Show P V APP NUL n R person a 0 n it a I 1 appearance has been the subject of innumerable anecdotes and jokes ile he was waa not unaware ot of the oddity of his figure anil and the characteristics acs ics ot of his race face e came of a lanky raco race gaunt powerful people and capable of 0 great endurance their hard lives were not conducive to grace of figure or motion and their faces were often seamed and strongly marked climate toll and improper or insufficient food had much to do with giving to the western anti and southern pioneers the peculiarities ot of form and action and the facial markings markl nga which identified them geographically na as easily as did their speech lincoln never was vas ashamed of these things at least he never changed his habits when he came into national prominence but hla his continuance of 0 them did not arise from affectation they were natural to him and he was not willing to have one set of manners for washington and another tor for the people back in illinois that ho he was careless of 0 his appearance pe arance there was no doubt when lie sat for a photographer lie he never straightened his tie or smoothed his unkempt hair but like cromwell told the picture roan man to take him as he was waa ile he knew that a portrait of a slicked clicked slick ed up lincoln as lie ho would have said would not have been recognized in springfield and lie he want them thein to think lie ho was putting on airs because they had I 1 elected 0 him to the presidency it was hla his homeliness which per P I 1 N IN ap melpy t C k J 1 rp M 4 dig 14 N NN xa X t f 0 ur iylo N Z im an X D x la 11 N 1 ar aln the people that he was one of of them the moment he made his appearance on the platform his homeliness and hla his intimate and apt use of the simple speech they could understand there are anecdotes which are intended to show that even in a community ot of persons not noted tor for beauty he was considered preeminently eminently pre the reverse yet although this was waa the subject of jests at his expense no one thought any the less of him for it this homeliness call it ugliness it you will ot of its his face the awkwardness ot of his bis form and the ungainliness ot of his gestures and attitudes seemed to the people to go naturally with his goodness of heart and the simplicity of his nature in their eyes when advocating the cause of tho the oppressed and when opposing the forces which would destroy the nation ho he became to many positively handsome As years afterward erward att one old man who knowel him sold said lots of em cm will toll you ho he was homely seems to me about all some folks around here has haa to tell about abraham lincoln lincol n yes I 1 knowel him they say eny ile he was the homeliest hom eliest man in sangamon Ban gamon county well now dont you make boako no mistake the folks that dont tell you euthin but that never knowel mr lincoln bleb aceb bo be seen been him but they never knowel him lie he want homely theres no denyle he was long and lean and he always stand straight and he pert keler ikeler about hla his clothes but up to bloomington in ten minutes after ho he struck the platform I 1 toll tell you he was waa the handsomest handsom eat man I 1 ever see the month after his first election the publication once a week in london printed the follow ing personal sketch 0 of lincoln abraham lincoln la Is agauni giant more than six feet high strong and long limbed slow and like many thoughtful men wordsworth and napoleon for example keeps his head inclined forward and downward ills hair to la wiry black hla his eyes are dark gray his smile Is frank sincere sincera und and winning like most american gentlemen lie he Is loose and careless in dress turns down ills his flapping white collars and wears habitually what wo ed consider evening dress dresa ills head Is massive ills his brow full anti and wide his nose large and fleshy hla his mouth coarse and full his eyes are sunken ills bronzed face la Is thin and drawn down into strong corded lines that disclose the machinery that moves the broad law jaw this great leader of at the republican party this abolitionist this terror of the democrats this honest old lawyer with face halt half roman half indian so GO wasted by climate so scarred by a lifes struggle was born in 1809 in kentucky ills hla grandfather who came from virginia was killed by the indians ills his father died young leaving a widow and several children they removed to tj indiana abe being at the time only six years old poor and struggling his mother could only afford him some eight months rough schooling anti and n the clearings ot of that now new and unsettled country the healthy stripling went to work to hew hickory y and gum trees to grapple crapple with remonstrating bears and to look out for the too frequent rattle snake tall strong lithe and smiling abe tolled on as a farm laborer mule driver sheep feeder deer killer woodcutter and lastly as boatman on the waters of the wabash and the mississippi another english writer in describing the president la Is still more realistic than qan his bis countryman when ho he says to say that lie he Is a ugly Is nothing to add that hla his figure Is grotesque Is to convey no adequate impression fancy a many six elx feet high and then out of proportion with long bony arms and legs which somehow seem to be always in the way with great rugged furrowed hands which grasp you like a vise when shaking yours with a long neck and a chest cheat too narrow tor for the great arms at its side aide add to this figure a head cocoanut coco anut shaped and somewhat too small for such a stature covered with rough uncombed and hair that stands out in every direction at once a face furrowed wrinkled and indented as aa though it had been scarred by vitriol a high narrow forehead and sunk deep beneath bushy eyebrows two bright dreamy eyes that seem to gaze through you without looking at you a few irregular blot blotcher blotches c lips ches ot of black bristly hair in the place where beard and whiskers ought to grow a close set thin lipped stern mouth with two rows of lar large ge w white hite teeth and a nose and ears which have been taken by mistake from a head twice the size clothe this figure then in a long tight badly fitting suit ot of black creased