In 1958, when I was in sixth grade my parents took our family to Washington, DC. I remember the trip well. My parent could not afford to take us on many trips. We saw all the sites including Ford Theater and the house where Lincoln died. In those days there were not the sophisticated exhibits we have today. In some ways Ford Theater probably looked about the same as it did in 1865. I remember see artifacts of the assassination and thought it included contents of his pockets but I did not remember correctly. Out of curiosity, I Googled “contents of Lincoln’s pockets” and that they are now in the Library of Congress and found the following posting by Lisa Waller Rogers. Full posting at http://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/what-they-found-in-lincolns-pockets/
“On the morning of April 15, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln died, someone emptied his pockets. These contents were put in a box which was then wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. The box was then handed to Abraham’s oldest son Robert Lincoln who was at his father’s deathbed. Robert Lincoln then passed the box on to his daughter, Mary Lincoln Isham, who donated the box to the Library of Congress in 1937. Labeled “Do Not Open,” the mystery box was tucked away in a vault in the Librarian’s office and forgotten for almost four decades.
Finally, in 1975, then Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin decided to open the box. With staff looking on in eager anticipation, Boorstin untied the string, tore off the brown paper, and opened the box.
Lincoln assassination artifacts: contents of Lincoln's
pockets the night he was murdered (left) and copy of a newspaper announcing the
assassination (right)
The night Lincoln was murdered at Ford’s Theatre, he was
carrying:
* a pair of small
spectacles folded into a silver case,
* a pair of
reading glasses,
* a small velvet
eyeglass cleaner (I can’t find above),
* an ivory
pocketknife trimmed with silver,
* a large linen
handkerchief with “A. Lincoln” stitched in red,
* a tiny pencil (
I can’t find above),
* a brass sleeve
button,
* a fancy watch
fob, and
* a brown leather
wallet lined with purple silk. It contained a Confederate five-dollar bill
bearing the likeness of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and eight
newspaper clippings Lincoln had cut out
and saved. All of the clippings praised him. (2)
These artifacts were put on display at the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C, in 1976, the year of our nation’s 200th birthday
and are still on view today. Though only everyday items, the contents of
Lincoln’s pockets are among the items visitors to the Library most often ask to
see.
Here’s a close-up of Lincoln’s reading glasses, broken at
the left hinge and mended with a bit of string. Frugal Abe wore rickety reading
glasses while, in contrast, extravagant Mary had a collection of 300 pairs of
gloves.”
By this time you are probably asking what does this have
to do with divorce or mediation. It is
Lincoln’s glasses mended with string. I
can relate to the problem. I am
constantly losing the screw to the hinge of my glasses and fixing it with a kit
they sell at drug store checkout counters.
Before that I would stick in a paper clip. I never thought to use string. The string tells us a lot about Lincoln. Frugal perhaps but also not caught up in
appearances or caring a great deal about minor inconveniences. Can you imagine any recent President fixing
and wearing glasses held together with string.
My point is that people getting a divorce should put things in
perspective. They need to mend their
marriage or divorce with string and not worry about it.
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CDM (275) 4/14/13 (Date Lincoln was shot)
