lumny to cover. It was a lie out of whole cloth with
nothing whatever to support or excuse it. I reached the bottom of it to
discover proof of its baselessness abundant and conclusive. In Johnson's
case I take it that the story had nothing other to rest on than the
obscurity of his birth and the quality of his talents. Late in life
Johnson went to Raleigh and caused to be erected a modest tablet over
the spot pointed out as the grave of his progenitor, saying, I was told
by persons claiming to have been present, "I place this stone over the
last earthly abode of my alleged father."

Johnson, in the saying of the countryside, "out-married himself." His
wife was a plain woman, but came of good family. One day, when a child,
so the legend ran, she saw passing through the Greenville street in
which her people lived, a woman, a boy and a cow, the boy carrying a
pack over his shoulder. They were obviously weary and hungry. Extreme
poverty could present no sadder picture. "Mother," cried the girl,
"there goes the man I am going to marry." She was thought to be in jest.
But a few years later she made her banter good and lived to see her
husband President of the United States and with him to occupy the White
House at Washington.

Much has been written of the humble birth and iron fortune of Abraham
Lincoln. He had no such obstacles to overcome as either Andrew Jackson
or Andrew Johnson. Jackson, a prisoner of war, was liberated, a lad
of sixteen, from the British pen at Charleston, without a relative, a
friend or a dollar in the world, having to make his way upward through
the most aristocratic community of the country and the time. Johnson,
equally friendless and penniless, started as a poor tailor in a rustic
village. Lincoln must therefore, take third place among our self-made
Presidents. The Hanks family were not paupers. He had a wise and helpful
stepmother. He was scarcely worse off than most young fellows of his
neighborhood, first in Indiana and then in Illinois. On this side
justice has never been rendered to Jackson and Johnson. In the case of
Jackson the circumstance was forgotten, while Johnson too often dwelt
upon it and made capital out of it.

Under date of the 23rd of May, 1919, the Hon. Josephus Daniels,
Secretary of the Navy, writes me the following letter, which I violate
no confidence in reproducing in this connection:

MY DEAR MARSE HENRY:--

I can't tell you how much delight and pleasure your reminisce