As a student (if such a term could be applied to Lincoln), one who did
not know him might have called him indolent. He would pick up a book and
run rapidly over the pages, pausing here and there.

At the end of an hour--never more than two or three hours--he would
close the book, stretch himself out on the office lounge, and then, with
hands under his head and eyes shut, would digest the mental food he had
just taken.

"ABE'S" YANKEE INGENUITY.

War Governor Richard Yates (he was elected Governor of Illinois in
1860, when Lincoln was first elected President) told a good story at
Springfield (Ill.) about Lincoln.

One day the latter was in the Sangamon River with his trousers rolled up
five feet--more or less--trying to pilot a flatboat over a mill-dam. The
boat was so full of water that it was hard to manage. Lincoln got the
prow over, and then, instead of waiting to bail the water out, bored
a hole through the projecting part and let it run out, affording a
forcible illustration of the ready ingenuity of the future President.

LINCOLN PAID HOMAGE TO WASHINGTON.

The Martyr President thus spoke of Washington in the course of an
address:

"Washington is the mightiest name on earth--long since the mightiest in
the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation.

"On that name a eulogy is expected. It cannot be.

"To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is
alike impossible.

"Let none attempt it.

"In solemn awe pronounce the name, and, in its naked, deathless
splendor, leave it shining on."

STIRRED EVEN THE REPORTERS.

Lincoln's influence upon his audiences was wonderful. He could sway
people at will, and nothing better illustrates his extraordinary power
than he manner in which he stirred up the newspaper reporters by his
Bloomingon speech.

Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, told the story:

"It was my journalistic duty, though a delegate to the convention, to
make a 'longhand' report of the speeches delivered for the Tribune. I
did make a few paragraphs of what Lincoln said in the first eight or ten
minutes, but I became so absorbed in his magnetic oratory that I forgot
myself and ceased to take notes, and joined with the convention in
cheering and stamping and clapping to the end of his speech.

"I well remember that after Lincoln sat down and calm had succeeded the
tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and then thoug