"""Ohio journalist David R. Locke, himself one of Mr. Lincoln's favorite humorists, recalled: "His flow of humor was a sparkling spring gushing out of a rock - the flashing water had a somber background which made it all the brighter.
“Whenever merriment came over that wonderful countenance it was like a gleam of sunshine upon a cloud - it illuminated, but did not dissipate."
An Indiana Congressman, George W. Julian, recalled that President Lincoln "entered into the enjoyment of his stories with all his heart, and completely lived over again the delight he had experienced in telling them on previous occasions.
When he told a particularly good story, and the time came to laugh, he would sometimes throw his left foot across his right knee, and clenching his foot with both hands and bending forward, his whole frame seemed to be convulsed with the effort to give expression to his sensations...
“I believe his anecdotes were his great solace and safeguard in seasons of severe mental depression."
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