Dear Abe

Does Abe Lincoln look better with a beard? Clearly, yes. What about those well-known actors? Michael Fassbender, Kristofer Hivju, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Leonardo DiCaprio. I’d say Fassbender and Hivju, yes, better WITH a beard. The rest of those guys can go either way. If anyone disagrees, send me an email. But overall, beards work. And those eight guys at the bottom are really working their beards! Can you imagine them going out to dinner? Their wives are waiting and waiting, hollering to their husbands to hurry it up or we’ll be late. And they’re still upstairs doing their hair. Hahaha!!!

Sometimes a simple observation, and the power of the pen, can change a man, and change history. At 6ft 4in our 16th President Abraham Lincoln remains the tallest of America’s 46 presidents. He also stands as one of the highest in esteem, according to polls of historians, politicians, and the general public.  Another noted physical feature was Lincoln’s beard (along with his extra tall top hat). He was the first president to have a beard – and we can thank an 11-year-old girl for that distinction.  Now, I’ll admit, I’ve grown a beard (never thought of old Abe when I did it … and never ran for office) – it came in quite nicely if I do say so myself…until Jackie had enough of it and I shaved it off. I came across this great trivia story, written by Ray Setterfield for ??? and had to share. It’s what movies are made of – a little girl, a personal letter, a new look, and a remarkable President.  And for all of my “facial hair” friends out there, please be sure to click the link below – it’s the latest Top “beard looks” (I attended a wedding over the weekend, and it seemed like more than half of the young men were sporting beards). See if you can find your look in the list (full, bushy, biker, viking??).  Shoot me an email with your favorite “beard” story too  skowalski@khtheat.com.  Enjoy!!

Check Out These Cool Beard Styles

• On this day, over 160 years ago, Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, sent a letter to Abe Lincoln in 1860, just before the presidential election, urging him to improve his appearance by growing a beard. Her letter read:

Oct 15. 1860
Hon A B Lincoln

Dear Sir

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture. . . I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. . . I have got 4 brother’s and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you   you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband’s to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is a going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get every one to vote for you that I can. . . I must not write any more answer this letter right off

Good bye
Grace Bedell

• Lincoln took Grace’s advice, grew out his beard and won the election.  He thanked her in person when his train stopped at Westfield on February 16, 1861 on his way to Washington.
• The New York World reported:
• On reaching [Westfield, Mr Lincoln] said that if that young lady was in the crowd he should be glad to see her. There was a momentary commotion, in the midst of which an old man, struggling through the crowd, approached, leading his daughter . . . whom he introduced to Mr. Lincoln as his Westfield correspondent. Mr. Lincoln stooped down and kissed the child and talked with her for some minutes.
• Her advice had not been thrown away upon the rugged chieftain. A beard of several months’ growth covers (perhaps adorns) the lower part of his face. The young girl’s peachy cheek must have been tickled with a stiff whisker, for the growth of which she was herself responsible.
• Abraham Lincoln was born into poverty in a one-room log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father, Thomas, a poor pioneer, was a farmer and carpenter, and his mother, Nancy, was a seamstress.
• Lincoln spent much of his youth working as a farmhand, but later became a merchant, a postmaster, a county surveyor and a lawyer, although he had no formal qualifications for any of these posts. He was largely self-educated and his total schooling, given to him by traveling teachers, is estimated to total only around one year
• But he was always a voracious reader and when he decided to become a lawyer, he simply taught himself the law, (now that’s a PIA (pain in the @%$) Job! for sure) then set up in practice at Springfield, Illinois, admitting later: “I studied with nobody.”
• He sat in the Illinois state legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress as a member of the Whig Party. In 1856, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party which had been formed two years earlier and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.
• Lincoln won by electoral votes but was particularly unpopular in the South where it was (rightly) feared that he would attempt to abolish slavery.  Before the new president took office, seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. Four more joined later.
• This ran counter to everything that Lincoln believed, and as many Unionists saw leaders of the breakaway states as traitors, civil war seemed inevitable.
• Fighting began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate soldiers attacked the Union’s Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. The war continued for four years and cost the lives of between 620,000 and 850,000 men. On April 9, 1865, Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war.
• Lincoln delivered the famous Gettysburg Address later that year calling for “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Months later he stood for re-election and won. In his second inaugural address he was, typically, conciliatory towards the southern states. The address ended:
• “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
• Of course, as we know, Lincoln got to serve only one month and eleven days of his second term before being shot and killed while attending a theatre performance. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a strong supporter of the Confederacy.
• “Honest Abe” remains one of the most popular presidents in American history, consistently ranked in the top three alongside George Washington and Franklin D Roosevelt. His greatest achievements are seen as ending the Civil War, abolishing slavery and developing the economy.

Perhaps all because of a little girl and the power of a simple idea.

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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