HE KNEW LINCOLN
AND OTHER BILLY BROWN STORIES
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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HE KNEW LINCOLN
AND OTHER BILLY BROWN STORIES
BY
AUTHOR OF “LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN”
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922
All rights reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Copyright, 1907
By McCLURE, PHILLIPS & COMPANY
Copyright, 1907, 1908 and 1909
By THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Copyright, 1909
By MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY
New York
Copyright, 1920
By AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS
New York
Copyright, 1920 and 1922
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
FERRIS
PRINTING COMPANY
NEW YORK CITY
TO MY SISTER
More than one clue must be unravelledto reach an understanding of AbrahamLincoln. Among them there surelymust be reckoned his capacity for companionship.None more catholic in hisselections ever lived. All men were hisfellows. He went unerringly and unconsciouslyfor the most part, to the meetingplace that awaited him in each man’s nature.There might be a wall, often therewas; but he knew, no one better, thatthere is always a secret door in humanwalls. Sooner or later he discovered it,put his finger on its spring, passedthrough and settled into the place behindthat was his.
His life was rich in companionships[VIII]with unlikely people, often people whobegan by contempt or semi-contempt ofhim. There was the town bully of hisyouth, whom he soundly thrashed for tryinga foul in a wrestling match, and whorose from the dust to proclaim Lincolnthe best man who ever broke into camp;thirty years later there was his own Secretaryof State, with his self-complacentassumption of the President’s unfitnessfor leadership and of his own call to directthe nation, put gently but firmly inhis place and soon frankly and nobly declaring,“He’s the best of us all.”
He had many pass-keys—wrath, magnanimity,shrewdness, patience, clarityof judgment, humor, resolve; and in theend, one or the other or all togetheropened every closed door, and he satdown at home with men of the most divergentview and experience: the bully,the scholarly, the cunning, the pious, the[IX]ambitious, the selfish, the great, the weak,the boy, the man.
Particularly was Lincoln at home withmen like the Billy Brown of these pages,men whose native grain had not beenobscured by polish and