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STIRRED EVEN THE REPORTERS.
Lincoln's influence upon his audiences was wonderful. He could sway
people at will, and nothing better illustrates his extraordinary power
than he manner in which he stirred up the newspaper reporters by his
Bloomingon speech.
Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, told the story:
"It was my journalistic duty, though a delegate to the convention, to
make a 'longhand' report of the speeches delivered for the Tribune. I
did make a few paragraphs of what Lincoln said in the first eight or ten
minutes, but I became so absorbed in his magnetic oratory that I forgot
myself and ceased to take notes, and joined with the convention in
cheering and stamping and clapping to the end of his speech.
"I well remember that after Lincoln sat down and calm had succeeded the
tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and then thought of
my report for the paper. There was nothing written but an abbreviated
introduction.
"It was some sort of satisfaction to find that I had not been 'scooped,'
as all the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the
excitement caused by the wonderful oration and had made no report or
sketch of the speech."
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Stories and Anecdotes About the Life of Abraham Lincoln
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