able Respectable Sort of a Clergyman."

Some one was discussing in the presence of Mr. Lincoln the character
of a time-serving Washington clergyman. Said Mr. Lincoln to his
visitor:

"I think you are rather hard upon Mr. ----. He reminds me of a man in
Illinois, who was tried for passing a counterfeit bill. It was in
evidence that before passing it he had taken it to the cashier of a
bank and asked his opinion of the bill, and he received a very prompt
reply that it was a counterfeit. His lawyer, who had heard the
evidence to be brought against his client, asked him just before going
into court, 'Did you take the bill to the cashier of the bank and ask
him if it was good?'

"'I did,' was the reply,

"'Well, what was the reply of the cashier?'

"The rascal was in a corner, but he got out of it in this fashion: 'He
said it was a pretty tolerable, respectable sort of a bill.'" Mr.
Lincoln thought the clergyman was "a pretty tolerable, respectable
sort of a clergyman."

Opened His Eyes.

Mr. Lincoln sometimes had a very effective way of dealing with men who
troubled him with questions. A visitor once asked him how many men the
Rebels had in the field.

The President replied, very seriously, "_Twelve hundred thousand,
according to the best authority._"

The interrogator blanched in the face, and ejaculated, "_Good
Heavens!_"

"Yes, sir, twelve hundred thousand--no doubt of it. You see, all of
our generals, when they get whipped, say the enemy outnumbers them
from three or five to one, and I must believe them. We have four
hundred thousand men in the field, and three times four makes twelve.
Don't you see it?"

Minnehaha and Minneboohoo!

Some gentlemen fresh from a Western tour, during a call at the White
House, referred in the course of conversation to a body of water in
Nebraska, which bore an Indian name signifying "weeping water." Mr.
Lincoln instantly responded: "As 'laughing water,' according to Mr.
Longfellow, is 'Minnehaha,' this evidently should be 'Minneboohoo.'"

Lincoln and the Artist.

F. B. Carpenter, the celebrated artist and author of the well-known
painting of Lincoln and his Cabinet issuing the Emancipation
Proclamation, describes his first meeting with the President, as
follows:

"Two o'clock found me one of the throng pressing toward the center of
attraction, the blue room. From the threshold of the crimson parlor as
I passed, I had a glimpse of the gaunt figure of Mr. L