Arizona republican., 1901-11-10
MISTAKE OF GUITEAU.
1ngersoll Believed Blaine Was the h.
 tended Victim.

It was shortly after the assassination of President Garfield and while Charles J. Guiteau was awaiting execution that Robert G. Ingersoll, meeting pr. D. q. Rush on Pennsylvania avenue, Wash ington, said to him:
 Doctor, I've got to the bottom of this Guiteau business, and I think the government has also. I am well satis- fled that Guiteau never intended to kill Garfield, or even to wound him. He fired at James C.. Blaine and intended to kill Blaine. That Garfield got the bullet was simply one of those extra ordinary happenings where it seems as if the fates overruled the will of man."
 Dr. Rush knew Ingersoll well and appreciated his extraordinary capacity for research and investigation. He pressed him for further explanation of the matter. The two men found a lounging place, and the great orator began his story.
 You know well as l do, doctor he said, that during the Garfield Hancock campaign Guiteau was one of the most favored men at national head quarters He seemed to have more pull and drag around the old Fifth Avenue | hotel than even senators or congress- men. His impudcnce was superb. His ability to impress those whom he met | casually with the idea that the sue
 cess of the campaign depended upon
 was extraordinary.
 When he first made his appeara nee at national headquarters. if some one | had sympathetically but firmly taken him by the shoulders and kicked him | into the street the tragedy of July ! would probably never have taken place. l know a in tf
 quarters in the heat of the fight.
 Everybody counts for something until
 the votes are in. The sitting of indi-
 viduals does not come until after the | him was extraordinary.
 In consequence of this Guitea;i. | without any merit, without any par
 ticular knowledge of the situat ton,
 without the control of a single vote il
 the country but his own, became an ob- | ject of importance at headquarters. He
 could work his way into any private
 room, he could buttonhole any promi-
 nent man, he could secure a hearing
 where either of might have had to
 cool our heels for a day.
 l The result was the man. never bal
 anced of mind, gained a false impres-
 sion of his own importance. which was | to prove his own undoing and the
 working of a frightful wrong upon the people. He began to talk loudly of what he proposed to do if the repubii-
 cans won the day. He spoke mysteri-
 ously of certain connections which he
 hoped to have with the state depart
 ment if a republican secretary con | trolled it. He said frankly that noth- | ing but a profitable consulship would satisfy him, and declared that prom
 ises had been made him that he should | be so taken care of.
 | "I do not doubt that such promises were made to him by thoughtless per
 sons-even by persons who, if they had
 been speaking seriously, could have se-
 cured for Guiteau what he desired.
 Some public men, to get rid of bores,
 regard it as justifiable policy to prom
 ise them anything. But this policy had
 more to do with Garfield's death than
 anything else. Guiteau took every
 promise made him seriously. He was
 convinced that he was to be with either
 the diplomatic service in London or
 Paris, and that he would be one of the
 most important representatives of the | state department abroad.
 He told this to q number of persons
 in New York city after the election and 1 they smiled and did not disillusioniZe
 him. They even thought it was a cap | ital joke, and. I have no doubt some of | them, for the fun of the thing, encour-
 aged him in the idea. Guiteau did not
 know Garfield, and never expressed
 particular hostility toward him until fter the latter was shot down. He
 never, in my opinion, gave Garfiel1 a
 thought until he saw that he had shot
 him instead of Blaine. Then. having
 missed his original objest, and with q cunning common to mental perverts of
 his type, he immediately sought to jus | tify Garfield's assassination and to
 make it appear that he, Guiteau, was l | savior.