Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-13
GutzOn Borglum Discusses the Beauty
of the Martyr President.
FIRST GREAT GIFT OF THE WEST
NCOmpIexity of His Great Nature Re-
Elected I'm His FRce-PrOfiIe of
Pure Middle West Plains
man.

ny ulEeCt ana natural development, WITHOUT
a hint Of consciousness. There are but two
possible explanations of this-either he was
a consummate artist n appreciated the
power Of absolute directness, or else he
wes by nature wholly unconscious. His
ease was that Of a man Of power.
He sat in chairs a little too low for him.
or course, chairs were not made for him
nothing in this democratic country Of ours
Is made for anybody in particular; every-1
thing is made for everybody. And so Lin
coin seemed when he sat down to sink
farther than was quite easy or graceful,
and that left his knees pushing unnaturally
high. Again. when rising, he would grab
both knees as IL to help himself; he would
lean forward to find the center OF his
equilibrium-a movement we all go through,
but In dear old Abe, because he was a
little out Of scale with his smaller COM
~panions. they called 1t awkward.
PeculInrIties of Movement.
His walk was free. and he moved with a
long, but rather slow, swinging stride; he
looked dow as he walked, like a man pick
Ing his way carefully over a newly har-
rcwed field, lifting his feet quite clear of
the soft ground. 1t was this movement
that gave the long fold in the thigh part
Of his trousers. straining the garment-an
effect often commented upon.
His arms hung free, and ne carried his
hand open. Anyone wearing an eight and
a half glove could take his hand easily in
his. His hands were not disproportionately
large; but the cut of his sleeve was gener-
GUS, as of his period. and in the swinging
use of his arms so much of his wrists
came through that they seemed large. In
his early life hard labor had developed
the palms of his hands, and the THO
muscle part Of his thumb was full ar
strong; but this shrank later to the thum
Of the literary man, and, strangely, con
sidering his early life, he carried 1t closely
into his hand, as becomes the habit, or is
the nature, of literary men.
He was erect. He did not stoop at the
shoulders, as nearly everybody states.
There are no wrinkle in his coat, forward,
between the lapel and the shoulder, nor is
there a corresponding strain in the back,
to show the garments yield to the STOPPING
tenant. On the contrary, there is evidence
Of an ~erectness, definite and purposefuI.
And here 1 want to register a statement
that Abraham Lincoln was a man Of ac-
tion. 1t takes most human beings from
three to five generations to get within
speaking distance of the circle this man
raised himself to and commended, in a
short lifetime, without the shoulders Of
predatory interests to creep upon; and
many of his photographs show to me a
spirit hunting and hunted as by some SOUL
stirring motive. His neck does not rest
on his shoulders. 1t rises from them with
an ~ierCctness, an alertness, as of one
alarmed, that is unique.
Raising n Beard.
In 1861 he tried to raise a beard-through
the suggestion of a little girl that by doing
50 ne might look less ugly" For a year
and a half he was quite undetermined how
to cut that beard. He trimmed it short,
then shaved 1t low, then cropped it quite
close. Not until 1863 does he seem to have
become quite used to it. About 1852 he
began definitely to change the parting of
his hair from the right side to the left.
And though he did this chiefly with his
fingers, he seems to nave acted with a
definite purpose, for 1t caused a radical
) change in his appearance. and he persisted
r In II.
His face was large in its simple masses.
l Nature seems to have intended him to be
r ten or twelve feet in height, and as he
[ failed to grow to that, the free skin settled
O1NR ~ ~ NHN AAh his az was
| normal In size; his forehead high, regular,
r and classical in shape. He was wida
4 through the temples; his brow projected
like a cliff. The hollow of the eve was
large and deep. and the eye seemed to lie
. in a kind of ravine; It would hardly have
e been ~perceptible IL you had passed your
hand over the ball. His cheek bones were
not high; they seemed high because of the
careworn flesh that shrank sharply be-
heath. Below this, again, the face lost
the splendid regularity of the upper part.
E Tie nose yielded to the constant activity
Of the right side OF his face, and wa
drawn in that direction. The line of the
mouth ran up toward the right side. This
Y becomes very perceptible IL one looks al
+ any OF his good, full-face portraits.
r Eyebrows and Mouth.
s His eyebrows were very strong, and huns
Il out over his face like the huge cornice o.
o a mountain bungalow. They were bushS
s and moved freely, and developed a set o.
e wrinkles similar TO those seen in the fac,
ue OF Homer, There was a large wrlnkl,
that descended from the lower and QUITE
II part Of the eye almost straight into tn,
y hollow OF the cheek line, and became yer,
d strong when he laughed; in severity thl
would sualShNen out IKE a guy rope.
His mouth was not coarse nor heavy
His upper lip was as regular as can be-
Le bearing a little 10 the right; but his lowe
lip was drawn toward the right side a
lr least half an inch-and some lrregularit,
/ of his teeth and the way his jaws cam,
le together forced the lower lip out, givin,
Il the exaggerated line we see.
r / discovered by carefully tracing individ
Is ual expressions. tendencies to expression
wrinkles and other developments OF hi
face, the habits of the separate features
al Little can be determined about a man b,
J. the structure OF his nose, nor can hi
IS character be fixed because he has a small
h eve or a full one. high cheek bones o
= Practically none, a full mouth or a SINAI
ID one. But the use he makes OF those fea
lures, and the record that use makes dan,
\ upon the features and the whole face, ca
be read as easily as the headlines of
New York paper. And so I found that IN
storm center OF Lincoln's face was abou
his right eye. He world peer out at yoI
io Tor an instant with this right eye hal
closed; then would follow that uplift o
his head and the receptive expression tina