Upon Mr. Lincoln's nomination in 1860, a hatter sent him a silk hat for
the advertisement and send-off. He put it on before the glass, and said
to his wife:
"Well, Mary, we are going to have some new clothes out of this job,
anyway!"
* * * * *
"LUCE A JUG--THE HANDLE ALL ONE SIDE."
Lincoln's intimates thought it remarkable that he should keep his
finger on the political pulse and show himself as fully cognizant of
the trend of popular feeling. Oddly enough the professional politicians
themselves would not own that he was a king among them, though Douglas
affirmed him to be in his time the most able man in the Republican
party. On clashing returns coming in, he humorously remarked on two
reports: "If that is the way doubtful districts are coming in, I will
not stop to hear from the certain ones." He observed to Alexander H.
Rice, then up for Congress in Massachusetts: "Your district is a good
deal like a jug--the handle is all one side!"
* * * * *
"SUCH A SUCKER AS ME, PRESIDENT!"
When Lincoln's wife, at his prospect of being United States senator was
on the verge of realization, reminded him of her prophecy, away back in
the fifties, that he would attain the highest niche--the inevitable
feminine "I told you so!" he clasped his knees in keen enjoyment, and,
laughing a roar, cried out:
"Think of such a _sucker_ as me as President!"
But presently, he said with his dry smile: "But I do not pretend I do
not want to go _to the Senate_!"--(Henry Villard, then newspaper
reporter.)
* * * * *