The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-03-02
No. 80

p ,ople, cheerful with perfumes, music OF
Viollns and ti1ies-(and over all, and sata-
rating all the vast, vague wonder, Victory,
the N.tton'S Victory, the triumph of the
Union, niiing the air, the thought, the
sense, with eXhilaIation more than all ser
fumes)
The President came betimes, and, with
his wife. Witnessed the play from the large
stage boxes "f the second tier, two thrown
into one. and profusely draPed with the na-
tlonal flag. The acts and scenes of the
plece-one of those singIlarly witless COM
positions which have at least the meri; Of
giving entire relief To an audience en-
gagged in mental action or business excite
ments and cares during the day, AS it makes
not the slightest call On either the moral,
emotional, aesthetic, or spiritual nature-a
piece (''Our American Gnusin") in which,
among other characters, so called, Yankee,
certainly so called, aHankee, certainly such
a one was never seen, or the least like il
ever seen in North America, is introduced
in England, with varied fol.de-rol of talk,
| plot, scenery, and such phantasmagoria as
| goes to make up modern popular drama
had progressed perhaps couple of its acts,
when in the miist of this comedy. or trage-
| dy, or nonsuch, or whatever It is TO be
called, and tu 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 (tor on the many hundreds who were
there 1t seems Ia tins hour to have left little
but passing blur, dream, blotch) and
yet partially to be described as | now pro-
ceed To give 1t.
There is n scene in the play representing
a modern parlor, in which two unprece-
oh ,al ,h
Unprecedented and impossible Yankee that
he is not II man of fortune, and therefore
undesirable for marriage catching purposes !;
after which. the comments being flushed,
the dramatic trio make exit, leaving the
stage clear for a moment. There was n
pause, hush AS il were. At this period
came the murder of Abraham Lincoln.
Great as that was, with all its manifold
| train circling around it, and stretching into
the future for many century, in politics,
history, art, etc, Of the New World, In
point of fact the main thing, the actual
murder, transpiTed with the quiet and SIM
plIcity OF any cOmmonest occurrencc-the
bursting of pod or bud in the growth of
vegetation, for instance
Through the general hum following the
stage pause, with the change of positions,
etc came the mutilsd sound of u pistol sh, [,
which not one-huudredth part of the audi
ence heard at the time-and yet moments
hush-somehow, surely a vague, startled
thrill-nnd then, through the ornamented,
draperied, starred and striped space-way of
the Presidents box, a sudden figure, a man
raises himself with hands and feet, stands
moment on the railing, leaps below To the
stage, "a distance Of perhaps fourteen or if-
teen feet), falls out of position, catching
his boot-hee in the copious drapery, (the
American tiae), falls on one knee, quickly
RECEIVERS himself, rises as # nothing had
happened, Che really sprained his ankle, but
unfelt them and SD the figure Booth the
murderer, dressed in plain black broadcloth,
are-headed, with full head of glossy,
raven hair, and his eyes, like some mad ami
mails, flashing W tn light and resolution,
yet with certain strange calmness, holds
aloft in one hand large knife-walks along
not much back from the footli lights-turns
fully toward the audience, his face of stat
uesque beauty, lit by those basilisk eyes,
flashing with desperation, perhaps insanity
-lauuches out in a firm and steady voice
the words, Sic semper tyraRais-and then
walks with neither slow nor very rapid pace
dlagonally cross to the back of the stage,
and disappears. (Had not all this terrible
scene-naking the mimic ones preposterous
| X,
| by Booth, beforehand0
\ moments hush, lncredulous-a scream
the cry of murder-AIrs. Lincoln, leaning
out of the box, with ashy cheeks and lips,
with involuntary cry, pointing to the re-
| treating figure, He has killed the Presi-
| dentH' And still Il moments strange in
credulous suspense and then the deluge -
| then that mixture of horror, noises, uncer-
! tainty-the sound, somewhere back, of a
horses hoofs chtteIing with speed )-the
people burst through chairs and ratings,
! and break them up-that noise adds to the
| queerness OF the scene-there is inextrica-
ble confusion and terror-women faint
quite feeble persons fall, and are trampled
on-many cries of agony are heard-the
broad stage suddenly fills to suffocation
with dense and motley crowd, like some
hUrrible carnival-the audience rush gener-
ally upon it-at least the strong men do
the actors and actresses are all there in
their play costumes and painted faces, with
mortal fright showing through the rouge,
some trembling-some in tears-the screams
and calls, confused talk-redoubled, trebled,
two or three manage to pass up water from
the stage to the Presidents box-others try
to Chamber up, etc.
In the midst of all this the soldiers of the
Presidents Guards, with Others suddenly
drawn to the scene, burst in-some two
hundred altogetheI-they storm the house,
through all the tiers, especially the upper
ones, lnfldmed with fury, literally charging
the Audience with fixed bayonets, muskets
and pistols, shouting, 'Cear outl clear
out.-you sons Of b b-m Such was the
wild scene, or suggestion OF it rather, inside
the play house that night.
Outside, too, IN the atmosphere of shock
and craze, crowds of people filled with
frenzy, ready to seize any outlet for it, came
near committing murder several times on in
nocent individuals. One such case was espe-
cially exciting. The enraged crowd, through
some chance, got started against one man,
either for words he uttered, or perhaps
without any cause at all, and were proceed
ing at once to actually hang him on neigh
boring lamp-post, when he was rescued by
a few heroic policemen, who placed him in
their midst and fought their way slowly
and amid great peril toward the station
house. IL was fitting episode of the whole
affair. The crowd rushing aud eddyiDg 70
! and fro-the night, the Yells, the pale faces,
many frightened people trying IN vain to
extricate themselves-the attacked man not
yet freed from the jaws Of death, looking
like corpsc--tbe silent, r.so.ute half
dozen policemen, with no weapons but their
little clubs, yet stern and sturdy through all
those eddying swarms--nade indeed q fit
ting side scene 10 the grandaragedy IL the
murder. Tney gained the station house
with the Ut protected man, whom they placed
in security for the night, and discharged
him in the elnoTniUg.
And in the midst Of that night pandemo-
mum OF senseless hSte, iniuriated soldiers,
the audience, aDd the crowd-.he stage,
and all its actors aud actresses, its paint
pots, spingles, and gas ights-the life
blood from those veins, the best and sweet
est Of the land, drips slowly down. and
desth's oozc already begins lie little Da bOles
on the lips.
Such, hurriedly sketched, were the ac-
compartments OF the death OF President
Lincoln. So suddenly, and in murder and
horror unsurpassed, be was taken from us
But his death was painless.