Something New

[LincolnToddFan]

Hi Eva...that not only sounds physically impossible but confusing, I can't even visualize something like that.

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(08-03-2014 01:01 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  This description mentions hands and teeth and much, much more. I think it's one of the more unique descriptions of Lincoln. Written in 1861, the author was an English journalist named Edward Dicey.

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"To say he is ugly is nothing; to add that his figure is grotesque is to convey no adequate impression. Fancy a man well over six feet high, and thin in proportion, with long bony arms and legs which somehow always seem to be in the way; with great rugged furrowed hands, which grasp you like a vise when shaking yours; with a long, scraggly neck, and a chest too narrow for the great arms at his side. Add to this figure a head, cocoanut shaped and somewhat too small for such a stature, covered with rough, uncombed hair that stands out in every direction at once; a face furrowed, wrinkled, and indented as though it had been scarred by vitriol; a high, narrow forehead, sunk beneath bushy eyebrows; two bright, somewhat dreamy eyes that seem to gaze through you without looking at you; .... a close- set, thin-lipped stern mouth, with two rows of large white 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 of black. . . . Add to all this an air of strength, physical as well as moral, and a strange look of dignity . . . and you have the impression left on me by Abraham Lincoln."

Thanks Roger-

That certainly sounds like the description of an ugly man, but honestly I have never thought AL was ugly. Certainly he was an unusual looking guy. His face is unlike any other human face I've ever seen. It would have been fascinating to have seen him in person.

The statement that he had "dreamy" eyes that gazed past and through you is one I've often seen to describe his eyes. Interestingly, strange far away looking eyes is a classic trait description for those born under the astrological sign of Aquarius, which of course Lincoln was.