THE MURDER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Evening Star, Issue 4156, 23 June 1876, Page 4

THE MURDER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

ynifl WffiTMAN’SAC(X)T7NT OF THE TBAOEDY. lie following vivid description of the c scent !i Jor®B , Theatre, Abraham lid&tt-iftM. tftltttopabed, Ifc* •*. forthcoming riStr-lfotofrof '* “On this occasion (Aprih ? T4 ? : the' 4 theatre^'^rdt»d^ liadfeß 'ift rich i hi their fibifornur,' \ usual clusters of gashghtsjfthb'*'usual l mag-‘ *> netfsmt df'T so I(many people,' cheerful, with 1 hift.wife,. . witnessed the play from the large stage boxes of the thrown into one, and- profttsely ;draped the na*' - tional flag.- 4 -.Sets T Wedes ? bf the piece—one of thhWd' ( smgnlarly witless - - the to . f .an j: ,«u-----dience engagQd t in. menmlfadtion or ebusiness excitements and caijpa the day, as it makes not the slightest call on either the o\ qgiiotaalnalmre ; —apiece (“ Our American Cousin”) in which# among 1 certainly anbhan/Gne’&h or the least like it evbr*sehh fn?North America, is introduced,mEnglap(^mth f a. varied fol-de-rol of < td i mhfc6 np popular rjpfogjcqssed, throng, v p3rnips| J |'&, jianpleL,d( ’its.shen, in thd such,whatever i£ is to bj& called, andjto, off-set j,t.;OP finish.it out,-as if in nature’s ahd||ih9 'great ihnse’s . mockery of these poor coineSiiintorpolated ; that . scene, not really Vr exactly to be. described at all (for on Jhe’ r mahyi..handredfl' who wOrerthere it seems to this honr to have left little bat a passing blur, a dream;* a blotch), and yet partially td-hfe deTsoribed $T gwetti’-'i- Tntre-ls a 'scPhe’ in the repfe-. seating a modern parlor, in which two an- : precedented EngUsh. ladles; are informed by the Onmecedentea and impossible Yankee, that he is.not a, man, of fortune,, and therefore undesirable for. purposes ; after which,' The' comments being finished, the leaving the stage' clear moment. There wasjß p»u^e» r thisperi’od came the murder of Abraham Lincoln. Great as that was, with all its manifold train circling round it and f stretching into the future for many, a r centuryin the‘politics, history, art, etci: f ; ®6f thd I 'Wpild, in point of fact the main ‘the. actual murder, transpired .with i and sitn- . plicity of any 'commonest' occurrence—the bursting of %-hnd pr pod in; the growth of vegetation, 'for instance. Through the general hum following the-stage pause, with the change of positions, &c., came the muffled sorfnd bt ai pistol '4hot, Vhich hdt? one hundredth part of the audience heard ah thetiffle l ypta —somehow, surely' ir vague, j startled thi-ill—and thp i ornamented, drapemed/ space-way. of the President’s box'a sadden figure—a man raises himself with Jfisnda ,:and Je6t, stands a moment on the railing,-leaps below to the stSfcoifb dfitaihc«Bof< perhaps 14ft ; 'or Tfifip MmtM fp«atiotf,‘ catching ; his bodt-hefel' cdpibuS drapery (the American 0 flag),; falb : b’S , one knee, quickly recovers'-Himself# if [nothing had happened r (he really sprained his ankle, but unfelt then),' and so the figure, Bo&thP t)ie • murderer, dressed in plain black MoMcToth, bareheaded; with a railheadpf,.gloeay, Tayen hair, f and.hiß[eyes liki'sbriief- light and resolutibm,yet(with strange calmness, hoidiug. moft m ono hand a large knife • walks along npt much backirom the footlights—turns' fully towards thfe artrdience, hia face of statuesque be&uty/lit / by( those basilisk eyes, flashing wTthf,dßSp'fei,'atr<jih—perhaps insanity—lauches out in -a firm.and steady voice, the words, Sic tempi® t tyranis —and then walks with nor rapid paces diagonally ahroasthe back of the stage, and disappears.-.; (Had ppt. terrible scene—makingjthe mimic ones pro posterons—had it not all hPfmirehearsea in blank by Booth beforehand ?) A moment’s hushir incredulPue—a ' Aincolnc leaning -out of the box t with; ashy cheeks and lips, with involuntefY'/rciy> n Phintihg- ’the retreating figmdr}*'Hd K&s Mlfedthe President I” Aqa stm *'»ifipihent’if^^hge,' su’s.-, l ’aijd , theq ! ' .deluge j—then that. tor^M'iblihorr.or,, noises,, itneprtainty : (the back, of a horse’s hoofs clattering .with: speed) ithe people break; through-fihaira;and railings, and break them up—that noise adds to the queerness of the scene—there it yinoxtricable coufu&ion , and terror—wqmtti? faint—quite;>feeblo persons fall, and/ axe itrampled on—many cries of agony-are hoard—the, broad~ stage sqddenly fifls to suffocation i with a dense anfd motley crowd, like some 'horrible'"carnival—the audience rgek generally upon it— at least, the strong men • d^—the ■, aetpr^ ; and. : actresses are all there in their play costumes and painted .faces, with'mortal fright showing through their rouge, , some trembling, some in teats—the screams and calls, confused, talk,-?rfcdottbled; Itrehled—two or-, thrpej manage*to-pass up water from the stage :to * the President’s box—others try to clamber up-r&o* £<tsfx&o. In the. all this the soldiers of the President’s Guards, with cithers, suddenly drawn to the scene; hurst in-i-sbineiSOO; qtorm the house, through all- the tiers,- especially the Mry^rKterally 1 . theattaiehce with fixed- bayonets,* muskbtK shohtifig’ “ Clear 6tit 1 of h-^_• P-H-gfich the iaP^4 e » too. ‘ in the atmosphere of shock and craza, crowds of people, filled wsh o to seize any on individuals One such was exciting. The infunated"crowcT,' throhgh'somp ‘change,* got“ started agaipst one '.feather for. words he uttered, or Vfthott' aU, x afe once to actually.. ha»gh^jO]^^ v e;ghhonhg tfhbn he r wj»;rMone(l . by heroic policemen, who placed him in thmr midst,'and fouight theirway aanid,.,greaperil toward the Btationrhonße./? It wak a fitting episode of the Whole affair. The ci’owcl rushing and eddying tp and fro—the night, the yells,- thepale faees.’ifiariy frightened' people trying in vain to extricate themselves attacked man, not yet freed from the jaws of death, looking' like a"'corpse—the silent, resolute, half-dozen policemen with he/weapons hut their all these eddying pjvarms—made indeed a fitting side’seene tdi the rarandi,tragedy of the murder. Thiy . gained the-station-house with thoproteoted man,-whom they placed in security for the night, and discharged him in the mornihg. And in the midst of that zught pandeinpninm,'of[ senseless, hate, infuriated; Bpldiei3»; : the, audience, and the crowd —the stage, 1 and its qctora and actresses, its paint-pota,alpaUjglfiß,; and gaa-lighta / the lifebltfod irpm*those-veins, the best and sweet-' cstj bf:th®-liind, drips slowly down, and death's doze already ’begins l its little bubbles * on the lips. Snob, hurriedly sketched, were the accompaniments of the death of Presb , dent (Lincoln. : So suddenly, and in murder and h»rOT; unsurpassed, he was taken &pm lb. death was painless. - ; '

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