plaintiff's boat had power to run six miles an hour in that current. It has been testified that she was a strong, swift boat able to run eight miles an hour upstream in a current of four miles an hour and fifteen miles downstream. Strike the average and you will find what is her average about eleven and a half miles. Take the five and a half miles which is the speed of the current in the draw and it leaves the power of that boat in that draw at six miles an hour, 528 feet per minute, and 84/5 feet to the second.

Next I propose to show that there are no cross-currents. I know their witnesses say that there are cross-currents; that, as one witness says, there were three cross-currents and two eddies; so far as mere statement without experiment and mingled with mistakes can go they have proved. But can these men's testimony be compared with the nice, exact, and thorough experiments of our witnesses. Can you believe that these floats go across the currents? It is inconceivable that they could not have discovered every possible current. How do boats find currents that floats cannot discover? We assume the position, then, that those cross-currents are not there. My next proposition is that the Afton passed between the S. B. Carson and the Iowa shore. That is undisputed.

Next I shall show that she struck first the short pier, then the long pier, then the short one again, and there she stopped. How did the boat strike when she went in? Here is an endless variety of opinion the testimony of eighteen witnesses. But ten of them say what pier she struck; three of them testify that she struck first the short, then the long, and the short for the last time. None of the rest substantially contradict this. I assume that these men have got the truth because I believe it an established fact. My next proposition is that after she struck the short and long pier and before she got back to the short pier, the boat got right with her bow up. So says the pilot Parker: "that he got her through until her starboard wheel passed the short pier." This would make her head about even with the head of the long pier. He says her head was as high or higher than the head of the long pier. Other witnesses confirmed this one. The final stroke was in the splash door aft the wheel. Witnesses differ but the majority say that she struck thus.

HURD VS. ROCK ISLAND BRIDGE CO. 185

At this point the court adjourned, and on the following day, shown by the record to be Wednesday, September 23, 1857, Lincoln resumed his argument assuring the court that he would conclude as soon as possible. From the model of a boat he explained where the splash door is just behind the wheel, adding that the current as represented would drive an ascending boat to the long pier, but not to the short pier as the other side had contended. Continuing his argument he said:

The boat struck on the lower shoulder of the short pier, as she swung around, in the splash door; then as she went on around she struck the point or end of the pier where she rested. Her engineers say the starboard then was rushing around rapidly. Then the boat must have struck the upper point of the pier so far back as not to disturb the wheel. It is forty feet from the stern of the Afton to the splash door and thus it appears that she had but forty feet to go to clear the pier. How was it that the Afton with all her power flanked over from the channel to the short pier without moving one foot ahead? Suppose she was in the middle of the draw, her wheel would have been thirtyone feet from the short pier. The reason she went over thus is her starboard wheel was not working. I shall try to establish the fact that the wheel was not running and that after she struck she went ahead on this same wheel. Upon the last point the witnesses agree that the starboard wheel was running after she struck and no witnesses say that it was running while she was out in the draw flanking over.

Other witnesses show that the captain said something of the machinery of the wheel and the inference is that he knew the wheel was not working. The pilot says he ordered the engineers to back her up. The engineers differ from him and said they kept on going ahead. The bow was so swung that the current pressed it over; the pilot pressed the stern over with the rudder, though not so fast but that the bow gained on it, and only one wheel being in motion, the boat nearly stood still, so far as motion up and down is concerned and thus she was thrown upon this pier.

The Afton came into the draw after she had just passed the Carson, and as the Carson no doubt kept the true course the Afton, going around her, got out of the proper way, got across the current into the eddy, which is west of a straight line drawn down from the long pier, and was compelled to resort to these changes of wheel which she did not do with sufficient adroitness to save her. Was it not her own fault that she entered wrong, so far wrong that she never got right? Is the defense to blame for that?

At this point Lincoln unbent slightly and indulged in a brief witticism, a thing he rarely attempted in public save occasionally in a talk to a country jury.

