Lincoln

"The Perfect Tribute" is an imperfect movie and then some. It is a highly romanticized account of the Battle of Gettysburg with a fictional chapter of history on Abraham Lincoln thrown in for good measure.The two-hour drama, which airs at 9 tonight on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), is based on what the producers call a "classic" short story. The 1905 story of the same name may be classic, but this film is history turned into goo -- something television does all too often with our national past.The filmmakers prettify what is not and never was meant to be pretty -- war and men's animosity toward one another -- turning it into a confection they think will be sweet enough for Sunday night family tastes.

In observance of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln tomorrow, the Department of Public Works will be closed and there will be no collection of trash, recyclables or bulk items in the city. The Quarantine Road Landfill and the Northwest Transfer Station will be closed. Public works officials ask that residents not put trash or recyclables out until Thursday, the next regularly scheduled collection day. Bulk trash pickups scheduled for Monday will take place Saturday. Residents must call 410-361-9333 at least three workdays in advance to schedule bulk pickups.

Abraham Lincoln regarded Thomas Jefferson as a shining exemplar because of his authorship of the Declaration of Independence. As we honor our 16th president tomorrow on his 185th birthday, we should recognize his skillful articulation of the high principles enunciated by Jefferson.Lincoln characterized Thomas Jefferson as ''the most distinguished politician of our history'' and noted that, ''The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of society.''Jefferson, wrote Lincoln, ''had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men at all times . . . that shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.

ALEKSANDR BESSMERTNYKH came over to me at a reception a couple of years ago, said he heard I'd written a book about Lincoln and our Civil War, and proceeded to cast Mikhail Gorbachev as the Soviet Lincoln -- dedicated to preserving his Union.I suggested this difference: Lincoln believed in human freedom and Gorbachev was trying to perpetuate a system of political slavery.Bessmertnykh, who rolled his eyes at such old thinking, became foreign minister 48 hours after "Bloody Sunday," when Red army tanks killed or injured nearly 400 unarmed Lithuanian patriots.

These were the rules: One candidate could speak for 60 minutes, the other for 90 minutes. Then, the first speaker could give a 30-minute rebuttal. At the next meeting, the roles would be reversed. The audience could applaud, hoot, whistle, cheer or jeer at will. Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln debated seven times by those rules during the summer and autumn of 1858 as part of their campaign for a U.S. Senate seat representing Illinois, helping to create a prototype for political debates to come.

Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington, by Daniel Mark Epstein. Ballantine Books. 400 pages. $24.95. The premise of Daniel Mark Epstein's new book is that the two great voices of mid-19th-century America sang in harmony and that the harmony was no accident. Leaves of Grass, Whitman's major poetic work, unlocked the poetic power of Abraham Lincoln, Epstein argues, and a love of Lincoln provided Whitman with a second act after his masterpiece. That Whitman adored Lincoln -- "I love the president personally," he wrote in his diary in 1863 -- and wrote movingly about him is well-established.

BEFORE HE BECAME the most highly rated of our presidents, Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we celebrate today, was a clever and adroit lawyer. He handled disputes involving property and debts, divorce, slander and railroad interests. While representing the Illinois Central he received his highest fee -- $5,000 for protecting the railroad's property from county taxation. Then he was forced to sue for the fee. He won that case, too.Perhaps Lincoln's most famous, challenging and emotionally tinged case was the murder trial of the son of Jack Armstrong, an old friend from Lincoln's early days in Illinois.

County Councilman Bert L. Rice donned an Abraham Lincoln costume yesterday to open a monthlong effort by West County schools and businesses to collect pennies to help Sarah's House, a shelter at Fort Meade.Dressed as the nation's 14th president on Lincoln's birthday, Rice visited O'Malley Senior Center in Odenton and four elementary schools to encourage people to donate the coins that bear Lincoln's likeness.Sarah's House, run by Associated Catholic Charities, can house 35 to 40 people in its emergency shelter and also provides apartments as transitional housing for families in crisis.

As the nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln's birthday today, many Baltimoreans may not know that his body lay in state here -- even if only briefly -- before the 16th president was taken to his final resting place.The body of Lincoln, who died April 15, 1865, came through Baltimore Friday morning, April 21, certainly one of the most sober days in the city's history.Lincoln's body was transported by a seven-car Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train. The sound of tolling brass locomotive bells marked its arrival here.

Marion E. Lincoln, a retired Social Security Administration employee and former Ellicott City resident, died of respiratory failure Tuesday at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey, Fla. She was 94. Marion Bambrey was born and raised in Everson, Pa. After graduating from high school and working there for several years, she moved to Baltimore in the early 1940s and went to work for Social Security. She retired in 1975 as a claims examiner. Mrs. Lincoln had been an active volunteer and communicant of Resurrection Roman Catholic Church in Ellicott City.