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Show Hurt by Ellswortfts Deatfi KOM thn president's 7 i C roo,u '" tllB Wblte i House you can see f T? ' . Kominent objects In I j K i Alexandria, six miles i 51F down the Potomac. I Lj The one prominent ob- Ject which then for o d"8 a'traetid snd of-fended of-fended the patriot's v eyo from these win dows was the rebel ling floating from the siarf on the roof of tlie hotel In that city, as If In dell-nce dell-nce of the national capitol, a few nllc away. President Lincoln's young neighbor of Sprltigtleld. 111.. Flmer K. Ellsworth, mouniid alone to the roof, nit It down, and was hli.isdf killed by the rebel owner ns he descended the itaircase. "I called on tho president Just nfier hat occurrence," wio(t John A. Kas ion. "and rotigrjUilaied Mm, n I storid iy the window, on the Improved view lown the I'otimiac, where. Instead or he confederate, the union ths ' loaled. I wan taken ftbai k by Mr. j Im-ohi's Joyless r bponse, "Vis lint t v. is nt a tetilli'e cost!" end the i ears nikhed Into his eyes as he 1 t. It. was his first personal rnaU2a. : Ion of what the war meant. Ills ten- ' ler res;., ct for human life had re ! eived lis first wo ind. It was not bat- ' le. It was assassination. He did not for. see Ihe hundreds of housands who were to fall before ihn nest strife would be end-d. He aft-rwiird aft-rwiird le;rnMl to bear the Ion of l.otissuils In battle mme bravely than io bore the loss of this one In the i lt i.i-g of the contes!. Hut the l ise I. S single i., otherwise ll.au n tl.v j i n .! i'x'.-t was i,las hard for him I as so often shown In bis action upon the Judgment of courts martial. After the repulse of Fredericksburg he Is reported to have said: "If there .is a man out of hell that suffers more than I do, I pity him." "One morning, calling on him at an early hour on business," says Seuy-ler Seuy-ler Coifat, "I found him so palo and careworn that I Inquired the cause. He replied, telling me of bad news received re-ceived at a late hour of the night, and not yet printed, adding that he had not closed his eyes or breakfasted; and then he said, with an anguished expression ex-pression which I shall never forget, 'How willingly would I exchange places plac-es today with the soldier who sleeps on the ground In the army of the I'o-tomnc." I'o-tomnc." "The morning after bloody battle of the Wilderness 1 saw him walk up ami ' down the executive chamber, his long urms behind his back, his dark features fea-tures contract d sllll more with gloom, and as he looked up I thought his face ; the saddest one I had ever seen. He : exclaimed: 'Why do we Buffer reverses rever-ses alter reverses! . Could we have avoided this terrible, bloody war! Was it not forced ti on us. Is It never to end!" But bo quickly recovered, and told me the sad aegrtgate of those days of bloodshed." ; In the "Anecdotes of Abraham Lin- . coin" It Is related that duiing the war : a lady belonging to a prominent Kentucky Ken-tucky family visited Washinc on to beg for her son's pardon, who wan tl.i-n in psison under sentence of death for bdongi i. g to a band of guerrillas who had committed many murders and outrages. With the mother was her daughter, a beautiful young lady, who was an accomplished musician. Mr. Lincoln received the visitors In his usual kindly manner and the mother made known the object of hr visit, accompanying her plea with tears and ' sobs and all the customary dramatic i Instances. I There were probably extenuating ' circumstances in favor of the rebel i 1 prisoner, and w hile the president seem- j ' ed to be deeply pondering the young . ; lmly moved to the piano near by, and. j 1 taking a seat, commenced to sing J 'Gentle Annie," a sweet and pnthetic : ballad, which before the war was a familiar song In almost every household house-hold In the union, and Is not yet en- , tirely forgotten, for that matter. It la to be presuund that the young lady j i sang the song with more plant ivt tiess j end more effect than Old Abe bad ' . ver beard It In Springfield. Muring tin- foni: lie arose from hla suit, crossed the room to a window In the westward, through which he g ied , for several minutes with that "sad. far away look" which has so o'-en h.o-. I.oted as one of his peculiarities Hit I ' memory, no doubt went hick to h ' days it bis humble lit o on the biitu.b of the Sangamon, and with vision- of t ul SnU-m Nnd Its rustiu store came a picture of the "Gentle Annie" of bis youth, whose ashes had rested lor , many long years under tho wild How- J ers and brambles of Ihe o'd rural bury-it bury-it g gioutid but whose spiilt then, per , baps, guided him to the side of mercy, lion v. 1 1 ti.K his eyes, he advanend ! quickly to the desk, wrote a brl-f time whtch be I;.. tided to the lady, and In formed her that It was the pardon she ' eoiight. 1 I |
