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EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
"I heard Abraham Lincoln . . .
He had arrived [in Kalamazoo] that morning [August 27, 1856] from Chicago . . . a tall, gaunt, smooth-shaven man with black disheveled hair and heavy eyebrows, dressed in a short alpaca coat . . . black satin open vest, wide turn down collar with black necktie and dark pants of cheap texture - the whole outfit probably not costing more than $10 in the money of the period. The people bent forward with eager curiosity to listen to the tall stranger who was probably unknown even by reputation to the great mass of his audience, and who had never been seen (but) by half a dozen men on the ground . . . He had a clear, penetrating voice of tenor quality, which reached the confines of the great crowd, and he commanded their attention from the start."—"A Happy Reminiscence of the Great American," Charles S. May, the Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, Saturday Evening, Dec. 2, 1893, p 7.
