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for searching only. 1887 727
tract and two or three other fundamental questions, all of which I answered readily and, as I thought, correctly. Beyond these meager inquiries, as I now recall the incident, he asked nothing more. Meanwhile, sitting on the edge of the bed he began to entertain me with recollectionsÜmany of them characteristically vivid and racyÜof his own practice and the various incidents and adventures that attended his start in the profession. The whole proceeding was interesting and yet so unusual, if not grotesque, I was at a loss to determine whether I was really being examined or not. In due time we went downstairs and over to the clerk's ofce in the court-house, where he wrote a few lines on a sheet of paper which he enclosed in an envelope and directed me to report to Judge Stephen T. Logan, the other member of the examining committee at Springeld. The next day I went to Springeld where I delivered the note as directed. On reading it Judge Logan smiled and, much to my surprise, gave me the required certicate or license without asking a question beyond my age, residence and the correct way of spelling my name. The note from Lincoln read:
MY DEAR JUDGE Ü
The bearer of this is a young man who thinks he can be a lawyer. Examine him
if you want to. I have done so and am satised. He's a good deal smarter than
he looks to be.
Yours
LINCOLN
Weik, 133¬34
625. Jonathan Birch (JWW interview)1
[1887?]
¿Having no ofce of his own, Mr. Lincoln, when not engaged in court, spent a good deal of his time in the clerk's ofce. Very often he could be seen there surrounded by a group of lawyers and such persons as are usually found about a courthouse, some standing, others seated on chairs or tables, listening intently to one of his characteristic and inimitable stories. His eyes would sparkle with fun, and when he had reached the point in his narrative which invariably evoked the laughter of the crowd, nobody's enjoyment was greater than his. An hour later he might be seen in the same place or in some law ofce near by, but, alas, how different! His chair, no longer in the center of the room, would be leaning back against the wall; his feet drawn up and resting on the front rounds so that his knees and chair were about on a level; his hat tipped slightly forward as if to shield his face; his eyes no
1. For JWW's personal relation to Birch, see Ñ624, note 1. JWW says that Birch met with WHH when the latter came to Greencastle, Indiana, in 1887 to collaborate with JWW on their biography and that ¿what Birch, who was the embodiment of truthful and conscientious statement, said about Lincoln was veried by Herndonî (Weik, 198). This appears to be excerpted from a statement published after Birch's death in The Outlook, Feb. 11, 1911, reprinted in Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed., Intimate Memories of Lincoln (Elmira, N.Y.: Primavera Press, 1945), 104¬8.
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