The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-12-29

was occupied by ladies in large num-
bers, while without and high up
around the walls, on crier's bench, and
elsewhere men and boys held every
available seat"
Surratt entered unaccompanied. The
Rockville Cornet Band greeted him
with lively air and he threw off his
overcoat and revealed a manuscript
book, (which he drew from under his
arm and laid open on the desk before
him. His lecture was "well in men,
ory," however, and so without any
sort of introduction he began to reel
it off, speaking very rapidly and dis
tinctly for an hour and a quarter"
His voice was good and his delivery
easy, but occasionally he exhibited
much warmth of feeling, particularly
when he referred to his mother, and
his alleged desertion of her in her
darkest hour"
All through the lecture he was CIV
en- hearty applause and often cheered
and at it's conclusion the band played
Dixie" a concert was improvised,
"the audience not separating until a
late hour" During the reception
"Surratt was quite a lion with the
ladies present"
One other Washington newspaper,
the National Republican, took notice
of the lecture, publishing it in full
two days after it was delivered, and
with a sympathetic introduction also.
"His lecture stands among the re-
markable stories of the time," said
this journal. Moreover, the Republi-
can praised the lecture editorially as
being "a unique narrative alto
gether"; and said that Surratt cleared
up "many points upon which we were
hitherto left in the dark. 1t will be
read with much interest, as it relates
to matter which can hardly ever lose
it's terribly fascinating hold upon the
American mind"
. 1855
Had Surratt come to Washington
then he would, no doubt, have been
unmolested and have been greeted by
large audience. But he made the
fatal mistake of going to New York,
to lecture in Cooper Institute, where
Lincoln, ten years before, had deliv-
cred one of his most famous ad-
dresses. In his Rockville lecture, Sur
raft had asserted that his innocence
was so clearly established in his own
mind that while in Canada he wrote
out his defense and gave it to friend
to send to the New York World. This
reference to the great Democratic
journal, which was more or less I'M
der suspicion all during the war,
deeply incensed that paper, and it led
an attack on him which made his lee
ture on the evening of December 9 a
failure.
On his first appearance, at Rock
vile, Surratt began his lecture by say
ing that the only motive which
brought him on the stage was gain;
he needed money, and he hoped to
make lot of it with his lecture. In
deed, he had a regular manager and
press agent. This did not escape the
World or other papers, which fell on
the poor young man with an almost
insensate hatred.
1.-THE sister of the mythical Mrs.
Harris eked out her substance by ex-
hibiting her infant KEEP in spirits in
BOTTLE" said the World. "The son
of the late Mrs. Surratt is making his
living by hawking his mothers
corpse. The pleasing Mr.. Surratt has
certainly managed to remove the i'm
putation of cowardice which recently
rested upon him. 1t requires great
courage, of its kind, for a man to
make a market of his knowledge of a
transaction of which the chief inter-
est, so far as he is concerned, resides
in the fact that his mother was done
to a violent and shameful death by it.
But the courage implied by such an
exhibition is not an alluring kind. 1t
is simply the most flagrantly and de-
liberately indecent method of making
money which has ever occurred in the
depraved human mind. -. It is
hoped that self-respecting persons will
refrain from becoming his auditors"
This editorial, it is plain on its face,
was written for the purpose of clear
ing the skirts of the World of any i'm
putation of friendly contact with John
H Surratt. But the World was not
more severe than other New York
papers, which fell in line with it and
"wrote down" the effort of the young
man to gain an audience in the chief
city of the country. Hear old Horace
Greeley, for instance, in the Tribune:
"The pirate of Alabama must look
to his laurels as lecturer, for new
and formidable rival has appeared in