Why Abe Lincoln Grew a Beard

Why Abe Lincoln Grew a Beard, written by Ned Jensen.

《亚伯拉罕·林肯为什么留胡子》 内德·延森 著

Loads of letters. Before texting, there was email. Before email, there were telephones. Before telephones, people wrote letters. They still do, of course. But in the 1800s, letters were the main way people reached out to each other when they weren't in the same place. Sometimes people fell in love through letters. Sometimes good news, say of a new grandchild, might reach people through a letter. Sometimes bad news of a son killed in war might reach people the same way.

要说好多好多信件。 短信出现之前，人们用电子邮件。 电子邮件出现之前，人们靠电话联系。 电话出现之前，人们靠写信交流。 当然啦，现在人们也还是会写信。 但在19世纪，当人们不住在同一个地方时，写信是互相联系最主要的方式。 有时候人们会通过写信坠入爱河。 有时候好消息，比如家里添了新孙辈，也会通过信件传来。 有时候儿子战死沙场的坏消息，也会以同样的方式送到家人手中。

Letters are still a great way to reach out to someone you might never meet in person. U .S. presidents receive thousands of letters a day and ten times that many emails. Some of those letters are funny. Some are angry. Some are sad. All of them help keep the president in touch with what's happening around the country.

对于你可能永远不会当面见到的人，写信至今仍是联系对方的好方法。 美国总统每天会收到上千封信件，电子邮件更是这个数量的十倍。 这些信件里，有的风趣幽默。 有的满是愤怒情绪。 有的带着沉沉忧伤。 所有这些信都能帮总统了解全国各处发生的事。

Sometimes children write the president. They might share a story, offer an opinion, or make a suggestion. What follows is the story of one such child, one such suggestion, and one of our most famous presidents of all.

有时候也会有小朋友给总统写信。 他们可能分享故事、表达看法，或是提出建议。 接下来要讲的，就是这样一个孩子、一条建议，和美国最著名总统之一的故事。

What about whiskers? When you look at most pictures of Abraham Lincoln, including the one on the $5 bill, he has a beard. He didn't always, though. In fact, before Abe ran for president, he was clean -shaven. No one knows for sure whether he ever even thought of growing a beard until an 11 -year -old girl living in western New York decided he should.

那胡子是怎么回事呢？ 你看绝大多数亚伯拉罕·林肯的画像，包括5美元钞票上的那幅，他都留着胡子。 不过，他可不是一直都留胡子的。 事实上，林肯竞选总统之前，一直把脸刮得干干净净，没有胡子。 直到住在纽约西部的一个11岁小女孩觉得他该留胡子，没人确定林肯之前有没有想过这件事。

The girl's name was Grace Bedell. When her father showed Grace a picture of Lincoln, she was struck by the sadness in Lincoln's eyes, the wrinkles along his mouth, and his long, thin face. She thought that Lincoln would look much better if he grew a beard. Back then, beards were often called whiskers. On October 15th, 1860, she wrote him a letter to tell him so.

这个小女孩名叫格蕾丝·贝德尔。 爸爸给格蕾丝看林肯的照片时，格蕾丝注意到林肯眼神忧伤，嘴边有皱纹，脸又长又瘦。 她觉得林肯要是留胡子，看起来会好看很多。 在当时，人们常把胡子叫做胡须。 1860年10月15日，她写了一封信给林肯，告诉了他这个想法。