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Abe Lincoln, JFK, coincidences, new song "houdini"
Doin' research on Abe Lincoln, and the circumstances of his death in 1865. The song's a work-in-progress...

1. John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin chatted with Lincoln, his wife Mary, and Lincoln's son Robert on a few prior occassions, at the theater.

2. Booth was the most famous actor in America, before he assassinated Lincoln. Kinda like Tom Cruise, known for his physical skills and stunts, also.

3. The President was assassinated only a few days after Robert E. Lee, and the confederacy surrendered.

4. Only one guard accompanied the President of the United States to the theater that night, and he ended up either sleeping or drunk in a tavern that night, on duty.

5. Lincoln was intending to go with General Grant, and much more security, however, Mrs. Grant and the first lady did not get along, and Grant declined the invitation later in the day.

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Richard Scotti

10/24/2011 9:41:09 AM

Lincoln's secretary was named Mrs. Kennedy and JFK' s secretary was named Mrs Lincoln.

Both Lincoln and Kennedy were shot in the head on a Friday.
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, Kennedy in 1946.
Lincoln’s successor (named Johnson) was born in 1808. Kennedy’s successor (also named Johnson) was born in 1908.

Lincoln was the tallest president in US history at 6' 4" and James Madison was the shortest at 5' 4"

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Tom O'Brien

10/24/2011 3:30:00 PM

Just saw the movie, "The Conspirator," about the trial of one of the alleged conspirators in the assassination. The film makes her out to be innocent. I won't tell you the ending.

Little known fact: They shaved Abe's beard post-mortem in order to make a death mask. I've always wondered what happened to the hair? Wouldn't that be a treasure to have? Another thing: Abe was the first president to be embalmed, a new process at the time.

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Steve April

10/26/2011 4:40:32 PM ---- Updated 10/26/2011 4:41:38 PM

yes, there's many parallels or wierd coincidences between the Lincoln assassination and jfk's, like you pointed out Richard.

wonder what that implies??? any theories???

yeah tom, gee I didn't know that. but i do recall, that Lincoln's casket was open while his funeral train crossed the U.S., so many wanted to pay their respects, millions of people. also, who knew, one of Lincoln's sons had recently died in his childhood, and they displayed the two caskets together.

supposedly lincoln had a dream a couple weeks prior, that he shared w a few people, like a premonition of what would happen. or maybe mary made that up later to embellish, i dunno???

good to hear from you, au revoir for now.

p.s.

you're specially invited to check out the new "Houdini" version, makin' progress hopefully...

=============================================

here's a few "coincidences" like Richard mentions...

Look what happens when a President gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end.
1840: William Henry Harrison (died in office)
1860: Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
1880: James A. Garfield (assassinated)
1900: William McKinley (assassinated)
1920: Warren G. Harding (died in office)
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (died in office)
1960: John F. Kennedy (assassinated)
1980: Ronald Reagan (survived assassination attempt)
2000: George W. Bush ????????????

And to think that we had two guys fighting it out in the courts to be the one elected in 2000.
You might also be interested in this.
Have a history teacher explain this if they can.
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

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Shoe City Sound

10/27/2011 9:59:07 AM

Damn! had no idea about any of this stuff ... interesting ... thanks for posting

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Richard Scotti

10/27/2011 2:07:43 PM

The law of averages says that any amount of coincidences can happen and there is no spiritual or supernatural reasoning behind it. Given enough time, all events in history can repeat themselves in different but very similar ways. It's like the analogy of putting a million monkeys in a room with a million typewriters for a million years.
They (and their descendants) would eventually type all the works of Shakespeare.
It's all about math and randomness.

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Stoneman

10/27/2011 4:00:22 PM

What a great post. I really enjoyed reading all these great historical facts. Do I believe that they have any correlative meanings? Well, I must say that the evidence presented here is quite compelling. I can't help but wonder what it all means. However, as a descendent of slaves I am very thankful that both of these great men were born and did the things they did. Too bad that there haven't been a lot more like them. I believe that the true measure of greatness lies in the lasting effects that your works have had on others. The most important correlation between these two men (in my opinion) is that they both stood up for righteousness in the face of an evil precedence. I am sure that they knew (as did MLK) that their stand would make them targets for assassination. Yet they stood anyway. That's what I call bravery!

