Daily Story
Mary Todd: The Wife
“Well,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I feel about that a good deal as a man whom I call Jones,” whom I once knew, did about his wife. He was one of your meek men, and had the reputation of being badly henpecked. At last, one day his wife was seen switching him out of the house. A day or two afterward a friend met him in the street, and said: ‘Jones’, I have always stood up for you, as you know; but I am not going to do it any longer. Any man who will stand quietly and take a switching from his wife, deserves to be horsewhipped. ‘Jones’ looked up with a wink, patting his friend on the back. ‘Now don’t,’ said he: ‘why, it didn’t hurt me any; and you’ve no idea what a power of good it did Sarah Ann?'”
Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, p. 273-74.