New-York tribune., 1879-04-15

tier two thrown into one and profusey draped with
senting a modern parlor in which two unprecedented
| English ladies' Informed by an impossible Yankee
that he is not of fortune and therefore nndesir-
able for marrage-catchng purposes after which, the
comments being finished the dramatic trio make exit
leaving the stage clear for moment At this period
camo the murder OF Abraham Lincoln, Great Great
| "a that was. with all its manifold tfain,
many century in the politics history etc, OF the
New world. In point Of fact the main thing he acuai
commonest oecurrencethe bursting Of bud or pod IN
the growth Of vegetation, for instance Through tne
general hum following the stage pause with The change
OF positions came the mufied sound OF pistol shot,
which not hundredth part Of the audience heard al
| tbe time-and yet moments hush-somehow,
surely a vague startled thrl--and then through
,rav Of the Presidents box. "a sudden figure, man
raises himself with hands and feet, stands moment on
hans fourteen fifteen feet falls out or his position,
catching his boot-hee IN copous drapery the AmeTi
| rises as if nothing had happened (he really
sprans his aRSe but mRtet dls1.ed ,nsn,MaI6 nd
! nIain black broadcoth, bare headed. with a fun
head of glossy. raven hair and his ewes like some
with certain camness, holds alot in hand large
knifc-walks along not much back from the footghts-
tnrns fully toward the audience his face OF satuesque
beauty mt by those basilisk eyes flashing with despera
on5 pSGhapih pTdce he %ord Sic Soer an%-and then
wa ks with neither slow nor very rapid pace dlagohay
across to the back af the stage and dsappcars.....
UIaJ NOT All this terrible scenemakmg the mimic ones
repos rous-had not all been rehearsed, III blank by
a moments hush-a scrcam-tho cry OF Murder-Mrs:
Lincoln leaning out OF The box with ashy cheeks ana
g1re gn; WIZ He has kfd ii he rp rTresdsn And still
moments strange, increduOus suspense-and theh tne
deuce i-then that mixture OF horror noises, icer-
tainty-Ghe sound, somewhere back of horee's boots
claterng with speed-the people burst through chars
o tbe nnesrness Of the scenc-Rere is noxricabe
confusion and terror-wOmen falnt-qulte 1eeDe
are heard-ihe broad stage suddenly fills TO sufocaion
with n dense and motley crowd like some horrible car
niy,-the audience rush generally upon itat least the
strong dOthc actors and actresses are an thefe III
their play costumes and painted faces. with mortal
fright showing through the rouge, some uennrnS ,S
some in tears-the and calls, confused TAX
redoubled, trebled-two or three manage 10 pass UP
water the stage TO the Presidents bo1-Others try
10 Chamber up, etc, ETC.
I'm the midst OF all this the soldiers of the Presidents
Guard with others, suddenly drawn 10 the scene Durst
in-fsome two hundred atOgether)-they storm the
house. through all the tiers. especially the upper ones
inf1ed with fury literally charging audience With
nX'd bavonets muskets and pistols, shouting Cteur
e Gfa E RSS Of fGT rather inside the paThouo
And in that night pandemonum OF senseless hate,
infnriated soldiers the audience and the croWd-thc
stage and all s actors and actresses, IT'S palnipos'
spangles. and easshts-the IieoioGd ron th0se feS
and deaths already begins its little DuDoes Oh the
lips.
RESULTS OF THE TRAGEDY
Thus the visible incidents and surroundings of
President Lincon's murder, they really occurred.
