Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-04-03
Correspondents Brooklyn Eagle.

Present Z ives tue history IN Detail
Long Disputed Matter Definitely
Set at Rest.
Correspondence Brooklyn Ed0le.
was the only newspaper man present
at the disinterment of the remains of the
man who killed Abraham Lincoln. [
knew John wakes Booth. l knew his
II Iains. L saw them. l ought to know
whether he was killed or n The cir
cumstances related to the fact that l was
the only newspaper man present at the
disinterment OF Booths body demonstrate
the truth, that every event or incident in
the experience of a writer for the press
may become of value to him, il he is for
tunate enough to remember it, w j oc-
casiOn is pre- ented to make use of it. The
whole story is, perhaps, worth the telling.
Like many stories, it has to begin at a
time long preceding the main fact, but in
this case the connection between the first
event and the principal one is as singular
as it is direct.
A year or two after the war, when had
ceased from occasional work for the EGgte
and was regularly engaged by the New
York World, the acting city editor of that
paper asked me to 90 over to HOboken, to
the old Ely sian Fields, and edo" an in
PRODUCTION to the extremely full report
of a great base ball match which the
sporting man on that journal was to
write. / was glad enough to drop ex-
changes and BREWER for an afternoon of
fresh air and nonparell loaded. While
over there | fell in with a man
who was, l think, named Baker, and
who represented himself as chief of the
Secret Service detectives, or as having
been lately the chief of them. They were
the men who made the arbitrary arrests
in the war, and the arrests OF revenue
offenders after the war. Baker was then
regarded with the same measure of atfe"-
tion and respect now accorded to John |.
Davenport or Anthony COmstock. The
man who called himself Baker was some
what drunk, and inclined to be boastful
and communicative.
Bear in mind that the same questions
which the World lately revived were then
prevalent in the press. l was interested
in them, and thought that man VINO
could assuredly answer them would have
matter for a good article for his news
paper. Accordingly l encouraged Baker
not to get any more sober, and to become
in consequence more communicative. The
effort was successful BY maintaining
that Booth was not killed but had es-
capped, and by insisting that the silence
of the government about the place
Of his burial or the disposition of
his remains proved that he had
4
inclination to swear and to bet more
money than the contents of my weekly
envelope justified me IN believing had any
existence in all this world. At last,
under my dOltish incredality, Baker,
while evidently most reluctantly parting
with the information, said to me: ''Don't
be a tool. Booth was killed just as was
printed. He is buried under the floor of
the old arsenal, on the island, in Wash
iputou I Orzobt n know for | hplnpd
bury him there"
That was the information | was after.
| withdrew from the mans company long
enough to write down "Under the floor OF
the OLE arsenal, on the island, in Washing
on" Never having up to that time been
n Washington, the direction was creek
lume. but | felt certain the place could
found out. An endeaVOr on my part to
st the WDrtd people to see this apparent
iyN in the same light of Importance, in
hich il appeared to me, did not succeed.
tuty though that the man (whOm | never
a in saw might not have been Baker at
all, and that his statement might be sell.
AS VINE went ON, l studied everything
that was written about John Wilkes
Booths fell deed; about his capture; his
death and the speculatiOns concerning his
burial, or the burning, the boiling or the
suOmersion OF his body. All these pleas
ant theories were advanced and advO-
Gated. The result was that tamiliarized
my self with every fact and allegation in
the matter, even interviewing that intOl-
cradle bowling Dervish, Boston Corbett,
J who shot him, touching all he knew and
all he thought he knew on the subject
But there did not seem to be any vertical
lion OF Under the floor of the old arsenal,
on the island, in Washington"
The matter was TO be brought up in an
unexpected way a long while afterward.
| had acquaintances who were spiritual
lists. Without much difficulty l learned
the elements of the business at one or two
seances. They evoked raps. One rap
meant "Yes;' two meant mos" three
meant 81 don't know" Then the letters
of the alphabet were indicated by such a
/ number Of the letter required to spell out
q communication.
In this pastime l made several discOve-
ries. ] could not detect any fraud in the
raps; | had no reason to suspect the
1 honesty of the sitters; | could not find
/ that any communication from the spirits
/ related to matters not in the knowledge
/ OF some one present; | could neither
] evoke the raps nor make them myself,
/ but | could make the table tip toward
me, and where l sat, by motion or pres
| sure of my wrists or of either wrist, which
/ no one else saw or suspected, CT which,
/ at least, none of them referred to, II
he saw or sust ected it. ] was perfectly
aware, however, that l was making all
the tippings and / never developed mes
sage when did not invent or eXtem or
ne. | found or was told it was often the
case that "sGme mediums could not evoke
raps, but could evoke tips" and ] was
declared to be a every excellent ana IA
vOred medium -One of the most remarka-
Die tippers ever known"
One night, in private house II Brook
lyn. | made one of sitting company of
eleven persons, all of them accredited
mediums. The imp OF the perverse or OF
tie mlschieYous or OF the sensational
must have possessed me. | tipped up
Wash n.Jon, Socrates, Burns, Andrew
Jackson, Cotton Mather and other PEOPLE
VINO were Individually dead. As | knew
more adout them than any one else pres
o. they made no mistakes, or at
% none which was found out.
TnDn ON an impulse, which the
descriptive slang Of later days has
called "a lark" l tipped up the al
legged spirit Of John Wilkes Booth, dis
tinctly remembering now that hesitdted
whether l would tip up John Wilkes or
John Wilkes Booth. No sooner had that
interesting person spiritually announced
himself than there was simultaneously
executed recession Of most Of the sitters
from the table. ReyulsiOn, fear and amaze
ment made the mixed cause. Quickly GU
riosty gained the balance Of power aud
80. -rted q no 1ov There vaa "A return IN thn