The National tribune., 1900-07-12
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON THURSDAY JULY 1900

days work there is oulq oae word which
can express my condition. and that Is
fiabbinrSS." Once Mr.. Brooks found him
sitting in his chair SO collapsed and weary
that he did not look up or speak when |
addressed him. He put out his hand,
mechanically. us if to shake hands. when ]
told him had come at his biddiEg. Present
ly he reused a little. and remarked that
he had had a mighty hard day" Mr..
| Riddle. who saw him at this period. after
some months absence. says he was shock
ed, on gaining admission to the President.
by his appearapcc-that OF balted.
cornered man. always on the defense
agat'szss liis ii,5 yOtiiti iIUt OPP NY
meet and defy or punish. MIR. Carpenter,
an inmate of the White House. says: Alb
sorbed in his papers, he would become
| unconscious of my presence, while intcntly
studied every line and shade of expression
i'll that fUrrowed face. There were days
when | could scarcely look into it without
crying. During the first week Of the battles
Of the Wilderness he scarcely slept at all.
Passing through tho main hall of the
domestic apartment on one of these days.
| met him, clad in a long morning wrapper,
pacing tback and forth narrow passage
leading TO one of the windows, his hands
behind him, great black rings under his
eyes, his head bent forward upon his
lbreast.-altogether such a picture of the
effects of sorrow, care, and anxiety as
would have melted the hearts of the worst
of his adversaries, who so mistakenly
applied to him The epithets of tyrant and
uSlrper."
Mr.. Edward Dicey SAYS: Never in
my knowledge have I seen a sadder face
than that of the late President during the
tlme his features were familiar to me. 1t
is so easy to be wise after the event; but il
seems to me now that one ought somehow
TO nave ioreseen that the stamp OF sad
end was impressed by nature on that rug
ged, haggard face. The exceeding sad
ness of the eyes and their strange sweetness
were the one redeeming feature in n face of
unusual plainneSs. and there was about
them that odd, weird look, which some
eyes possess, of seeming to see more than
the outer objects of the world around"
NEVER HOPED TO l,E GLAD AGAIN.
Mr.. Lincoln's family and friends strove
to beguile him of his melancholy. They
took him to places of amusement; they
walked and drove with him in the pleasant
est scenes about the Capital; and above
all, they talked with him of times past,
seeking to divert his mind from its present
distress by reviving memories of more
Joyous days. His old friends were, as
MIR. Arnold states, shocked with the
change in his appearance. They had
known hlm at his home, and at the courts
In Illinois, with frame OF iron and nerves
OF steel; as a man who hardly knew what
illness was, ever genial and sparkling with
frolie and fun, nearly always CHEEKY and
bright. Now, they saw the wrinkles on
his face and forehead deepen into burrows;
the laugh OF old days was less frequent,
ard it did not seem TO come from the heart
Anxiety, responsibility, care, thought.
disasters, defeats, the injustice of friends,
wore upon his giant frame. and his nerves
of steel became at times irritable. He said
one day, with pathos which language
cannot describe: Il feel as though shall
never be glad again"
ENYYING THE SOLDIER WHO SLEEPS ON
THE GROUND.
The Hon. Schdyler Colfax repeats a
similarly pathetic expression which fell
from the lips OF the afflicted President
"One morning, calling upon him on nIsi-
ness, found him looking more than usu-
ally pale and careworn. and inquired the
reason. He replied with the bad news he
had received at late hour the previous
night, which had not yet been communi-
Gated TO the press. adding that he had not
closed his eyes or hreakfasted; and with an
expression / shall never forget, he ex-
claimed, How willingly would exchange
places to-day with the soldier who sleeps
on the ground in the Army of the Polo
mac.'"
'THE sADDEsT MAN IN THE WORLD"
lady who saw Mr. Lincoln in the
Summer of 1864 for the first time. and who
had expected to see "a very homely man.
says: Il was totally unprcpared for the
impression instantly made upon me. So
bowed and sorrow-ladcn was his whole
person, expressing such WEAKNESS of mind
and body, as he dropped himself heavily
from step to step down to the ground. But
his face.-oh, the pathos of it,-haggard,
drawn into fixed lines of unutterable sad
ness, with a look of loneliness, as of a soul
whose depth of sorrow and bitterness no
human sympathy could ever reach was
so penetrated with the anguish and settled
gref IN every feature. that | gazed ut him
through tears, and felt had stepped upon
the thrcshhold of n sanctuary too sacred
for human feet. The impression carried
away was that ] had seen, not so much
the President Of the United States, as the
saddeSt man in the world"