Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1891 — Lincoin’s Simplicity. [ARTICLE]

Lincoin’s Simplicity.

J. G in the Century. There', sis in his father’s cabin, or N.vw Salefff, or Vandalia, or Springfield, the man Lincoln never gave'a fraction of thought or a moment of care to any question of dress. He followed the ordinary fashion and wore what the tailor, hatter, and boot-maker made him. And so clad the humblest citizens stood in his presence without awe, and the high-

est dignitaries with perfect respect. The world has yet to learn that Gen. Scott, or Lord Lyons, or Bishop Simpson, or Prince Napoleon, or Archbishop Hughes, or the Comte de Paris, or Chief Justice Taney ever felt humiliated by the dress or wan 4 of dignity of President Lincoln ir» state ceremonial or private audience. The eyes of these men were not upon the; tailor s suit of broadcloth, but upon the President and the man, and in such a scrutiny Lincoln outranked any mortal who ever questioned him eye to eye in his long and strange career from New Salem to the Blue Room of* the White House.

; As with his dress;. so with his manner. Tempered and modified by the gravity of added years, and an everwidening experience among varied social classes,and conditions in many parts- of the Union, it nevertheless retained to’the last a-strong impress of the essential characteristics of the frontier —simplicity, directness and sincere heartiness. He never learned and never used meaningless or misleading conventional phases. He would say: “I>am glad to see you.” He would never say, “I am charmed to see you.” He always greeted his visitors with a cordial shake of the hand and a winning look or smile, unless, as very rarely happened, his mind was weighed down with a preoccupation of overwhelming care and suspense. He always listened with patience, even when the request of his petitioner might be frivolous or foolish. That he was fond of wit, and jest, and laughter, the world already knows. He gave others-cour-tesy, kindness, and consideration to the last degree, and never by word or look assumed that he demanded them for himself. r