Extra Credit Questions

[J. Beckert]

I was thinking some kind of cloth until you said pints. Strawberries?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very close indeed, Joe! Have another guess.

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised. Often when I think a question is really difficult it'll usually be nailed on the first attempt. This time I even thought it would be too easy to post it. Maybe I should focus on the easy ones...

[RJNorton]

Blueberries Blackberries?

[Eva Elisabeth]

You've got it, Roger, very good. Your prize is a supply of berries from our garden when they are ripe.

Here's the story:
"One day, the latter part of July, 1859,' he said, 'my father and brother-in-law and I went after blackberries five miles out of the city. We started at 4 o'clock in the morning. The day was very hot. We hunted for blackberries all morning, for at that time they were getting scarce. We were gone until 11:30 in the forenoon, and all father got was 3 pints. He took them to Mrs. Lincoln, but when she saw them she complained because they were so small. Father told me to tell Mrs. Lincoln these were the last picking; they were smaller than the last, but no more were to be found. He had been all morning since 4 o'clock finding these. Mrs. Lincoln wanted to know what father asked for these. I told her 15 cents. She refused to pay more than 10 cents. Father said he could not afford to sell for that. So just as we were about to start away, Mr. Lincoln came around the house from the front. He greeted father and asked me why we did not sell the berries to Mrs. Lincoln. I told him that we had only 3 pints that father had been out ever since 4 o'clock gathering the 3 pints, and that Mrs. Lincoln wanted to give father only 10 cents for them. Mr. Lincoln put 15 cents in my hand and told Mrs. Lincoln to take them and put them away. Mrs. Lincoln did not like that. Mr. Lincoln spoke up and told me to tell father it was cheap enough; that he had earned every cent and more, too. Mr. Lincoln was a very kindhearted man.'"

(Katherine Helm, Mary Wife of Lincoln, p. 95.)

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good morning, early birds!

This will be my last one for a while and I hope someone will find it out!

"COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE."
In Lincoln’s dream Columbia or Liberty wields the severed head of a black man. At right General McClellan, carrying a valise with his initials on it. Lincoln, saying "This don't remind me of any joke!!", carries a rolled piece of paper.
   
a) What is written on the piece of paper?
b) Who drew this cartoon?

It’ll be fine as well if you just guess one subquestion.

[RJNorton]

I cannot guess on A, but for B I will say a Currier & Ives image drawn by Louis Maurer.

[Joe Di Cola]

Hi, Eva,

A = The Emancipation Proclamation.

Hope to have you back soon,

Joe

[Eva Elisabeth]

Roger, you are right about Maurer, very good!
(Maurer was a German immigrant -or emigrant- and father of modernist painter and avant-garde artist Alfred Henry Maurer.)

Joe, good guess, but the piece of paper represents a famous letter.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint#2: The letter was Lincoln's reply to Horace Greeley but in reality intented to be passed on to another addressee.

[RJNorton]

Did it say? -

********************************************

Washington, July 18, 1864.

To Whom it may concern:

Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States will be received and considered by the Executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points; and the bearer, or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways.

Abraham Lincoln

[Eva Elisabeth]

It did (the cartoon at least "to whom it may concern"). Brilliant, Roger, that's 3 points altogether for today - 2 for the two correct answers and an additional one for the entire letter!

[RJNorton]

Who said the following about Abraham Lincoln?

"Mr. Lincoln was careful as to his manners, awkward in his speech, but was possessed of a very strong, clear, and vigorous mind. He always attracted the riveted attention of the House when he spoke; his manner of speech as well as thought was original. He had no model. He was a man of strong convictions, and was what Carlyle would have called an earnest man. He abounded in anecdotes; he illustrated everything that he was talking or speaking about by an anecdote; his anecdotes were always exceedingly apt and pointed, and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter."

[Rob Wick]

Alexander Stephens.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Right, Rob! Good job.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good morning! This is a four-in-one question:

Which description
1. a city of southern efficiency and northern charm
2. a city combining the meanness of the North with the barbarism of the South

was given by
a) whom
of
b) which place?

Of course you also may just guess one subquestion (e.g. 2b=Timbuktu).