Sunday Firesides: A Man of 50 Is Responsible for His Face

Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln, was talking with an associate, when another member of his department walked by. Stanton remarked that the middle-aged officer was “a pretender, a humbug, and a fraud,” and asked rhetorically whether his companion had ever seen anyone who so resembled a codfish.

Stanton’s companion was taken aback,…