Washington for an apartment. In quest of cheap lodging they came to
a mean house in a mean quarter, where a poor, wizened, ill-clad woman
showed them through the meanly furnished rooms. Of course they would not
suffice.

"As they were coming away the great Mr. Lamar said to the poor landlady,
'Madam, have you lived long in Washington?' She said all her life.
'Madam,' he continued, 'were you at a fancy dress ball given by Mrs.
Senator Gwin of California, the eighth of February, 1858?' She said she
was. 'Do you remember,' the statesman, soldier and orator continued, 'a
young and handsome Mississippian, a member of Congress, by the name of
Lamar?' She said she didn't."

I rather think that Lamar was the biggest brained of all the men I
have met in Washington. He possessed the courage of his convictions. A
doctrinaire, there was nothing of the typical doctrinaire, or theorist,
about him. He really believed that cotton was king and would compel
England to espouse the cause of the South.

Despite his wealth of experience and travel he was not overmuch of a
raconteur, but he once told me a good story about his friend Thackeray.
The two were driving to a banquet of the Literary Fund, where Dickens
was to preside. "Lamar," said Thackeray, "they say I can't speak. But if
I want to I can speak. I can speak every bit as good as Dickens, and I
am going to show you to-night that I can speak almost as good as you."
When the moment arrived Thackeray said never a word. Returning in the
cab, both silent, Thackeray suddenly broke forth. "Lamar," he exclaimed,
"don't you think you have heard the greatest speech to-night that was
never delivered?"

II

Holding office, especially going to Congress, had never entered any wish
or scheme of mine. Office seemed to me ever a badge of bondage. I knew
too much of the national capital to be allured by its evanescent
and lightsome honors. When the opportunity sought me out none of its
illusions appealed to me. But after a long uphill fight for personal and
political recognition in Kentucky an election put a kind of seal
upon the victory I had won and enabled me in a way to triumph over my
enemies. I knew that if I accepted the nomination offered me I would get
a big popular vote--as I did--and so, one full term, and half a term,
incident to the death of the sitting member for the Louisville district
being open to me, I took the short term, refusing the long term.

Though it was midsumm