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"Abe" Lincoln's
Anecdotes and Stories


A COLLECTION OF THE BEST
STORIES TOLD BY LINCOLN
WHICH MADE HIM FAMOUS AS

AMERICA'S BEST STORY TELLER


Compiled by
R. D. WORDSWORTH


THE MUTUAL BOOK COMPANY
Publishers
BOSTON, MASS.




COMPILED, 1908,
FOR
THE MUTUAL BOOK COMPANY




"ABE" LINCOLN'S ANECDOTES AND STORIES

[Illustration]


=A FUN-LOVING AND HUMOR-LOVING MAN=

It was once said of Shakespeare that the great mind that conceived the
tragedies of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," etc., would have lost its reason if
it had not found vent in the sparkling humor of such comedies as "The
Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Comedy of Errors."

The great strain on the mind of Abraham Lincoln produced by four years
of civil war might likewise have overcome his reason had it not found
vent in the yarns and stories he constantly told. No more fun-loving
or humor-loving man than Abraham Lincoln ever lived. He enjoyed a joke
even when it was on himself, and probably, while he got his greatest
enjoyment from telling stories, he had a keen appreciation of the
humor in those that were told him.


=MATRIMONIAL ADVICE=

For a while during the Civil War, General Fremont was without a
command. One day in discussing Fremont's case with George W. Julian,
President Lincoln said he did not know where to place him, and that
it reminded him of the old man who advised his son to take a wife, to
which the young man responded: