Encounters
''ostentatious'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜encounter｜ENC｜20260904120411-37-•
Another postal customer, who irritated Lincoln repeatedly, became the butt of a retaliatory prank. Johnson Elmore, ignorant but ostentatiously proud, pestered Lincoln several times a day with the question, “Anything for me?” when obviously there would not be. Exasperated but amused, Lincoln drafted a letter to Elmore from a fictitious black woman in Kentucky. The missive discussed possums, dances, corn shuckings, and ended with “Johns—Come & see me and old master won’t Kick you out of the Kitchen any more.” When Elmore received the fake letter, he could not, in fact, read it (Lincoln knew he was illiterate), but Elmore pretended to do so. Elmore then took the letter to literate friends who told him what it said, prompting him to think they were fooling him. Finally, he brought the document back to postmaster Lincoln. Though it was difficult for him to keep a straight face, Lincoln read the entire letter aloud. Never again was he bothered by the insistent request, “Anything here for me?”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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