The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-04-15
BY WINFIELD M. THOMPSON.

regain consciousness. although the doc
tors at first had covered his body with
mustard plasters, and had administered
brandy. in hope of increasing vitality.
The wound bled freely, and some Of the
brain mingled with the blood. The bull
let had entered behind the left ear and
lodged back of the right eye. The wound
was kept free of coagulatiOn. as it was
found he was easier with it open.
While the doctors worked over the
President-there were three Surg. Gen.
Barnes. DR.. Robert King Stone. the
family physician, and DIR. Charles H.
Taft. an army surgeon, who had been
one of the first to reach Lincoln after the
shOoting-Mrs. Lincoln. distracted and
unable to control a grief destined even
tually to unbalance her reason, sat on a
sofa in the front parlOr of the house, a
few feet from the front chamber. Her
son, Robert, sought in vain to comfort
her.
How the End Came.
At intervals in the night Mrs Lincoln
was led to the bedside OF her dying hus-
band. She remained with him from las to
2:l0 and at o'clock again visited him.
Before she entered the room the sur
geons spread clean napkins 10 hide the
crimson, stains on the pillow: Yet when
she saw how distorted and how plainly
marked with deaths seal was her hus-
bands face she fell in a swoon to the
floor
When she had been restored and was
led to the bedside she addressed her
dying husband with the words: 20, love,
live but for one moment to speak to me
once-to speak to our children
In compassion she was led away. At
S:35 the pastor of Lincoln's church (Rev.
DIR. Phineas ID. Gurley) knelt at the bed
side and offered prayer.
Lincoln was then very quiet, his respi-
ration being regular. At his pulse be-
gan to fail, and at $50 the loud, labored
breathing was resumed. His pulse was
failing fast. At o'clock the doctors
noticed symptoms of immediate dissolu-
ton.
As the dawn of a lowering rainy
morning paled the lamplight in the little
room, revealing the Borrowing faces of
the group about the bed. scarcely less
haggard than that of the dying man.
Lincoln's breathing grew fainter and
fainter his pulse weaker and weaker. I'M
til at last by sign the doctor holding
his hand (Surg. Gen. Barnes) indicated
that the end had come. 1t was then 90.
In that solemn moment. amidst still
ness broken only by repressed sobs. Sec
rotary Stanton said, Now he belongs to
the ages"
20, that Dreadful HOuse:''
DIR. Gurley knelt beside the bed and
offered prayer. Then the widow was
brought into the room. supported by
her son. With heart-rending cry, she
cast herself upon the body.
Silently and weeping, the men who
had crowded the room withdrew. leav-
ing her there with one or two whose
restraining and soothing hands led her
at last away from the room.
AS she entered a carriage to return
TO the White House. she looked for a
moment at the theater acro-s the
street and moaned. "Oh. that dreadful
house, that dreadful house!'
At the White House the tears of the
widow were mingled with those of her
little son Tad" The boy had heard
the awful news of his fathers assassi-
nation announced at Growers Theater
the night before. A kindly doorkeeper
at the White House had soothed his
GRIEF and put him to bed.
johnson Becomes President.
Vice President Andrew johnson. who
was to succeed Lincoln as President,
was not at his dying chiefs bedside.
shooting of Lincoln's condition. he did
not leave his chamber in a hotel three
squares away. There in the morning
he was sought. and there the oath of
office was administered to him by
Chief Justice Salmon p. Chase. in the
presence Of only one or two other per-
sons.
President johnson then rode in a
closed carriage to the White House.
That day at noon he met the Cabinet
members for conference at the Treas
ury Building, and that afternoon at
the White House he received his first
official callers.
Meanwhile the body Of Lincoln,
placed in a temporary coffin and
draped in the American flag, was
borne by six soldiers from the house
on Tenth street. placed in a hearse,
and with a small cavalry escort was
taken to the White House.
In the dull morning Washington's
bright bunting of the day before.
spread in glory of the end of war,
hung limp and dripping. and men went
about the work of taking 1t down and
putting crepe In its place.
Tomorrow-The escape 81 Booth.
Copyright. 1915. bS Winfield NJ. Thompsun.)