The inner life of Abraham Lincoln : $b Six months at the White HouseCarpenter, F. B. (Francis Bicknell)
History
The inner life of Abraham Lincoln : $b Six months at the White House
Carpenter, F. B. (Francis Bicknell)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes; Presidents -- United States -- Anecdotes
“Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12th,
1809. He moved to Indiana in 1816; came to Illinois in March, 1830; to
old Sangamon County in 1831, settling in New Salem, and from this last
place to this city in April, 1837: coming as a rude, uncultivated boy,
without polish or education, and having no friends. He was about six
feet four inches high, and when he left this city was fifty-one years
old, having good health and no gray hairs, or but few on his head. He
was thin, wiry, sinewy, raw-boned; thin through the breast to the back,
and narrow across the shoulders; standing, he leaned forward--was
what may be called stoop-shouldered, inclining to the consumptive
by build. His usual weight was one hundred and sixty pounds. His
organization--rather his structure and functions--worked slowly. His
blood had to run a long distance from his heart to the extremities of
his frame, and his nerve-force had to travel through dry ground a long
distance before his muscles were obedient to his will. His structure
was loose and leathery; his body was shrunk and shrivelled, having dark
skin, dark hair,--looking woe-struck. The whole man, body and mind,
worked slowly, creakingly, as if it needed oiling. Physically, he was
a very powerful man, lifting with ease four hundred or six hundred
pounds. His mind was like his body, and worked slowly but strongly.
When he walked, he moved cautiously but firmly, his long arms and
hands on them, hanging like giant’s hands, swung down by his side. He
walked with even tread, the inner sides of his feet being parallel.
He put the whole foot flat down on the ground at once, not landing on
the heel; he likewise lifted his foot all at once, not rising from the
toe, and hence he had no spring to his walk. He had economy of fall and
lift of foot, though he had no spring or apparent ease of motion in
his tread. He walked undulatory, up and down, catching and pocketing
tire, weariness, and pain, all up and down his person, preventing them
from locating. The first opinion of a stranger, or a man who did not
observe closely, was that his walk implied shrewdness, cunning,--a
tricky man; but his was the walk of caution and firmness. In sitting
down on a common chair he was no taller than ordinary men. His legs and
arms were, abnormally, unnaturally long, and in undue proportion to the
balance of his body. It was only when he stood up that he loomed above
other men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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