Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1900 — LINCOLN'S EASY-GOING WAY. [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN'S EASY-GOING WAY.

Won Id Cennent to Be Swindled Bather thaw Content a Fee. The fee which Lincoln received in the McCormick case. inclading the retainer, which was s3oo—the largest retainer ever received by lancoln—amounted to nearly $2,000. Except the sum paid him by the Illinois Central Railroad. it was probably the largest fee he ever received. The two sums came to him about the same time, and undoubtedly helped to tide over the rather unfruitful period, from a financial standpoint, which followed —the period of his contest with Douglas for the Senate. Lincoln never made money. From to 18»X» his income averaged from $2,000 to $3,000 a year. In the forties it was considerably less. The fee-book of Lincoln A Herndon for 1847 shows total earnings of only SUMO. The largest fee entered was one of There are several of SSO. a number of s3l. more of $lO. still more of $3. and a few of $3. If a fee was not paid Ijmvdn did not believe in suing for it. Mr. Herndon says that be would consent to be swindled before he would contest a fee. The <i«e of the Illinois Central IZailroad. however, was an exception to this rule. He was careless in accounts, never entering anything on the book. When a fee was paid to him he simply divided the money into two parts, one of which he put into bin pocket, and the other into an envelope which lie labeled “Herndon's half.”