The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-11
JOHN WILKES BOOTH.
A STORY CONCERNING THE DlS.N'
TeRMENT OF HIS REMAINS.
The Only Newspaper Man Who was
Present Gives the History In De-
ta;I-A Long DISPUTED Matter
Definitely Set at Rest.
TCor. Brooklyn Eagle

who killel Abrah ham Lincoln. knew John |
Wilkes B 10Th. / knew his remains. | saw |
them. | ought to know whether he was |
killed or not The circumstances related to |
the fact thet | 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, If he Is
fortunate enough to remember it, when &C.
casou is presented to make ue of 1t. 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 US 1t l.
direct.
A year or two after the war, when | had
ceased from occasional work for The Eagle
and was regularly engaged by The New
York World, the acting city editor OF that
paper asked me to go over to Hoboken, 10
the old Eiysiau Fields, and do" an intro
duction to the extremely full report of
great base bail match which the sporting
man on that journal was to write was
glad enough to drop exchanges and BREWER
for an afternoon Of fresh air and nonpar, il
lealed Whils over there, | fell in with
man who was, | think, named Baker, AMI
who represented himself as chief Of the
Secret Sl'vice detectives or as having been
lItely tie chief of them. They were
the mel who mad, the arbitrary
arrests in the war and TIE arre-t
Of revenue offenders at1r tae war
Baker WIS then REGARDED with the same
I measure of affection anl respect now nc
| corded to John l. Davenport or Anthony
| Jun.stock. TIE man who called himself
| Ba.er was somewhat drunk and incline to
| he boasttul and communicative.
| Bear in mild that the same questions which
| The Worl i1teiy revived were then preva-
lent il The press. was mtere tel in them
AMI thou int that man who could as,uredly
answer them would have matter for a goot
article .or his newspaper, Accordingly,
encouraged Baker not TO get any
more so 3er, and to become i'll conSe-
qucnce mor9 communicative The eff
fort was successful By maintain
ing that Booth YVES not killed, but had es-
cared and by insisting that the silence of
the government about the place OF his burial
| or the disposition o. his remains proved that
he had never been killed, melted i'll Baker an
inclination to swear and to bet more money
than the contents of my weekly enVelops
| justified me in believing had any existence
in all this worll. At last, under my doitish
incredibly, Baker. while evidently most re-
luctantly parting with the Information. said
to me: DON'T he Il fool. B 9th was killei
inst as was pr ntel II, Is BARREL under tle
floor OF the oh arsenal, on the Island, in
| Washin yton. | ought to know for helpel
Lury him there
That was thu information | was after. |
with lrew from the: mans company long
erou sh to write dCwa Under the floor OF
tie Old arsenal en- the Island, ia Washing
ton n yer having up {, that time been in
Washington. the direction was Greek t. me
but felt certain the place coull be folni
ont. Al endeavor on my part to get The
World people to,see thi, apparent clew in the
snne light OF Importance, in which it APP
paarei to me, did not succeed They thought
that tae IN IN waom / never again saw
might NOT have been b * at all, an that
hi, statement mi yht be Il sell.
As tina went on, | 7tldied erythns that
was written about john Wilkes Booths fell
deed. about his capture; his death ana the
s2aculationS concerning his burial or I'll,
burning, the boiling the submarsion of
his body. A these pleasant theories were
| dlNtHtt'l dlli dtlNbCutei Inc RESULT WIS
that | famliar;zad myself with every fact
an allegation in the m atter even interview
ing thlt intolerahlo howlin Dsryish, Boston
CpIb'tt, who shot lin, touching all he knew
a hi all he thought he knew on the subject,
But there dill not seem to be any verifcation
Of u der the fl Dor of the old arsenal, on the
Island, i W. shington'
TIE matter was to be brought up in al
unex ectei way, long while afterward.
had acquantan 'es who wore Spiritualists
Without much difficulty learned the el,-
inents OF the business at one or two seance T.
They evoked raps. One rap meant "YeS;
two meant M" three meant II don't
know Then the letters of the alphabet
were indicated ty such a number OF rlpS a
representa- the numjer o. the lsttar re
quirel to spell out a communication.
Ia Tia Vasime | made several discoverie I.
l could not detect sny fraud in the raps, !
had no reason t, suspect the hon asty of the
SitterS; coul no, fad that any communi-
cation f en- tn spirits related to matter.
not in the knowledge of soma one present;
could neither evoke the rap5 nor make them
mys If, but could make the table tin to-
ward me, AMI where sat, by motion OF
pressure OF my wrist; or of either wrist
which 10 one else saw or suspected, OF
which, at least, none of them referrei to, Il
he saw o. suspected it, 1 was perfectly
aware, however, tn 1T | was making all the
tipplngs I'd | never developed n message
which did not invent or extemporiza.
found Or was toll it was often the case that
some me liuins could not cvo.s, raps bui
could evoke tips" and | was declared to be
a very ex client an flvore msdinm-ons
of the most remarkable tiap rs ever KIN own
| O.e niglt, n a private house N Brooklyn
I'm ste one of sttin, c mplnv o e;even
perlDiS nil of tn IN ac .rs iiteI NJ lu n pls
imp o. tl= perverl or of the mischiev pu5 Oh
ii the sens ltioall NUT have po; essel ma
| | tipped up Washington. Socrates, Burns
Andrew Jit kson, Cotton Matner AMI uthe
pope who were iadubitably dead. As
knew more about them tnan any one els
| pra.ent they made no mistakes, or at lea,
none which was found out Thea on an i'm
pull e, which the descriptive slang of late
days has called "a lark tipped up the al
legged spirit of Joan Wilkes Booth, distinctl,
remembering now that hesitated whetIle
| would tip up John Wilke, or John Wilke
Booth. No sooner had that interesting per
son spiritually announced himself thai
tGere was simultaneously execute,
recession of most of the sitters iron
the table. Revision, fear an,
amazenent made the mixed cause Ouickl-
curiosity gained the balance of power an
carried the day There was a return to tn
table, alter an interval in which job
Wilkes h, 9th was getting ready to be "in
tervewel.n Questions come thick and fast
but answers were ready. Was he sorry b
cid III He was very sorry. What made hir
do it9 Wicked passions made him do it. Ha
he seen Mr. Lincolnl He had not, but an
other spirit had born 10 him Mr.. Lincoln
forgiveness This was received with muc
app. baton. Was he at peace! No; he wa
preyed on by remorse, but he was undergo
ing purification by reflection, and he hope
for peace This was thought to h
{ eninenty appropriate, and one lat.
remarked soto voce "IIe was 50 hand
O ms'-melning Booth, not me Further queS
i lions developed Mr.. Booths true and par5ic
ular account of the event Of April Is. 1871