he letter he showed the sample of powder, and remarked
that he had burned some of it, and did not believe it was a good
article--here was too much residuum.

"I will show you," he said; and getting a small piece of paper, placed
thereupon some of the powder, then went to the fire and with the tongs
picked up a coal, which he blew, clapped it on the powder, and after the
resulting explosion, added, "You see there is too much left there."

SLEEP STANDING UP.

McClellan was a thorn in Lincoln's side--"always up in the air," as
the President put it--and yet he hesitated to remove him. "The Young
Napoleon" was a good organizer, but no fighter. Lincoln sent him
everything necessary in the way of men, ammunition, artillery and
equipments, but he was forever unready.

Instead of making a forward movement at the time expected, he would
notify the President that he must have more men. These were given him as
rapidly as possible, and then would come a demand for more horses, more
this and that, usually winding up with a demand for still "more men."

Lincoln bore it all in patience for a long time, but one day, when he
had received another request for more men, he made a vigorous protest.

"If I gave McClellan all the men he asks for," said the President, "they
couldn't find room to lie down. They'd have to sleep standing up."

SHOULD HAVE FOUGHT ANOTHER BATTLE.

General Meade, after the great victory at Gettysburg, was again face to
face with General Lee shortly afterwards at Williamsport, and even the
former's warmest friends agree that he might have won in another battle,
but he took no action. He was not a "pushing" man like Grant. It
was this negligence on the part of Meade that lost him the rank of
Lieutenant-General, conferred upon General Sheridan.

A friend of Meade's, speaking to President Lincoln and intimating that
Meade should have, after that battle, been made Commander-in-Chief of
the Union Armies, received this reply from Lincoln:

"Now, don't misunderstand me about General Meade. I am profoundly
grateful down to the bottom of my boots for what he did at Gettysburg,
but I think that if I had been General Meade I would have fought another
battle."

LINCOLN UPBRAIDED LAMON.

In one of his reminiscences of Lincoln, Ward Lamon tells how keenly the
President-elect always regretted the "sneaking in act" when he made the
celebrated "midnight ride," which he took under protest, and landed him