western Christian Advocate, we escorted him back to the train; and, to my dying day, I shall never forget our parting. I was only twenty-two years old. Mr. Lincoln bade each one good-bye, and gave each a hearty grasp of the hand. He bade me good-bye last, and, as he took my hand in both of his, and stood there towering above me, he looked down into my eyes with that sad, kindly look of his, and said:

"My young friend, do not put an enemy in your mouth to steal away your brains.""

MR. LINCOLN'S MODESTY.

IN a letter to T. J. Pickett, dated April 16, 1859, Mr. Lincoln wrote: "As to the other matter which you kindly mention, I must, in candor, say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency. I certainly am flattered and gratified that some partial friends think of me in that connection; but I really think it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made. Let this be considered confidential."

LINCOLN AT A FIVE POINTS MISSION.

WHILE Mr. Lincoln was in New York, in 1860, he visited, unattended, the Five Points House of Industry. The superintendent of the Sabbath-school there gave the following account of the event:

"One Sunday morning I saw a tall, remarkablelooking man enter the room, and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed attention to our exercises, and his countenance expressed such genuine interest that I approached him, and suggested that he might be willing

to say something to the children. He accepted the invitation with evident pleasure; and, coming forward, began a simple address, which at once fascinated every little hearer, and hushed the room into silence. His language was strikingly beautiful, and his tones musical with intense feeling. The little faces would droop into sad conviction as he uttered sentences of warning, and would brighten into sunshine as he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the imperative shout of 'Go on! O, do go on!' would compel him to resume.

"As I looked upon the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and marked his powerful head and determined features, now touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I felt an irrepressible curiosity to learn something more about him, and, while he was quietly leaving the room, I begged to know his name. He courteously replied: 'It is Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois.""

A MINISTERIAL CHARGE.

EARLY in the war it became Rev. Dr. Arthur Edwards's duty, for a brief period, to carry certain reports to the War Department, in Washington, at about nine in the morning. Being late one morning, he was in a desperate hurry to deliver the papers, in order to be able to catch the train returning to camp. On the winding, dark staircase of the old War Department it was his misfortune, while taking about three stairs at a time, to run his head like a catapult into the body of the President, striking him in the region of the right lower vest pocket. The usual surprised and relaxed human grunt of a man

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thus assailed came promptly. Mr. Edwards quickly sent an apology in the direction of the dimly seen form, feeling that the ungracious shock was expensive, even to the humblest clerk in the department. A second glance revealed to him the President as the victim of the collision. Then followed a special tender of "ten thousand pardons," and the President's reply:

"One's enough; I wish the whole army would charge like that."

A MAST-FED LAWYER.

ONCE, when an eminent lawyer was presented to him, Mr. Lincoln courteously said he was familiar with the judge's professional reputation. The judge responded:

"And we do not forget that you, too, Mr. President, are a distinguished member of the bar."

"O," said Mr. Lincoln, modestly, "I'm only a mast-fed lawyer."

NOT SICK ENOUGH FOR THE POSITION.

A DELEGATION one day called on Mr. Lincoln to ask the appointment of a gentleman as Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. They presented their case as earnestly as possible, and, besides his fitness for the place, they urged that he was in bad health, and a residence in that balmy climate would be of great benefit to him. The President closed the interview with the discouraging remark: "Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker than your man.”

"

MR. LINCOLN'S WHISKERS.

CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN* relates the following interesting story:

"If we had been in the village of Westfield, on the shore of Lake Erie, Chautauqua County, N. Y., on an October evening, we might have seen little Grace Bedell looking at a

portrait of Mr.

Lincoln, and a picture of the logcabin which he helped build for

his father in 1830.

""Mother,' said I think

Grace,

that Mr. Lincoln I would look better if he wore whiskers, and I mean to write and tell him so.'

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'Well, you may if you want to,' the mother an

swered.

"Grace's father was a Republican, and was going to vote for Mr. Lincoln. Two older brothers were Democrats, but she was a Republican.

"Among the letters going West the next day was one with this superscription, 'Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Esq., Springfield, Illinois.' It was Grace's letter, telling him

*Life of Lincoln. Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.

how old she was, where she lived, that she was a Republican, that she thought he would make a good President, but would look better if he would let his whiskers grow. If he would, she would try to coax her brothers to vote for him. She thought the rail fence around the cabin very pretty. 'If you have not time to answer my letter, will you allow your little girl to reply for you?' wrote Grace, at the end.

"A day or two later Grace Bedell comes out of the Westfield post-office with a letter in her hand, postmarked Springfield, Ill. Her pulse beat as never before. It is a cold morning, the wind blowing bleak and chill across the tossing waves of the lake. Snowflakes are falling. She can not wait till she reaches home, but tears open the letter. The melting flakes blur the writing; but this is what she reads:

"SPRINGFIELD, ILL., October 19, 1860.

"MISS GRACE BEDELL:

"My Dear Little Miss,-Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have three sons-one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection [affectation] if I should begin it now?

"Your very sincere well-wisher,

"A. LINCOLN.'

"When the train on which Mr. Lincoln was going to Washington, to become President of the United States, left Cleveland, Mr. Patterson, of Westfield, was invited into Mr. Lincoln's car.