Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-03-24
Abraham Lincoln's Death.
WALT wHITMAN's ACCOUNT OF THE SCENE
AT FoRDs THEATER.

WALT WHIrMANS ACCOUNT OF THE sCENE
AT FoRD's THEATER.
The day, April IA, 1865, seems to have
been a pleasant one throughout the whole
land the moral atmosphere pleasant
too-the long storm, so fratricidal, full
of blood and doubt and gloom, over and
ended at last by the sunrise of such an
absolute national victory, and utter
breaking down of secessionism-we al
most doubted our own senses Lee had
capitulated beneath the apple tree Of
Appomattox. The other armies, the
fanges of the revolt, swiftly followed.
And could it really be, then? Out OF
all the affairs of this world of woe and
passion, of failure and disorder and dis
may, was there really come the confirm
ed, unerring sign of plan, like shaft of
pure light-of rightful rule-of God?
But | must not dwell ON accessories.
The deed hastens. The popular after
noon paper, the little Evening Star had
spattered all over its third page, divided
among the advertisements in sensation
al manner in hundred different places :
" The president and his lady will be at
the theater, this evening" Lincoln was
fond of the theater. / have myself seen
him there several times. / remember
thinking how funny it was that he, in
some respects, the leading actor in the
greatest and stormiest drama known to
real history's stage, through centuries
should sit there and be so completely in
terested and absorbed in those human
jack-straws, moving about with their
silly little gestures, foreign spirit and
fatulent text.
So the day, as | say, was propitious.
Early herbage, early flowers, were out.
Il remember where was stopping at the
time, the season being advanced, there
were many lilacs in full bloom. BY one
of those caprices that enter and give
tinge to events without being at all
part of them, find myself always re-
minded of the great tragedy of that day,
by the sight and odor of these blossoms.
1t never fails
On this occasion the theater was crowd
ed, many ladies in rich and gay cos
tunes, officers in their uniforms, many
well known citizens, young folks, the
usual clusters of gas-lights, the usual
Of SO many people, cheerful,
with perfumes, music of violins and
flutes (and over all, and saturated all,
that vast, vague wonder, victory, the tri-
umph of the union, filling the air, the
thought, the sense, with exhiliration
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 profusely draped
with the national flag. The acts and
scenes Of the piece-one of those singu-
larly witless compositions, which have at
least the merit of giving entire relief to
an audience engaged in mental action or
business excitements and cares during
the day, as it makes not the slightest
call on either the moral, emotional, es-
thetic, orspiritual nature piece ("Our
American Cousin" in which, among
other characters, so called, Yankee,
certainly such one as was never seen,
or the least like it ever seen in North
America, is introduced in England, with
a varied fol-de-rol of talk, plot, scenery,
and such phantasmagoria as goes to
make up modern popular drama,-had
through perhaps couple of
its acts, when in the midst of this come.
dy, or tragedy, or nonsuch, or whatever
it is to be called, and to offset it or finish
it out, as if in natures and the great
muses. mockery of these poor mines,
comes interpolated that scene not really
or exactly to be described at all (for on
the many hundreds who were there it
seems to this hour to have left little but
a passing blur, dream, a blotch) and
yet partially to be described as ] now
proceed to give it.
There is a scene in the play represent
ing modern parlor, in which two un-
English ladies are informed
by the unprecedented and impossible
Yankee that he is not man of fortune,
and therefore undesirable for marriage
purposes; after which, the com.
ments being finished, the dramatic trio
make exit, leaving the stage clear for a
There was pause, hush as
1t we're. At this period came the muir
ierer of Abraham Lincoln. Great as
that was, with all its manifold train cir
cling round it, and stretching into the
future for many century, in the poll
tics, history, art, ETC., of the New World,
in point of fact the main thing, the act
ual murder, transpired with the quiet
and simplicity of any commonist occur