''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 391Upon his return from the Blackhawk War, in which, as he said afterward, ina humorous speech, when in Congress, that he "fought, bled and cameaway," he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Legislature. This was theonly time in his life, as he himself has said, that he was ever beaten by thepeople. Although defeated, in his own town of New Salem he received allof the two hundred and eight votes cast except three.FAILURE AS A BUSINESS MAN.Lincoln's next business venture was with William Berry in a general store,under the firm name of Lincoln & Berry, but did not take long to show thathe was not adapted for a business career. The firm failed, Berry died andthe debts of the firm fell entirely upon Lincoln. Many of these debts hemight have escaped legally, but he assumed them all and it was not untilfifteen years later that the last indebtedness of Lincoln & Berry wasdischarged. During his membership in this firm he had applied himself tothe study of law, beginning at the beginning, that is with Blackstone. Nowthat he had nothing to do he spent much of his time lying under the shadeof a tree poring over law books, borrowed from a comrade in theBlackhawk War, who was then a practicing lawyer at Springfield.GAINS FAME AS A STORY TELLER.It was about this time, too, that Lincoln's fame as a story-teller began tospread far and wide. His sayings and his jokes were repeated throughoutthat section of the country, and he was famous as a story-teller beforeanyone ever heard of him as a lawyer or a politician.It required no little moral courage to resist the temptation that beset an idleyoung man on every hand at that time, for drinking and carousing were ofdaily and nightly occurrence. Lincoln never drank intoxicating liquors, nordid he at that time use tobacco, but in any sports that called for skill ormuscle he took a lively interest, even in horse races and cock fights.SURVEYOR WITH NO STRINGS ON HIM.