Two o'clock
Some gentlemen fresh from a Western tour , during a call at the White House , referred in the course of conversation to a body of water in Nebraska , which bore an Indian name signifying `` weeping water . '' Mr. Lincoln instantly responded : `` As ` laughing water , ' according to Mr. Longfellow , is ` Minnehaha , ' this evidently should be ` Minneboohoo . ' '' Lincoln and the Artist . F. B. Carpenter , the celebrated artist and author of the well-known painting of Lincoln and his Cabinet issuing the Emancipation Proclamation , describes his first meeting with the President , as follows : `` Two o'clock found me one of the throng pressing toward the center of attraction , the blue room . From the threshold of the crimson parlor as I passed , I had a glimpse of the gaunt figure of Mr. Lincoln in the distance , haggard-looking , dressed in black , relieved only by the prescribed white gloves ; standing , it seemed to me , solitary and alone , though surrounded by the crowd , bending low now and then in the process of hand-shaking , and responding half abstractedly to the well-meant greetings of the miscellaneous assemblage . `` Never shall I forget the electric thrill which went through my whole being at this instant . I seemed to see lines radiating from every part of the globe , converging to a focus where that plain , awkward-looking man stood , and to hear in spirit a million prayers , ` as the sound of many waters , ' ascending in his behalf .