Category: Biographies
Lincoln loved laughter; he loved to laugh himself and he liked to hear others laugh. All who knew him, all who have written of him, from John Hay, years ago, to Harvey O'Higgins in his recent work, tell how, in the darkest moments our country has ever known, Lincoln would find...
Among the articles published by Artemus Ward were the following references to Lincoln's political life, which greatly pleased Mr. Lincoln. He often showed the worn clippings to...
1. Chapter I: When Lincoln Was Laughed AtLincoln loved laughter; he loved to laugh himself and he liked to hear others laugh. All who knew him, all who have written of him, from John Hay, years ago, to Harvey O'Higgins...
8. Chapter VIII: Lincoln and John Brown"This is my friend!" said Lincoln, as he suddenly turned to a pile of books beside him and grasped a Japanese vase containing a large open pond lily. Some horticultural admirer,...
5. Chapter V: What Made Him LaughTo many persons it seemed incongruous that there should be any thought, motive, or taste in common between Abraham Lincoln and the droll Artemus Ward. Indeed, the great biograph...
2. Chapter II: President and PilgrimThe reader will not be surprised to learn that getting into the presence of the President was no laughing matter, and that his own habit of occasionally using laughter during bu...
4. Chapter IV: Some Lincoln AnecdotesThe two stories long accredited to Ward at which Mr. Lincoln laughed most heartily that day included the anecdote of the gray-haired lover who hoped to win a young wife and who,...
3. Chapter III: Lincoln Reads Artemus Ward AloudThis generation, whose taste in humor has naturally changed from that of Civil War times, is not very familiar with the stories of Artemus Ward. It will be well for the reader t...
7. Chapter VII: Why Lincoln Loved LaughterOnly once in the course of our long and rambling conversation did Lincoln refer to the war. That was when he asked me how the soldiers' spirits were keeping up. He said he had b...