Thus ended the attempted sece5sions of these
States. Thus the four years war. Bnt the main
things come subtlv and invisibly afterward, per-
hans long afterward-nelther military. Otical,
(grcat as those arc historical. | say, certain Sec
oudary and indirect results, ont Of the war, and ont
of the tragedy of this death, are. in my opinion,
greatest Not the event of the murder itself Not
that Mr.. Lincoln strings the principal points
and personages of the period, like beads.
upon the single string Of his career Not
that his idOsyncracy, In its sudden appearance
and disappearance. stamps the Republic with
stamp more marked and enduring than any yet
given by any one man-(mOre even than Washing
ton's). But, Joined with these, the immeasurable
value and meanngof that whole tragedy lies, to
me, III senses finally dearest to Nauon tand here
all our ownl-the imaginative and the artistic
senses-thc literary and the dramatic ones, NOT IN
anv common or low meaning Of those terms, but
meaning precious to the race and to every age.
long and varied series of contradictory events ar
Tyes mt last at lis highest poetic SINGLE central
pictorial dcnouement. The whole involved,
battling multiform whirl of the secessio period
comes to n head, and is gatheTd in one brief Hash
of ghtning ing-illumination-one SIMPLE herce deed
Its sharp elimination and as 1t We're solution OF so
many bloody and angry problems, Illustrates those
ClimaX-momants on the stage of universal II Ime,
where the Historic Muse at one entrance, and the
Tragic Muse at the other, suddenly ringing down
the curtain. close immense act III the long drama
of creative thought, and give 1T radiation tabIeau,
stranger than fiction. Fit radlation-ht close How
the imagInatiOn-hOw the student loves these
thingsl America, too, Is to have them; For not IN
all great deaths, nor far or near-not Cesar In the
Roman senate-house, or Napoleon passing away IN
the wild night-stOrm at 81 Heiena-not laleOlOgus,
falling desperately fighting, piled over dozens deep
with Grecian corpscs-not calm old Socrates, drink
ing the hrmOck-outyies that terminus OF the
Secession War i'm one mans life, here III our midst,
i'm our own time-that seal Of the emancipation Of
three million Slayes-that parurlton and delivery
of our new born, at last really free Republic hence-
forth 20 commence its career OF genuine h0moge-
neous mon. compact. consistent with itself.
Nor viii ever future American patriots and
Unionists. indiferently the whole land. or
North or South, find better seal to then lesson.
The final use Of the greatest men OF nation 49, al
ter ALL not with rofcrencc TO their deeds III them
selves or their direct bearing their times or
lands The final use of "a heroic-emlnent lIfe-es-
pecally of heroic-eminent DEATHS It's indirect
int, f,e he In
often at many removes, but unerrlngly, age after
age color and fibre to the peTsOnasm of the youth
and maturity Of that age, and of mankind. Then |
there il cement to the whole people, subtler moro
underlying than anything III written COnsttutlon,
or courts or aTmies-namcly, the cement of death
identified thoroughly with chat people, at its head
aud for n sake. Strange lis it not Il that battles
martyrs. agonies, blood, even assassination, should
condense-peIhaps only really, lastlngly con-
1 repeat 1.-THE grand deaths of the race-the
dramatic deaths of every nati0nality-aro its most
important value-in some respects, be-
yOnd ITS literature and aTt-laS tho hero Is beyond
his finest portrait and the battle itself beyond its
choicest song or epic Is not here indeed the point
underlying all tragedy the famous pieces of the !
Grecian Masters-and all masters Why if the old |
Greeks had had this man, what trilogies of plays
what eplcs-wOnld have been made out Of him
How the rhapsodes would have rected HIM How |
quickly that quaint tall form would have entered
into the region where men vitaze gods, and gods
divinity men
When, centuries hence (as it must in my opinion
be centuries hence before the life of these States
of democracy, can be really written and |
lustrated), tho leading historians and dramatsts |
seek for some parsonage, some special event, incl
sive enough 10 mark with the deepest cut. and
mnemonize this turbulent nineteenth century of
mot only these States, but all the |
political and social world something perhaps. to
close that gorgeous procession of European feuda
ism, with all its pOmp and caste prejudces, Of !
whose long train America yet lneXiric- |
ably the helrs-something to identify with terrible
identification, by far the greatest revolutionary step
in Tho history of the United States perhaps the
greatest OF the world, our centuryl-the absolute
extlrpatiOn and erasure of slavery from the States
those historians will seek IN vain for any point To
serve more thoroughly their purpose than Abraham |