that the task devolves upon me.’  He then proceeded, in a very overbearing way, and with an assumption of great superiority, to attack Lincoln and his speech.  Lincoln stood calm, but his flashing eye and pale cheek showed his indignation.  As soon as Forquer had closed he took the stand and first answered his opponent’s arguments fully and triumphantly.  So impressive were his words and manner that a hearer believes that he can remember to this day, and repeat, some of the expressions.  Among other things, he said:  ’The gentleman commenced his speech by saying that this young man—­alluding to me—­must be taken down.  I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and trades of a politician; but,’ said he, pointing to Forquer, ’live long or die young, I would rather die now, than, like the gentleman, change my politics for a three thousand dollar office, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from the vengeance of an offended God!’”

“It is difficult to-day,” says Mr. Arnold, “to appreciate the effect on the old settlers, of this figure.  This lightning-rod was the first which most of those present had ever seen.  They had slept all their lives in their cabins in conscious security.  Here was a man who seemed, to these simple-minded people, to be afraid to sleep in his own house without special and extraordinary protection from Almighty God.  These old settlers thought nothing but the consciousness of guilt, the stings of a guilty conscience, could account for such timidity.  Forquer and his lightning-rod were talked over in every settlement from Sangamon to the Illinois and the Wabash.  Whenever he rose to speak thereafter, they said, ’There is the man who dare not sleep in his own house without a lightning-rod to keep off the vengeance of the Almighty.’”

Another amusing incident of the same campaign, and one which illustrates Lincoln’s love of a practical joke, is given as follows:  “Among the Democrats stumping the county at this time was one Dick Taylor, a most pompous person, who was always arrayed in the richest attire—­ruffled shirts, seals, etc., besides a rich embroidered vest.  Notwithstanding this array, he made great pretentions of being one of the ’hard-handed yeomanry,’ and ridiculed with much sarcasm the ‘rag barons’ and ‘manufacturing lords’ of the Whig party.  One day, when he was particularly aggravating in a speech of this kind, Lincoln decided on a little sport, and sidling up to Taylor suddenly threw open the latter’s coat, showing to the astonished spectators a glittering mass of ruffled shirt, gold watch, and glittering jewels.  The crowd shouted uproariously.  Lincoln said:  ’While he [Colonel Taylor] was making these charges against the Whigs over the country, riding in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold watch-chains with large gold seals, and flourishing a heavy gold-headed cane, I was a poor boy, hired on a flatboat at eight