. It was on this trip that he saw the workings of slavery for the
first time. The sight of New Orleans was like a wonderful panorama
to his eyes, for never before had he seen wealth, beauty, fashion
and culture. He returned home with new and larger ideas and stronger
opinions of right and justice.