Show MA hi a WAS URN A CAUIN B E WAS born lu in a cabin in the back backwoods of kentucky an anil died in a tiny bedroom in a boarding house at the nations capital while president of 0 the united states lie neer had all told more than a years schooling in the most elementary sub subjects jets yet he lived to write rite impeccable eng losli and to be judged by learned professors as master of purest literary style ue be grow grew up op far removed from cul tural influences and the niceties of po lite society yet wooed and won in marriage a kentucky aristocrat a society belle and an accomplished linguist MISS hiss mary todd ne be never kind had the heart to kill any living thing looked with disfavor on fire arms but bill became by virtue of his high office the commander in calef of the union forces in a war which resulted in half a million slain ile he was smooth shaven for fafty one 0 of f his fifty six sl years and grew a heard the biliter M inter before ills his inauguration in good natured compliance with the suggestion S igi of a little girl who thought the change ml might improve his looks ile he was a n lo ora clous reader as a boy and young man borrowing many a treasured volume but lie he never dever owned a library of as many as a hundred volumes excluding his law books he did not unite with a church though he was a frequent sometimes called a free thinker he JJ 4 4 the was a voracious idus reader was unusually familiar with the bible and luring during his residency presidency on his own confession was a praying man he be was often of 0 a melancholy mood subject to seasons of gloom and grief yet was as often buoyant laughing heartily over a good joke and told droll stories inimitably he loved greatly all children and was most indulgent with his own per tad to make a play room of his office in the white louse house lie he never could wear gloves with ease case formal society functions bored him and at his first inauguration he was led as to the disposal of his gold headed cline and high hat until his great protagonist stephen A douglas Don glas came to his relief he wrote rote a neat hand devised clear cear and sentences avoided big bl was frequently laconic and pointedly brief bri ef ile he haq ford fond of poetry wrote brot verses of a homely sort and liked bes best t poems of a somber or pathetic appeal na as for example the list lent I caf and 1 I wily why should the file spirit of mortal be proud ne ile observed the faults and foibles or of hig lil friends nil lind hut but so sel dom commented upon their shortening shor ings and never rebuked them either in public or private for aa a anotn notable in e instance n william H herndon and his intemperate habits ile he revered george washington ad mired ired thomas jefferson at one time idolized henry clay read with avidity the speeches of daniel webster ne lie numbered among his friends an unusually large company or of ministers of the gospel yet nhen he ran for president only three of the twenty odd ministers in springfield voted for him ale 0 he loved to sit nith the boys abelt file stove in the village store on winter evenings crack jokes and listen to the gossip of the neighborhood delighted in minstrel shows was tickled by the antics of clowns and comedians thought a traveling circus was great fun ile he lind one of the best forgetter forgett pr les of till all our public men thus he forgot the shabby treatment he received at the hands of edwin U M stan ton in cincinnati 1855 and appointed him secretary of war in I 1 his I 1 Is cabinet he was indifferent as to his personal attire yet was distinctive in his choice of a high topped hat 11 long m 1 tailed coati coat and a black blach bow tie worn around a low turned down collar ue he was in life mercilessly criticized treacherously misrepresented cruelly maligned and basely slandered and in death he nas as all but delfred delfied dei fied lie ile was scrupulously ho honest liest long suffering and patient beyond most mortals magnanimous and just for giving and a stranger to hate hate ile he was not a demigod but very liu hu man he made mistakes and profited by eleni he was a lover of his kind a and rid made generous allowance for the imperfections of humanity and he be cause of these all too rare virtues now he belongs to the ames ages detroit news |