Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-11-15
Thieves Trying 10 Steal the Bones of
the Martyr President.

tempt was made this evening to perpe
trate one of the most infamous outrage,
which the mind of man can conceive
of-that of stealing the bones and
ashes OF Abraham Lincoln. Unfortu
na'ely the perpetrators escaped leav.
ing, however the evidences of thei,
crime behind them, and though the
clews are next to nothing, if human
ingenuity can track them it will BE-
done Somehow or other. no one ex-
actly knows how j e Power, the Gus
todlan OF the Lincoln monument, be-
came impressed with the idea that
there were designs upon the remains.
and he communicated his suspicious to
leonard SWEET and Robert Lincoln.
They could hardly believe that any
one, even the meanest and lowest
scoundrel in the land, could conceive
such thing. However, to prevent
the horse from getting out of the sta
bic, they concluded to lock the door
to adopt precautions even should there
be nothing in the feeling According
ly. SWEET wrote Col. Stewart, of this
city, about two weeks ago, requesting
him to station guard at the monu
ment, This was dore, but no one
came to disturb the corpse. Detective
Tyrrell, of the United States Scorer
Service, whose headquarters are in
Chicago, having business mere, was re-
quested by Swet, and Lincoln to see
Mr., Power, and to look around town,
and watch tor suspicious characters
lie arrived here three or four days
ago, and at once commenced vigorous
shadowlng of several Of the small ho
tets. but be saw no one whom he rec
ognized. This afternoon Mr.. Power
came into town in a hurry and hunted
up Tyrrell and informed him that two
very hard-looking cases had been out
to the cemetery looking around and he
felt assured that they were t. ere for no
good purpose. One Registered as frcm
Racine, and the other from kenosha,
Wis Their names are suppressed.
since they have had nothing to do with
what occurred later. An effort will of
course be made to find out who they
are, and should they prove to be limo
cent, injustice would be done them by
telling now who they are. Mr.. Pow
er, not being used to detective work,
could give but meager descriptions of
.tnen. The result of the interview
WI h Tyrrell-is unknown, but he must
have concluded that election night was
an excellent one in which to rob the
! tomb.
This evenings train brought from
Chicago ex-Chief OF the Secret Service,
Elmer Washburn, who. it seems had
been requested by SWEET and Lincoln
to come here aud aid Tyrrell. About
halfpast 6 Washburn Tyrrell and
three other men went out to Oakwood
and concealed themselves in Memorial
Hall inside the monument to await de-
velopments. One man was posted in
the labyrinth in the rear, SO called be
cause of the walls running in different
directions and making numerous pas
sage ways, these walls supporting the
terrace His object was to hear the
noise made In the vault, if any were
made. After patiently waiting for
nearly three hours, and when about
tired out from standing still, the ut
most silence being imperative, be heard
grating noise which lasted perhaps
five minutes Then, in little while,
came several successive thuds. as if
some one was hammering. The time
having arrived for action, ashburn
and his men slipped out of the door
with cooked revolvers in their hands,
determined to shoot to kill if any re-
slstance was made. Just as they we're
turning the corner to the left, one OF
the men accidentally exploded his re-
voiVer. The noise was very loud, so
still were the surroundings, and unfor-
tunately it was too loud, for, though
there were but about l20 feet to 20
over. when the officers got to the door
of the vault the dastardly Williams were
gone. They must have had some one
watching to give them the signal of
danger or else had come outside for
breath of fresh air and heard the
snapping Of the cap and ran into the
woods which surrounded the monu-
ment. 1t is but short distance, and
man could get within shelter and be
undesirable in a quarter of minute.
No traces of the thieves being dis
covered, the party returned to the cat
acomb, and there beheld sight which
made them sad. The body, as is
known. perhaps, is inclosed in a lead
casket. This is surrounded by cedar
case. and the receptacle of these is a
marble sarcophagus. The latter had a
double lid. the upper one not being as
large as the other. Both had been
pried off with chisel or an ak, and
somewhat Clipped in the operation.
The under lid was laid crosswise on
the casket, the head-piece on the floor,
and the upper lid standing against the