AS VENEZUELA COMMISSIONER- 1895-1896 127 



mirable raconteurs I had ever met. After a series of 

 admirable stories, one of the party said to me : t i He could 

 tell just as good stories as those for three weeks running 

 and never repeat himself. 



One of these stories by the Vice-President, if true, 

 threw a curious light over the relations of President 

 Lincoln with three men very distinguished in American 

 annals. It was as follows: One day, shortly before the 

 issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, a visitor, find 

 ing Mr. Lincoln evidently in melancholy mood, said to 

 him, &quot;Mr. President, I am sorry to find you not feeling 

 so well as at my last visit. Mr. Lincoln replied : i Yes, 

 I am troubled. One day the best of our friends from 

 the border States come in and insist that I shall not issue 

 an Emancipation Proclamation, and that, if I do so, the 

 border States will virtually cast in their lot with the 

 Southern Confederacy. Another day, Charles Sumner, 

 Thad Stevens, and Ben Wade come in and insist that if 

 I do not issue such a proclamation the North will be ut 

 terly discouraged and the Union wrecked, and, by the 

 way, these three men are coming in this very afternoon. 

 At this moment his expression changed, his countenance 

 lighted up, and he said to the visitor, who was from the 

 West, &quot;Mr. - , did you ever go to a prairie school?&quot; 

 &quot;No,&quot; said the visitor, &quot;I never did.&quot; &quot;Well,&quot; said 

 Mr. Lincoln, &quot;I did, and it was a very poor school, and 

 we were very poor folks, too poor to have regular read 

 ing-books, and so we brought our Bibles and read from 

 them. One morning the chapter was from the Book 

 of Daniel, and a little boy who sat next me went all wrong 

 in pronouncing the names of Shadrach, Meshach, and 

 Abednego. The teacher had great difficulty in setting 

 him right, and before he succeeded was obliged to scold 

 the boy and cuff him for his stupidity. The next verse 

 came to me, and so the chapter went along down the class. 

 Presently it started on its way back, and soon after I no 

 ticed that the little fellow began crying. On this I asked 

 him, What s the matter with you? and he answered, 