Much Respect,
Stoneman

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Richard Scotti

10/29/2011 10:21:45 AM

The common thread that runs through many great leaders of the past and present is a fearlessness that allows them to bring about change and influence the course of history. Unfortunately, people who speak truth to power are often targeted because they are a threat to those who are committed to the status quo. We owe a debt of gratitude to the dreamers and the populists who inspire us and risk their lives for the ideals that so many of us share. A new wave of the disenfranchised are rising up on the shoulders of the brave souls who came before them. I hope and pray that they will
stay peaceful but strong as they try to reclaim the American Dream.

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Steve April

10/29/2011 7:05:43 PM

richard, stoneman, pleased to add your music to m'stations recently.

kudos...

gotta run aT THE MOMENT...

Man Mistakes The Moon For UFO, Dials Emergency Line (AUDIO, POLL)
The Huffington Post

A Hertfordshire, U.K. man must be feeling pretty embarrassed after making an emergency call to report a mysterious flying object, which turned out to be nothing less than the moon itself.

Or was it just a bad prank?

"It's not an emergency per se," the caller says to the dispatcher, "but there's something flying over our house. Um, It's coming towards me now, there's all this light blazing. I don't know what the hell it is!"

The call was received after 8 p.m. on a recent, unspecified night according to the Metro. The caller seems fairly serious -- even panicked -- but it's hard to imagine anyone could make this type of mistake.

However, once he's realized his astronomical goof, he makes a second 999 call (the British equivalent of dialing 911) and the woman who answers is not amused.

"You're not going to believe this," the man admits. "But it's the moon."

"Right okay, I'll look at that but we're really busy so I'm going to have to go now. Right. Okay, thanks. Goodbye," she says as he apologizes...

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Stoneman

10/29/2011 7:30:16 PM

Ah yes, the American Dream. I often wonder what that really means. I am sure that if we asked 50 people we would probably get 50 different answers. I love the term "rise up" (there's a song in that term somewhere) Anyway, I love it because it has once again become a call for people to stand up for something bigger than themselves and more important than their own lively hood. Lord knows that in my day I rose up! I marched and I sang a dear song about overcoming the evil of my day. Now, it's just too painful to stay upright too long. Hehehehe, thank God for my cane. But I digress. I keep hearing people say things like it's time to take the country back. Did someone steal it? I guess we have to have someone to blame. Right? Greed, Wall Street? Obama? Bush? Congress? The Senate? Liberals? Conservatives? Socialists? War mongers? Peace niks? Bankers? Rich People? Poor People and what about the illegal aliens? The list goes on and on and never seems to stop. Some folks even blame old folks who collect Social Security. How dare they have a so called "entitlement". Go figure!

I didn't have the American Dream when I was growing up. My dream was to someday have parents that loved me or just one day without a physical beating from the insane person who made it her daily mission to make me bleed. But now? I have almost everything I ever wanted. Well, there is that small thing about being a great successful songwriter. But I am not dead yet so that still may happen someday.

What am I saying? The American Dream is such a huge catch phrase that people on all sides continue to throw it out to us like were dumb fish in a stream waiting to be caught. MLK had a dream. Despite many great changes in this nation, his dream has not come true. Does his dream even count for anything? Well, he was an American. But, so are the Native Americans (Indians, to the non politically correct) whose dreams have been stifled by the fact that they were almost wiped off the face of the earth. There was a time when the genocide of those people was the American Dream. We killed them and took all of their land. But, okay, sorry for continuing to be the voice that howls at a wall that never listens or refuses to remember. I can't help but wonder when all of the so called factions of this nation will come to agreement on what the American Dream truly is or should I say "was". Maybe then we can all strive to bring it back.

So many people talk about the good old days. My recollection of those days is not so good. Let's see, I couldn't vote, eat in the same restaurants or even use the same bathroom as some people. I lived in a slum and was treated like a criminal everywhere I went. I got shipped off to fight a war against a people that had never done anything to me or my people. Then, I came home and was immediately spit on and called a baby killer by other so called Americans. What a dream! I worked 3 jobs just to earn enough to feed my family. I always had to work twice as hard and long in order to receive a fraction of the benefits and pay that others did. Those were the good old days?

