ham was clerk, but his assistant was absent, and it was necessary
to find a man to fill his place. Lincoln, a "tall young man," had
already concentrated on himself the attention of the people of the town,
and Graham easily discovered him. Asking him if he could write, "Abe"
modestly replied, "I can make a few rabbit-tracks." His rabbit-tracks
proving to be legible and even graceful, he was employed.

The voters soon discovered that the new assistant clerk was honest and
fair, and performed his duties satisfactorily, and when, the work done,
he began to "entertain them with stories," they found that their town
had made a valuable personal and social acquisition.

LINCOLN PROTECTED CURRENCY ISSUES.

Marshal Ward Lamon was in President Lincoln's office in the White House
one day, and casually asked the President if he knew how the currency
of the country was made. Greenbacks were then under full headway of
circulation, these bits of paper being the representatives of United
State money.

"Our currency," was the President's answer, "is made, as the lawyers
would put it, in their legal way, in the following manner, to-wit:
The official engraver strikes off the sheets, passes them over to the
Register of the Currency, who, after placing his earmarks upon them,
signs the same; the Register turns them over to old Father Spinner, who
proceeds to embellish them with his wonderful signature at the bottom;
Father Spinner sends them to Secretary of the Treasury Chase, and he, as
a final act in the matter, issues them to the public as money--and may
the good Lord help any fellow that doesn't take all he can honestly get
of them!"

Taking from his pocket a $5 greenback, with a twinkle in his eye,
the President then said: "Look at Spinner's signature! Was there ever
anything like it on earth? Yet it is unmistakable; no one will ever be
able to counterfeit it!"

Lamon then goes on to say:

"'But,' I said, 'you certainly don't suppose that Spinner actually wrote
his name on that bill, do you?'

"'Certainly, I do; why not?' queried Mr. Lincoln.

"I then asked, 'How much of this currency have we afloat?'

"He remained thoughtful for a moment, and then stated the amount.

"I continued: 'How many times do you think a man can write a signature
like Spinner's in the course of twenty-four hours?'

"The beam of hilarity left the countenance of the President at once.
He put the greenback into his vest pocket, and walked the fl