Did not want to start a new thread and, of the dozens of Lincoln threads, this seemed like the most fun for y'all to revisit.
Meanwhile, from the New York Times, 15/Oct:
Quote:
When Grace Bedell Billings, an 11-year-old girl from Westfield, N.Y., first came upon a photo of Abraham Lincoln, she was unimpressed.
"He would look better if he wore whiskers," she told her mother. "And I mean to write and tell him so."
On this date in 1860, she did just that.
"All the ladies like whiskers," her dispatch read, "and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be president."
Mr. Lincoln worried that some would think his beard "a piece of silly affect[at]ion."
Within a matter of weeks, however, Mr. Lincoln was sporting a modest chinstrap beard. And by the time he began traveling to Washington for his inauguration, Mr. Lincoln's chin curtain was in full bloom.
Along the journey, Mr. Lincoln stopped in Westfield, where he requested to meet with Ms. Billings.
"Look at my whiskers," he told the girl. "I have been growing them for you."
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Posted 12/10/2010 6:19 pm
