Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-06-27
BOOTH AND BOB LINCOLN.
Were j. Wilkes Booth and Robert Lin
coin Rivals in Their L0Ye-makings---A
Yirginian's Story of Booths Insane
Jealousy Of Young Lincoln.

firginian's Story Of Booths Insane
Jealousy Of Young Lincoln.
Alexander Hunter writes in the
Occasional, paper published at Ports
mouth, Va, what purports to be true
narrative of the startling events in the
life of J. Wilkes Booth just previous t.
the assassination of President Lincoln.
The story is given as told to the author
by Mrs. Temple, one of the circle of
friends at the National hotel in Wash
ington during the last years Of the war.
In this circle were Senator Hale, his
wife and daughter, Bessie, and j. Wilkes
Booth. Mrs. Temple was Booths
friend and confidante, and she insists
that Booth knew Lincoln WELL and that
Lincoln knew Booth and often spoke Of
him. This is the story as Hunter puts
ii into the mouth of Mrs. Temple:
Among all of Bessie Hale's admir-
ers. Booth was the most ardent and de-
voted, distancing all competitors except
one, and that was the presidents eldest
son, Robert Lincoln, who was madly in
love with Bessie He courted her again
and again, and wouldn't take no for his
answer. He had a heavy backing, for
both the senator and his wife, aware of
the match, urged their daughter to
marry Robert Lincoln, and queen it at
the White House, which in those days
was like the palace Of royalty itself
She would have given in | am confident
but for Booth, who, with his charm OF
person, manner, and intellect, carried
the day, and won her heart, but not her
hn1a IL
and most emphatically vetoed the in
timacy between their daughter and the
actor. indeed, both father and mother
considered it a great piece of presump-
ton for the player to make love off
the scenic stage John Wilkes Booth
they considered divine in the princely
role of Hamlet, or wearing the slashed
doublet and habilim ents of the half
prince, half-peasant Melnotte; but as a
son-in-laW to the first senator in the
land! there the charm ceased, and they
commanded the daughter never to
think of him.
How much
RESSIE HALE
really cared for Booth. none OF us knew;
probably not even he himself could tell.
No one was aware of the absorbing,
true, devoted affection that Bessie had
for nina love great in its purity and
singleness, firm in its attachment, as
true as death itself, and stronger than
life and death combined. Only in the
fearful trial, and the awful times of
menace and of peril, did this love
shine out in ali its brightness, lighting
the lurid darkness with its beams, even
rs the rays of the lighthouse gleam out
across the waste of angry waters.
Bessie Hale was passionateiy fond
of seeing Booth assume the character
of Hamlet the Dane, and often would
make him repeat the famous solioquy
in the parlOr.
Booths was the most jealous tenn
permanent | ever knew: he was insane,
sometimes, it seemed to me, and when
Bessie accepted any attention from any
other man. Booth would act like s. pa
tient Just ont of Bedlam. One night
| can never forget it-there was large
hop at our hotel, and the saloons were
crowded with the wealth, the beauty,
the bravery, and the talent of the land.
The bench, the bar, trade, and the sol
der were all represented, and the scene
IN the ballroom was one calculated to
excite the imagination and dazzle the
eye. | we'll remember the night; it was
in the late winter of 90. A series of
heavy skirmishes had taken place be-
fore Richmond with heavy loss to our
side, and there had been hard battle
before Atlanta, and the telegraph told
us of the blood that had been poured
out like water. Though throughout the
whole length and breadth of the land
wall of sorrow could be heard, yet
society never was more gay nor given
away more utterly to the abandon of
mirth. The means of the bereaved.
the groans of the manned and wounded
the measured tread of the funeral cor
tege, the plaintiye strains of the dead
march, and the beat of the muffied
drum, were stifed and lost in the mad
shout of revelry and the light laughter
of careless hearts. Wars are terribly
demoralizing, and we in Washington
lived as if there were no future, and
that the present was all there was to
exist for. ] really believe that not even
IN the French revolution. when men
worshipped the Goddess of Reason, was
there 3 more mad rush after wild ex-
element, and all plunged into the vortex
and joined the whirling throng.
MR.. LINCOLN CAME VERY EARLY TO THE
RECEPTION
that night. He never liked to attend
these gay gatherings, especially during
the season of doubt and despair, when
the very air came laden with the sui
phurous smoke of the battlefield. He
never came except as q duty, and to
carry himself high before his people.
The president came into my private
parlOr, and sat for an hour or so talk
ing; he was unusually sad, and seemed
buried IN deep thought He then turn
ed and commenced to speak of the
war. Mr.. Lincoln was a man of broad
generous nature, and his heart was
tender and soft as that of a woman.
He spoke of the rivers of blood that
We're always flowing from thousands of
veins, and, turning to me. said, with a
pathos and feeling | can never forget.
and with the tears running down his
rugged. honest, kindly face:
Mrs. Temple, it almost breaks my
heart to witness the death and desola-
ton that this once happy country is
going through: and God knows. if by
sacrificing my own life [ could restore
peace to this distracted land, | would
cheerfully do it; but my hand is on the
pillow, and / cannot turn back. Nv peo-
pie have put me forward, and cannot
turn back until the object of all our
spilled blood has been accomplished,
and the Union restored
For nearly an hour Mr.. Lincoln re-
manned with his face buried in his