Year: 1874




Lov'd l not honor more.


THE SOCIAL slORl OF THE 3ttRprg Ol


PRESIDENT LINCOLN


is said by those familiar with it. To h-
scarcely less fascinating and dark than the
episode OF the tragedy


Booth was entirely IN ldyenturcr He
had demonstrated to himself the capacity
to make money easily, butnot by talent -o
much as acquaintance One Of his agents
who took him to the South before the Civil
War, told me that he was invariably be
sieged by men and women to whom hi
affable and romantic character had recon
Inended him. Consequently he was Ne.
voured by hospitality, and could not pre-
serve those characteristics of a scholastic
and Sentient order, which must III the eui
make up for mere appearance. magnetism
and robustness He committed his great
crime perhaps Is 4 resort, Il rebellion from
a nature sltiuted with success i'm things
volupuous and beautiful He was beloved
SO to speak, by Il dozen Interesting
women. He could play to such houses ~
even Harry Ford, the brother of the man
ager, whom Booth utilized for his crime
intimating that lie would play for Ford
benefit 1 do not mean " make the IN
ference that Ford knew anything about the
murder, and no man was So much aston
lshcd when it came to pass. But | Wish1p
show that noterlctV is Il passion. and that
it can be developed like any other human
passion, methodized and made secret mn
til it may involve all around about aud
make an imperial crime,


Booth steadily boarded at the National
Hotel. During the winter Of 1864 the
National contained almost every variety ot
public character-Justices OF Supreme
Court, gifted Senators, beautiful women.
brilliant lobbyists, romantic loaters like
Booth, and, in short, the whole arena Of
National society was encased in that
house. Hotel life is inevitably demoral-
izing, and indolent fellows like Booth
could desire no greater opportunity than
this crowded hotel afforded for luxurious
dissipation, the misleading of silly women,
and the cheap satisfaction of that limited
social applause which, to u retail nature,
is as consequential rs moral sclfsatistac-
ton.


THE NUMBERING SE&TIMENrAlIST


Booth was the pet of the house He
had about a dozen pretty pieces to recite,
and to some neil Il dozen such pieces
which they did not write are sufficient TO
make the tour of the world upon. One OF
Booths pieces | have given above,--a
glittering, hollow, King Charles Spanle
lish piece of sentiment Other pieces
which he recited We're beautiful Snow
Rock Me to Sleep, Il am dying, Egypt,
The Bridge of Sighs," etc For years
Booth had obtained social currency upon
such recitations lie was, besides, a man
of beaming presence, bold, agreeable, a
good listener and Just ignorant enough not
to be aware of leading and vital misappre-
tensions, while scrupulous enough in little
matters wherein nobody could take HIM
up. Your society adventurer is never at
fault on buttons or gimp, or mlnutl9 OF
any kind. He pronounCes well. lie has
a lot of phrases which he has industrious
w copied from foreign tongues and put
down in his diary, as Booths diary dis
closes but he is so insanely ignorant as to
presume that he can murder the ruler Of
forty millions OF people, and then make a
starring engagement in all the adjoining
sections, provinces and nations.


At the National Hotel, Booth was the
terror of jealous husbands and strict fathers.
He was the idol of a dozen married and
unmarried women of leisure. Outside of
the hotel, where his true character had its
legitimate development, he was bruiser,
a creature, a patron of cast-a-ways. In
the hotel he was the inheritor of his
fathers name, a boaster who talked oil
and commerce, and to his melodramatic
nature appeared to have joined the long
headed resources of man of business.
Taken at his own valuation. which after
all is the average valuation in this life, he