Imagine, if you will, Abraham Lincoln’s life as a measuring stick to dip into the inkwell of the past to determine its depth. His lot in life, of course, was to lead a carved up country in the course of an uncivil war, “the late unpleasantness” as it was called then and when it had finally concluded four long years later. As schoolchildren we lose a little of our innocence when we learn of his homespun homilies, his life and death, then his legacy and legend. As adults while we struggle to survive and succeed, we lob Lincoln pennies into miniature manmade lakes at local malls for lots of luck.

Hopefully, the seven short, somewhat spooky, stories, hitherto hidden in plain sight, that all happened after the fact, in the aftermath of the slaying of the sixteenth U.S. President [who maybe perhaps not surprisingly loved licorice and limericks] shall help us get a better handle on what it was like to live in his lifetime and later.

The Other Man In The Box

On August 7, 1891 the royal Prussian physician made an official visit to the asylum in Hildesheim, Germany. His purpose was to evaluate a wealthy American who was an inmate. The patient was a former U.S. Army Colonel and ex-Consul to Germany who once was a member of Washington D.C. high society. He had exclusive quarters in the 800-year-old complex, where he had been confined by the German courts.