Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-07-05
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VIZ. Harry FOrd's RecOllectiOns Of a
Great Tragedy.

DISTINGUISHED PRISON MATES-MEMORIES VI
WILKES BooTH-wHY EDWIN BOOTH DOES NOT
PLAY IN WASHINGTON. ETC.
A STAR reporter finding himself costly seated
In the Office at Ford's Opera House, and Mr..
Harry Ford, in a vein for "reminiscences led Mr..
Ford's mind back score Of years to the events
attending the assassination of President Lincoln
at the 10th street theater. " The day Of the
assassination" said Mr.. Ford, .'about 10 m,
Booth came down 10th street to the theater, and
stopped there to read letter. / can remember
very well seeing him sitting upon the steps out
side. 1 told him then that President Lincoln
and Gen. Grant were coming to the theater that
night. / said that President Lincoln and Gen.
Grant would occupy one box and added as a
joke to tease him that JEFF Davis and Gen. Lee
would be in another box. He denounced Cen
Lee very vigorously for having surrendered the
sword of Virginia. That evening. after the per-
Torrance began, he came to the theater and. as
he passed the box office he looked into the win
dow, and putting his arm through, placed
cigar which he had partly smoked on shelf In
side, and said In mock heroic bOmbastic furioso
style,
sWho eer this cigar dares displace
Must meet Wilkes Booth face to face'
Then he passed into the theater"
IBID he ever return for the cigar?" asked THE
STAR reporter.
mo. Those were the last words / ever heard
him speak. He must have said them to mis-
lead US. for his plans 1t seems. were already
laid and 1t was part of the plan as heard after
wards. that Payne was to aSsassnate Seward.
AtZerOtt should kill Johnson at the Kirkwood
house, and Booth shoot the President stimuli
taneously. So he knew just what he was going
to do, and how much time he had"
Later in the evening" continued Mr. Ford
1--WE heard pistol shot in the theater. Joe
Sessford and | were in the treasurers office We
thought ut first that it was the pistol fired by
Asa Iie,ac'idrd In the play-Laura Keene was
playing "Our American Cousin"-but then it
struck US as little too early in the evening
We opened little window that looked into the
theater and saw Booth crOuching ON the stage
with knife in his hand. Even then we could
not tell what had happened, and no one seemed
to know. We thought at first that some one
had insuted Booth and he had pursued the man
across the stage few minutes which seemed
an hour passed before the whole terrible truth
was known"
''You were among those who were arrested
were you not?' asked THE STAR reporter
{" was arrested, l think on the Sunday fol-
lowing the assassination, and taken down to the
old Carroll prison. fronting upon the Capitol
grounds. l was treasurer of the theater, and
my brother. James R. Ford, better known as
Dick Ford, was manager. My brother, John
I. Ford. who owned the theater, was arrested
at his home in Baltimore after his return from
Richmond. He had run down there to see our
uncle, mothers only brother. Mr.. VIM. Dreamer.
under arrest-the carpenter. the assistant car
penter the property man. and others. Nearly
every one around here professionally related to
Booth was arrested. and the Virginia and Mary
land farmers along the river, who were supposed
to have assisted Booth in his escape In any way
by harbOrng him. giving him food. or shelter or
boats, were arrested, and they were all sent to
the prison where was. So we had plenty of
| company"
Ibid enjoy 1t? Well I would not have
| q
| rare NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., bounty -jumpers aud
prisoners of state, governors, legislators and
men Of every station. Still, 1t was rather rough
the first week. We were kept in close and soil
tary confinement. Each man had a room by
himself and was not allowed to leave 1t or to
| see anyone. remember that when my brother
was brought in / saw him in the yard. The
guards would not let me go to him or speak to
him. After John L. was arrested his family
came over from Baltimore. His wife applied to
Secretary Stanton for pass to go to the prison
and see him, but Stanton refused. There we
were left alone in our dungeons in dreadful I'M
certainty. | remember the day of the funeral
ceremonies at the Capitol. l could see nothing,
but could hear the solemn booming of guns, the
dismal beating Of muflled drums. playing dead
marches and the steady tramp of feet. That
was not very cheering music for our ears We
did not know but the people in their excitement
| would mob the prison and lynch u.s. for some of
| the men arrested had been stoned in the street
! Our fare was coarse prison food soup and beans
and dry bread. Even this experience had its
comic side. We used to have tin cups. md
every evening one of the prison guards would
| come through the hall roaring cups, cups you
scoundrels. We had to pass them out to him After
| that first week we had more liberty and really
had very jolly time. W.P. Wood, thcsuperin-
tendeDt OF the prison, was away. When he re-
turned he treated US very nicely. We were al
| lowed TO mess together, and were about as So
| ciable and merry set Of prisoners as ever were
under lock and key. My brother Dicks health
was not good and on that account he was al
! lowed to go out into the Capitol grounds where
ne used TO walk unattended. Twas quite ball
tosser then, remarked Mr.. Ford with some pride.
He noticed reporter look rather skepticay at
! his rather rOtund figure, and added: yes I
was quite an athlete then. 1t surprised some Of
| the prisoners there, the bounty jumpers, the
| farmers and others, to see my ball playinu I
would let them throw balls at me any way and
| catch them as fast as they could throw them
| There were several OF us there who used to 90
over to Bradys gymnasium. on Louisiana
| avenue, and were fond OF athletic sports. We
| found number OF logs or sticks of wood and
| cut them so as TO make Indian clubs, with which
! we exercised. The authorities got a notion
that we were getting ready for an attack on the
| guard, guess. At any rate they came down
on Us and took our clubs away. We organized
whist parties and played all sorts of pranks |
remember that we used to keep Weichman who
was witness afterwards against Mrs Sarratt,
half scared to death by telling him that the SOL
| GiefS were gong TO take room 30, or room 81
! we did not know which. out to hang an inmate.
/ He had room 35. He used to look through his
! spectacles in pitiful way and felt very ner-
vous. Among our distinguished fellow prison.
ers were Gov Letcher, of Virginia; Gov. Vance.
| of North Carolina. and Coy. Brown, Of Georgia:
| the latter two now Senators. Mrs. Surratt and
| her daughter were there at that time also. Mrs
| Surratt occupied a room in the second story of
the back wing, .or ~ Of the building. and her
/ window looked down into the yard The back
| yards OF the houses now forming Carroll row
| all formed one large prison yard then Junjus
| Brutus Booth, brother Of J. Wilkes and John 8
| Clark the comedian, who married Booths sister
were also arrested. Clark made good deal of
fun, you think? No: he was the most serious
man there. The guards took penknife away
| from Junlus Booth. or June as every one
! called him. because some one thought he
would commit suicide. He said that If
| he had gun. he would put the whole
! guard to flight. The men who were
accused directly of completely in any way
with Booth were imprisoned at the arsenal
where they had padded cells. SO they could not
| butt their brains out. If they had found any,
! thing to implicate us, they would have sent lis
| down to the arsenal. When was first taken TO
the prison, l was examined by the authorities
! there. Two or three days before the assassination
Booth gave Inc his picture. 1t was a tin type
such as you can get now for twenty five cents a
dozen 1t was small, about large enough for a
iocket, but very fine. He happened into the the
ater and was showing the picture. and took q
notion to give it to me. 1t was in my pocket
l.