Excerpt from Famous Speeches, Abraham Lincoln: With an Introduction by William H. Townsend But when he rose to speak, the audience was startled at the phenomenal change in his appearance. His height of six feet four inches was majestic; his clear, high-pitched voice distinctly reached the outskirts of the biggest crowd; the deep-set eyes now flashed and twinkled; the droll, captivaring smile which expanded his furrowed cheeks revealed a mouth full of white, regular teeth, and wreathed his whole countenance in animation. Sparing in the use of gestures, Lincoln stood squarely on his feet, With hands clasped behind his back, or one hand clutching the lapel of his coat and the other hanging easily at his side. But his gaunt, loosely-knit frame had great ver tical elasticity, and when deeply moved, he would stretch himself beyond his already enormous height, throw his long, sinewy arms high above his head, pause for an instant in this attitude, and then sweep his huge fists through the air with a crashing emphasis that no one ever forgot. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.