Extra Credit Questions

[brtmchl]

Twain wrote about it in the short story "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed." Here it is.

Best
Rob

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/phctf.html

Thank you Rob, I enjoyed that

[Eva Elisabeth]

You may know this story:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings.html

[brtmchl]

You may know this story:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings.html

Thank you Eva. I do remember this. Not as I just read it. I know I heard it before, maybe from a teacher or in a book or documentary. But it must have been downplayed or edited, or maybe it was my youth and immaturity. I remembered this as a sad story and how it turned into a happy ending. With most of the emphasis on the reunion. Now that I read this, maybe it's my age or the fact that I have children of my own, that happy ending feeling is gone. Don't get me wrong, It is still uplifting that she finds her son again. But it is not the same now. It is much more powerful and emotional to me, my heart just breaks for this poor woman and all that she had lost, and all of the hardships and wrongs that she faced throughout her lifetime.

[LincolnMan]

Twain wrote about it in the short story "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed." Here it is.

Best
Rob

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/phctf.html

Thank you Rob, I enjoyed that

I second that. Great read!

[RJNorton]

Who was the man who wrote these words to Lucy Hale in 1869?

"I came back from the station [the day you left] wondering if there were anyone else in the world just like you; one of equal charm, equal power of gaining hearts, and equal disdain of the hearts you gain. The last glance of those mysterious blue-gray eyes fell upon a dozen or so of us and everybody but me thought the last glance was for him.

I have known you too long. Since you were a school-girl – yet even in those early days you were as puzzling in your apparent frankness and real reserve as you are today… You know how I love and admire you. I do not understand you, nor hope to, nor even wish to. You would lose to me something of your indefinable fascination if I knew exactly what you meant…"

[Gene C]

John Wilkes Booth, after he escaped..... or

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

[RJNorton]

Excellent guesses, Gene, but it was neither of those two men. The answer is indeed a familiar name, however.

[J. Beckert]

John Hay?

[RJNorton]

You got it, Joe. Good job!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Who of the "Lincoln world" - according to a witness - "played the harp devinely"?

[RJNorton]

Well, Eva, I know Ward Hill Lamon played the banjo. So maybe he played the harp, too?

[Gene C]

Vinnie Ream played the harp, at least their is a photo of her sitting in front of one as if she played it.

[Eva Elisabeth]

A very logical guess, Roger. I've never read Lamon played the harp and wouldn't think he did, because it is a typical "female" instrument (and a very expensive one).
Gene, I don't know whether Vinnie Reams played the harp devinely, she is not the person "my" witness described. But since many people are said to play an instrument devinely, you might be right, too.

Hint #1: The witness enjoyed that person's harp play at Mme Smith's French school in Washington.

Hint#2: It's a member of the Lincoln family.

[Rogerm]

I believe it was Willie Lincoln who played the harp.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Sorry Roger, I just know he played the piano, but he definetely didn't attend Mme Smith's school because she had closed the school in 1860.