Tuesday, March 10, 2009

JEWELER POSTHUMOUSLY INDICTED FOR DEFACING VALUABLE PROPERTY: Here's a nice story about a generations-old rumor that doesn't end with Geraldo Rivera standing in a dusty basement full of empty gin bottles. Apparently Abe Lincoln found the time to take his everyday pocketwatch to a Pennsylvania Avenue jeweler for repairs in April 1861 (cue ominous music). Legend in the family of the jeweler, Jonathan Dillon -- the only pro-Union employee in a Confederate-leaning atelier -- was that when he heard about the April 12 Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, he inscribed a message inside the watch. The Smithsonian didn't hear the rumor until recently. So, today, with great fanfare and a heavy mallet, the Smithsonian cracked open Lincoln's watch and found the following etched inside:
Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government.
Verdict: Crazy great-great-grandpa was neither a liar nor a great speller.

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