the roast.”  Lincoln once remarked to Mr. Gillespie that he never felt his own unworthiness so much as when in the presence of a hotel clerk or waiter.  If rooms were scarce, and one, two, three, or four gentlemen were required to lodge together in order to accommodate some surly man who “stood upon his rights,” Lincoln was sure to be one of the unfortunates.  Yet he loved the life of the circuit, and never went home without reluctance.

In describing the many experiences of the lawyers who travelled the circuits at this period, Mr. Arnold says:  “The State was settled with a hardy, fearless, honest, but very litigious population.  The court-house was sometimes framed and boarded, but more frequently it was built of logs.  The judge sat upon a raised platform behind a rough board, sometimes covered with green baize, for a table on which to write his notes.  A small table stood on the floor in front for the clerk.  In the center of the room was another larger table around which in rude chairs the lawyers were grouped, too often with their feet on top of it.  Rough benches were placed there for the jury, the parties to the suit, witnesses and bystanders.  The court-rooms were nearly always crowded for here were rehearsed and acted the dramas, the tragedies, and the comedies of real life.  The court-house has always been a very attractive place to the people of the frontier.  It supplied the place of theatres, lecture and concert rooms, and other places of interest and amusement in the older settlements and towns.  The leading lawyers and judges were the star actors, and had each his partisans.  Hence crowds attended the courts to see the judges, to hear the lawyers contend, with argument and law and wit, for success, victory, and fame.  The merits and ability of the leading advocates, their success or discomfiture in examining or cross-examining a witness, the ability of this or that one to obtain a verdict, were canvassed at every cabin-raising, bee, or horse-race, and at every log-house and school in the county.  Thus the lawyers were stimulated to the utmost exertion of their powers, not only by controversy and desire of success, but by the consciousness that their efforts were watched with eagerness by friends, clients, partisans, or rivals.  From one to another of these rude court-houses the gentlemen of the bar passed, following the judge around his circuits from county to county, travelling generally on horseback, with saddle-bags, brushes, an extra shirt or two, and perhaps two or three law books.  Sometimes two or three lawyers would unite and travel in a buggy, and the poorer and younger ones not seldom walked.  But a horse was not an unusual fee, and in those days when horse thieves as clients were but too common, it was not long before a young man of ability found himself well mounted.