The President not only liked to read
the great poet's plays, but to see them acted; and when the
gifted actor Hackett came to Washington, he was invited to the
White House, where the two discussed the character of Falstaff,
and the proper reading of many scenes and passages.
While he was President, Mr. Lincoln did not attempt to read the
newspapers. His days were long, beginning early and ending late,
but they were not long enough for that. One of his secretaries
brought him a daily memorandum of the important news they
contained. His mail was so enormous that he personally read only
about one in every hundred of the letters sent him.
His time was principally taken up with interviews with people on
matters of importance, with cabinet meetings, conferences with
his generals, and other affairs requiring his close and immediate
attention. If he had leisure he would take a drive in the late
afternoon, or perhaps steal away into the grounds south of the
Executive Mansion to test some new kind of gun, if its inventor
had been fortunate enough to bring it to his notice. He was very
quick to understand mechanical contrivances, and would often
suggest improvements that had not occurred to the inventor
himself.
For many years it has been the fashion to call Mr. Lincoln
homely. He was very tall, and very thin. His eyes were
deep-sunken, his skin of a sallow pallor, his hair coarse, black,
and unruly.
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