Some one was smoking in the presence of the President, and had
complimented him on having no vices--such as drinking or smoking.
"That is a doubtful compliment," said the host. "I recollect being once
outside a coach in Illinois, and a man sitting beside me offered me a.
cigar. I told him I had no vices. He said nothing, smoked for some
time, and then grunted out:
"'It's my experience that folks who have no vices have plaguey few
virtues.'"
(Mrs. General Lander--Miss Jean Davenport, of stage life, the original
of Dickens' "Miss Crummies"--must have heard this in the presidential
circle, for she would say: "If a man has no petty vices, he has great
ones.")
A later version ascribes the reproof to a brother Kentuckian, also a
stage companion, variation sufficient to prove the happening.
* * * * *