William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik

1 “During my first attendance at court in Menard County,” relates a lawyer who travelled the circuit with Lincoln, “some thirty young men had been indicted for playing cards, and Lincoln and I were employed in their defense. The prosecuting attorney, in framing the indictments, alternately charged the defendants with playing a certain game of cards called ‘sevenup,’ and in the next bill charged them with playing cards at a certain game called ‘old sledge.’ Four defendants were indicted in each bill. The prosecutor, being entirely unacquainted with games at cards, did not know the fact that both ‘seven-up’ and ‘old sledge’ were one and the same. Upon the trial on the bills describing the game as ‘seven-up’ our witnesses would swear that the game played was ‘old sledge,’ and vice versa on the bills alleging the latter. The result was an acquittal in every case under the instructions of the Court. The prosecutor never found out the dodge until the trials were over, and immense fun and rejoicing were indulged in at the result.”