INTERVIEW WITH MR. AND MRS. EDWARDS 63

of the auspicious beginning of his new life. "We are not keeping house," writes Lincoln, "but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room and boarding only costs us four dollars a week."

Mr. Herndon's version of the Lincoln-Todd courtship and wedding, as I have already stated, had the effect of evoking from many people in Springfield bitter criticism for his lack of taste in making the disclosure, and in some cases stout denial. The story first appeared in Ward Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," in which it was alleged that Lincoln disappointed Miss Todd, whom he had promised to wed, by failing to appear at the time and place agreed upon; that this led to an estrangement between them and that they remained apart for over a year or until reunited through the diplomatic instrumentality of Mrs. Francis. When I was in Springfield Herndon told me the story substantially as it appeared in the Lamon book and then advised me to interview Ninian Edwards and wife, both of whom were living and would no doubt communicate the facts as they recalled them. Accordingly a few days later, in obedience to the suggestion of Herndon, I visited the Edwards residence and found both husband and wife at home. This is what my diary records:

Thursday, Dec. 20, 1883. Called on N. W. Edwards and wife. Asked about marriage Mary Todd to Lincoln Mrs. E. said arrangements for wedding made even cakes baked but Lincoln failed to appear. At this point Mr. Edwards interrupted — cautioned wife she was talking to newspaper man she declined to say more had said Mary greatly mortified by Mr. Lincoln's strange conduct. Later were reunited - finally married.

Herndon also furnished me the address of Mrs. Simeon Francis, who was then living in Oregon, and recommended that I apply to her for further information, as in view of her connection with the episode she could if she so desired relate the facts exactly as they occurred so that posterity might know the truth. Thus encouraged I wrote the lady three different times, reciting the story as it emanated from Herndon and others, and urging her in the interest of history to indicate whether Lincoln in his suit for the hand of Mary Todd had ignored the promise to meet her at the hymeneal altar on "that fatal 1st of January, 1841," or otherwise deceived her. She acknowledged the receipt of my letters, but in each case declined to deny the story or further enlighten me regarding the subject, on the ground that, as Lincoln and his wife were both dead, she felt a delicacy in disclosing to the world all the details of their courtship. I still have her letters.

CHAPTER VI

Lincoln's attitude toward the ladies - His attentions to Sarah Rickard What Mary Owens said about him — His conduct in the parlor - The stag literary society - How he, with the aid of Evan Butler and James Matheney, punished the drunken shoemaker - His bashfulness — Whitney's account of his embarrassment before the ladies at Urbana- The evening at Norman B. Judd's residence-What Mrs. Judd recollected - Lincoln's break at the concertHis attentions to the lady performer - What Davis and Swett said to him about it - His reply.

JUDGED by the literature of the day thus far, the world seemingly has come to the conclusion that Lincoln was both an ideal lover and a model husband, and yet, if history can be depended upon, it does not always happen that a man so profoundly intellectual as he was makes an exemplary husband or in every case an adorable and satisfactory lover. He may be princely in demeanor and angelic in temperament, but, in the language of a lady to whom Lincoln himself once offered his hand, he is generally "deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's happiness."

While Lincoln was far from the conventional ladies' man, yet no one more deeply appreciated the charms of female society. It was David Davis who said that on more than one occasion he had heard Lincoln "thank God that he was not born a woman." Now when Lincoln said this he had in mind his own sympathetic and pliant nature, and he therefore feared himself when subjected to the plausible arguments and persuasive influences which, it is said, so often sweep a woman off her feet. This line of reasoning may, perhaps, serve to indicate the esteem in which he held woman's will and powers of resistance; but

in saying what he did he certainly underrated his own strength and inflexibility, for we know that, when put to the test, no man ever lived who could say "no" more readily and abide by his decision with more resolution and firmness.

No doubt he longed for and enjoyed the attrition of social contact, and that included the company of the ladies, but even then we know he managed to hold himself in strict repression. Although a matchless story-teller and in other respects admirably entertaining, he was never prominent in the social life of early Springfield; but whether this was due to his shortcomings in the parlor and ballroom, his self-conscious lack of training generally, or to pure indifference, it is difficult to determine. Springfield, it should be remembered, though no larger or more important than the average inland prairie town in the early days of the West, had its aristocracy and social barriers as distinct and formidable as they are to-day. Evidence in support of this statement is found in a letter which Mr. Herndon once loaned me, written by Lincoln to Mary S. Owens, whose hand he sought in marriage. "There is a great deal of flourishing about in carriages here," he writes, "which it would be your doom to see without sharing in it. You would have to be poor without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently?"

In addition to Ann Rutledge, whose melancholy history, but for the indefatigable and exhaustive researches of Mr. Herndon, would probably never have been preserved, we know that, besides Mary Todd, Lincoln proposed also to Mary S. Owens and Sarah Rickard. With the story