"
Justice accomplished her ends now and then with comic displays of
violence in the prairie capital. One night Abe Lincoln and certain of his
friends captured a shoe-maker who had beaten his wife and held him at the
village pump while the aggrieved woman gave him a sound thrashing. So
this phase of imperialism was cured in Springfield by "hair off the same
dog" as Lincoln put it.
One evening while E.D. Baker was speaking in the crowded village court
room above Lincoln's office and was rudely interrupted and in danger of
assault, the long legs of Honest Abe suddenly appeared through a scuttle
hole in the ceiling above the platform. He leaped upon it and seizing a
stone water pitcher defied any one to interfere with the right of free
speech in a worthy cause.
So it will be seen that there were zestful moments in these sundry
vindications of the principles of Democracy in the prairie capital.
About this time Miss Mary Todd, the daughter of a Kentucky banker,
arrived in Springfield to visit her sister, Mrs.
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