The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1876-03-01
EXANDRIA La, WEDNESDAY, MARCH ], 1876. .

cares during the day, as it makes
not the slightest call on either the
moral, emotional, esthetic, or spirit
nal nature-a piece ("Our American
Cousin in which among other char
acters, SO called, q Yankee, certainly
such one as was never seen, Or the
least like it ever seen in North
America, is introduced in England,
with q varied fol de-rol Of talk, plot
scenery, and such phantasmagoria as
goes to make up a modern popular
drama-haa progressed through per-
haps couple of its acts, when in the
midst Of this comedy, or tragedy, or
non-such, or whatever it is to be
called, and to offset it or finish it
out, as if in natures and the great
muses. mockcry ofthese poor mines,
comes interpolated that scene, not
really or exactly to be described at
{ for on the many hundreds who we're
there it seems to this hour to have
left little but passing blur, a dream
blotch) land yet partially to be
described as I now proceed to give it.
There is a scene in the play repre-
senting a modern parlor, in which
two unprecedented English ladies
are informed by the unprecedented
and impossible Yankee that he is not
q man of fortune, and therefore unde-
sirabIo for marriage catching purpo
-scs; after which, the comments being
finished, the dramatic trio make exit
leaving the stage clear for q moment.
There was q pause, hush as it
were. At this period came the muir
der Of Abraham Lincoln. Great as
that was, with all its manifold train
circling round it, and stretching into
the future for many a century, i'll the
politics, history, art, etc, of the New
World, in point of fact the main
thing, the actual murder, transpired
with the quiet and simplicity Of any
commonest occurrence-th bursting
of q bud or pod in the growth ofycg
citation, for instance.
Through the general hum. follow
ing the stage pause, with the change
of posi- ions, etc, came the muilled
sound Of q pistol shot, which not one
hundredth part Of the audience heard
at the time-and yet a moments
lush somehow, surely vague,
startled thrill-and then, through
the ornamented, draperied, starred
and striped space-way of the Presi-
dents box, a sudden figure, a man
raises himself with hands and feet,
stands moment on the railing, leaps
below to the stage "a distance ofper-
haps fourteen or fifteen feet, falls
out of position, catching his boot
heel in the copious drapery (the
American flag) falls on one knee,
quickly RECEIVERS himself, rises as if
nothing had happened (he really
sprains his ankle, but unfelt then -
and so the figure, Booth the murder
Ell, dressed in plain black broadclotb,
bareheaded, with a full head Of CLOS
sy, raven hair, and his eyes, like
some mad animals, flashing with
a certain strange calmness, holds
aloft in one hand a large knife--and
walks along not much back from the
footlights-turns fully toward the
audience his face of statuesque beau
ty, lit by those basilisk eyes, flashing
with desperation, perhaps insanity
launches out in a firm and steady
voice the words, Sic semper tyrGanis
and then walks with neither slow
nor very rapid pace diagonally across
to the back Of the stage, and disap-
pears. Had not all this terrible
scene-making the mimic ones pre-
posterous-had it not all been re-
hearsed, in blank, by Booth before
handy
A moments hush, incredulous-
scream-thc cry of murder-Mr
Lincoln leaning out Of the box, with
ashy cheeks and lips, with an invol-
untary cry, pointing to the retreatine
figure, 'He has killed the Presidentr'
And still a moments strange, incred
ulous suspense-and then the deluge
then that mixture of horror, nois
es, uncertainty-(the sound, some
where back, Of q horses hoofs clat
tering with speed THE people burs
through chairs and ratings, an'
break them up-that noise adds t,
the queerness of the scene-there i
ineytricable confusion and terror
women faint-quite feeble person