On the other hand, I became the first person in my family since the emancipation to own a home, earn a college education and retire to a town where very few people look like me or even understand how I got here. Do I have the American Dream now? Or, is the American Dream something that continues to evolve with time? I don't know. I just know that the nightmare that was once my life has begun to fade while the gifts derived from hard work, perseverance and a whole lot of faith shine brighter each day for me. My current dream is to be regular every day. Okay, young folks would never understand that joke.

Never the less, I see these young people who are willing to risk their lives by occupying and I want to hold up my fist and say "power to the people". Then I realize, Damn, I am old. Nobody says that shit anymore. I wonder is this their time? Their moment in history when everything that upsets them will be changed? With a unknowing smile I pray that they will bring forth a lasting change that will finally define for me and the rest of the nation what the American Dream truly is. Maybe then we can all stop fighting about it and spend more time living in it like its not even a dream.

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Stoneman

10/29/2011 7:37:11 PM

Thanks so much for adding my music to your station Steve!

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Steve April

10/31/2011 9:42:33 PM

here's a short bio by abe lincoln (1859), in his own words, before he ran for president of the United States.

Lincoln wrote this second autobiography for Jesse Fell, a long-time Illinois Republican friend who was a native of Pennsylvania. Fell used his influence to get the piece incorporated in an article appearing in a Pennsylvania newspaper on February 11, 1860.
=====================================

"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or 2, where, a year or two later, he was killed by indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New-England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite, than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like.
My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, litterally [sic] without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals, still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin, writin, and cipherin" to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard [sic]. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New-Salem (at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County), where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store. Then came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten--the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this Legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practise it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a whig in politics, and generally on the whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses--I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.
If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes--no other marks or brands recollected."

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Steve April

11/6/2011 7:29:13 PM

a propos of nothing, here's a link to a fun video and a funny take on how a well known band got their name...

Band name originThe official commentary included in the CD set Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965-1975 states that vocalist Danny Hutton's then-girlfriend June Fairchild suggested the name after reading a magazine article about indigenous Australians, in which it was explained that on cold nights they would customarily sleep in a hole in the ground whilst embracing a dingo, a native species of wild dog. On colder nights they would sleep with two dogs and if the night was freezing, it was a "three dog night".[1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA4gAYix6S0&NR=1

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Richard Scotti

11/7/2011 7:38:10 AM

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the eloquent and important speeches of all time:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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Tom O'Brien

11/7/2011 11:46:52 AM

Talk about a crescendo! I almost get chills at the end of that speech. Memorized it in the 6th grade. Can still recite most of it.

My great link with history - my father is 85. His kindergarten teacher, an older woman, was actually present as a child when the speech was given!

Anybody else have any odd links with historical figures?

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Birdland

11/7/2011 8:59:30 PM ---- Updated 11/7/2011 9:02:36 PM

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Steve April

11/7/2011 9:04:02 PM

Richard, the gettysberg address rocks...maybe there's a song there lol...

my "link" with Natalee Holloway may qualify, in response to Tom's note.

a link that shook me to my foundations...

p.s.

if you care to show me a rational explanation, I'd welcome the dialogue.

"through a glass darkly" anyway...

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Steve April

11/19/2011 2:42:08 PM ---- Updated 11/20/2011 1:02:09 PM

new version of "houdini," and "lilacs for lincoln" up today.

we may remember this...abraham, martin and john...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ki_osW5RsA

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ison and april, our Back Pages

11/27/2011 11:54:30 PM ---- Updated 11/27/2011 11:56:14 PM

there's much about houdini controversial to this day. i've pledged to work "Rosabelle" into my verse, however haven't yet...

HOUDINI SÉANCES

Each Halloween since 1927, believers have gathered in séance circles
in an attempt to contact the spirit of Houdini.

Houdini was the most famous escape artist of all time. But was he able to escape Death?

