One day, when President Lincoln was alone and busily engaged on an
important subject, involving vexation and anxiety, he was disturbed by
the unwarranted intrusion of three men, who, without apology, proceeded
to lay their claim before him.
The spokesman of the three reminded the President that they were
the owners of some torpedo or other warlike invention which, if the
government would only adopt it, would soon crush the rebellion.
“Now,” said the spokesman, “we have been here to see you time and again;
you have referred us to the Secretary of War, the Chief of Ordnance, and
the General of the Army, and they give us no satisfaction. We have been
kept here waiting, till money and patience are exhausted, and we now
come to demand of you a final reply to our application.”
Mr. Lincoln listened to this insolent tirade, and at its close the old
twinkle came into his eye.
“You three gentlemen remind me of a story I once heard,” said he, “of a
poor little boy out West who had lost his mother. His father wanted to
give him a religious education, and so placed him in the family of a
clergyman, whom he directed to instruct the little fellow carefully in
the Scriptures. Every day the boy had to commit to memory and recite one
chapter of the Bible. Things proceeded smoothly until they reached that
chapter which details the story of the trial of Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego in the fiery furnace. When asked to repeat these three names
the boy said he had forgotten them.
“His teacher told him that he must learn them, and gave him another day
to do so. The next day the boy again forgot them.
“‘Now,’ said the teacher, ‘you have again failed to remember those names
and you can go no farther until you have learned them. I will give you
another day on this lesson, and if you don’t repeat the names I will
punish you.’
“A third time the boy came to recite, and got down to the stumbling
block, when the clergyman said: ‘Now tell me the names of the men in the
fiery furnace.’
“‘Oh,’ said the boy, ‘here come those three infernal bores! I wish the
devil had them!’”
Having received their “final answer,” the three patriots retired, and at
the Cabinet meeting which followed, the President, in high good humor,
related how he had dismissed his unwelcome visitors.