IN THE NEWS.

The famous cabinet meeting at which President Lincoln read Artemus Ward’s “Outrage in Utiky,” to the great amusement of everyone but Stanton.

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SOME DISCUSSION HAVING passed among our correspondents as to who might serve as Secretary of War in a Harding administration, it may interest readers to know that Harding is reported to favor Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, who has already served in that position under the late Presidents Lincoln and (Andrew) Johnson. Our informant says that Harding is impressed with Mr. Stanton’s gravity of demeanor, citing the case of the Cabinet meeting of July 22, 1862, at which Lincoln read Artemus Ward’s “Outrage in Utiky,” producing riotous laughter among all present except Stanton. President Lincoln then favored the cabinet with the first reading of his Emancipation Proclamation, but Stanton did not laugh at that, either. Mr. Harding believes that a man who can hear “Outrage in Utiky” without so much as a smile must be either very serious-minded or very mean-spirited, and both of those qualities are desirable in a Secretary of War.