The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-11-26
Guiteou.

George Alfred Townsend Gath, IN recent
letter, draws the following striking picture Of
the assassin Guiteau:
A Wild fierce man, with certain bravery of
character, such rs Booth, might excite the an
Imal interest by his wildness but this bastard,
who killed without Offense, and for no pur-
pose beyond the filthicst thirst for notore,y.
merited neither curiosity nor rage. detected
him in an instant after / entered the room,
though he sat among many other people IN the
same kind of chair, and without any ling,
officers, or anything to hedge him in. I Oh
served sort OF stubbed head Of HAIR, such - is
seen in the criminal pictures Of England, with
HAIR rather bristly, set low toward the front,
and rather fiat back In the corners, unceany
looking hair-boorish. Under this hair was a
nasty skin, little like y corpse, with some
reddishncss ovcrspreadng It's generally yell
lowsh dampness. The face was rather long
and pear.shaped. Around the chin was con
siderable quantity of brownish beard, yet with
out any warmth in its sandy hair. The hair,
the skin, and the beard all seemed to be dusty,
and dampened, as though out OF some grave.
yard. The persplratlon OF this man appeared
to be at fault There WAS nothing woefu in
his face, though it WAS wofish. In the middle
of his forehead WAS deep, varying wrinkle,
the principal sign to me of probable deCaying
mental faculties 1t is generally said that Q
depression between the eyes shows memory
well gone. In this case II was deep depres.
sion, with a sort of wrinkle attachment to It,
which WAS agltated right and left, like his fit
ting eyes, which had sharpness about them,
but not much rest except at times when some
thing occurred to excite his vanity. II you
were to meet this man, small rs he looks to be
in the body, In u lane somewhere, or IN the
woods, you would 90 past very quickly, and
wonder rs you pass him whether he was lit
tie crazy or very wicked As friend descrh.
ed him to me, he was one of those men who al
ways wanted to do something thai was not the
thing to be done. judge that he belongs In
the number of that large tribe of Unbalanced
Americans who think that to publish book
of any kind Is lofty pursuit, even If nobody
reads the book but the author, while to be on
u salary of a newspaper, and serve ones day
and generation, is rather beneath human intel
lIgence.
| looked at this man again and again, but
never with any increasing interest, merely won.
dering how to set before my mind and the pub
llc a little of the wandering which was in his
countenance. BY this | do not mean more
than that something seemed to drive the man
on and on, from point to point, from thought
TO thought, and let him rest nowhere as if Il
voice WAS always crying out: Move on ~
whenever he halted. lfyou were 70 take your
eve of him few minutes, and would bring /,
back he seemed TO have gone hundred miles
since you looked at him before. That rapid,
nervous head had drawn him through great
periods of space and Of agitating suggestions.
He could not any more pause than mad dog,
ever wanting to drink, ever frightened At the
pool, ever swapping, ever dashlng on. asked
myself the question, if he was crazy and it
looked to me very probable The observation
of persons | know who have seen much of
Guiteau since the killing, is to the effect that
he is not cognizant in mind.