The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-07
ySF1NGE-CENTENARY OF
 EXECUTION OF THE
 LINCOLN CONSPIRATORs


 Just half, a century ago today, in 1lehe yard of the Capitol Prison at washington four persons, one of them a woman. were hanged. The QUadruple execution was the attempt of a- great nation to avenge the death of one of the noblest men in history Abraham Lincoln. The murder of the president by John Wilkes Booth, the escape of the, assassin, and his last stand in a barn, aroused the country to wild fury. It was believ- ed in theFnorth that Jefferson Davis had inspired the murderous plot. Da- wis was arrested and sent to Fort Delaware. In the meantime many Suspects had been lodged in the Washington prison, among them Mrs. Mary Surratt, a pretty widow of foDey-five, who had kept @ boarding house which was the rendezvous of the conspirators. There were also LeyCds Payne, who, on the night of 1Ancoln's death, made an attempt on the life of Seward; G. A. Atzerodt, David B. Herold, and many others. At the trial it developed that Booth alone was back of the plot, and that Grant and Seward, as we'll as Lin eolns- were to have been slain by his felIow-conspirat The belief that President Davis or other officials of the Confederacy had any Knowledge " out foundation.
 Mrs. surratt, Atzerodt, Payne and Davy Hero1d were sentenced to be hanged. pr. Mudd. Arnold and O'Laughlin, who were also convicted of playing minor roles in the con spiracy, were sentenced to inprison- ment for life, and Spangler the scene sh4ter, was given six years.
 There was very general belief in the innocence of Mrs Surratt and "a. to save the doomed 1andlady. received
 much sympathy and assistance. Up to the very last minute the men in charge of the prison hoped that Mrs. Surratt would be saved, but when the hour set for the execution arrived there had been no intervention in her behalf, and she Joined in the melancholy march of the fated four to the gallows.
 The doomed woman led the tragic procession, stumbling along between two priests With difficulty she was led up the steps to her place beneath the dangling moose. She was dress ed in black, and wore a heavy black veil. Atzero7t followed, a high white cap on his head, chains upon his ankles. He was so frightened he could scarcely stand except for the assistance of the soldiers and the Lutheran minister who pushed him along. sDayy HeroId, a mere boy, the companion Of Booth when the latter fled across the Potomac after the murder, also needed the assistance of the soldiers and the minister. Bringing up the rear was Payne. with a. straw hat much too small for him, which he had taken from one of his guards, perched jaunti1y on his head. He walked alone, smiling, fearless. ssTae walked like a king about to be crowned said Rath. the execttioner, A- lessly over the scaffold and his yellow hair shining like a golden halo in the sun z
 The condemned four were seated in chairs on the scaffo1d and the nooses were placed about their necHs Mrs Surratt's skirts were carefully bound about her ank1es-a concession to conventional morality grinn1y amusing under the circunstahces Then the two drops fell with sickening sound, and the four bodies. soon Iifeless, dangled on the ends Of the ropes.