The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-02-14

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the time of the occurrence of the horrible
~ deed. would have passed by the hous,
without noting it at all, had not my com
er panion connected this assassination with it
but there seemed Il mysterious fascination
IN about 1t, now that Il terrible tragedy haC
occurred there. watched the house unit
m out of sight, and can remember to this day
It's exact appearance. But all this was only
% suggested by Il stroll took not long ago in
THIS city. l was passing up ii. Street, be.
i, tween Sixth and Seventh. That little
brown painted house across the street there,
3, said an acquaintance, was where Mrs. Sur
raft kept boarding house when President
Il Lincoln was assassinated, and where she
was arrested soon after, | had passed very
near the house some hundred times before,
but my attention had of course never been
drawn toward it particularly, but | have
y never passed it since without casting my
!, eyes up tothe old fashioned structure, with
Il strong sort of interest. 1t is a rather
shabbier house than the majority of those
$ surrounding it. 1t has no yard in front,
but is wedged in between tM other houses,
eiS NaiS touNulHS IL VII DDln SlutS, uIlu
fronts almost on the pavement. There is
$ just room enough beyond the pavement for
the little winding pair of steps, so popular
r in the ante-war mode of building houses,
that lead up over the basement, to what is
t called the first floor, though in reality it is
the second, the basement being built almost
. entirely above ground. The house has only
two Qtnrias ahnyn ba hns Il -,
ceedingly common looking in every respect.
Here it was that Booth, Harold. Payne and
Atzcrott met to plan the assassination, or
as many still think, the capture of the
President. From hence, the widow who
had come to Washington, from her country
home in Maryland, to better her fortunes us
boarding house keeper, was taken and
put in irons to await the verdict of her de-
stroyers. 1t came swift enough. The old |
arsenal was the scene of the Judicial MUIR
der The same curiosity of mind already |
mentioned, led me down to the old arsenal. |
1t is situated in the extreme southern part
of Washington, right on the shore of the
Potomac. The grounds are smooth and |
level, and two handsome houses occupied
| ny OIittlS anu liltlI IlllllllGS, Slanu on |
either side of the walk as you enter tho
arsenal ground. Very near them stood the
old penitentiary which was torn down in
1869. A little farther south, near the pow
der house, there stood on the morning of
the 18th day of July, 1861 Il newly made
scatfOld. 1t was prepared for two men,
boy and woman. Persons in low and
biuh Iaurna nlnnlnI tho
The trial concluded on the 10Th day of June,
and the sentence of death was to be carried
out on the eth proXimO. Our armies had
surrendered, the war was over and yet
there was this unusual haste to satiate the
desire of Northern fanatics for blood. (
Washington, am told, was on this day
swarm of soldiery. Mr.. johnson, the great !
commoner, and though dead, the great :
demagogue, it was thought by many would, ,
at the final moment grant pardon or re- /
preive. Fair women fell ON their knees !,
before him and begged in piteous tones for 5
only brief delay of the sentence of death
against Mrs. Surratt, till the overheated L
feelings of the people had subsidized. Not !
even this boon was granted. The hour 9
named for the execution had arrived amid t
these vain appeals for mercy, when the long =
loud wall of IL despairing wOmans voice,
fell OIL the air, and was heard far out toward +
the blue Potomac. 1t was the voice of the j
dying woman's daughter, who thus an
nOunced that hope--the day star of our ct
persistence here--was dead in her bosom.
After the execution, Mrs. Surratt was l.
buried i'll the old pententiary, but her re- a
mains were ofterward removed to Mount :,
)livet Cemetery, where they now rest. n,
The body of Booth was also landed at in
he Arsenal, and was buried in the old
'enitentiary building. 1t was afterwards
to Baltimore. IN
Well, there has been u fearful thinning
ut of the immediate actors in those stir "
ing events, The assassinated, and the as
ASSN, the accomplicoS, and the innocent in,
woman, Stanton, Seward and President bl,
ohnsOn, have all joined "the innumerable hi.
What world of philosophy it o,'
you'd take to convince us, that the souls Of off
heso aforementioned persons, promising til:
hat all of them reached the golden shore, on
ould exist tremendously and happy to- pei
|
IMAGINATION, to fancy the persons named d
II joining in one glorious halleuiah. The X
lost of us will Have to shake off this NOR
llity, to conceive of such thing. =
The grounds of the Arsenal near the bar .
sha
lnnon balls, aud cannon, the former ar ,ag
'hs'u III PItar''ua' sHal''' wv '"i.o' ioS'= chi
q on decaying old timbers. l saw there =
lmber of cannon that had been captured bor
various times. Several that We're cap an,
red at Saratoga in 1927, when Gen, evo
urgoyne surrendered his entire command mai
insisting of 1871 men, to our plueiy Cen N
al Gates. Some cannon taken at the bat :,
, of Niagara, a small cannon taken from or,
e Nexicans at Vera Cruz, brass Confed- 4
ate one captured at Gettysburg, which 1.
IS ball i'm the muzzle, shot there from I Ius
other cannon, and several taken from no ,
,rd CORVALLIS on old Virginia soil at no '
where the aforementioned :.
1tlsher surrendered Ills army oil tOOO men this
our Washington, thus virtually ending scer
G war and securing our independence. lhe
unt ROehambeau and his French COM low
md deserved much credit for this whole to q
e surrender, but he dOescn't get much on ing
Is side ofthe water. sbe
Il was IN one, of the arsenal buildings in it b
a that some twenty odd vo,,p,, ,irIs ,,ore won
/, - - il as
leu Dy suh-pONuei eApiOslOl' n num- goes
r Of British soldiers were also blown sky one
n on the arsenel grounds in 1914 by fire TO {
Iich they enkindled themselves. The ex- ~ Ie !,
sion shook all Washington, though nece
re was not very much Of it at that time land
While sitting in our Committee room ne
"a On u-oatnrllar lnnlir,.. ant o., a.. -.