OCRed data provided
for searching only. 726 october 1886
urgent call for dinner; but so deeply engrossed in the game were the two players they apparently failed to notice his arrival. This was more than the little fellow could stand; so that, angered at their inattention, he moved nearer, lifted his foot, and deliberately kicked board, chessmen, and all into the air. ¿It was one of the most abrupt, if not brazen, things I ever saw,î said Treat, ¿but the surprising thing was its effect on Lincoln. Instead of the animated scene between an irate father and an impudent youth which I expected, Mr. Lincoln without a word of reproof calmly arose, took the boy by the hand, and started for dinner. Reaching the door he turned, smiled good-naturedly, and exclaimed, ´Well, Judge, I reckon we'll have to ‚nish this game some other time,' and passed out. Of course I refrained from any comment,î continued Treat, who, by the way, was old and had never been blessed with a child, ¿but I can assure you of one thing: if that little rascal had been a boy of mine he never would have applied his boots to another chessboard.î
Weik, 102¬3
623. Dennis F. Hanks (JWW interview)
Charleston, Illinois, Oct. 28, 1886 ¿They told me the Lincolns had a baby at thur house,î he related to the writer at Charleston, Illinois, Oct. 28, 1886, ¿and so I jest run all the way down thar. I guess I was on hand purty early, fur I rickolect when I held the little feller in my arms his mother said, ´Be keerful with him, Dennis, fur you air the fust boy he's ever seen.' I sort o' swung him back and forth; a little to peart, I reckon, fur with the talkin' and the shakin' he soon begun to cry and then I handed him over to my Aunt Polly1 who wuz standin' close by. ´Aunt,' sez I, ´take him; he'll never come to much,' fur I'll tell you he wuz the puniest, cryin'est little younster I ever saw.î
Weik, 44
624. Jonathan Birch (JWW interview)1
[1887?] ¿At the appointed time,î said Mr. Birch when he related the incident, ¿I knocked at the door of his room and was admitted. Motioning me to be seated he began his interrogatories at once without looking at me a second time to be sure of the identity of his caller. ´How long have you been studying?' he asked. ´Almost two years,' was my response. ´By this time it seems to me,' he said laughingly, ´you ought to be able to determine whether you have in you the stuff out of which a good lawyer can be made.' Then he asked me in a desultory way the de‚nition of a con‚
1. Apparently Mary Hanks, who married Jesse Friend.
1. JWW wrote that Birch, who was his neighbor and legal adviser in Greencastle, Indiana, had studied law in Bloomington, Illinois.
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