The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-11

were not cOnflned to Lincoln and seward,
for it was only within a few months after
Mr.. Lincoln's death that Mrs. Seward and
Miss Fanny Seward wife and daughter,
were laid to rest-both victims of this dire
tragedy
Peterson, in whose house the President
died, committed suicide. His body was
found in the Smithsonian grounds.
John T. Ford, proprietor of Ford's Thea
ter in Washington, where the President
was killed, died in 1894.
Boston Corbett, who shot Booth. and who
subsequently was appointed to a position
in the Kansas House of Representatives.
became violently insane. He recovered then
moved to Texas, since which time nothing
has been heard of him. He is probably dead
RATHBONE'S FATE.
Major Rathbone who was iii the Presi-
dents box with Miss Harris on the night
of the murder, subsequently made this lady
his wife. He was a gentleman of means,
position and culture He went abroad to
reside in Germany. There, sad to relate,
he became violent raving maniac, and
while in this condition, murdered his wife.
He is now confined in an asylum in Ger
many and is still a mailman.
But strangest and saddest of all, Ford S
Theater, in the summer of 1893, fell to the
ground with a crash, burying in the ruins
some eighteen or twenty government clerks.
And this took place on the day, yea, at al
most the hour, when the remains of Edwin
Booth, brother of John Wilkes were being
laid away in Boston.
1t is a remarkable circumstance that
nearly all the parties implicated in the con-
spiracy were young men. Booth was only
%; John Surratt, 20; Payne, 20; Herold, %;
Arnold and Mclaughlin about 2S;
Atzerodt and DR.. Mudd about 50. They
were all noncatholics, with the exception of
Mudd and the Surratts. Payne was the son
of Baptist preacher in Florida.
The carbines deposited at Surrattsville
the field glass carried by Booth, the diary
written by him in the pines of Maryland
the boat in which he and Herold crossed
the Potomac, his compass with the drip
pings of the candle still on it, and which
he used when crossing, the pistol and ball
with which he shot the President, the re-
volvers and knives used by the other con-
sprators, and even the clothing worn by
Payne are now in the War Department at
Washington, and some day, when the pres
ent generation has gone to sleep, will prob
ably be exhibited in the National Museum
as CHASTITY trophies of that awful night
when this country was robbed of Abraham
Lincoln.
When Booth fired his murderous shot in
1865 it was at first thought that the Con-
federate leaders had prompted the deed;
others again asserted that it was instigated
by a certain religious organization, but as
time rolled on, these charges have been
shown to be without the slightest founda-
ton. From the developments in the case
it looks as if Booth himself were the head
and front of it all, and that the poor crea-
lures whom he associated with him in his
dastardly crime were mainly influenced by
the consideration of the large sums of
money and fortunes which he promised
them.
But few persons now alive are aware of
Booths real purpose. He aimed not merely
to kill the President, but the Vice Presi-
dent secretary of state and General Grant.
Had ne succeeded in this it is impossible
to tell what would have become of the
country. There would have been no one
who could have succeeded constitutionally
to the presidency, and thus he would have
accomplished by assassination what the
rebels failed to achieve in honorable, open
warfare, by the sword-the dismemberment
of the Republic. The human mind turns
away from the contemplation of such
condition of affairs with agony and horror.
The lesson that the assassination of Lin
coin teaches every boy and girl in the land
is one of stern, uncompromising loyalty I'M
der all circumstances to the government
and of unflinching devotion to the flag of
common country. Had this been
Booths course the Nation would not have
mourned the loss of Lincoln, nor would
the world have been deprived of the genius
of man who in his early life bade fair to
eclipse the efforts of his brother Edwin
and even Guido the fame of his matchless
father-Junius Brutus Booth.