Ellsworth American., 1876-11-23
Mr.. Lincoln 8 Tomb.
The Dn.tardIy Attempt To De-poiI it.

The Springfield (lll.l correspondent o
the New York Times telegraphs the fol
lowing account Of the attempt TO despoi
city, on the night of November Eth -
AN attempt was made this evening tC
/ pvrpetrate one Of the most infamous out
rage which the mind Of man can con.
cetvc oi -in.u of stealing the bones and
ashes Of Abraham. Lincoln. Unfortunately
the perpetrators escaped, leaving. however
the evidences of their crime behind them,
! and though the clues are next 10 nothing
| II human ingenuity can track them il Will
| be done
somehow or other-uo one exactly
knows howl. c. Power, custodian OF
the Lincoln monument, became impressed
! with the idea that there were designs upon
the remains, and he communicated his
suspicious 10 Leonard SWEET aud Robert
Lincoln. They could hardly believe that
any one evea the mcanest and lowest
scoundrel in the land, could conceive such
/ thing. However they concluded To
/ adopt precautions. even should there be
/ nothing IN the feeling. Accordnsly Mr.
SWEET wrote Col. Stewart of Springfield
/ about TWO weeks ago, requesting him TO
station a guard at the monument This
I '"7 '''''s D'iN nv p'4t NdilF ~ ht~tlllD tne
corpse.
Detective Tyrrell. Of the United states
secret Service, whose hcAd-quarters are
/ IN thcArgo, having business here, Vas re-
I queSttG by SWEET and Lincoln to see Mr.
Power, and 10 look around town Tor >us-
piclOu, Characters. He arrived here three
or four days ago and commenced vigor-
Gus sIAuOwing of several OF the small
hotels, but he saw no one whom he recos-
nized. This afternoon Mr.. Powers came
into town in hdrry and hunted up TYR
reil and informed him that two vciy hard
looking cases had been out to the Cemetery
looking around, and he telt assured that
they were there for no good purpose. One
registered rs from Racine, and the other
from kenosha, Wis. Their names are sup
pressed since they have had nothing to do
with what occurred later. An effort will,
OF course, be made to find out who they
are. Mr.. Powg. not being used to detec-
tive work, could give but meager descrip-
tiOns OF them. The result ofthe interview
with Tyrrell is unknown, but he must have
concluded that election night was an eX-
celent one in which to rob the tomb.
This evening, train brought from
Chicago eX-Chief OF the Secret Service
Elmer Washburn, who. it seems had been
requested by Messrs. SWEET aud Lincoln To
come here and aid Tyrrell. About 6 80
L. u. Washsurn. Tyrrell, and three other
men went out 10 Oakwood and concealed
themselves in Memorial Hal. inside the
monument TO wait developments. One
man was posted in the labyrinth in the
rear, so called because OF the walls run
ming in different directions and making
numerous passage ways. these walls sup
porting the terrace. His object was To
hear the noise made in the vault, il any
were made. After patiently waiting for
nearly three hours. and about tired out
from standing still, the utmost silence be-
iug imperative, he heard grating noise.
which lasted perhaps five minutes.
Then, in little while, came several sue
cessiye thuds. as if some one was hammer
ing. The time having arrived for action,
Washburn and his men slipped out OF the
door, with cooked reyovers in their hands,
determined TO shoot to kill If any resistance
was made Just as theywere turning the cor
ner to the left one of the men accidentally
exploded his revolver. The noise was
very loud, so still were the surroundings,
and though there were but about l20 feet
TO go over. when the officers got to the
door of the vault the dastardly villains
were gone. They must have had some
one watching to give the signal of danger
or else had come outside for a breath of
fresh air, and heard the swapping of the
cap aud ran Into the woods which sur
rounded the monument
1t is but a short distance. and a man
could get shelter and be unobservable In
quarter Of a minute. The men at once
scattered and went in the direction the
thieves had gone, and, while lodging be-
hind the trees two Ofthem exchanged shots
each mstaking the othrr for one OF the
A. H. l.
they cried "Wash," Wash indicative OF
friend in such an emergency. and then
they found out their mistake. The bullets
whizzed close to both and in was miracu-
Gus that they escaped injury.
No traces of thieves being discovered
the party returned to the catacomb. The
body is inciosed in lead casket. This Is
surrounded BY a cedar case. and the re-
| ceptable of these is a marble sarcophagus
The latter had double lid. the upper
one not being as large as the other. Both
had been pried of with chisel or an
ak. and somewhat ehipped in the operation.
The under lid was laid crosswise on the
casket, the head piece on the floor. ard
| the upper lid standing against the wall.
| The casket itself was pulled out about a
foot from the body of the sarcophagus,
and a small piece had been taken off on
| of marble-dust, an ordinary chisel, and a
pair of nippers We're The other tools had
| evidently been taken away since the lock
on the iron grated door had been sawed
1 of Ii should be stated that the sarcopha-i
| gus was In the catacOmb and not In the
| crypt, being thus placed In order that visi.
| tors might see it. The damaged done is
comparatively little. a
| Only one motive can be attributed to
these despoilers of the grave. and that is
| the hope of a reward for the restoration
Of the reriains. II they had succeed
ed in carrying them OF. 1t certainly
could not have been their intention 70 take
i away the casket, for II must weigh from
five hundred tosix hundred pounds, and hall
i dozen men could uot have carried it to
the fence for transfer to . wagon in tn
4 road. 1t is more than likely that they in
tended to cut upon his .asket. and gather
up the bones and dust Of the martyfef
Praaident nd % ppv them awavA IT,