For several days we were entertained with depositions about boats "smelling a bar." Why, then, did the Afton after she had come up smelling so close to the long pier sheer off so strangely? When she had got to the center of the very nose she was smelling, she seemed suddenly to have lost her sense of smell and to have flanked over to the short pier.

It is suggested as a way out of the difficulty that a tunnel be built under the river; but that is not practicable, for there is not a tunnel that is a successful project in this world. A suspension bridge cannot be built so high but that the chimneys of the boats will grow up till they cannot pass. The steamboat men will take pains to make them grow. The cars of a railroad cannot without immense expense rise high enough to get even with a suspension bridge or go low enough to get through a tunnel; such expense is unreasonable.

The plaintiffs have to establish that the bridge is a material obstruction and that they have managed their boat with reasonable care and skill. As to the last point high winds have nothing to do with it, for it was not a windy day. They must show due skill and care. Difficulties going downstream will not do; for they were going upstream. Difficulties with barges in tow have nothing to do with the accidents, for they had no barge.

Here Lincoln paused, but whether due to a suggestion or intimation from the court we do not know. At any rate, fixing his eyes on the jury he said:

WHAT HE THOUGHT OF JUDGE MCLEAN 187

Gentlemen, I have not exhausted my stock of information and there are more things I could suggest regarding this case, but as I have doubtless used up my time, I presume I had better close.

In due time Judge McLean delivered his charge to the jury and they retired. At eight o'clock they returned with the report that they were unable to agree. The court, believing that even if given more time they would never agree, dismissed them. They stood: three for the boat and nine for Lincoln's clients, the bridge people.

In September, two years before this, the noted McCormick os.Manny patent infringement was tried before Judge McLean in the United States Circuit Court in Cincinnati. Lincoln was present having been retained by the defendant Manny. It will be recalled that owing to the determination of his associates, Edwin M. Stanton and George Harding, of Philadelphia, to make the two speeches allowed the defense, he was successfully ignored. He remained in Cincinnati throughout the trial, but took little part in the proceedings. When he returned home he told the Springfield lawyers, Herndon among the number, that McLean, although of decided mental vigor, was, nevertheless, a man of limited perception. "If you pointed your forefinger and a darning needle at him at the same time," said Lincoln, "he never could make up his mind which was the sharper."

CHAPTER XIV

Life on the circuit - The Eighth Circuit described — Lincoln only lawyer who traveled over all of it - His horse and buggy — The landlord's welcome -Life at the tavern- Lincoln's dress - Leonard Swett's introduction to Lincoln and Davis-Lincoln's methods described by Henry C. Whitney-Joins Leonard Swett in defense of a murderer - His record in fugitive slave cases Explanation by John W. Bunn of his few appearances in court in behalf of runaway slaves-Account by J. Birch of Lincoln lounging in the county clerk's office- Also his physical appearance and habits in political campaigns - The Wright case-Befriending the Matheney heirs - Forcing the foreign impostor to disgorge his gains - Fee paid by Jacob Bunn and how Lincoln applied it. MR. LINCOLN always divided his life as a lawyer into two periods or epochs; one preceding and the other following his single term in Congress. His legal career, therefore, dates from the spring of 1849, when, believing himself politically dead, he returned to the law and began the struggle in dead earnest again. His business was largely confined to the circuit, a mode of practice almost unknown to the present generation of lawyers. The now historic Eighth Circuit over which he traveled included fourteen counties in central Illinois, comprising eleven thousand square miles or almost one fifth of the area of the State.

"For many years," relates a survivor of the circuit days, "there were no railroads and but few bridges over the streams. Courts were held in the various counties twice a year lasting from three days to a week. After court adjourned in one county, the judge rode to the next county seat and was followed by the State's attorney, whose authority extended over the whole circuit, and by some of the lawyers to a few of the counties near their homes." Mr. Lincoln was the only lawyer who rode the entire circuit,