Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-04-24
Incidents in summers Life.

Washington, in the winter Of 1922,
was not pleasant city to live in. Lee
AID his army had, ull within a few
months, been stationed on the opposite
side Of The Potomac in full view of the
capitol, and be had left behind him many
well'wishers'within it. Party strife in
politics ran high, and angry feelings
were uppermost Perhaps even then
Booth was planning the assassination of
of the President; and that at least one,
though happily thwarted in his inten-
tiOns, had designs on the life of the late
Charles Sumner, will be seen by the fol.
lowing incident; One afternoon in that
same winter, little girl was playing on
the floor of the parlor of large Wash
ington clearinghouse. Two gentlemen,
sitting near the. child, we're engaged in
earnest conversation, unheeding and un.
needed by her. One of them was for
eiguer of violent feelings, the other
Washingtonian, but hostile to the North
and Northerners, in other words, South
ern sympathizer.
The child played coptentedly on by
herself, till, noticing the voices near her
were lowered almost to whisper, and,
hearing the word "pistol, ,".she stopped
her play, and, on the principle that lit
tie pitchers have large ears, listened with
eager attention to what followed. The
foreigner was speaking to his friend of
Charles Sumner, and said that he had
long thought that the greatest service an
American could do for his country would
be ridding that country of Mr.. Sumner.
He had had this th ught for some time,
he went on to say, and, acting on it had,
few evenings before, waited at an an
gle formed by some buildings near the
Treasury Department, which place Mr..
Sumner would inevitably pass on his
way home on that particular evening.
A pistol in his hand, his finger on the
|
alone and slowly up the street toward
where he was standing, and never once
did any doubt of the full justification of
the deed cross his mind till Mr.. s. had
almost reached him. Then, for the first
time, came the thought, "But this will
be murder, and there is commandment,
Thou shalt. not kill" He hesitated,
and in the moment of hesitation Mr..
Sumner had passed beyond his reach.
But" he added, 81 have regretted that
hesitation ever since, and the next time
/ shall do 1t.
The little girl, too much frightened af-
ter this to play any longer, left the room
and running up stairs to her father, told,
with dilated eyes and in breathless haste,
all she had heard. 1t happened that
she had interrupted, with her story,
conversation between her father and
gentleman friend of his, who was also
friend of Mr.. Summers. This gentle
man, after hearing the little girls ac-
count, said he should send word to Mr..
S. Of his possible danger. He did so,
but nothing was heard of it just then
Some little time afterward, however, Mr..
Sumner acknowledged the friendly warn
ing; said he had known the man in ques-
ton to be bitter enemy of him that
he should be careful now always to have
some friend with him when going to any
exposed place, And" he concluded,
"thank that little girl for me"
| One cannot help seeing and blessing
the direct interposition of Divine Provi-
dence in the hesitation of the would-be
assassin's hand, and in the chance by
which, perhaps, the little girl was used
| 70 co ua tho syraot p,an'S life