Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1885 — Lincoln’s Analytical Powers. [ARTICLE]

Lincoln’s Analytical Powers.

I never saw him when he appeared to me anything else but a great man, and a very ugly one. His expression in repose was sad and dull; buj; his everrecurring humor, at short intervals, flashed forth with the brilliancy of an electric light. I never observed but two well-defined expressions in his countenance, one that of a pure, thoughtful, honest man, absorbed by a sense of duty and responsibility; the other that of a humorist sb full of fun that he could'not keep it all in. His power of analysis was wonderful. He strengthened every case he stated, and no anecdote or joke evpr lost force or effect from his telling. He invariably earned the listener with him to the very climax, and when that was reached in relating a humorous story he laughed all over. His large mouth assumed an unexpected and comical shape, the skin on his nose gathered into wrinkles, and his small eyes, though partly closed, emitted infectious rays of fun. It was not the aptness of his stories, but his way of telling them and his own unfeigned enjoyment that gave them zest, even among the gravest men and upon the most serious occasions. Nevertheless, Lincoln—a good listener —was not a good conversationalist When he talked he told a story or argued a case. But it should be remembered that during the entire four years of his Presidency, from the spring of 1861 until his death in April, 1865, civil war prevailed. It bore heaviest upon him, and his mind was bent, daily, hourly even, upon the weighty matters of his high office; so that, as he might have expressed it, he was either lifting, with all his might at the butt end of the log or sitting upon it, whittling for rest and recreation.— Gen. James B. Fry.