THE ASSASSINATION OF FISK.
«. (From the News of the World.) The following are the circumstances attending the Fisk shooting case : — At 1.30 p.m. on Jan. 6 his carriage stopped a the entrance of the Grand Central HotelTt contained Fisk and a companion. The former alighted and entered the hotel for the purpose of proceeding to his rooms As he ascended the first step, Stokes came out of an adjoining passage-way, unperceived by Fisk, unbuttoned his coat, drew out a revolver, and rapidly discharged three shots at Fisk. The first lodged in Fisk's shoulder, the second whistled close by his bead, the third, with a more fatal direction, took effect in the abdomen, inflicting a mortal wound. Fisk at once staggered and felly while Stokes cast a look of hatred on the prostrate form of his victim, and said in savage terms, " I have done for the son of a b this time." Fisk evidently recognised his assailant before falling, but made no remark. Immediately after the shots were fired the hotel employes rushed to the rescue ; while some cared for the vrounded man, others seized Stokes, whojaeeing escape was impossible, made no resistance, and was promptly handed over to the police. Fisk was quickly conveyed to his room, where the surgeon of the hotel was soon in attendance upon him. , It is probable that Stokes was in an excited state of mind, caused by the proceedings at Torkville, where he was a witness in the Mansfield libel suit. For some time he is said to have been in a desperate state of mind, evidently caused by the slowness of the progress of the cases against Fisk -in which he is concerned. In June last an award of £10,000 was made in favor of Stokes, in settlement of a long claim he had aeainst Fisk. With this he was dissatisfied, and has applied to have the award set aside. The case was re-opened, and is now pending. A few minutes before 11 o'clock next morning, Fisk expired. All that unremitting medical skill and attention could do have been done, but was of no avail. Jay Gould was in attendance from an early hour in the morning. His face wore its usual calm expression, while there yet was a chance that his friend might recover. No sooner had Fisk expired, however, than Gould's fortitude gave way, and his grief found vent in tears. News of Fisk's death spread rapidly, and everywhere produced a profound sensation of deep regret. All the aspersions that his enemies had heaped upon his character were in a moment forgotten, and only his noble qualities of head and heart were remembered, his frankness, his generosity, and his charity. The scene in and around the room where the body lay was touch ing in the extreme. It became necessary to admit upstairs only those who came on business. Notwithstanding, a very large number of the friends of Fisk and guests of the hotel viewed the body. Many ladies were among them. Later in the afternoon, prior to the removal of the body to Fisk's late residence, the general public were admitted to view the body. This morning the first ominous change appeared in the patient. At the first indication of his final end he grew a little restless. His face had greater pallor, and his breathing was less easy and regular. On feeling his pulse, Dr Fisher found it was more rapid, very nearly one hundred. At half-past six o'clock, Colonel Fisk said something in a broken tone, and then closed his eyes. The change in his face had become more apparent, and the pallor more death-like, and moisture appeared on his forehead, His pulse was then over a hundred, and the doctor stood by the bedside watching the patient attentively. At seven o'clock it was first announced that he was fast sinking, and that there was danger of a sudden ending. His agony was very intense ; his pulse was at this time 130. Dr Fisher went down stairs in a hurried manner, and asked something of the night clerk, then went back again, looking very anxious. At a quarter past seven Mrs Fisk arrived. She was admitted at first into the ante-room, and soon afterwards into the bedroom. Mrs Fisk was terribly agitated at the bedside of her husband. The scene was the most heartrending that had yet taken place, and those present could not suppress their emotion. The doctors were appealed to by his wife to give some little hope, but they gently indicated that ithey dare not say there wa9 any chance of recovery. Fisk was not much moved ; at moments he was cognisant of his surroundings, but seemed never deserted by the coolness and fortitude which he displayed when first shot. At eight o'clock there was little change. At half-past eight the doctors consulted, and at nine o'clock the suppressed excitement about his bed was almost too intense to bear. At halfpast nine friends were permitted to go to his bedside, and he thanked them for coming. After this the rapidity of his decline showed itself more strongly than ever before. At ten o'clock there was eage^ suppressed whispering, as it was told in every ear that the end waa surely drawing nigh. At half-past ten he lay scarcely aware that there were any ministering to him. He turned his face to the wall, noticed no one, and ceased breathing at a quarter to eleven. Allusion being made in the foregoing to the Fisk-Mansfield suit, out of which grew the shots that closed the eventful
career of James Fisk, jun., a brief insight • into the suit will certainly interest the reader. Helen Josephine Mansfield was for years the mistress of the redoubtable Colonel, the sharer of his joys, his great wealth, and what was worse for Pisk his business secrets. There appears to have been a complete infatuation on Fisk's part for this woman, an infatuation which, as we have said, carried him to the greatest lengths. Having control of both heart and purse, no whim of the fair Helen waa ungratified, and stories of her exploits and brilliant extravagancies have rung the land. The gallant Colonel was lavish as a prince, and it is probable that he really entertained for this frail, erring woman a feeling deeper and more earnest than men usually bestow on their paramours. How, when, or by what means the snapping of this tie occurred does not much matter, but there came a time when the tie which bound these twaia was snapped asunder, never to be restored again evermore. There was a scandal, a separation, and then the matter died out and people ceased to gossip about the differences of the pair. It appears, however, tbat at the time of this separation Fisk had in his possession — so at least the fair Helen alleges — some 30,000 or 40,000 dols of his mistress's money deposited with him to be invested