Why Lincoln Was Called "Honest Abe"
Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln
In managing the country store, as in
everything
that he undertook for others, Lincoln did his very
best. He was honest, civil, ready to do anything
that should encourage customers to come to the
place, full of pleasantries, patient, and alert.
On one occasion, finding late at night, when he
counted over his cash, that he had taken a few
cents from a customer more than was due, he
closed the store, and walked a long distance to
make good the deficiency.
At another time, discovering on the scales in
the morning a weight with which he had weighed
out a package of tea for a woman the night before,
he saw that he had given her too little for
her money. He weighed out what was due, and
carried it to her, much to the surprise of the
woman, who had not known that she was short
in the amount of her purchase.
Innumerable incidents of this sort
are related of Lincoln, and we should not have space to
tell of the alertness with which he sprang to protect
defenseless women from insult, or feeble children
from tyranny - for in the rude community in
which he lived, the rights of the defenseless were
not always respected as they should have been.
There were bullies then, as now. |