PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S WIDOW.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3526, 26 October 1882, Page 4

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S WIDOW.

In a notice of the late Mrs Abraham Lincoln, the New York Herald says : —" Ever B incß the death of her husband she has B imply been a physical and mental wreck, praying in her calmer moments for death, which has more charms for her than the misery of existence. Her vagaries were of such a nature that her friends in 1875 were compelled to .-"onfine her in a lunatic asylum. It was a private institution, and she met with unceasing kindness. After several months' treatment she was pronounced by a jury sufficiently sane to manage her own affairs, and she was accordingly released. She had long suffered from an affection of the eyes, and it was feared that she would become totally blind. Mrs Lincoln was subsequently from time to time subject to strange hallucinations. When she returned te Springfield after her last visit to Europe she shut herself up in her room, mourning the extravagance of the times and chiding those about her who displayed gifts of jewellery and the like. She spent her time in overhauling her many trunks, complained that she was very sick, and ate full meals of substantial food three times a day. She reconciled her ill-health and hearty eating by asserting to the few friends whom she admitted that her malady was a very peculiar one, compelling her to consume large quantities of food. She would rise from a repast of roast beef, coffee, &c, and very dejectedly inform her attendant or visitor that in all probability she should not see the light of another day ; and often in literal verification of her prophecy she would close the window shutters, increase the opaqueness of the curtains by pinning up shawls or quilts and light a plain tallow candle. If asked to specify where she felt bad in body she would reply sometimes, " I'm on fire, burning up : just feel of me and see how hot lam !" At the same time her temperature would appear perfectly normal for a lady above 60 years of age. When she was informed that her son Robert had been made Secretary of War she brooded upon his office-holding as a new family risk. She often repeated " Secretary of War ! Secretary of War! Then he'll be shot sure! That's always the ■way in war." And when told of the shooting of President Garfild she showed no surprise, but calmly remarked, it is said, " I told you so ; good men have to be shot sometimes. Don't you know how the Jews killed Christ?"