GREAT MEN'S BODIES
port of his achievements had ever reached the ears of Mr. Lincoln or his friends. But, at any rate, they eagerly made a match with him as a champion not unworthy of their own. Thompson's power and skill, however, were as well known to certain persons in the army as Mr. Lincoln's were to others. Each side was absolutely certain of the victory, and bet according to their faith. Lincoln's company and their sympathizers put up all their portable property; and some, perhaps, not their own, including 'knives, blankets, and tomahawks'; and all the most necessary articles of a soldier's outfit. When the men first met, Lincoln was convinced that he could throw Thompson. But after tussling with him a brief space, in presence of the anxious assemblage, he turned to his friends and said: 'This is the most powerful man I ever had hold of. He will throw me, and you will lose your all, unless I act on the defensive.' He managed, nevertheless, 'to hold him off some time'; but at last Thompson got the crotch-hoist on him; and although Lincoln attempted, with all his wonderful strength, to break the hold by 'sliding away,' a few moments decided his fate. He was fairly thrown. As it required two out of three falls to decide the bets, Thompson and he immediately came together again; and with nearly the same result. Lincoln fell under; but the other man fell too. There was just enough of uncertainty about it to furnish a pretext for a hot dispute, and a hot fight. Accordingly Lincoln's men instantly began the proper preliminaries to a fracas. 'We were taken by surprise,' says Mr. Greene, and 'being unwilling to give up our property, and lose our bets, got up an excuse as to the result. We declared the fall a kind of dog-fall; did so apparently angrily.' The fight was coming on apace, and bade fair to be a big
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