ted, it will be both an instructive and valuable
contribution to American biography.

There is so much in Mr. Medill's editorial in the Chicago "Tribune,"
and he is entitled to speak with such authority, that we print it
complete herewith.

Mr. Medill says:

THE NEW LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

It is apparent at the very outset that the new "Life of
Abraham Lincoln," edited by Miss Ida M. Tarbell, the first
installment of which appears in McCLURE'S MAGAZINE for
the current month, will be one of the most important and
interesting contributions yet made to Lincoln literature, as
it will contain much matter hitherto unpublished, and will be
enriched with a large number of new illustrations. It will be
a study of Abraham Lincoln as a man, and thus will naturally
commend itself to the people.

The first installment covers about the first twenty-one years
of Lincoln's life, which were spent in Kentucky and Indiana.
The story is told very briefly, in simple, easy style, and
abounds with reminiscences secured from his contemporaries.
It is not only full of new things, but it is so distinct and
clear in local color that an interest attaches to it which is
not found in other biographies. A large part of this credit
must be awarded not alone to the text and to its careful
editing, but also to the numerous pictures which upon every
page illustrate the context and give the scenes of the
story. It is particularly rich in portraits. Among these are
portraits from an ambrotype taken at Macomb, Illinois, in
1858, during his debate with Douglas, the dress being the
same as that in which Lincoln made his famous canvass for
the Senate; a second from a photograph taken at Hannibal,
Missouri, in 1858; a third from an ambrotype taken at Urbana,
Illinois, in 1857; and a fourth from an ambrotype taken in a
linen coat at Beardstown, Illinois.

The picture, however, which will attract the greatest interest
is the frontispiece, from a daguerreotype which his son,
Robert Lincoln, thinks was taken when his father was
about forty years old. In this picture, which bears little
resemblance to any other known portraits, he is dressed with
scrupulous care. His hair is combed and brushed down with
something like youthful vanity, and he has a smooth, bright,
rather handsome face, and without sunken cheek