If Cobden penned those lines with the El Paso dateline on one of the Count's tables that evening, little did he realize that his quiet host knew more about European wars than he, or that the polite old innkeeper was a citizen of the United States by force of circumstances, having a difficult time at sixty-nine in making a living in that western region.

Chlopicki's business did make him a reasonable living through the Civil War days when there was much rail traffic and travel. In 1863, his friend George H. Campbell, the agent who had worked for five years in the nearby depot and freight office, completed his new and big Campbell House at the rail crossing just one block to the north. When the depot later moved there too, with it went most of the Count's business.

Old, tired and alone, he continued in his bad location. A few local friends called, but his business was very bad. He refused to move to Front Street in the Wathen and Gibson town, where four blocks were lined with new businesses which included three hotels and several restaurants. Poverty soon closed in and there were no more invitations given to his so-called dinners of state, yet no hint of distress came from the proud aristocrat.

In those last days when business was slack, he had much time for visiting with his callers, but he never mentioned European revolutions, wars or imprisonment. He did often talk about the famous visitors he had entertained right there in his little restaurant in the late 1850's. There had been William Henry Osborn, the president of the Illinois Central, and an ex-army captain named George Brinton McClellan⁹ who had been its chief engineer. He had been at the Count's place on several occasions and his last visit was on March 23, 1859 with Cobden.

There was that warm afternoon of Saturday, August 28, 1858, when Abraham Lincoln stepped off the 3:40 passenger train from the north, the day following his famous debate with the better known Senator Stephen A. Douglas. At that Freeport contest Lincoln had asked Douglas the four questions which probably cost him the senatorship, but possibly made him president two years later. Horace White of the Chicago Press and Tribune,¹⁰ today the Chicago Tribune, was along, and they all lunched at the Count's restaurant. Lincoln made a little talk to the "boys" who gathered at the little depot and shook many hands. He then boarded the 5:30 passenger to Peoria, from where he went on to Tremont for a speaking engagement on Monday. El Paso, like Woodford County, was then partial to the Democratic Party; Lincoln failed to carry our county in either 1860 or 1864, and Douglas men were in power in the 1858 senatorial campaign.

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