| Show Seventy-Five Seventy Years Ago This Month r The Whole World Was in Mourning for Americas America's First Martyred President 4 L c. 4 1 ti Ii 4 JI J 1 Q t I i d l t e r I A l I id r v STOP THAT John MAN MAN John Wilkes Booth flees across the stage stare of Fords Ford's theater In Washington after firing Urine the shot which ended the life Ilfe of Abraham Lincoln l From rom a drawing which appeared In Harpers Harper's Weekly April 29 1865 By fly ELMO ELl SCOTT WATSON SON Released by Western Newspaper Union i IS the evening of April I IT Ji Good 14 1865 Good 1865 Good Friday On the stage of Fords Ford's theater in Washington the famous famous fa fa- actress Laura Keene is playing in a delightful comedy comedy com corn edy Our American Cousin Joining in the laughter Daughter that sweeps through the audience from time to time is a gaunt sad faced man sitting at case ease caseIn lin In a high backed up satin holstered rocking chair in an on upper stage box Abraham Lincoln is forgetting for a afew afew few few minutes the crushing responsibilities responsibilities re re- which he as Chief Executive of a nation torn asunder in civil war wor has been bearing for four long years r The third act of the play begins The President leans over to whisper something to Mrs Lincoln who sits beside him Neither the nor Maj Harry R R. Rathbone and a Miss Harris who accompanied panted them to the theater notice that a dark moustached young man has slipped through the door at the rear of the box and is now standing behind the President The next moment there is the muffled sound of a shot It is I r unnoticed by the players on the 1 stage or the audience still chuckling chuck chuck- i. i It ling over the last funny line they f 1 have heard But the Presidents President's if head drops forward on his breast Y Startled Major Maor Rathbone looks around Through the smoke he sees the dark young man with a pistol in his hand and hears him mutter something which sounds like Freedom 1 The major maor leaps to his feet and grapples with the Intruder who slashes at him with witha a ft knife tears loose from the officers officers officer's officers officer's cers grasp and springs to the front of the box u. u As he vaults over the railing his spur catches in an American flag which drapes the front of the box lie He drops heavily to the stage with one leg doubled under him then scrambles to his feet With blood streaming from his wounded arms Rathbone rushes to the front of the box Stop that man I Stop him I he shouts The President has been shot shoU l But everyone is too stunned to move for a moment The young man waving aloft the bloody knife drags himself across the i stage and disappears in the wings But before he does so the startled actors recognize inthe in inthe inthe the white face and the black eyes blazing with fanatical hatred the familiar features of one of their own profession John Wilkes Booth I All this has taker take place in n less I time than it take to tell it The i next moment Fords Ford's theater is a pandemonium of screaming women and shouting men shoving shove shoe I ing pushing breaking chairs crashing through railings and trampling upon each other as they surge toward the stage or try to climb up to the box where the moaning Mrs Lincoln is supporting support support- ing her stricken husband and Major Ma jor Rathbone is trying vainly to open the door which the assassin had barred from the inside Now the soldiers of the Presidents President's dents dent's guard come bursting into the theater and with fixed bayonets and drawn pistols they charge I I i i b v r f I 4 Ji J i H fl n M R 1 IN SPRINGFIELD SPRINGFIELD Outside Outside the old Globe tavern where Abraham Abra Abra- ham um Lincoln and Mary Todd spent their honeymoon members of he the martyred Presidents President's cabinet and other dignitaries awaited the arrival of the funeral train rain in Lincoln's home town the he milling crowd Their hoarse shouts of Clear out I Clear out you rou sons of hell I rise above the he tumult as they drive the half halt crazed audience out of the theater the the- ater Meanwhile Rathbone has succeeded succeeded succeeded suc suc- in unbarring the door to the he box and several people among them a surgeon rush in They hey see the tall form of the President resident slumped forward in his chair har his sad eyes closed never to o open again Someone brings a shutter torn from a building near nearby nearby neary by y and they lay his gaunt form upon it They carry him out of the he theater to the house of Charles Peterson across the street Fords Ford's theater is empty deserted deserted de de- de now Its curtain has been rung ung down upon the comedy Our American Cousin and upon one of the greatest tragedies tragedies tragedies dies in American history Death at 22 A. A M. M The next morning Washington newspapers carried this story The body of President Lin Lin- coIn oln who died from an assassins assassin's I bullet at o'clock this morning mornIn morn- morn ing In ne was removed from the Peter Peter- son s t. 7 r sid ce- ce heater he- he son residence opposite Fords Ford's the theater thea ater atea to the executive mansion Ina in ina ina a hearse and wrapped In hi the American flag nag It was escorted by a small squad of cavalry and by Gen Augur and other military officials on foot A dense crowd accompanied the remains to the White House where a military guard excluded the people allowIng allowing allow allow- ing none but persons of the household household house house- hold and personal friends of the deceased to enter Gen Grant arrived here at 2 o'clock in a special special special cial train from Philadelphia His Ills presence tends somewhat to allay the excitement Leaf through the pages of James G G. G Blaines Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress published in 1886 and read there this description of the events which followed The remains of the late President President President dent lay in state at the executive executive executive tive mansion for four days The entire city seemed as a house of mourning The martial music which had been resounding in glad celebration of the national triumph had ceased public edifice edifice edi edl fice lice and private mansion were alike draped with the insignia of grief Funeral services conducted by bythe bythe bythe the leading clergymen of the city were held in the east room on Wednesday the of April Amid the solemn tolling of church bells and the still more solemn thundering of minute guns from the vast line of ot fortifications which had protected Washington the body escorted by an Ing ng military and civic procession was transferred to the rotunda of the he Capitol The day was observed throughout the Union as one of fasting asting and prayer Services Inthe in inthe inthe the churches throughout the land landwere landwere were vere held in unison with the services services ices at the executive mansion and were everywhere attended with exhibition of profound personal personal per per- grief The South In Sorrow In all the cities of Canada Business was suspended public meetings of condolence with a kindred people were held and prayers were read in the I churches Throughout the Confederate states where war had ceased but peace had not yet come the people people peo pea pie joined Dined in significant expressions expressions expressions of sorrow over the death of af him whose very name they had been taught to execrate Early in the morning of the the body was removed from the capitol and placed on the funeral car which was to transport transport trans trans- port it to its final resting place in Illinois The train which moved from the national capital was attended on its course by extraordinary manifestations of grief on the part of the people As for the story of that sorrowful sorrowful sorrowful sorrow sorrow- ful journey westward no one has ever told it better than Carl Sandburg Sandburg Sandburg Sand Sand- burg poet and Lincoln pher The closing words of his masterpiece Abraham Lincoln The War Years published this year by Harcourt Brace and company words whose stark simplicity remind one of such writings as the Gettysburg Address Ad Ad- dress dress are are these There was a funeral It took long to pass its many given points Many millions of people saw it it The line of march ran seventeen seventeen seventeen seven seven- teen hundred miles Yes there was a funeral From his White House In Washington where Washington where it began began- they carried his coffin and followed followed fol fol- lowed it nights and days for twelve days Bells tolling bells sobbing the requiem the salute guns cannon rumbling their inarticulate thun thun- der To Springfield Illinois the old home town the Sangamon nearby nearby near by the New Salem hilltop nearby nearby near by for the final rest of the cherIshed cherished cherished cher cher- dust And the night clime came with great quiet And there was rest The prairie years the war wai years vears were over |
