The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1873-06-25
a refined brain like Booths

4
a refined brain like Booths
Booth, egOtistieai In bis plot. wan
ted no intelligence to share the hon
ors Of his self-imposed heroism. He
only wanted blind instruments to aid
him in his diabolical scheme. All
his accomplices were of that cbsrac-
ter
True to his nature, Booth mad pre-
pared means of escape for himself
Payne, stranger in these parts, had
been left ignorant Of the topography
Of the country, and even without
means Of sustenance. Booth had
taught him well the habits Of Mr..
Seward he had taught him the ply
sician's name that was to bring him
TO Mr.. Stewards couch, but had not
taught him how TO escape from the
avenging hand of justice, and Payne
fell victim 10 his own ignorance and
10 his masters satanic egotism.
/ For three days Payne roamed
about the country in the vain attempt
to conceal himself Hungered, friend
less, restless, he wandered back to
the only one who could and should
offer him aid and eomfort-he return
ed to Mrs. Surratt's. A mysterious
power was dragging him there. This
criminal, whom man did not know,
was led by necessity to the house OF
Mrs. Surratt at the very moment that
the functiOnaries of the law were ap-
pretending his accomplices. Useless
were then the reiterations of inno-
cence. There they stood, self-ae-
cused
An illustrative instance of this
mans insensibility was related to me
by Major Doster, one Of his attor-
neys in the trial:
One night Frederick Seward had
had one of those terrible hemorrhages
from his wounds that several times
had so threatened his life. Major
Doster visiting Payne the following
morning, said, payne. your case is
getting desperate; it is feared that
Frederick Seward may die at any
moment; he has had another hemor-
rhage."
Payne remained silent for a mo-
ment, then made this remark: II
think / owe Frederick Seward an
apology"
Mr.. Seward lay PROSTATE; his
wounded cheek had tumeied and in
famed. His nervous system had re-
ceived such a shock that even without
that excessive loss of blood, had di-
minished the natural resources for re-
action. His sleep was restless and
interrupted by terrible dreams We
feared that even his strong cOnstitu-
ton would finally yield. But no his
power of resistance was truly extra
ordinary ; it was principally due to
his mental strength This man, 50
foully dealt with, would struggle and
conquer in adversely. He treated his
case from high standpoint of phil
osopby He spoke OF it as of an
historical fact, avoiding individualism
and treated it as another instance Of
the madness that overcomes weak
minds in great national eonvulsions.
1t was sublime to hear this stricken
down man, with jaws screwed togeth-
er by surgical art, speaking through
hole made in the apparatus that
held his mouth fast, not word for
himself, but the words of a sound
philosopher who will not despise hu-
man nature for the act of a madman.
With nothing but misery, suffering
agony, and with death staring him
in the face, he was calm, submissive,
even forbaring. All his solicitude was
about bis son OF the calamity to
his fellow-colaborer, Mr.. Lincoln,
he knew nothing for several days.
The wounds Of Frederick excited
his solicitude. The brain was ex-
posed in both places; in the anterior
one fully square inch of the men,
branes of the brain was exposed to
view. A lacerated vessel on the in
terror surface of the cranium would
from time to time bleed so profusely
as to put his life in imminent jeopar-
dy, and yet it could not be reached
for ligature We were constantly
kept in fearful apprehensions of these
hemorrhages.
With noble fortitude did that fami-
ly bear the anxieties and fatigues of
the long and sad period Mrs. Sew
ard, so delicate in frame, so feeble in
health, increasingly supervised all
the nursing that required such fine
Judgment and unremitting care.
Human endurance, however, has
its limits, and Mrs. Seward finally
succumbed. The little fame that
lighted that body expired on the 2lst
of June. Like her lite, her death
was the calmness of Heaven-born
spirit
Overcome BY these multiplied trials,
her daughter at length sank into a
nervous fever that consumed her.
Her body could not bear what her
soul had born, and in a years time
she added one more to the number of
victims to the horrible plot of Booth
and Surratt. -
The Secretary himself is now dead.
After completing the history of his
travels around the world, at the age
of fseventy-one, with only a few days
illness, his mind unimpaired he peac-
fully breathed his last in his own
home, at Auburn, on the 10th Of
October, 1872 ..- -...