MR. SALA AT THE "WHITE HOUSE."

Otago Witness, Issue 653, 4 June 1864, Page 19

MR. SALA AT THE " WHITE HOUSE."

Mr Sala, the special correspondent of the "London Telegraph," thuß graphically describes an interview which he bad with Mr Lincoln at the " White House," Washington :—: —

We talk sometimes of a leg-of-rautton fist, of an adamantine hand. Abraham Lincoln has both. Napoleon the elder, it was said, bad a hand of iron with a velvet glove; only sometime* he forgot to put his gloves on. Uncle Abe has assuredly the iron hand, the cast-steel hand, but no one could say he was gloveless. He wore on this occasion a pair of white kids, which the tallest of Barnura's four giants might have envied. As to big grip— talk tome of packing cotton bales or screwing ocean steamers off the stocks by hydraulic pressure; amuse me with tales of the Big Bear of Arkansas' hardest hugs ; feed me with stories of boa constrictors crushing all the bones of a goat,, in a single convolution ; tell me about Professor Harrison, the strong man who crushes pewter pots between bis fingers, and the Russian Count Orloff, who crumbles up silver salvers just as Mr Cobden said he would crumple up Russia— like a sheet of paper. Narrate to me all these facts and all these fables, hut they are naught in comparison ; they are zephyr breath, fairy footsteps, butterfly persiflage, when named in company with Abraham Lincoln's grip. He doesn't smile when he takes your hand; he does not wring it like a bell, nor wave it like a flag. He merely takes it, and quietly and silently squeezes it into dough. Great results are said to follow the ' putting do*vn his foot' by the President on any public matter. If he were to l put down' his hand on me. I thought, utter and irretrievable collapse must at once follow.

"The general cast of Mr Lincoln's features must be familiar to you through the photographic portraits in the London shop-windows. His actual appearance is even nearer approached- by the admirable cartoon sketches by Mr John Tenniel in 'Punch.' With a curiously intuitive fidelity of appreciation, Mr Tenniei has seized upon that lengthy face, those bushy locks, that shovel beard, that ungainly form, those long muscular, attenuated limbs, those bony and wide-spread extremities. Mr Lincoln is so tall that, looking up in his face, you might, did not respect forbid you, ask 'how cold the weather wa« up there?' He is «o tall that a friend who had an interview with him in his private office made use of the

expression that when he rose there did not seem the slightest likelihood of his getting up ever coming to an end. He seemed to be drawing him3elf out like a telescope. There are two particulars, however, in which you must needs have seen Mr Lincoln to gain an accurate idea of his appearance. He is exceedingly dark — not , so dark as Mr Hannibal Hamlin, the VicePresident, who is of so very subdued a complexion that some spiteful Southerners have declared him to be a mulatto, or at least to have a l dash of the tar-brush,' or negro element, in his blood— but swarthily sallow. Bale ieini basane, and the darkness seems due to half a hundred causes— to long exposure to rough weather; to residence in a hot climate; to natural biliousness ; to anxiety, if not distress of mind. Again, this dark face, strongly marked, livid and crowsfooted, and fringed with coarse and tangled hair, is so uncouth and so rugose that it narrowly escapes I>';incr cither terrible or grotesque. A touch oi the chisel one way or the other, and you would have either a Quasimodo or a Richard 111. But" the possible grotesque is obviated, the imminent terrible is smoothed away, by a peculiar soft, almost feminine, expression of melancholy which, to me at least, seemed to pervade the countenance of this remarkable man. The melancholy look struck me most forcibly when I remembered that I was in the presence of the great joker of jokes— the Sancbo Panza made governor of this Transatlantic Barataria; but there the look was— the regard of a thoughtful, weary, saddened, overworked man ; of one who was desperately striving to do his best, but who woke up every morning to find the wheat that he had sown growing up as tares ; of one who was continually regretting that he did not know more, that he could not know more— that he had begun his work too late, and must lay down his sceptre t«o early.

