The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-14

WASHINGTON, April ia para
graph now going the rounds of several
| newspapers enormously states that OF
all those who were gathered at the
deathbed of Abraham Lincoln, forty
years ago this morning, the only sur
vivor is John Hay. Corporal Tanner
also was present, and he gives this
! description of the death scene:
81 have read with interest" he said
| the statements made regarding the as
sassination of President Lincoln, the
anniversary of which has just rscurred
I notice the particular statement to
which you caH my attention, namely,
that OF all those who were assembled
in the death chamber when the great
spirit of the martyred President passed
away Secretary Hay is the only sur
vivor. This 1 know to be "a mistake,
for the reason that 1 was there my
self 1 was living in Washington at
the time 1 had taken a clerkship in
the Ordnance Bureau of the War De-
December That was my one year as
a Government clerk. 1 held the posi-
ton one year and resigned.
Il was boarding on Tenth street, OPP
posite Ford's Theatre. in a house i'm
mediately north of the Peterson house,
in which the President died. l had
some knowledge of shorthand and was
employed evenings at the Capitol TAX
~t.arc, of "a
Senate and transcribing my notes. I
mention this because it was this knowl-
edge of shorthand which resulted in
my being a spectator at the death of
Abraham Lincoln.
.'On the night of the assassination
1 was in Growers Theater. where now
stands the New National. I quote from
a letter written to my mother the day
after the Presidents death, which let
ter came back to me at her death:
Shortly after 10 o'clock. while in
the midst of a scene, the entrance door
of Growers was thrown open and
man shouted: President Lincoln has
been shot in his private box at Ford's,
Turn outi Instantly all was confusion.
cried out: 1T is ruse of the pick
pockets, Sit down. Most of the audi
ence agreed to this and took their
seats. Very soon one of the actors,
who had recited a patriotic poem on
the stage, came from behind the scenes
and announced that the terrible news
was too true and the audience dispers-
ed. My friend and myself went UP to
Wizards to learn what we could. We
were still more horrorstricken on COM
ing out of the theatre to hear it said
that Secretary Seward had had his
throat cut in his bed at home. We
could learn nothing at WIZARDS, so we
got on the cars and went down to
Tenth street and came up to my board
ing house. The President had been re-
moved from his box a the theatre to
a house across the street which adj
joins this. The crowd was very quiet,
and yet what excitement there was
A man whispering a word in justifica-
ton of the deed in least degree would
have been torn to pieces in a moment.
'On my statement to the officer in
command of the guard that I lived in
the house next door I was passed
through the lines and went up to my
rooms. The parlor and bedroom I oc-
cupied comprised the second story
front. There was a balcony there, and
I found my rooms and the balcony
crowded with the other residents of the
house. Albert Daggett, the late postal
card contractor, was at the time a
clerk in the State Department and
boarded in the same house. Dagget
was out On the balcony when Gen G.
C. Augur came out of the Peterson
house and asked if there was any
one present who could write short
hand. Dagget told him there was a
young man inside (meaning myself
who could do it and Gen. Augur tod
him to ask me to come down. as they
wanted me. / came down at once and
entered the Peterson house.
Gen. Augur conducted me into the
rear parlor. where 1 found Secretary
Stanton sitting on one side of the
small library table and Chief Justice
Garter of the Supreme Court of the
District at the end. They had started
in to take what testimony they could
the assassination, having
some one write it out in longhand. This
had proved unsatisfactory. I took
seat opposite the Secretary and COM
menced to take down the testimony.
Somewhere, slowed away in my boxes,