soiled and puckered up lip at every salient point of the figure and every point of this figure Is salient put on large III boots gloves too long for the long bony fingers and a fluffy hat covered to the top toly with dusty puffy crape and then add to jo this an air ot of strength physical as well as moral anti and a strange look of dignity coupled with all this gro tesque nefi anti and you will have the impression left upon nip by abraham lincoln ward lanion lamon who knew him intimately goes more into details de dc tails lie he says mr air lincoln was about six feet tour four inches high the length of his loga legs being out of all proportion to that of his body when he sat down in a chair ahalt he be seemed no taller that than an all average man measuring from rom the chair to the drown crown of his head but his knees rose high in front still and P a marble placed on tho the cap ot of ono one would roll down a steep descent to the hip lie he weighed about ISO pounds but he was thin through the breast narrow across the shoulders IL and rid 11 had ad th the e general appearance of a consumptive subject standing up he stooped slightly forward sitting down clown he usually crossed hla his long legs lega or threw them 0 over ve r the ar arms in a 0 of f the chair as is the most convenient mode of disposing of them ills head was waa long and tall from the base of the brain and the eyebrow tits his fore clead big anti and narrow but inclining backward as it rose irose the diameter of his hl head from ear to ear was gi G inches and irom from writ front to tc back eight inches ills his ears were large B almost at right angles from hla his head ali cheok bones blab and prominent his eyebrows heavy and jutting forward over small sunken dunken blue eyes his nose long large and blunt the tip ot of it rather ruddy and slightly awry towards the tight right hand side his chin projecting tar far and sharp curved upward to meet a thick material lower lip which hung downward his cheeks were flabby anti and the loose skin tell fell in wrinkles or folds there was a largo large mole on his right cheek and an uncommonly prominent adams apple on his throat his hair was dark brown in color stiff unkempt and as y yet t showing little or no sign ol of advancing advancing age or trouble his complexion was very dark his skin yellow shriveled and leathery in short to use the language of mr clerndon he was a thin tall wiry grisly rawboned raw boned bo n ed lidai mall look tai woe struck ills countenance was haggard and careworn exhibiting all the marks 0 of deep and protracted buffering stiff erang every feature of the man the hollow eyes with the dark rings beneath the long sallow cadaverous face intersected by those peculiar deep lines his whole air his walk his long silent reveries broken at long intervals by sudden tin and d startling exclamations as it to confound an observer who might suspect tho the nature of his thought showed he was a man 0 of sorrows not sorrows of today or yesterday but long treasured and deep deell bearing with him a continual sense ot of weariness and pain he was a plain weary man to whom ones heart warmed involuntarily because he seemed at once miserable and kind james D B fry who became intimately acquainted with lincoln early in the batters lat political career says lincoln was tall and thin his long bones were united by large and he had a long neck and an angular face and head many likenesses represent his face well enough but none that I 1 have ever seen do justice to the awkwardness and ungainliness of his figure his feet hanging banging loosely to his ankles were prominent his hands were more conspicuous even than his feet due perhaps to the fact act that ceremony at times compelled him to clothe them in white kid gloves which always fitted loosely both in the height of conversation and in the depth of reflection his hand now and then ran over or supported his head giving his hair habitually a disordered aspect ills hla expression in repose was sad and dull but his ever recurring humor at short intervals flashed forth with the brilliancy of an electric light I 1 observed but two well defined expressions in his countenance one that of a pure thoughtful honest man absorbed by a sense of duty and responsibility lity the other that of a humorist so full of tun fun that he could not keep it all in ills his power 0 f analysis was wonderful Aonder ful lie he strengthened ev every er y case he be stated and no anecdote or joke ever ost lost force or effect from his telling apropos of his large feet there Is an anecdote told of lincoln when he was in the legislature lie he had walked his hundred miles to van vandalla lalla in na as he had in 1834 and when the session closed he walked home again A gentleman of li menard fenard county remembers meeting dimand a detachment detach tach ment of the long nine on their way homo home they were all mounted except lincoln who had thus tar far kept up with them on toot foot it if he had any money he was hoarding it for more important import ant purposes than that of saving leg weariness and len leather ther the weather was raw and Lincol ns clothing was none of the warmest complaining of being cold to one of his companions pan ions this irreverent member of the lot long ig alno told his future president that it was no wonder that he was waa cold there was so much of him on the ground none of the p party arty appreciated this homely joke at the expense of his feet th they ey were doubtless able to bear it more thoroughly thorough ly than lincoln did we can imagine the cross fires of wit and humor by which the way was enlivened during this cold and tedious journey the scene was certainly a rude ono one and seems more like a dream brearn than a reality when we remember that it occurred not many years ago in a ri state which now contains hardly less tha than n three millions of people and miles mile of 0 railway cassaus M clay in describing an address which he hc delivered at springfield in says lincoln ard browning lay upon the ground whittling sticks and heard wr throughout with marked attention teaton at hurrying on to my appointments I 1 saw him blin ilen no roure mure I 1 never shall forget his long ungainly person ix macii and plain but even then sad and thoughtful features |