The Cecil Whig., 1872-01-13
The Murder Of Fisk.


on Saturday afternoon last, about o'clock
by Edward s. Stokes, on the step of the
grand Central Hotel. New York. A wo-
man, Miss or Mrs. Mansfield, was at the
bottom Of the affair. Stokes waited for
his victim for some time at the Hotel, and
as he approached, ascending the steps of
the Hotel porch, Stokes fired deliberately
down on him, the ball entering the ahdo-
men of Fisk. A second shot took effect in
the flesh of one of his arms. The wound in
the abdomen proved to be mortal, and the
Prince of Erie died the next morning be.
tween ten and eleven o'clock. The muir
derer was arrested and lodged in Jail to
await his trial. Among the panegyrics
pronounced upon the life of the deceased.
the following from the Philadelphia Ersn-
ing Telegraph, from the knowledge we have
acquired of the man, seems to be the most
truthful:
THE PRINCE IS DEAD.
The magnificent Prince of Erie is dead;
shot down like dog, at MONDAY, in the
very prime of his manhood and the height
of his fame. Flushed with new triumphs
over Justice, whose temple he had SO often
profaned, he lived only long enough after
securing them to see how tawdry they
were.
A man Of tremendous mental strength,
Of singular force and energy of will; Gun
ming, INSCRIPTIONS, brilliant, and magnet.
ic, he became possessor of millions, the
dictator of judges and rulers, welding an
influence second to that of no other indi-
vidual in the United States occupying 4
rivate station. Law makers and law Civ
ers he bent to his will, and honers and
wealth fell thick upon him.
We speak of him exactly according to
the record he left behind him. He had
friends, so he must have had some virtues;
but whatever they were. he buried them
deep beneath his vices. BY the latter, only
the wo Id knew him; dying, the great rob-
ber Tweed stood by his bedside or rather
10y the side of the bed of which the stock
holders of Erie had been robbed. All the
later years of his life were those of one
who set justice and honor and virtue at
defiance; he had one thought--that of be-
ing rich. He had the appetites of beast,
and he needed money to crafty them; 4
sensualist, he hired a theatre from which
decency was banished by lewdS imported
from the worlds chief city of lewdness. -
He devoted it to the grossest exhibitions of
nude vulgarity, and he made traffic of
virtue upon his own stage.
He put aside his wife and lived with
bawds; he outraged morality daily; ate,
drank. and made merry with the moneys
he stole from widows and orphans, and at
last was shot down by the paramour of his
former mistress.
1t was a jolly enough career while it last
ed, but scarcely one to be emulated. He
had that vitality and strength of brain that
he made his mark upon the period in
which he lived; but his influences upon his
times was all bad. The danger of it was
| that it always corrupted. He went through
the world poluting as he went. He never
| touched hand of man or lip of woman
without staining it with the ineffaceable
stain.
The very magniicence in which he lived,
his grand state ani display, were taken by
! better men as evidences of the futilty of
honesty and the success of dishonesty
| His very carriage-wheels were gilded with
the gold he had stolen, and they flung the
dirt of the highways upon humber men
| who wondered if, after all, there were not
some vital mistake in the old adage of in
teSri.y oeins .he oes' Poics'
VIZ 'hey ash tie quTstio,i u, now aS '.e
magniilcent FIinGe o! Ere hes deao' rid-
oleo oy pistol ouiiets: IT IS Always Just
as wen ior oouDters Oh trtth 10 walt lof the
eno. IL IS no. aione IN 'he tawdry melo-
arau'. y, t..e staSe ,l''t me 'iiiian Is met
ny retrioutlve justice. lanes rlSh' Jr,
| iiau his chances III me- Tpd gives 10 Dut
,e" INCL, .'io '"s' aoiil.'es ~ iAe gave ~ MIL
| II ahytnihg were lei, l'icompiete III MS
| orSahlzatioh' II must nave oeeh the sense
| ana aied III II: ne eiecUed 10 iiVe IN lts
atmosphere ne soio h'tiSeii oooy ana
soul TO MS passions, ana kdowinS no high
er, nobler creed than Sell aud the pleasures
OF Self. he followed that alone. We know
what he might have done with the gifts he
| had: We know, also, what he did do with
| them lie might have been good man,
but preferred to be bad one. He chose
his way, and that 1t led to sudden and
awful death is not astonishing. He wrong
| ed others, polloSed the public morals, brib-
| ed Judges and Juries and legislators, made
| a show and parade of dishonesty, and died
in sore need at last.
We cannot gloss over his life. 1t is bet
ter to consider the living than the dead.
The truth cannot hurt him and 1t may do
great deal OF good to those whom his
example taught to look with disfavor upon
| an honorable, honest life.
me'u ~ ia'Ia re. .'iaI L;", WI ""S opei 70 .iiu