If anyone could return from The Other Side, it certainly would have been Houdini. Like many people, Houdini desperately wanted to believe that Spiritualism exists, that we can communicate with the spirits. Of course, Houdini recognized tricks when he saw them, and decided to devote half of his stage act to duplicating the methods used by the mediums, exposing the frauds to the public. This pitted the famous magician against the popular mediums of the day, including Margery Condon. The exposure of Margery's methods became a large part of Houdini's show, right up until the end of his life.

But just because Houdini was skeptical did not mean that he was a complete disbeliever. On the contrary. Despite his skepticism, Houdini and Bess promised each other that whoever died first would try to contact the other "from the other side". He and Bess devised a secret message, a code phrase that would be used. The phrase was one they had used years before in their vaudeville mindreading act. The message was, "Rosabelle- answer- tell-pray, answer- look- tell- answer, answer- tell". Bess' wedding band bore the inscription "Rosabelle", the name of the song she sang in her act when they first met. The other words correspond to a secret spelling code used to pass information between a magician and his assistant during a mentalism act. Each word or word pair equals a letter. The word "answer" stood for the letter "B", for example."Answer, answer" stood for the letter "V". Thus, the Houdinis' secret phrase spelled out the word "BELIEVE".

After Houdini died in 1926, Bess began the tradition of holding a séance on the death annivarsary to see whether Houdini, the Man No Jail Could Hold, could indeed escape from death...
magictricks.com

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Steve April

11/30/2011 12:38:01 PM ---- Updated 12/1/2011 12:33:13 AM

Houdini also flies airplanes and becomes an expert in demystifying (debunking) mediums and psychics...

"Rosabelle" was his codeword, so his wife would know if he'd returned...

Houdini http://www.iacmusic.com/newsongs.aspx

p.s.

new version EXPERIMENTAL, and EXCITING (hopefully)

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Steve April

12/5/2011 2:54:59 PM

APRIL 14, 1865

For President Abraham Lincoln, things looked brighter on Friday, April 14, 1865 than they had for a long time. Five days earlier, General Robert E. Lee effectively ended the long nightmare of the Civil War by surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia, and just the previous day, the city of Washington celebrated the war's end by illuminating every one of its public building with candles. Candles also burned in most private homes, causing a city paper to describe the nation's capital as "all ablaze with glory." The President decided he could finally afford an evening of relaxation: he would attend a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington.
About eight-thirty, the President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his date, Clara Harris, arrived in a carriage at Ford's Theatre on Tenth Street. As the presidential party entered the theatre, the play was stopped and the band struck up "Hail to the Chief." The audience stood to give the President a rousing standing ovation.
The presidential party took their seats in a specially-prepared box on the left side of the stage. During the second scene of the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a southern-sympathizing actor, climbed the stairs to the mezzanine. He showed a card to Lincoln's valet-footman and was allowed entry through a lobby door leading to the presidential box. Reaching the box, Booth pushed open the door. The President sat in his armchair, one hand on the railing and the other holding to the side a flag that decorated the box, in order to gain a better view of a person in the orchestra. From a distance of about four feet behind Lincoln, Booth fired a bullet into the President's brain as he shouted "Revenge for the South!" (according to one witness) or "Freedom!" (according to another). Major Rathbone sprang up to grab the assassin, but Booth wrested himself away after slashing the general with a large knife. Booth rushed to the front of the box as Rathbone reached for him again, catching some of his clothes as Booth leapt over the railing. Rathbone's grab was enough to cause Booth to fall roughly on the stage below, where he fractured the fibula in his left leg.
Rising from the stage, Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannus!" and ran across the stage and toward the back of the theatre.** Ed Spangler, a Ford's theater stagehand, opened a rear door as Booth rushed out to a horse being held for him by Joseph Burroughs (better known as "Peanuts"). Booth mounted the horse and swept rapidly down an alley, then to the left toward F Street--and disappeared into the Washington darkness.
About 10:15, the same time as Booth fired his fatal shot, two men well known to Booth, Lewis Powell and David Herold, approached the Washington home of Secretary of State William Seward, where the Secretary lay bedridden from a recent carriage accident. Powell knocked on the door of Seward's home as Herold waited outside with his horse. Powell told the servant who answered the door, William Bell, that he had a prescription for Secretary Seward from his doctor. Over Bell's objections, Powell began walking up the steps toward the Secretary's room. One of the Secretary's sons, Frederick Seward, confronted Powell. Seward told Powell he would take the medicine, but Powell insisted on seeing the Secretary. When Seward continued to refuse him entry to the bedroom, Powell clubbed him violently with his revolver (fracturing Seward's head so severely that he would remain in a coma for sixty days), then slashed the Secretary's bodyguard, George Robinson, in the forehead with a bowie knife. Finally reaching the Secretary in his bed, Powell--shouting, "I'm mad, I'm mad!"--stabbed him several times before he could be pulled off by Robinson and two other men. Powell raced down the stairs and out the door to his bay mare.
Sometime after 10:30, Booth approached the Navy Yard bridge leading over the Potomac to Maryland. Questioned by the sentry guarding the bridge about his purposes, Booth said he was "going home" to his residence "close to Beantown." The sentry allowed Booth to pass. Five to ten minutes later a second rider, David Herold, approached the bridge. Herold told the sentry his name was "Smith" and had been "in bad company" and wanted to get home to White Plains. The sentry decided to let Herold pass. Shortly thereafter, Booth and Herold met up.
Booth and Herold arrived around midnight in Surrattsville, where they proceeded to a home and tavern kept by John Lloyd. Herold burst into Lloyd's home shouting, "Lloyd, for God's sake, make haste and get those things!" Lloyd, without replying, turned to get two carbines that had been delivered three days earlier by Mary Surratt, owner of the tavern. Herold took the carbines and a bottle of whiskey. He gave the whiskey bottle to Booth, who drank from it while sitting on his horse. In less than five minutes, they were off again, heading south.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the President lay dying in a private home across the street from Ford's Theater. Without ever regaining consciousness, he would live for seven more hours.
--doug linder, the trial of the lincoln assassination conspirators, 2009

