such an embarrassing situation is to let them
all out at once."

He made a somewhat similar illustration at an informal Cabinet meeting,
at which the disposition of Jefferson Davis and other prominent
Confederates was discussed. Each member of the Cabinet gave his
opinion; most of them were for hanging the traitors, or for some severe
punishment. President Lincoln said nothing.

Finally, Joshua F. Speed, his old and confidential friend, who had
been invited to the meeting, said, "I have heard the opinion of your
Ministers, and would like to hear yours."

"Well, Josh," replied President Lincoln, "when I was a boy in Indiana,
I went to a neighbor's house one morning and found a boy of my own size
holding a coon by a string. I asked him what he had and what he was
doing.

"He says, 'It's a coon. Dad cotched six last night, and killed all but
this poor little cuss. Dad told me to hold him until he came back, and
I'm afraid he's going to kill this one too; and oh, "Abe," I do wish he
would get away!'

"'Well, why don't you let him loose?'

"'That wouldn't be right; and if I let him go, Dad would give me h--.
But if he got away himself, it would be all right.'

"Now," said the President, "if Jeff Davis and those other fellows will
only get away, it will be all right. But if we should catch them, and I
should let them go, 'Dad would give me h--!'"

FATHER OF THE "GREENBACK."

Don Piatt, a noted journalist of Washington, told the story of the first
proposition to President Lincoln to issue interest-bearing notes as
currency, as follows:

"Amasa Walker, a distinguished financier of New England, suggested that
notes issued directly from the Government to the people, as currency,
should bear interest. This for the purpose, not only of making the notes
popular, but for the purpose of preventing inflation, by inducing people
to hoard the notes as an investment when the demands of trade would fail
to call them into circulation as a currency.

"This idea struck David Taylor, of Ohio, with such force that he sought
Mr. Lincoln and urged him to put the project into immediate execution.
The President listened patiently, and at the end said, 'That is a good
idea, Taylor, but you must go to Chase. He is running that end of the
machine, and has time to consider your proposition.'

"Taylor sought the Secretary of the Treasury, and laid before him Amasa
Walker's plan. Secretary Chase heard him through in a cold, unpleasa