Mr Lincoln does not stand straight on his feet, but sways about with an odd sidelong motion, as though he were continually pumping something from the ground— say Truth from the bottom of her well— or hauling up some invisible anchor. It gave me the notion of a mariner who had found his sea-legs, and could toe a line well, but who had to admit that there was a rough sea running. First he pulled at one gigantic glove, and then at the other ; first inclined his puissant head to one side, and then to the other ; but he never drew himself up to hia full height. Perhaps he thought of the ceiling, and was reluctant to bring it down on the heads of us Philistines. My interview with him was of very brief duration, and was mainly made up of commonplaces. Of course he said that he was very glad to see me, that he hoped I liked my stay, that I had come at a critical period, and that the country presented a very different aspect to that which it once had. Mr Sumner informed him that I purposed "illustrating" in public what I had seen iv America. " Ah," said the President, "indeed! with the pericil or the pen ? There is a good deal to illustrate just now." I hinted that the pen was my vocation. Neither more nor less took place. I saw that Mr Lincoln had no wish to tell me any stories, or to talk politics; and after another tremendous squeeze of the hand from him, I retired from his presence.

My presentations were not, however, at an end. I was taken to the centre of the apartment, where, standing in a circle of ladies, waa one, short, plump, and wellfavoured, and well attired in a velvet dress of royal purple, profusely trimmed with pearls and lace. This was Mrs Lincoln. I had the honor to shake her hand : but it was a little hand, and my crushed digit 3 were spared another painful ordeal. I think I caa give almost a shorthand writer's report of my conversation with Mrs Lincoln. After the first salutations, she said— "Do you keep your health, sir?" I replied that I was happy and thankfnl to say that I enjoyed tolerable health.

"How long have you been in this country, sir P" she asked.

I said that I had been seven weeks on the American continent.

" How long do you conclude to remain, sir?" she went on.

I 'replied that I hoped to remain about seven months longer. The President's wife was then goodenough to ask " how I liked the country." I replied diplomatically, that it waa very large and very wonderful. Now ensued a deep and, to me, embarrassing silence. I didn't know what was to come next, and I don't think Mrs Lincoln did. At last she spoke again, and once more in the interrogatory form— 8 * " And you keep your health, sir ?" I again answered this kind inquiry. I moved slowly away, but could hear the Presidentess asking the next gentleman who was presented to her whether he "kept his health." "Do you keep your health?" evidently serves Mrs. Lincoln in the stead that " Estil-possibUV used to serve Prince George of Denmark. This was aIL Arc you disappointed %

Do you think I should have heard and seen more ? Why, there was a working man from Manchester, to whom the other day the President gave au audience of half an hour's duration. I might so have talked to him, dined with him it may be, but for circumstances. Within a month of my sending you a letter, that letter comes back to America, and the American public are told through the pre3s that I am abasing the country and its institutions. I came here branded and ticketed, so to apeak, as an enemy of the United States, ibe American Minister in London, wh» was kind enough to furnish me with an introduction to Mr Seward, took care to inform him that I represented a newspaoer which " had not viewed with favor the action of the nation in the present struggle." The "Daily Telegraph"-the fact had better be known at once—has gotten a bad name in America, amon» the few members of the Republican party who read English journals ; but these few are quite sufficient to indoctrinate the masses with a belief that their institutions are being " shamefully misrepresented."

