“There was very great freedom in social intercourse.  Manners were rude, but genial, kind, and friendly.  Each was always ready to assist his fellows, and selfishness was not tolerated.  The relations between the bench and bar were familiar, free and easy.  Flashes of wit and humor and repartee were constantly exchanged.  Such was the life upon which Lincoln now entered; and there gathered with him around those pine tables of the frontier court-house a very remarkable combination of men, men who would have been leaders of the bar at Boston or New York, Philadelphia or Washington; men who would have made their mark in Westminster Hall, or upon any English circuit.  At the capital were John T. Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, Edward D. Baker, Ninian W. Edwards, Josiah Lamborn, and many others.  Among the leading lawyers from other parts of the State who practiced in the Supreme and Federal Courts at the capital were Stephen A. Douglas; Lyman Trumbull, for many years chairman of the judiciary committee of the United States Senate; O.H.  Browning, Senator and member of the Cabinet at Washington; William H. Bissell, Member of Congress, and Governor of the State; David Davis, justice of the Supreme Court, Senator and Vice-President of the United States; Justin Butterfield of Chicago, and many others almost or quite equally distinguished.  This ‘circuit riding’ involved all sorts of adventures.  Hard fare at miserable country taverns, sleeping on the floor, and fording streams, were every-day occurrences.  All such occurrences were met with good humor and often turned into sources of frolic and fun.  In fording swollen streams, Lincoln was frequently sent forward as a scout or pioneer.  His extremely long legs enabled him, by taking off his boots and stockings, and by rolling up or otherwise disposing of his trousers, to test the depth of the stream, find the most shallow water, and thus to pilot the party through the current without wetting his garments.”

A gentleman who lived in one of the judicial circuits of Illinois in which Lincoln had an extensive though not very lucrative practice gives some graphic and interesting reminiscences.  “The terms of the court were held quarterly and usually lasted about two weeks.  They were always seasons of great importance and much gayety in the little town that had the honor of being the county seat.  Distinguished members of the bar from surrounding and even from distant counties, ex-judges and ex-Members of Congress, attended and were personally and many of them popularly known to almost every adult, male and female, of the limited population.  They came in by stages and on horseback.  Among them the one whose arrival was looked forward to with the most pleasurable anticipations, and whose possible absence—­although he almost never was absent—­was feared with the liveliest emotions of anxiety, was ’Uncle Abe,’ as he was lovingly called by us all.  Sometimes he might happen to be a day or two late.  Then,