Evening star., 1935-11-11
BIZARRE LINCOLN
: STORY IS TRACED
"Sob Sister" Revealed as
Writer of Tragic Tale
of Widow.
By the Associated Press.

oy tllC aooOSidbcu I ASoo'
A bizarre tale of newspaper
woman who fitted in and out of the
Civil War White House and wrote
the inside story of an effort by Mary
Todd Lincoln to sell secretly the rich
. clothes she had worn as first lady
was unrolled yesterday by researchers
David Rankin Barbee. close stu
dent of that period, has found evil
dence that Jane Swisshelm, Washing
tons trail-blazing newspaper woman,
wrote the book Behind the Scenes"
which set the Capital agog in 1869.
On it's title page. the book was at
tributed to Elizabeth Keckley, col
ored modiste, Thirty Years Slave,
and Four Years in the White House" I"
v. VIOLA Parma. curator Of the rare
book room at the Congressional Lii
brary. called the discovery "a truly
significant contribution to Lincoln
lana."
Has James Autobiography.
Parma now cherishes James auto
biography. Half a Century" written
years later, alongside the Nine. Keck-
ley book-and the two dovetail as
closely as the grain of the wood in
the Lindbergh ladder was said by the
expert to match the attic board.
Barbee said he was browsing in old
Civil War newspapers in the library
when he ran across description Of
the Congressional Galleries wherein
George Alfred Townsend, a CORE
spondent who knew the Capital, men
toned among those present Jane
EWiSshelm, the author of the Nine.
keckley book"
Further research convinced him
Townsend was right.
The book told the inside story Of
Mary Todd Lincoln's last tragic days
In the White House; of the $4,000
store bill she had piled up as first
lady, all unbeknown to her hus-
band: of her incognito trip to New
York in her tragically impecunious
UidoWhood. for that sensational and
futile attempt to raise money by SELL
4ng the clothes she had worn in the
White House.
The ex-slave cloak abouc the author
vas received with ribaldry at the time.
Parma showed lampoon on it titled
"Betsy Kickley's Behind the Seams. v
Read in the light of the Barbee
discovery, the ill-starred gown-ped-
ding exploit logically became just an
other manifestation of James journal
astic enterprise.
ohlo q oholifinnict Snh
sister, writing with woman's rights
slant. who first crashed the Senate
press gallery in 1859, sitting there for
one day only as a stunt for Horace
Greeley's New York Tribune.
II became interested in Mrs.
swisshelm's work through my research
into the death of Lincoln" said Bar
bee, who has piled up 100000 words
of notes on that single subject.
Praises Her Writing.
"She wrote the best piece of de-
scriptive journalism done on the
Booth trial. Beautiful writing! Both
she and the author of the Olivia let
ters had the confidence of the i'm
portant men in the Republican party
of their day. They had no secrets
from them. No woman writing now
in Washington follows the same tech
nique that they did,
Barbee said his researches had con-
WINGED him there was mo such per-
eon at all" as Elizabeth Keckley. Jane,
in her utter devotion to the anti
slavery cause, invented an eX-slave
who made Mrs. Lincoln's dresses.
Jane herself had been dressmaker.
James book told how she started
dressmaking to support herself and
husband in Louisville, KY. Nine.
Keckley told how she made dresses to
support herself and husband, in st.
Louis, Mo. There were lots Of little
condolences like that.
= Jane told how Mrs. Lincoln took
fancy to her at first sight, when her
own attention was centered on pity
for handshaking President at big
White House reception.
May the Lord have pity on you,
my poor man. said Jane to Lincoln
"For the people have none"
Nine. Keckley was so impressed
by this same presidential phenome-
non that. she begged from Mrs. Lin
coin the glove from his right hand.
soiled by the shakes of the second in
augural; later begged the very blood
stained opera cloak in which he was
shetland gave them both to a COL
ored bishop to be shown in Europe to
gain funds for a colored college.