Marriagb Under DimcuMißU. — The beotch contract of marriage has been tho subject of ranch banter and pleasantry on the part of'oar English neighbors, but it is neverthe!e«s surrounded by safeguards as secure as those which p-rtam to the religious English ceremony. A check at least was put by Lord Brougham upon the "hammer and tongs" style of marriage at Gretna Green, and the poor blacksmith* occupation there may now be said, like Othello's, to be gone By the Act referred to, one of the " dying swains ' at least must have been resident twentyene dsys in Scotland before a valid marriage oau be contracted. The interval is theroeticaHy sap. posed to afford the indig.ant " patient '* if so inclined, an opportunity of following hit fugitive child, and preventing a marriage in haste tfeat might be repented at leisure. While tne Scotch mamajce is purely a consential contract, not aecpssanly requiring for it? validity the proclamation of banns or the services of a clergyman, the absence of these at one time Bubpcted the parties celebrating such a marriage to certain pecuniary penalties; but Lori Brougham's Act has nowlegalised marriages such a? those referred to, on registration under a warrant by the Sheriff, and this warrant is grunted upon the petition of the married parties, after the civil contrast hat been, like any other civil contract, completed by thoexchange of consent, before witnesses, and evidence lias baen first led to the cootntf, sad. second, that one of the parties had previon«ly resided twenty-one days in Scotland . This condition of the law of marriage was yesterday taken advantage of by a long betrothed couple, who had intended being joined together in the "hoi* bonds," but who, at the Inst hour, haye found themselves embarrassad by the fact that ths bride, groom bad not resided the legal period in this country. He had, ignorant of the requirement* of the Scotch law, left England last week, and,, arrived in Glasgow, anticipating no difficulty in the way of being at once married. The want «C domicile qualification appeared, however, aa insurmountable barriar, aud, business preventing a lengthened stay in the country, he seemed likely to return to England alone, a sadder and a wiser man. a lawyer was applied to, as being the most likely person to solve the dilemma arising from the Jaw ; and though, as Shakspeare eaya, " nnrriaise is a matter of more worth than to- bedealt with by aUorne\ ship. I ' the perplexed bridegroom fuan i that the assistance of a shrewd lawyer was every thißg on the occasion— at once directing him how to proceed ia getting married as fast as if the ceremony had been performed after moaths of preparation, and ia the presence of the wool* body of the clergy. The friends of the bride &ad bridegroom having assembled lv the dining-htD of the Bedford Hotel yesterday at noon, the bride, accompanied by Mr W. M Wilson, writer, waa introduced, and the affianced parties hnviag been arranged, the exchange of matrimonial Cuosenfc was duly accredited, "confirmed by mutual joinder of their hands, attested by ,the holy close of hps. and strengthened by tho interchange of nng3 " The narrative of this ceremony w&s then serve 1 before witnesses »ud the parties and witnesses then proceeded to the County Buildings, to wait upon Kir -\rohd. Aiisbn, Tftft Sheriff at the time was deeply engaged in ths de- ! cision of a case of great importance, but on Mr | Wilson explaining the peculiar circumstance* of the occasion, aud on seeing the bride, who Rifted with more than an ordinary dower' of beauty, looked all the mere engaging from tkft natural timidity arising from her unusual position, he gallantly consented. The previous contract of marriage haviug been formally attested by two witnesses, Sir Archibsld, by sign manual, certified the fact, and that the Registrar of th« Blythswood district was entitled to register then, as married persons accordingly. The married couple, with tbeir friends, thereupon proceeded to the office oi Mr Strutbers, and having been duly roistered, afterwards sat down to & hand* some dejeuner in the Bedford Hotel; at the conclusion of which the bappy pair, amid the eoa. gratulation of their friends, started for JLondoa. — " Glasgow Daily Mail."

General Totleben has come out with the first instalment of his truly monumental undertaker, destined to perpetuate the memory of " SebastopSi defended," the main Military event of thtbtU' century. As yet he has not got himself into position, but clears the ground with a sweeping^preamble ranging oy«r the multidunous tada that led to that grand and final cataclysm. If thjg authoritative and powerful work of the Muscovite artillery officer does not extinguish all minor performances, including the volumes of Kingtake, It must ever, assuredly, rank foremost emonir any records of the Crimean war. What would we not give for the " Defence of Syracuse " irom the pea of Archimedes.—" Paris Correspondent of ttte Globe.

A short time since, ts a well known Eagfek master in a grammar-school was censuring Mi pupil for th« dulcest «f his comprehension ao4 consenting 1 to instruct him in & sum of praiace. sasd — ' « *>t the price oft penny loaf always* penny ?" when the boy innocently replied • "Wo sir; the i bakers Mil them twofer three halfpence when they are stale.", -a-jnan*

The lad? 'looks oldest who tries to con«rilwr age. If ih« refliaw to let her age t» udm b» oague, it wUlbc «U the mowVSrSsi 1^