Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1898 — LINCOLN AS A DOORKEEPER. [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN AS A DOORKEEPER.

How Abe Pinned on tbe Badge and Did Duty for a Time. James Elter is one of the oldest doorkeepers in the War Department at Washington, and has been stationed at the Seventeenth street entrance of the Winder Building for many years, occupying a chair in which President Lincoln sat while he acted as doorkeeper in place of Mr. Elter. Speaking of the incident, Mr. Elter said: “One day a tall, lank gentleman came to the entrance and asked me If the Secretary was in, and I told him no, that it was too early for him. He then asked at what hour he would be likely to find him, and I told him. With a pleasant ‘Thank you’ (something we don’t always get) he walked away. At the hour I told him the Secretary would be in he again walked up the steps and asked me if I would not go to the Secretary’s room and tell him that be wished to see him. I told him I could not leave my post. “ ‘Oh, that is all right. lam Mr. Lincoln, and I will keep door while you deliver my message. Tell him that I want to see him here in the lower hall.’ With this the President unpinned my badge, stuck it in his own coat, and took my chair. I hastened to the Secretary’s room, and soon the two were together near me, but in quiet and earnest talk. I never did know why Mr. Lincoln did not want to go to the Secretary’s room, but I know that I prize this chair. I call U Abe Lincoln. No doubt that was the only time a President ever acted as a doorkeeper.”