Why Lincoln Was Called "Honest Abe"
BY NOAH BROOKS
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.
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