One day an old lady from the country called on President Lincoln, her
tanned face peering up to his through a pair of spectacles. Her errand
was to present Mr. Lincoln a pair of stockings of her own make a yard
long. Kind tears came to his eyes as she spoke to him, and then,
holding the stockings one in each hand, dangling wide apart for
general inspection, he assured her that he should take them with him to
Washington, where (and here his eyes twinkled) he was sure he should not
be able to find any like them.
Quite a number of well-known men were in the room with the President
when the old lady made her presentation. Among them was George S.
Boutwell, who afterwards became Secretary of the Treasury.
The amusement of the company was not at all diminished by Mr. Boutwell’s
remark, that the lady had evidently made a very correct estimate of Mr.
Lincoln’s latitude and longitude.