The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-07-05
SKETCHES OF LINCOLN.
A Study of His Peculiar and Per-
sonal Traits.
QUALITIES THAT MADE HIM GREAT
Faithful and Lifelike Descriptions - His
Personal Appearance-Cheerfu and
Gloom-His Perceptive Faculties-Little
Reading, but Great Thinking.

Personal Appearance-Cheerfu and
Gloom-His Perceptive Faculties-Little
Reading, but Great Thinking.
from sThe Life of Lincoln" by William a.
Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. Copyright, 1855
by Jesse W. Weik. Copyright, 1892, by d. APP
pleton s. Col
Soon after the death of Mr.. Lincoln
DR.. ]. G. Holland came out to Illinois
from his home in Massachusetts, to
gather up materials for life of the
dead president. The gentleman spent
several days with me, and gave him
all the assistance that lay in my power.
I was much pleased with him and await
ed with not little interest the appear
ance of his book.
DR.. Holland had only found what Lin
coins friends had always experienced In
their relations with him-that he was
a man of many moods and many sides.
He never revealed himself entirely to
any one man, and therefore he will al
WAYS to a certain extent remain enVel-
oped in doubt. Even those who were
with him through long years of hard
study and under constantly varying cir
cumstances can hardly say they knew
him through and through. l always be-
lieyed I could read him as thoroughly
as any man, and yet he was SO different
in many respects from any other one
ever met before or since his time that l
cannot say comprehended him. give
Of hiS individual char.
acteristics as they occur to me and al
low the world to form its own opinion.
If nv recollection of the man destroys
any other PERSONS ideal, cannot help
it. By a faithful and lifelike description
of Lincoln the man, and study of his
peculiar and personal traits, perhaps
some of the apparent contradictions met
with by DR.. Holland will have melted
from sight.
His Personal Appearance.
Mr.. Lincoln was feet inches high,
and when he left the city of his homs
for Washington was 81 years old, hav
ing good health and no gray hairs, o.
but few, Oh his head. He was thin.
wiry, sinewy, rawboned, thin through
the breast to the back and narrow across
the shoulders. Standing he leaned for
ward-was what may be called stoop
shouldered, inclining to the consump.
tive by build. His usual weight was 80
pounds. His OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES his
structure and functions-worked slow.
~. His blood had to run long distance
from his heart to the extremities of hlA
frame, and his nerve force had to travel
through dry ground long distance be-
fore his muscles were obedient to his
will. His structure was loose apd leath-
cry; his body was shrunk and shriveled;
he had dark skin, dark hair and looked
woestruck. The whole man, body and
mind, worked slowly, as if it needed
oiling. Physically he was very power
full man, lifting with ease 400 and in
one case 600 pounds. His mind was like
his body and worked slowly, but strong
ly; hence there was very little bodily or
mental wear and tear in him. This Pc
culiarity in his construction gave him
great advantage over other men in pub.
lie life. No man in America, scarcely a
man in the world, could have stood
what Lincoln did in Washington and
survived through more than one term Of
the presidency.
When he walked, he moved cautious
ly, but firmly. His long arms and giant
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 like
wise lifted his foot all at once, not ris-
ing from the toe, and hence he had no
spring to his walk His walk was I'M
dulatory, catching and pocketing tire,
WEAKNESS and pain all up and down his
person, and thus preventing them from
locating The first impression Of stran-
ger or man who did not observe close
~ was that his walk implied shrewd-
ness and cunning, that he was tricky
man, but in reality it was the walk OF
caution and f1rmness In sitting down
on a common chair he was no taller
than ordinary men. His legs and arms
were abnormally, unnaturally long and
in undue proportion to the rem ainder OF
his body. 1t was only when he stood uI
that he loomed above other men.
His Head and Face.
Mr.. Lincoln's head was long and tall
from the base of the brain and from the
eyebrows. His head ran backward, his
forehead rising as it ran back at low
angle, like Clay's, and unlike Webster s.
which was almost perpendicular. The
size of his hat measured at the halter!
block was ~, his head being from eal
to ear 6119 inches and from the front tt
the back of the brain s inches. Thus
measured it was not below the medium
size. His forehead was narrow, bus high
his hair was dark, almost black, ant
lay floating where his fingers or tn,
winds left it, piled up at random; hi
cheek bones were high, sharp and promi
nent; his jaws were long and upcurved
his nose was large, long, blunt and /;
little awry toward the right eye; hi
chin was sharp and upcurved; his eye
brows cropped out like huge rock OF
the brow Of hill; his long, sallow fac
was wrinkled and dry, with hair her
and there on the surface; his cheek
were leathery; his ears were large AM
ran out almost at right angles from hi
head, caused partly by heavy hats an,
partly by nature; his lower lip wa
thick, hanging and undercurved, Will
his chin reached for the lin upcuryed