The weekly union record., 1866-02-03
Personal Appearance of Lincoln.

| The following description of the
personal appearance of Abraham Lin
coin, the martyr President, is taken
from lecture on his life and character
by the Hon. VIM. H. Herndon, for
over twenty years his law partner.
One feels, while reading it, that it is
true to the life, and the image of the
good man stands out in such bold relief
as to seem like present reality:
"Before I enter into an analysis
of the character of MIR. Lincoln, it
becomes necessary first to hold up
before your mnds's eye the subject
Of such analysis and anatomy.
abraham Lincoln was born in
Hardin county, Kentucky, February
18th, 1909. He moved to Indiana in
in 1916; came to Illinois in March,
1880; in old Sangamon county in
1881, settling in New Salem-coming
as rude, uncultivated boy, without
polish or education, and having no
friends. He was about six feet four
inches high, and when he left 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 may be
called stoop-shouldered, inclining to the
consumptive by build. His usual weight
was 100 pounds. His organization
rather his structure and functions
worked slowly. His blood had to run
a long distance from his heart to the
extremities of his frame, and his nerve
force had to travel through dry ground
a long distance before his muscles were
obedient to his will. His structure was
loose and leathery his body was
shrunk and shriyelled, having dark skin,
dark hair-looking woe-struck. The
whole man, body and mind, worked
slowly, creakingly, as if it needed oiling.
Physically, he was very powerful man,
lifting with ease 400 to 600 pounds.
His mind was like his body, and worked
slowly but strongly. When he walked,
he'moved cautiously but firmly, his long
arms, and hands on them hanging like
giants hands, swung down by his side.
He walked with even tread, the inner
sides of his feet being parallel. He put
the whole foot fiat down on the ground
at once, not landing on the heel; he
likewise lifted his foot all at once, not
rising from the toe, and hence he had no
spring to his walk. He had the economy
of fall and lift of foot, though he had no
spring or apparent ease of motion to his
tread. He walked undulatory, up and
down, catching and pocketing tire,
WEAKNESS 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 was
the walk Of caution and frmness. In
sitting down on common chair, he was
no taller than ordinary men. His legs
and arms were, abnormally, unnaturally
long, and in undue proportions to the
balance of his body. 1t was only when
he stood up that he loomed above other
men. Mr.. Lincoln's head was long and
tall from the base of the brain and from
the eyebrows-the perspective faculties.
His head ran backwards, his forehead
rising as it ran back at low angle, like
Clay's, and unlike Webster's, almost
perpendicular. The size of his has,
measured at the hatter's block, was =,
his head being, from ear to ear, 81
inches, and from the front to the back
Of the brain, s inches. Thus measured,
it was not below the medium size. His
forehead was narrow, but high; his
hair was dark, almost black, and lay
floating where his fingers or the winds
left it, piled up at random. His cheek
bones were high, sharp and prominent /;
his jaws were long, upcurved and heavy;
his nose was large, long and blunt,
having the tip glowing in red and a
little awry towards the right eye; his
lchin was long, sharp and upcurved; his