The larger number of members lived in “messes,” a species of boarding-club, over which the owner of the house occupied usually presided.  The “National Intelligencer” of the day is sprinkled with announcements of persons “prepared to accommodate a mess of members.”  Lincoln went to live in one of the best known of these clubs, Mrs. Sprigg’s, in “Duff Green’s Row,” on Capitol Hill.  This famous row has now entirely disappeared, the ground on which it stood being occupied by the new Congressional Library.

[Illustration:  ROBERT SMITH, COLLEAGUE OF LINCOLN’S IN CONGRESS.

Born in New Hampshire in 1802; removed to Illinois in 1832.  A member of the legislature from 1836 to 1840, and of Congress from 1843 to 1849.  During the war, paymaster in the United States Army at St. Louis.  Died at Alton in 1868.]

At Mrs. Sprigg’s, Lincoln had as mess-mates several Congressmen:  A.R.  McIlvaine, James Pollock, John Strohm, and John Blanchard, all of Pennsylvania, Patrick Tompkins of Mississippi, Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio, and Elisha Embree of Indiana.  Among his neighbors in messes on Capitol Hill were Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.  Only one of the members of the mess at Mrs. Sprigg’s in the winter of 1847-1848 is now living, Dr. S.C.  Busey of Washington, D.C.  He sat nearly opposite Lincoln at the table.

“I soon learned to know and admire him,” says Dr. Busey[13], “for his simple and unostentatious manners, kind-heartedness, and amusing jokes, anecdotes, and witticisms.  When about to tell an anecdote during a meal he would lay down his knife and fork, place his elbows upon the table, rest his face between his hands, and begin with the words, ’That reminds me,’ and proceed.  Everybody prepared for the explosions sure to follow.  I recall with vivid pleasure the scene of merriment at the dinner after his first speech in the House of Representatives, occasioned by the descriptions, by himself and others of the Congressional mess, of the uproar in the House during its delivery.

[Footnote 13:  “Personal Reminiscences and Recollections,” by Samuel C. Busey, M.D., LL.D., Washington, D.C., 1895.]

[Illustration:  “LONG JOHN” WENTWORTH, COLLEAGUE OF LINCOLN’S IN CONGRESS.

Wentworth removed to Chicago from New Hampshire in 1836, where he published the “Chicago Democrat.”  He was twice Mayor of Chicago, and served in Congress from 1843 to 1851.  He was an ardent anti-slavery man.  He died in 1888.]

“Congressman Lincoln was always neatly but very plainly dressed, very simple and approachable in manner, and unpretentious.  He attended to his business, going promptly to the House and remaining till the session adjourned, and appeared to be familiar with the progress of legislation.”