Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

kicking adults' chessboards while their are playing?

I was curious about this, and here is a description I found online:

"Mrs C. C. Brown, daughter of John E. Owsley, then a resident of Springfield, but later of Chicago, told of the times when her father and Mr. Lincoln used to play chess in the latter's office. Frequently the game lasted into the time for dinner, and little Todd would come for his father. After the boy had waited as long as he felt he could for the game to be finished, he would slide up and kick the chess board to the ceiling. "It used to make my father boil,"; Mrs. Brown related." but Mr. Lincoln never showed the slightest anger. He would seize the boy and throw him up on his back, and off they would go to their dinner."

https://archive.org/stream/marytoddlinco...5_djvu.txt

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kicking adults' chessboards while their are playing?

I was curious about this, and here is a description I found online:

"Mrs C. C. Brown, daughter of John E. Owsley, then a resident of Springfield, but later of Chicago, told of the times when her father and Mr. Lincoln used to play chess in the latter's office. Frequently the game lasted into the time for dinner, and little Todd would come for his father. After the boy had waited as long as he felt he could for the game to be finished, he would slide up and kick the chess board to the ceiling. "It used to make my father boil,"; Mrs. Brown related." but Mr. Lincoln never showed the slightest anger. He would seize the boy and throw him up on his back, and off they would go to their dinner."

https://archive.org/stream/marytoddlinco...5_djvu.txt

I find it hard to believe that some of you are still thinking that this is acceptable behavior and also trying to find reasons why Lincoln was such a lenient father!

If I had to justify Lincoln's behavior (which I can't), I could only suggest that perhaps he recognized that something truly was wrong with Tad or that he knew what a terrible tantrum would follow any attempt at discipline that he just gave up.

Lincoln's biographers were certainly not going to do anything to stain the saintly mantel after 1865. And, how many talked family gossip other than to condemn Mrs. Lincoln? I'm sticking with Herndon and Mrs. Brown here.