The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1876-02-18
AnRAnAm LINcoLS's DEATH,
Walt Whitman's Account OF The Scene
~ lOrd's Theatre,


I'll now he would have been sixty-si
! years OLD, The following vivid Il,
scrlpllon Of the scenes at Ford
L Theatre NJ the time OF his assassina
ton, from n forthcoming hook b,
Walt whitman, has never before beef
published,
The day, April IT, 1865, seems /,
= nave been Il pleasant one thruugholl
I the whole land-the moral atmosphcr
pleasant, too-the long storm, 50 dark
50 fraircldal, full o: blood and doub
aud gloom, over and ended NJ last bl
thesunriso Of such an absolute natiOna
Victory, ana utter breaking down OF Sc
cessl0nism-we almost doubted ON
own senses Lee had caplulated be-
meath the apple tree Of App0mattox
The other armies, the ilanges of the
revolt, swiftly followed
And could II really be, then? Out
OF all the affairs of this world of woe
ana passion, of failure and disorder
and dismay, was there really come the
confirmed, unerring sign of plan. like
shaft Of pure llght-o rightiulrule-
of God !?
But must not dwell on accessories.
The deed hastens. The popular after
noon paper, the little Evening Star,
had spattered all over it, third page,
divided among the advertisements in
u sensational manner in hundred
different places; "rhe President aud
his lady will be ut the theatre this
evening" (Lincoln was fond of the
theatre. | have myself seen him
there severed times. | remember
thinking how funny IL was that he, in
some respects, the leading actor IN the
greatest and stOrmies drama known to
real hlstory's stage, through centuries,
should sit there and be so completely
Interested aud absorbed in those hui
man jackstraws, moving about with
their silly little gestures, foreign spirit,
and flatulent text
So the day, AS say, was propitious.
Early heritage, early flowers, were out.
Il remember where was stopping ut
the time, the season being advanced,
there were many lilocs in full bloom.
BY one of these caprices that enter and
give tinge to events without being at
all part Of them, | find myself always
reminded of the great tragedy of that
day by the sight and odOr OF these
blossoms. 1t never fails
On this occasion the theatre was
crowded, many ladies in rich and gay
costumes, officers in their uniforms,
many well-knOwn citizens, young
folks, the usual cluster of gaslights,
the usual magnetism of 30 many PEG
pie, cheerful, with perfumes, music OF
vio!ins and ilutes-(and over all, and
saturating all, that vast vague wonder,
Victory the Nations Victory, the
triumph Of the Union, filling the air,
the thought, the sense, with exhiler-
atoms more than all perfumes.)
The President came betimes, and,
with his wife, witnessed the play, from
The large stage boxes Of the second
tier, two thrown into one, and pro-
fusely irapped with the national flag.
The acts and scenes of the piece-one
Of those singularly witless compost
tons which have at least the merit OF
giving entire relief to an audience en-
gagged in mental action or business eX-
elements and cares during the day, AS
it makes not the slightest call on either
the moral, emotional, or spiritual ma
urea piece sour American Cousin"
in which, among other characters, so
called, Yankee, certainly such one
Was never seen, or the least like it
ever seen IN North America, is intro
duced in England, with fol-de-rol Of
talk, plot, scenery, and such phantaS-
nagoria as goes to make up u modern
popular drama--had progressed through
perhaps Il couple of its acts, when in
The midst of this comedy, or tragedy,
or non-such, or whatever it is TO he
called, and to offset it or finish It, out,
AS ii in natures and the great muses.
mockery of these poor mines, comes
interpolated that scene, not really or
exactly to be described ut all (for on
the many hundreds who were there 1t
seems to this hour to have left little
but passing blur, n dream, blotch)
land yet partially to be described as ]
now proceed to give it.
There is scene in the play repre-
senting Il modern parlor, in which two
unprecedented English ladies are in
formed by the unprecedented and i'm
possible Yankee that he is not man
of fortune, and therefore undesirable
for marriage-catching purposes after
which, the comments being finished,
the dramatic trio make exit, leaving
the stage clear for a moment. There
was a pause, blush as il were. AT
this period came the death of Abraham
Lincoln, Great rs that was, with all
its manifold train circling round it,
and stretching into the future for
many u century, in the politics, his
tory. art, &C., of the New World, in
point of fact the main thing, the
actual murder, trahspired with the
quiet and simplicity of any commonest
occurrence-the bursting of bud or
pod in the growth of vegetation, for
instance.
Through the general hum following
the stage pause, with the change OF
nositions. etc, came the muttied sound
of a pistol shot, which not one hun.
dredth part of the audience heard at
the time-and yet a moments hush
somehow surely vague, startled thrill
and then, through the orDamented,
druperied, starred and striped space
way of the Presidents box, sudden
figure. man raises himself with hands
and feet. stands u moment on the rail
ing, leaps below to the stage IA distance
of nerhaps fourteen or fifteen feet,
fails out OF position, catching his boot
heel on the copious drapery (the
American flag, falls on one knee,
quickly RECEIVERS himself, rises as II
nothing had happened lhe really
sprained his ankle, but unfelt them
and so the figure, Booth, the murderer,
dressed in plain black broadcloth, bare
headed, with full head OF glossy,
raven hair, anu his eyes, like some
mad animals, flashing with light and
resolution, yet with a certain strange
calmness, holds aloft in one hand q
largeknife--walks along not much back
from the footlights-turns fully tow
ard the audience his face OF statuesque
beauty, lit by those basilisk eyes, Hash
ing with desperation, perhaps insanity
launches out in firm aud steady