for her account. The refusal of Fisk to give up the amount brought about the now famous litigation. Mrs Mansfield, forswearing the Colonel, took to her arms a certain Edward 8. Stokes, a broker of some sort in New York, and the two made common cause against the recalcitrant Fisk. This suit has been in progress nearly two months, and has attracted a great deal of attention. Mrs Mansfield's appearance in the court-room as a witness created no end of a sensation, the reporters describing her beauty in glowing and rapturous terms. The suit possessed a peculiar, albeit adventitious, interest for the whole nation, because the beautiful Mansfield threatened constantly to startle the public with such revelations of Fisk's affairs and operations as should shake the country to its very centre. In these threatened disclosures it was said that Tweed, Sweeney, Hall, and the Tammany Ring, together with those concerned in the Erie corporation, would play the most conspicuous part. SKETCH OF PIBK. In 1865 the blonde, bustling, and rollicking James Fisk, junr., came bounding into the Wall street circus like a star acrobat — fresh, exuberant, glittering with spangles and turning somersaults, apparently as much for his own amusement as for that of a large circle of spectators. He is first, last, and always a man of theatrical effects — of grand transforraa. tions and blue fire. All the world is to him literally a stage, and he the best fellow who can shift the scenes the fastest, dance the longest, jump the highest, and rake up the biggest pile. His whole busiuesa career has been a series of scenic hits and stage metamorphoses. His first appearance was as the Prince of Peddlers in New England. His wagon was magnificent; his four horses sleek and mettlesome. At different points in his triumphal progress through the rural districts he was met by a train of his subalterns, who filled the sheds of the country inns with their wagons, held audience with their chief and obeyed his orders. His next appearance was as a dry goods merchant, a member of the wellknown house of Jordan, Marsh, and Co. Then quickly the scene changes once more and he looms up as a stock broker in New York with a capital of 64,000 dols, the profits of his season of merchandising. His office in Broad street was a banqueting hall, where he presided over tables which groaned daily with the most sumptuous lunches. From this period of time (1865) there has always been in the turbulent stream of Erie an under current and an upper whirl of James Fisk, Jr. Uncle Daniel welcomed him (or perhaps we should say his bank account), patted him upon the back, indoerinated him into the mysteries of pools (of course always in Erie), gave him a paternal hug, during which James saw his pile growiog small by degrees and beautifully less, and early in 1868, as he told a friend, he was not worth a dollar in the world. Six months after this the scene changed again, with much rumbling and the shifting of blazing and manycolored lights, and he stands forth with a million dollars at his banker's, the High Controller of Erie, a general theatrical manager, a steamboat potentate — in fact, Prince Erie James Jubilee Admiral James Fisk, Jr. Now the scenes shift swiftly — the eye can hardly follow them — first to Wall street, where, to use his own words, " he made Rome howl," in the Erie ring of November, 1868 ; then to the Courts ; then to the office of the Union Pacific Railway Company, amid the hammering in of great salamander safes with ponderous sledges ; then back to Wall street amid the growlings of a thousand bears and the bellowing of as many bulls, in the great gold ring of September, 1869 ; thence in the Courts once more, tampering with the Commodore's iron chest, all the while the voices of his enemies raining odium and curses upon him, which fell off like water from a duck's back, as he drives on his dozen teams, railroads, steamboats, theatres, pools, contracts, political combinations, &c, as imperturbably as a farocroupier, and as " cool as a couple of summer mornings." Boldness! boldness! Twice, thrice, and four times. Impudence! cheek ! brass ! unparrallelled, unapproachable, sublime ! Perhaps the strong point of this was in his physique. So robust, so hale, so free from the shadow of every optic derangement. His boldness, nerve, and business capacity are supplied by his physique, which also supplies him with animal spirits beyond measure. He is continually boiling over with jokes, good, bad, and indifferent. Once, when he and his father were peddling goods in New Hampshire, an old woman charged Fisk, senior, with having deceived her as kto the value of a piece of calico worth
twelve and one half cents. " "Well, now," said Fisk, junr., " I don't think father would tell a lie for twelve and a half cents., though he might tell eight of 'em for a dollar." He always seems to look upon his operations in Wall street, no matter how large they may have been, as a gigantic side-splitting farce. After the great jold break of 1869, one B , a broker, called upon him at the Erie Bailroad office, for the purpose of tendering to him 500,000 dol. gold, which ha claimed to have sold him. Now, as this amount of gold would weigh something like a ton, Fisk was well aware that B — had not brought it with him, and therefore the tender could not be legal. So, as soon as B stated what he came for, Fisk pro nptly replied — " Certainly, Mr B , we will take that gold. Here, John (calling to an attendant), go down and help Mr B •to bring up his gold.'* Poor Mr B , not having brought his ton of gold with him, could only look sheepish and retire. Fisk was one of the principal conspirators in the celebrated gold corner of September 24, 1869, or " black Friday." The extent of the operations of the clique at that time can be best understood by a few figures. The calls, or options for the delivery of gold by other parties, and the cash gold which they held, was stated to be from 80,000,000 dol. to 110,000,000 dol. The amount of " short" interest is said to have been 250,000,000 dol., the larger portion of which had been made under 144. Q-old was rushed up to 162J, and then fell solid at 135, carrying under many old established firms, and spreading terror throughout the financial world.
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Southland Times, Issue 1543, 27 February 1872, Page 3
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2,256THE ASSASSINATION OF FISK. Southland Times, Issue 1543, 27 February 1872, Page 3
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