Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-27
A Remarkable Peu.picture of Abra.
hmm Lincoln.

| the law partner OF Abraham Lincoln, re-
Gently gave lecture on the life and char
acter of his illustrious companion, prefac-
ing it with the following remarkable per-
sonal descripti n: =
"Abrahaiii Lincoln was about six feet
four inches high, and when he left the
city, was fifty-one years old, having good
health and no gray hairs, or but few in
his head. He was thin, wiry, sinewy,
raw-boned, thin through the breast to the
back, and narrow across the shoulders;
standing, he leaned forward-was what
NAV be called stoop-shouldered, inclining
to the consumptive by build. His usual
weight was about one hundred and sixty
pounds. His organization-rather his
structure and flnction-worked slowly.
His blood had to run long distance from
his heart to the extremities of his frame,
and his nerve force had to travel through
dry ground long distance before his
muscles were obedient to his will. His
structure was loose and leathery; his body
was shrunk and shriveled, having dark
skin, dark hair, looking woe-struck. The
whole man, body and mind, worked slow
ly, ereal<ingly, as if it needed oiling.
Physically, he was very powerful man,
lifting with case four hundred or six hun
dred pounds. -tr-Fafsa. u
"His mind was like his body-it worked
slowly but strvuEi y. ~ fIUIr- Arv- -Tr-i1-~1
he moved cautiously, but firmly, his long
arms. and hands on them like giants
hands. swung down by his side. He walk
ed with even, tread the inner side Of his
feet were parallel. He put the whole foot
fat down on the ground at once, not land
ing on the heel; he likewise likewise lifted
his foot all at once, not raising from the
toes, and hence had no spring to his walk.
He had the economy of fall and lift offoot
though he had no spring or apparent ease
of motion in his tread. He walked Iindu-
latory, up and down, catching and pocket
ing tire, weariness, and pain all up and
down his person, preventing them from
locating. The first opinion Of stranger
or a man who did not observe closely, was
that his walk implied shrewdness, cunning
tricky man, but his walk was the walk
of caution and irmness. In sitting down
in common chair he was no taller than
ordinary men. His legs and arms were
abnormally, unnaturally long, and in un-
due proportion TO the rest of his body. 1t
was only when he stood up that he loomed
6bove other men.
+" Mr. Lincoin's head was long and tall
from the base of the brain and from the
eyebrows-the perceptive faculties. His
head ran backward, his forehead rising as
it ran back at low angle, like Clays, and
unlike Webster's, almost perpendicular.
The size Of the hat, measured on the hat
ters block, was II his head being from
ear TO ear 6I inches, aud from the front to
the back Of the brain 8 inches Thus
"a Ill ha
size. His forehead was narrow but high;
his hair was dark almost black, and lay
floating where his fingers or the wind left
it, piled up at random. His cheek-bones
were high, sharp and prominent. His
eyebrows heavy and iutting out; his jaws
were long, up-curved and heavy; his nose
was large, long and blunt, having the tip
glowing in red, and little awry toward
the right eve; his chin was long, sharp
and up-curved; his eyebrows cropped out
like huge rock on the brow of a hill
his face was long, sallow, cadaverous,
shrunk, shriveled, wrinkled and dry, hav-
ing, here and there hair on the surface
his checks were leathery; his ears were
large and ran out almost at right angels
from his head, caused by heavy hats, and
partly by nature his lower lip was thick,
hanging and undercurved, while his chin
reached for the lip upcurved; his neck
was neat and trim, his head being we'll
balanced on it; there was the lower mole
on the right cheek and Adams apple on
the throat. r
Thus stood, walked, acted and looked
Abraham Lincoln. He was not pretty
man by any means, nor was he an ugly
one He was a homely man, careless of
his looks, plain looking and plain acting.
He had no pomp, display or dignity, 30
called. He appeared simple in his car
riage and bearing. He was a sad looking
man; his melancholy dripped from him
as he walked His apparent gloom i'm
pressed his friends and created a sympathy
for hinl-one means Of his great success.
He was gloomy, distracted and joyous.
rather humorous by turns. / do not think
he knew what real JOY was for more than
twenty-three years. Mr. Lincoln some
times walked our streets cheerily, good
humoredly, perhaps joyously, and then it
was on meeting a friend he cried, How
d'y,n clasping one of his friends hands in
both Of his, giving a good, hearty soul
welcome. s... ,-..y-y, .,--
asorictimes be might beseen vending
his way to his office, to the courtroom or
railroad depot, with his baggage, looking
like rail in broadcloth. OF winters
morning he might be seen stalking and
sitting it to the market-house, basket on
arm, his old gray shawl wrapped around
his neck, his little Willie or Tad running
along at his heels asking thousand little
quick questions, which his father heard
not-not then even knowing that little
Willie or Tad was there, so abstracted was
the father. When he thus met friend,
he said that something put him in mind of
a story which he heard in Indiana, and
tell it he would, and there was no altern-
ative but to listen. ,-,..
Thus, say stood and walked and look
ed this, singular man. p He was old; but
when that grey eye and face and every
feature were lit up by the inward soul in
fires OF emotion, then it was that all these
apparently ugly features sprang into or
gans of beauty, or sunk themselves in
sea of inspiration that sometimes flooded
the face"