DIDN'T TRUST THE COURT.

In one of his many stories of Lincoln, his law partner, W. H. Herndon,
told this as illustrating Lincoln's shrewdness as a lawyer:

"I was with Lincoln once and listened to an oral argument by him in
which he rehearsed an extended history of the law. It was a carefully
prepared and masterly discourse, but, as I thought, entirely useless.
After he was through and we were walking home, I asked him why he went
so far back in the history of the law. I presumed the court knew enough
history.

"'That's where you're mistaken,' was his instant rejoinder. 'I dared
not just the case on the presumption that the court knows everything--in
fact I argued it on the presumption that the court didn't know
anything,' a statement, which, when one reviews the decision of our
appellate courts, is not so extravagant as one would at first suppose."

HANDSOMEST MAN ON EARTH.

One day Thaddeus Stevens called at the White House with an elderly
woman, whose son had been in the army, but for some offense had been
court-martialed and sentenced to death. There were some extenuating
circumstances, and after a full hearing the President turned to Stevens
and said: "Mr. Stevens, do you think this is a case which will warrant
my interference?"

"With my knowledge of the facts and the parties," was the reply, "I
should have no hesitation in granting a pardon."

"Then," returned Mr. Lincoln, "I will pardon him," and proceeded
forthwith to execute the paper.

The gratitude of the mother was too deep for expression, save by her
tears, and not a word was said between her and Stevens until they were
half way down the stairs on their passage out, when she suddenly broke
forth in an excited manner with the words:

"I knew it was a copperhead lie!"

"What do you refer to, madam?" asked Stevens.

"Why, they told me he was an ugly-looking man," she replied, with
vehemence. "He is the handsomest man I ever saw in my life."

THAT COON CAME DOWN.

"Lincoln's Last Warning" was the title of a cartoon which appeared in
"Harper's Weekly," on October 11, 1862. Under the picture was the text:

"Now if you don't come down I'll cut the tree from under you."

This illustration was peculiarly apt, as, on the 1st of January, 1863,
President Lincoln issued his great Emancipation Proclamation, declaring
all slaves in the United States forever free. "Old Abe" was a handy
man with the axe, he having split many thousands of rail