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Richard Scotti

12/6/2011 7:23:55 AM

Daniel Day Lewis will be playing Lincoln in a new movie coming out soon. I don't think there has really been a definitive movie about Lincoln that really captures the essence of the man and the times he lived in. Maybe this new flick will be the one.

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Birdland

12/7/2011 2:05:01 PM ---- Updated 12/7/2011 2:06:02 PM

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Steve April

12/7/2011 2:07:15 PM ---- Updated 12/7/2011 2:07:35 PM

hi Richard,

how about Al Pacino??? lol...

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Steve April

12/17/2011 3:17:54 PM ---- Updated 12/17/2011 3:19:14 PM

1. tom hanks connection to abe lincoln...

"Tom Hanks is a third cousin, four generations removed, of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Their common ancestor is John Hanks (1680 - 1740), who was the great-great-grandfather of Lincoln, and the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Tom Hanks..."
abe's blog cabin

2. So came the Captain with the mighty heart;
And when the judgment thunders split the house,
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest,
He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again
The rafters of the Home. He held his place—
Held the long purpose like a growing tree—
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise.
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.
edwin markham

3. “In thousands of commentaries Lincoln incarnated two results- Emancipation and Union.

Now, Too, as Lincoln had pledged, a whole mesh of trammels and clamps on Western migration were to be cut loose. The many homesteaders held back by political bickering could get along. And the Union Pacific railway could begin laying its rails; the jealousies suffocating it were out. With almost explosive force the industrial, financial and transportation systems of the North could be let loose, free to go. The war had done that. Now also, as a result flowing from the war, the United States was to take its place among nations counted World Powers. And as a World Power the expectation was it would be a voice of the teachings of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson-and Lincoln-speaking for republican government, for democracy.

Out of the smoke and stench, out of music and violet dreams of the war, Lincoln stood perhaps taller than any other of the many great heroes. This was in the mind of many. None threw a longer shadow than he. And to him the great heroe was The People. He could not say too often that he was merely their instrument.”
carl sandburg

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Conversation Suicide

12/17/2011 6:06:16 PM

If all of the historical and poetic words scribed about Lincoln are even a wee bit close to the truth; he was truly an amazing man.

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