The herald., 1895-07-02
A Study Of His Peculiar and
Personal Traits
WHAT MADE HIM GREAT
Faithful and Lifelke Descriptions.--His
Personal Appearance---Cheerful.
ness and Gloom

ness and Gloom
from "The Life Of Lincoln" by William n.
Herndon and Jesse ". weik Copyright, 1888,
by Jesse ". Weik. Copyright. 1892, by D. Ap-
pleton s. Co.
Soon after the death of Mr. Lincoln DR..
!. G. Holland came out to Illinois from
his homo in Massachusetts to gather up
materials for life of tho dead president.
The gentleman spent several days with
me, and gave him all the assistance. that
lay in my power. was much pleased
with him and awaited with not little in
terest the appearance of his book.
DR.. Holland had only found what Lin
coins friends had always experienced in
their relations with him-that he was
man of many moods and many sides. He
never revealed himself entirely to any one
man, and therefore he will always to a
certain extent remain enveloped in doubt.
Even those who were with him. through
long years Of hard study and under con-
stantay varying, circumstances can hardly
say they knew him through and through.
I always believed could read him as
f1orOughly as any man, and yet he was so
different in many respects from any other
one 4 eHer. met before or since his time
that cannot say comprehended him. 1
give my recollection of his individual char
acteristics asfthey occur to me and allow
the world to form its own opinion. If my
recollection of the man destroys any other
person's ideal, cannot holp it. By a
faithful and Hfelike description Of Lincoln
the man, and study of his peculiar and
person traits, perhaps some of the appar-
ent contradictions met with by DR.. Hol-
land will have melted from sight.
His Personal Appearance.
Mr.. Lincoln was feet inches high,
and when he left the city of his home for
Washington was 81 years old, having good
health and no gray hairs, or but few, on
bis head. He was thin, wiry, sinewy,
rawboned, thin through tho breast to the
back and marrow across the shoulders
Standing he leaned forward-was what
may be called stoop shouldered, inclining
TO the consumptive by build. His usual
weight was $50 pounds. His organization
rather his structure and functions
worked slowly. His blood had to run
long distance from his heart to the ex-
tremities 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 shriv-
sled; he had dark skin, dark hair and look
ed woestruck. The whole man, body and
mind, worked slowly, as if it needed oiling.
Physically he was a very powerful man,
lifting with ease 400 and in one case GOO
pounds. His mind was like his body and
worked slowly, but strongly; hence there
was yerys1ittle bodily or mental wear and
tear in him. This popularity in his con-
struotion gave him great advantage over
other men inpublic life. No man in Amer
lea, scarcely q man in the world, could
have stood what Lincoln did in Washing
ton and survived through more than one
term of the presidency.
When he walked, he moved cautiously,
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 fat
down on the ground at once, not landing
on the heel. He l>kewise lifted his foot all
at once, not rising from the toe, and hence
he had no spring to his walk His walk
was undu1atory, catching and pocketing
tire, weariness and pain all up and down
locating. The first impression of stran-
ger or a man who did not observe closely
was that his walk implied shrewdness and
cunning, that he was a tricky man, but
In reality it was the walk of caution and
flrmness. In sitting down ON common
chair he was no taller than ordinary men.
His legs and arms were abnormally, un-
naturally long and in undue proportion to
the remainder of his body. 1t was only
when he stood up 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 an
gle, like Clays, and unlike Webster's,
which was almost perpendicular. The size
: of his hat7neasured at the hatter's block
was IN, his head being from ear to ear
on inches and from the front to the back
of the brain inches. Thus measured it
was not below the medium size. His fore
head was narrow, but high; his hair was
dark, almost black, and lay floating where
his fingers or the winds left 1t, piled up at
random; his cheek bones were high,
sharp and prominent; his jaws were long
and up curved; his nose was large, long,
blunt and little awry toward the right
eye; his chin was sharp and up curved
his eyebrows cropped out like huge rock
on the brow of hill; his long, sallow
face was wrinkled and dry, with hair
here and there Oh the surface his cheeks
were leathery; his ears were large and ran
out almost at right angles from his head
caused partly by heavy hats and partly by
nature; his lower lip was thick, hanging
and undercurved, while his chin reached
for the lip up curved; his neck was neat
and trim, his head being well balanced on
It, There was the lono mole on the right
check and Adams apple on his throat.
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, so called.
He appeared simple in his carriage and
bearing He was sad looking man. His
melancholy dripped from him as no
walked. His apparent gloom impressed
his friends, and created sympathy for him
-oue means of his great success. He was
gloomy, abstracted and joyous-rather bu-
morous-by turns, but do not think he
knew what real joy was for many years.
Mr.. Lincoln sometimes walked our
streets oheerly, he was not always gloomy,
and then it was that on meeting "a friend
he greeted him with plain "Howd'y?"
clasping his hand in both Of his own, and
gave him hearty soul welcome. On
winter morning he might be seen stalk
ing toward the market house, basket on