Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-06-07

/ Tue tAttlilsA Us VI AltC NhNh IS piNIpo1S
to write, Mr.. Lamon was well qualified for his
task. He knew Mr.. Lincoln intimately for many
years, both before and after his elevation to the
presidency; he had access TO many friends of
still longer standing, and took pains to gather
! from them by personal interview and by letter
an immense number OF details, important or
insignificant, of his sayings and doings in boy
hood and youth, and he had also the advantage
of the copious material collected by VIM. H..
| Herndon another early friend of the late p7esi-
dent, who abandoned in Mr.. Lannon's
favor his own purpose of writing his
biography. With such opportunities, and with
an apparently undscriminating fondness for
scraps of information, he has added greatly TO
the stock Of facts heretofore publicly known of
Mr.. Lincoln's early life, and has corrected many
errors into which former biographies had fallen.
We are told all, or quite enouah, about his
parents, their origin, character, appearance,
habits and fortunes; of himself, his treatment
at home, his conduct there and elsewhere when
boy, his short and irregular school education,
his clothing, its color, texture, fit and state of
repair, his associations, business ventures, his
disappointments and successes, his friendships.
his quarrels and his loves. As a specimen of
the minuteness with which small particulars are
noted we copy this picture Of Lincoln at fifteen:
He was growing at tremendous rate, and
two years later attained his full height of six
feet four inches. He was long, wiry, aud strong;
while bis big feet and hands, and the length OF
MS legs and arms, were out of all proportion TO
his small trunk and head His complexion was
very swarthy, and Mrs. Gentry says that his
skin was shriyeled and yellow even then. He
wore low shoes, buckskin breeches, linsey wool
sey shirt, and cap made of the skin of an op-
possum or coon. The breecheS chung close to
his thighs and legs, but failed by large space
to meet the tops of his shoes. Twelve inches re-
NAMED uncovered, and exposed that much of
shinbone, sharp, blue, and narrow. He would
always come TO school thus, good-humoredly
and laughing, says his old friend, Nat. GrigSby.
He was always in good health, never was sick,
had an excellent constitution, and took care of
it,"
All these things have their interest and yalHe,
of course. 1t is good to know if we can, and
stock of well authenticated facts, trivial though
many Of them are, VIII help us TO do it, through
what Influences this unpromising boy rose above
the level of his fellows till he came 10 be that
eminent statesman and chief magistrate whose
memory we cherish with almost reverential
affection. But this picture of his early life and
is surroundings is painful and depressing. The
people among whom he lived were all coarse,
mean and almost brutal, and he was not unlike
them He is represented as a rather lazy fellow,
fond of lounging about groceries or other places
of resort, strong and boisterous, though not
an ill-natured bully at one time forced into a
quarrel, at another trying in vain to provoke
one, at others having rough and tumble
fights, with or without proyocation, in
only one of which he was beaten. When
one of the neighbors gave an entertainment
without inviting him he took his revenge by
writing and repeating some indecent and sour
rilous verses, and resorted to foul play in fight
to which these verses were the provocation. He
was fond of contributing to the amusement of
neighbors by putting into the form of "chroni-
| Giles, distorted version Of some current scan
| dial. AS here represented he differed in no es
| sental respect from his companions of that rude
| frontier society, except that be showed desire
for learning from books, and that he had no
fondness for whiSkey, though he drank it with
the rest rather than give ofense. In other tastes
and habits he was like his fellows.
We have no reason 10 dispute the general az
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different memories and many years, and in some
of them the language used by the actors, given
in the form of direct quotation, is very different
from what those persons in such circumstances
would be lively to use. The great fault of the
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he retained 70 inc last much OIL the uneouthheSs