Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-03-08
GRAVES OF THE BOOTHS.
The Burial Place of the Great Tragedfan,
Junfus Brutus Booth, and the Assassin,
John Wilkes Booth.


| BALTIMORE, February IA short
distance from the entrance to the love-
! ly Greenmount Cemetery, at this place,
one comes upon plain marble shaft,
standing upon high pedestal, formed
Of rough-dressed granite blocks. The
eye is arrested by the name "Booth, J."
in large letters, near the base of the
marble column, and at this familiar
name one turns to it for closer inspec-
ton. The side next to the path bears
upon it a bas-rehef portrait of Junius
Brutus Booth, surrounded by laurel
wreath. Beneath are the following
lines:
Behold the spot where Junius lies
| Q, drop tear where Genius dies.
| Of tragedy, the mighty chief,
Thy power to please surpassed belief,
Hic Jacet-the matchless Booth"
The poetry is little shaky, but the
sentiment will do. Another side of
the shaft has cut upon it, "Born May
6, 1885, On the side opposite is,
"Died, November 80, 1852" The re-
naming side has upon it, "Sacred to
the memory of the children of Junius
Brutus and Mary Ann Booth, John
Wilkes, Frederick, Elizabeth, Mary
Ann, Henry Byron"
Here, then, lies the brilliant genius
who for thirty years delighted our faith
ers and grandfathers with his marvel
Gus renderings of Richard III, Iago,
Sir Giles Overreach, Lear, Shylock and
as famous as his genius. A man of
splendid talents, which he but partially
improved, his life was succession of
brilliant successes and humiliating fail
ures.
He came to America in 1920, when
in the zenith of his fame in England.
The traditions that have come down to
us Of this great artist represent him as
one whose instant and tremendous con-
centration of passion in his delinea-
tions overwhelmed his audience, and
wrought it into such enthusiasm that it
partook of the fever of inspiration
surging through his own veins He
was not lacking in the power to COM
prehend and portray with marvellous
delicacy the exquisitely subtle shades
of character that Shakespeare loved to
paint, and-his impersonations were a
delight to the refined scholar as well as
the uncultivated backwoodsmen who
crowded to his performances.
In person he is described as being of
short stature, but bearing the seal of
royal dignity and power in every look
and action. His face was cast original
nally in antique Roman mold; its out
line was classic in the highest degree,
and many saw in it a strong resem-
blance to the portraits of
Michael Angelo. An admiring biogra-
pher says Of him:
"No language can do more than re-
call to those who have seen him IL his
most vital moods, the terrible and beauti-
full m Gaming of his look and gesture, or the
charm of his massive and resonant
voice; for voice, gesture and every fiber
of his wonderful organization were sub
ordinated to genius which laid hold of
and expressed, with absolute sincerity,
the radical elements of character, and
gave play to it's minor manifestations
with spontaneous freedom and variety
of nature"
The bane of this great genius was in
toxication. He was absolutely slave
to the demon of alchohol, and whenev-
er the master chose to exert his power
Booth yielded, in spite of firm resolves,
high pride, strongest pledges to friends,
and important business engageme nts.
Despite all this he retained his popular
ity to the last undated.
In 1924 he purchased farm at Bel
Air, thirty miles from Baltimore,
and lived for a while upon it in re-
tired and frugal manner, supporting
himself and family by selling eggs and
milk in Baltimore. Among his other
eccentricities was an extreme venera-
ton for animal life; he believed in
metempsyschosis as devoutly as any
Brahmin, and would not eat animal
food nor permit it to be used in his
family. An eminent clergyman tells
an affecting story of being sum-
moned by Booth to his room one night,
and on arriving found him in an agony
of woe over several hundred pigeons
which had been slaughtered at a match
that day. Booth asked the clergyman
to read the burial seevice over the
slaughtered mnocents, which the rev.
erend gentleman declined to do; and
then Booth himself did so, in all the
pOmp OF his glorious rhetoric, and de-
livered a most affecting discourse upon
the inhumanity of man to the animals
over whom he had been given domin-
ion.
He died of the cholera in 1852, while
on the way from New Orleans to Cincin-
natl.
On two opposite sides of the foot Of
the monument are newl y-made graves,
covered with dense mating of grow
ing ivy, which struggles over on the sur
rounding sod. There are neither head
or foot-stones to the graves, pieces of
lath at each end doing duty as such.
One of these graves has a painful in
terest for the American people, since
in it is laid all that is mortal of the mis-
cradle assassin whose murderous
hand sacrificed a kind, benefcient
ruler, and plunged nation in sorrow.
There lie Wondering the bones of John
Wilkes Booth, the recreant, renegade
son of the great actor, brought hither
to quietly slumber with those of father
and family whose name he did his best
to cover with ignominy for all time.
How great the brotherly charity that
- HI Z \