VAIN AS THE POPE'S BULL AGAINST THE COMET.

The potency of the Emancipation Act was so patent to the least
politician that, long before 1863, when its announcement opened
the memorable year for freedom, not only had its demonstration been
implored by his friends, but some of his subordinates had tried to
launch its lightning with not so impersonal a sentiment. To a
religious body, pressing him to verify his title of Abolitionist,
he replied:

"I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must
necessarily be inoperative, like the pope's bull against the comet."


* * * * *


A VOLUNTEER CAPTAINCY WORTH TWO DOLLARS.

While he was a lumberer, Lincoln was in the employ of one Kirkpatrick,
who "ran" a sawmill. In hiring the new man, the employer had promised
to buy him a dog, or cant-hook, of sufficient size to suit a man of
uncommon stature. But he failed in his pledge and would not give him
the two dollars of its value for his working without the necessary
tool. Though far from a grudging disposition, Lincoln cherished this
in memory. When the Black Hawk War broke out and the governor called
out volunteers, Sangamon County straightway responded and raised a
company of rangers. This Kirkpatrick wished and strove to be elected