Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1892 — Lincoln as a Young Man. [ARTICLE]

Lincoln as a Young Man.

John E. Ball, who is living in Springfield, 111., was a great friend ot Abraham Lincoln when in 1831 he visited that State. He has given a good description of Lincoln at that time, as follows: Lincoln was then a little past 22 years of age, and he was the rawest, most primitive-look' ing specimen of humanity I ever saw. He was tall, bony, and, as homely as he has ever been pictured. He wore a suit of blue jeans—-if it could be called a suit. It seemed that everything was too short for him. His pantaloons lacked four or five inches of reaching the ground, and when the legs were not stuffed into his big rawhide boots they were held down by leather straps, which extended under his boots. He wore an old roundabout that might have served him in his younger days, but was now far too short for him, and when he stooped over he showed four or five inches of his suspenders—that is, when he went so far as to have on a pair of “galluses.” He wore a drabcolored wool hat, pretty well worn, small-crowned and broad-brimmed. I remember one occasion on which this old hat was brought into service, for the entertainment of the natives. One day a slight-of-band performer made his appearance in the village. At the tavern, a crowd, of course, gathered around him and he entertained us for some. He asked for somebody’s hat to fry some eggs in, and Lincoln pulled off his old slouch hat and passed it up. The magician put in some fresh eggs, made a pretense of holding the hat over the fire, and then handed back a hat full of fried eggs. This amused Lincoln greatly, and he seemed to pride himself on having such a convenient cooking utensil.