PHILADELPHIA, JUNK 17, 1804,
PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S VISIT.
rnilE Great Central Fair was honored yester
day by a visit from the President of the
United States. The President left Washington,
on a special train, at 7 A. M., reached the
Ilroad-strect depot about 12, and was escorted
to the Continental amidst the warm greetings
of the throngs of people who crowded all the
streets. Having rested for a few hours he
was driven out to the Fair Buildings, where
he arrived shortly before 5 o’clock. lie was
received and welcomed, at the eastern end of
Union avenue, by Mr. John Welsh, on behalf
of the Executive Committee, and was then
escorted through the various Departments of
the Fair.
Wherever the President appeared, his recep
tion by the people was of the heartiest charac
ter. There was great waving of hats, hand
kerchiefs, and flags, and genuine outbursts of
cheering prolonged almost without end, spon
taneous and universal. Such a crowd, with
such surroundings, and a reception marked by
such unmistakable signs of real esteem and
affection, must have been quite bewildering to
our simple-hearted and patriotic Chief Magis
trate.
This visit of the President is the event of
the Fair, and is at once a signal compliment to
the Sanitary Commission and the Fair, and an
evidence of the deep interest of the President
in whatever concerns the welfare of the sol
diers of the Union.
The President was accompanied by Mrs.
Lincoln and their son.
Although the price of admission was twice
the usual amount, the concourse of people at
the Fair was immense.
LITHOGRAPH OF THE FAIK.
In a short time every vestige of the Fair
building will be removed, and the only worthy
representation of it will be the beautiful
lithograph now being daily printed in the
building itself. This, of course, gives it an ad
ditional value, as it enables the purchaser to
preserve a memento of a building no longer in
existence, by means of a beautiful picture
printed and published in his own presence,
and bought during the continuance of a Fair,
the like of which we shall probably never see
again. As a work of art it is very fine, quite
worth the amount for which it is sold, without
reference to the peculiar value which the cir
cumstances we have mentioned give to it.
Some people oo to church to show their
new clothes, others to conceal their bad habits.
Our Daily Fa be
THE HOSPITAL DIRECTORY—“ ONLY TWO
LINES.”
Complaint is sometimes made of the large
outlay which is required to maintain the Hos
pital Directory or Register, by which the name
and condition of every inmate of a military
hospital throughout the country is ascertained.
To keep constantly an accurate list, is, of
course, a work involving an immense amount
of labor, and requires the employment of
many clerks. It is said that the information
given in answer to the inquiries of friends is
very meagre, not usually exceeding two lines.
But if those who heedlessly think that such
information is of little value, could see the
crowds of anxious relatives who throng the
office in this city immediately after a great
battle, earnestly seeking to know the fate of
those who are dear to them, they would form
a very different opinion. When inquiry is
made as to the position of any soldier sup
posed to be wounded, if his name is not found
in the lists of the hospitals here, application
is made to the office at Washington, and the
answer is sent at once in something like this
form: “A. 8., private in company ‘A,’llB
Regiment P. V., admitted to Seminary Hospi
tal in Georgetown, June (sth. Wounded severe
ly but not dangerously, [or as the case may
be.] Dr. , Surgeon, Rev. ,
Chaplain.”
Those who talk of the useless expense of the
Directory should witness the sense of relief
which such information conveys, and the grate
ful appreciation of it by loving friends, before
they undertake to measure its value by its
length. They would discover that in the world
of affection, the deepest emotions, hope, fear,
despair, every shade of anxiety, are affected
quite as much by “ two lines,” such as we have
given, as by twenty millions which could only
tell the same tale in a different way.
The other day, in a desperate assault upon
one of the enemy’s positions in Virginia, a
soldier, who had often braved the perils of
battle, received while passing on, “ first among
the foremost,” his death-wound. He was soon
found by one of our agents, and such succor
as his case seemed to require was afforded
him. But the hero felt that his last hour was
approaching; and while expressing himself
most grateful for the kindness which he re
ceived, and which he stated had been bestowed
upon him by the same hands on previous occa
sions, he calmly prepared to die. He gave to
the agents his last messages for the different
members of his family, and he then said, “ I
have a little money, not much; I wish it were
more, for the purpose to which I devote it;”
“but,” he exclaimed, as his life-blood was
fast ebbing from him, “I give all I have to
my best and truest friend—the best and truest
friend of the soldier—the Sanitary Commis
sion.” This will is “only two lines” long,
but could it have given any richer and nobler
inheritance to us, who to-day are striving to
succor such as he, had it contained many
folios, and bequeathed millions of money.
CHANGE.
We do not refer, in this connection, to the
mutations of human life, nor do we desire to
philosophise on the ravages of time. We ad
vert merely to the conversion of a large
amount of money into its smaller constituents.
This is a very simple operation and in every
day life takes place rather faster than is agree
able. An eccentric English nobleman once called
one of his race horses “Change for a .Sov
reign,” on the ground that it went faster than
anything that he knew of. Probably,if he had
seen a greenback at the Fair, his experience
of life would have been improved.
The conversion is easy enou£, but more
persons have probably became aware, within
the last week, of the number of cents, five cents,
ten cents, twenty-five cents, contained in from
one to five dollars, than were ever cognizant
of the fact before. The presiding deities of a
number of the departments have been more
accustomed to buying than selling. They have
confined measures to the very simplest pro
cesses of mental arithmetic. They have never
troubled themselves with ciphering out the
cost of their yards of ribbon and lace,but when
they have had doubts, they have brought bill
and money home together, and gone at the
problem with pen, ink and paper. Suddenly
they have been converted into sellers, with an
instantaneous demand for the price of so many
yards, at so much a yard, to be taken out of
such a sum of money, with very scant change
to do it with. This is not an easy task, sur
rounded with all the embarrassments of a Fair
to a naturally diffident person, but it has been
done with a success quite wonderful under the
circumstances; sufficiently so at least, to show
how very well, women with a little training,
would do many of the things entrusted at
present in our country entirely to men. In
France, women are book-keepers and cash
keepers, and are found to be quite as accurate
and much less tempted to dishonesty, than the
rather fast young man whom they replace.
If our Fair should be the means of opening a
new career for women, it would not be the
least of the many good works it is performing.
Steele says : “ It is the duty of every man
who would be true to himself to obtain, if
possible, a disposition to be pleased.” We
commend this sentiment to those who conceive
discontent to be a mark of superior intelli
gence.
Some writers and sfeakers, like some
spiders, seem to have the power of spinning
out of themselves, everything they have in
them. The product is often thin and weak.