The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-07
Tho Attempted Ass.s.,...io. of James EisA.

1t is probable that since the news of the
assassination of Presid ent Liucolu reached
this city the community has not been so
much exercised as on last evening, when the
fact spread like widnre that Fisk had
been shot in the Grand Central Hotel.
1t appears that Fisk had just come
down from the Grand Opera House, and
must have been followed TO the Grand Central
by Stokes, for the latter arrived in b coupe
about the same moment as Fisk Stokes, it
appears, gained the head of the ladies' stair
case, at the first landing, before Fisk could,
and when the latter was two or three steps
from the foot Of the stairs fired twice at
him, striking him first in the right of the
abdomen and then on the left arm, each
shot taking effect An examination in
the Fisk Mansfield libel case at Yorkvile
Police Court had terminated about two hours
previously, and it will be read with much won
der that Stokes there declared he never had
any intention of doing Fisk any physical
injury. People who read all these spicy de-
tails of the loves of loose woman
and the contentious Of her admirers
laughed at them as if there was
no deviltry in all the page, no
real passions behind all the cold, calculating
move and counter-move of the willy counsel on
either side that sued out injunctions or moved
to quash them. The story of the ''fair but
frail" in this relation we do not choose to touch
Rumor that draws its conclusions in haste,
says bitter things, and woman's anguish, if
she has any heart, would be condemnation as
deep as tongue can utter had she any part in
feeding the fire of anger that promises to have
eliminated in murder.
The cowardliness Of the act which struck
down Mr.. Fisk has reaped its first fruits in
the public mind by awakening for him wide
felt sympathy. He was not dead at the hour
Of writing, and we are happy to be able to
state that there are many chances of
his wounds not proving fatal. DE NOR
tuis mil misi 6onum is a sweet motto,
and to Fisk, stricken suddenly down, this
charity Of good words was extended by thou
sands and thousands who had never. perhaps,
thought well of the man in the busy prime of
his eventful life. They remembered that he
had once been a poor, toiling lad. who had
wrought his success out OF hard,
earnest effort; that his steps up
ward, while decked with gaudy.
semi-barbaric show, were marked by
strong traces Of liberality and generosity of
spirit that threw for the time the faults of his
nature in the shade. Error is human, and
there is potent agency in life which seldom
allows evil to 60 unpunished; but who is
there so rash and blasphemous as to say that
the assassin, }impelled by his coarse or
blinded motivas, n the chosen instrument of
Heaven to hvenee the sins of q man?
The public instinct reasons quickly; but
when it judges in matters of this kind it is
seldom wrong. The very men who have
clamored against the victim of yesterday
evenings savage work were among the first to
denounce the act. The right or wrong of
the Erie Railroad management was forgotten,
and people, remembered rather that
Fisk drove four-in-hand around the
streets of New York to collect help for the
suffering thousands camped in the praIries
after the Chicago fire. They recalled not
whether he ran the Erie Railroad in the in
terest of the shareholders or his own, but that
he ran the relief train to Chicago at lightning
speed The cynicism of Marc Antony, that
the ''evil men do lives after them;
the good is oft inferred with their bones"
may have some truth in it at long distance
of time from the. demise of man, but the
reverse is the truth in case of sudden ''taking
off," whether that man be Caesar or Fisk.
| Those, too. who recollected how they joked
and gibed over Colonel Fisks part in the
terrible affair of last July; who Knocked at
his wound and doubted his courage, were
prone to forget all that and honestly
pity the sufferer so nearly ushered to his
grand reckoning with the Omnpotent at such
short notice and in SO cowardly way.
| On the part of him whom Colonel Fisk has
identified as being the man who fired the
shots we ask for no motives. The fact that
he was engaged in this law suit or
| that intrigue against the man who
fell beneath his fire will bring
| no palliation to the public mind for the crime
which he will have to answer for in Court Of
| justice. The day of private revenge is past
| between man and man in civilized commune
ties. There are, nevertheless, cases in which
juries have disagreed and have even gone
| dead against the facts In case
to acqut the maddened husband who
avenged the dishonor to his hearth.
There are, doubtless, times when a
common sentiment may cause all men to re-
volt from hanging man really guilty Of mur-
der; but no element of that kind can enter
into this case. There was no sacred right
invaded which society can take cognizance of.
and no justification which jury could con-
slider valid.