Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1917 — Characteristics of Noted Persons [ARTICLE]

Characteristics of Noted Persons

1. Abraham Lincoln Perhaps no man was ever beset with more arduous duties and trials and problems than was Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, the most important of which, as we know was the negro question and the Civil War. The one characteristic which may have done as much as any other in enabling him to deal justly and correctly with these many problems was his knack of seeing essentials, being able to decide what was necessary to over come the trouble in question. Throughout his life.he was noted for the desire and faculty of delving to the bottom of things that intersted him; when a thing attracted his attention he would not leave it until he had reached a settled understanding about it. Lincoln was very adverse to display of any kind that would make him prominent in the eyes of men, and yet he was not without a certain dignity of bearing and character that commanded . respect. When speaking of his high office, he usually called it “this place.” Although he was extremely genial and friendly in his manner, there was something in his manner that forbade familiarity. Observant as he was of fairness and justness in all things, he was yet capable of righteous wrath. Much has been said about his disregard for dress and personal appearance, but this is erroneous, as he was always scrupulously neat in his person and his garb was that of a gentleman, always. Lincoln’s duties in the office were

very absorbing; he often ate very irregularly, sometimes did not have opportunity to eat, when his wife sent a tray of food into the cabinet, where he was busy. Many times he could not visit with his friends when they called at the White House. And there were few amusements, for ■ times so full of trouble and lamenta- ' tions for the dead, were not favorable ' for the giving of social or formal en- | tertainments. The Lincolns arrived in Washington when the city was a very hotbed of secession and treason, and the President’s life was always in danger. Lincoln, however, objected to a bodyguard as long as he could and never became accustomed to having an escort; the jingling and jangling of troop was always distressful to him. No warning of suspected attempts upon his life seemed to move Lincoln. In deference to his wife’s fears, he would sometimes carry a stout cane when in the darkness and lonliness of the night he took his solitary way through the tree studded grounds of the White House. But he laughed grimly at this slight weapon, and once said: “I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail and kept myself surrounded with a body guard, it would be all the same. There are thousand# of ways of getting a man if it is desirable that he be killed. And these conditions continued until his death. t Lon Healey’s play will be given by the Junior Dramatic Club Friday evening at the Catholic school. In addition to the rendering of “Alice in the Land of Dreams” the club will also render a farce “Done and Gone.” This last is under the direction of Willette Hill, assisted by Paul Worland, Paul Donnelly, York and Luella Robinson.