The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-05

figures to his sick victims bed. There
was gre4t confusion and terror among the 4
tscit and rash conspirstors on Tbursday |
night. They had looked upon the plot IS
of melodramA, and found to their horror
that John Wilkes Booth meant to do muir |
der.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE ACT.
Six weeks before the murder. young John
Surratt had taken two splendid repeating
carbines to SurrsttsviDe and told John
LLOYD to secure them. The latter made, a
hole in the wainscotting and suspended
them from strings, so that they fell within
the plastsred walls of the room below. On
the very afternoon of the murder, Mrs.
Surrstt wss driven to Surrattsville, and she
told John Lloyd to have the csrbines ready
because they would be called for that
night Herold was made qusrtermasterI
and hired the horses. He and Abzerodt
were mounted between eight clock and the
time OF the murder, and riding about the
streets together.
The whole party was prepared for long
ride, IS their spurs aud gSuntlets show. 1t
NAV have been their dssign to ride IN COM
psnv to the Lower Potomac, and by their
numbers exact subsistence and Transports
tion: but all editices Of murder lack cor
ner stone. We only know that Booth ate
and talked well during the day. that he
never seemed 80 deeply involved in toll"
and that there is hiatus between his sup
per here ana his appearance at Forfs
Theater.
BOASTS OF BLOOD.
Lloyd, may interpolate, ordered his
wife. few days before tie murder, to go
on a visit to Aliens Fresh. She says she
does not know why she was 50 sent away
but swears that it is 80. Herold, three
weeks before the murder, visited Port To-
bscco, and said that the next time the
bows heard of him he would be in Spain;
he added that VIII Spain there was no ex-
tradition treaty. He said at SurrsttsVille
that be meant to make barrel of money,
or his neck would stretch
Abzerodt said that if he ever came to
Port Tobacco again he would be rich
enough to buy the whole place.
Wilkes Booth told 8 friend TO go to
Fcrd's on Friday night and see the best
acting in the world
THE AssAssIN's MARX TIME
At Ford's Theatre, on Friday night,
there were many ISLANDERS in the neIgh-
borhood of the door, and along the dress
circle in the direction of the private box
where the President sat.
The play went on pleasantly, though
| Mr.. Wilkes Booth, an observer of the su-
! dienee, visited the stage and took mole of
| the positions His alleged sssociste, the
stage carpenter, then received quiet orders
| to clear the passage by the wings from the
prompter's post to the stage door. All
| this time, Mr.. Lincoln, In his family circle,
unconscious of the death that crowded fast
upon him, watched the pleasantly and
smiled and felt heart-full of gentleness.
! Suddenly there was 3 murmur near the
! audience door, as of man speaking above
his bound. lie said:
"Nine o'clock and forty-fve minutes y
These words were reiterated from mouth
to mouth until they passed the theatre
door and, were heard upon the sidewalk
Directly voice cried, in the same slight
] II raised monotone:
"Nine o'clock and fifty minutes"
This also passed from man to man, until
it touched the street like shudder.
"Nine o'clock and ffty-fve minutes =
next interval, each of which narrowed TO
lesser span the life OF the good Presi-
dent.
Ten o'clock here sounded, and conspir-
ing echo said in reverberstion
"1en o'clockl'
So like creeping thing, from lip to lip,
it went.
"Ten o'clock and ten minutes"
Gan interval
"Ten o'clock and ten minutes
At this instant Wilkes Booth appeared
in the door OF the theatre, and the men
who had repested the time so faithfully
and SO ominously scattered at his coming,
as at some warning phantom.
All this is SO d -smstic that fear to ex-
cite laugh when write it, but it is true
and proven, and do not say it but re-
port it.
AEETpnz1
All evil deeds go wrong While the
click of the pistol, taking the Presidents
life, went like psDg through the thester,
Payne was spilling blood in Mr. Seward s
house from the threshold to sick chamber.
But Booths broken leg delayed him or
made him lose his general cslmness, and
he and Herold left Payne to his fate.
1 have not sdverted to the hole bored
with gimlet in the entry door of Mr..
/ Lincoln's box, and cut out with penknife.
The theory that the pistol-bsll of Booth
passed through this hole is now exploded.
And the stage carpenter may have to ans
wer for this little orifce with all his neck.
For when Booth leaped from the box he
strobe straight across the stage by the foot
lights, reaching the prompter's post, which
is Immediately behind that private box op-
! posite TO Mr.. Lincoln. From this box 10
the stage door in the rear, the passsge-wEy
leads behind the ends of the scenes and Is
generally either closed up by one or more
Withdrawn scenes, or SO narrow that only
by doubling and turning sidswiss can one
| psss along On this fearful night, how
ever, the scenes weIe so adjusted to the
murderer's design that he had free aisle
from the foot OF the stage to the exit door.
THE TELEGRAPH WIRES SEVERED.
| Within fifteen minutes sfter the murder
wires we're severed entirely around the city,
excepting only secret wire for govern
ment uses, which leads to Old Point. T
am told that by this wire the government
reached the Notifications around Washing.
ton, first telegrsphing all the way to Old
Point, and then back to the outlying forts.
This information comes to me from SO
many creditable channels that must con-
cede it.
FLIGHT OF THE MURDERERs.
Payne fed first northward toward
Baltimore, laYing probably mistaken
the road. Near Fort Lincoln he was
thrown from his horse, and after Disgusting
himself came back to Mrs. Surratt's house,
in Washington, where he was first arrest
ed by the officers. We have already de-
scribed the fight and arrest of AbEsrodt.
HOW WOMAN CAN MURDER.
Coarse, and hard, and calm, Mrs. Surratt
shut up her house after the murder, and
waited with her daughters till the officers
came. She was imperturbable, and re-
buked the girls for weeping and would
have gone to Jail like statue, but that in
her extremity, Payne knocked at her
door. He had come, he said, to dig ditch
for Mr.. Surrstt, whom he very well knew.
But Mrs Sufrstt protested that she had
never seen the man at all, and had no
ditch to clean.
allow fortunate, girls" she said, "thst
these officers are here; this man might
have murdered us all"
Her effrontery stamps her as worthy of
compsnionship with Booth. Payne has
baan idantihad bv a l0dpar of Mrs Sur.