Seven Score and 10 Years Ago...
Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's historic visit to the Government Printing Office, in Washington, D.C. According to an 1863 account in the "Daily National Republican," GPO employees "tastefully decorated" the agency with American flags for the President's visit, and greeted the Great Emancipator with a rousing chorus of "Rally Round the Flag," sung by the Printing House Opera Troupe (which, sadly, no longer brightens the halls of GPO with song).
The visit apparently did not go without its humorous moments. When presented with flowers and a gracious blessing from a female bindery employee, Lincoln remarked (presumably in a very loud voice), "The machinery around you made so much noise that I could not hear your little speech. I have no doubt, however, but that it was beautiful." (Darn that loud machinery.)
Lincoln was called on to make a speech, but he protested that he was unprepared, so he merely wished health and happiness to all and then bid them adieu, to "loud and prolonged cheering." One can forgive him for passing on this speaking opportunity; just three and a half weeks later he would give the speech of his life in Gettysburg.