Lincoln, the unknown

72 •LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNphotographer urged him to "slick up" a bit. He replied that"a portrait of a slicked-up Lincoln wouldn't be recognized downin Springfield."His table manners were large and free. He didn't hold hisknife right, and he didn't even lay it on his plate right. He hadno skill whatever in the art of eating fish with a fork and acrust of bread. Sometimes he tilted the meat platter and rakedor slid a pork chop off onto his plate. Mrs. Lincoln raised"merry war" with him because he persisted in using his ownknife for the butter; and once when he put chicken bones onthe side dish on which his lettuce had been served, she almostfainted.She complained and scolded because he didn't stand up whenladies came into the room; because he didn't jump around totake their wraps, and didn't see callers to the door when theyleft.He loved to read lying down. As soon as he came home fromthe office, he took off his coat and shoes and collar and droppedhis one "gallis" from his shoulder, turned a chair upside downin the hallway, padded its sloping back with a pillow, proppedhis head and shoulders against it, and stretched out on the floor.In that position he would lie and read for hours—usually thenewspapers. Sometimes he read what he considered a very humorousstory about an earthquake, from a book entitled "FlushTimes in Alabama." Often, very often, he read poetry. Andwhatever he read, he read aloud. He had gotten the habit fromthe "blab" schools back in Indiana. He also felt that by readingaloud he could impress a thing on his sense of hearing as wellas his sense of sight, and so remember it longer.Sometimes he would lie on the floor and close his eyes andquote Shakspere or Byron or Poe; for example:"For the moon never beams without bringing me dreamsOf the beautiful Annabel Lee,And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyesOf the beautiful Annabel Lee."A lady—a relative—who lived with the Lincolns two yearssays that one evening Lincoln was lying down in the hall, reading,when company came. Without waiting for the servant toanswer the door, he got up in his shirtsleeves, ushered the callersinto the parlor, and said he would "trot the women folks out."