Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1915 — LINCOLN'S THREE DREAMS of ASSASSINATION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LINCOLN'S THREE DREAMS of ASSASSINATION

AN incident extraordinary in its curious significance occurred in the White House on April 14, 1865—just 50 years ago. On that day President iZgwJ Lincoln told his personal B bodyguard, William H. Crook, that he had dreamed of his impending assassination during three successive nights—those of April 11, April 12 and April 13. ' ■ '

In recalling the occurrence Colonel Crook said he had never forgotten the shock which these words caused. “After the first shock caused by Mr. Lincoln’s words,” said Colonel Crook, “my natural impulse was to make light ■of the affair. I was then a young man, strong, accustomed to deal with practical matters and not inclined to place much Importance on the Intangible and mysterious. But now, 50 years afterward, 1 am willing to admit that Mr. Lincoln’s remark made me very uneasy. For one thing, the whole country was strained, anxious, distraught, notwithstanding the belief that hostilities soon were to end with a complete victory for the Union.

“Much had been said and suggested about the possibility of the president’s assassination. As his personal bodyguard this possibility waa always in my mind; and every moment when on duty I was constantly on the lookout for some sudden attack. It was my business to see that Mr. Lincoln did not expose himself needlessly; and especially to see that no stranger approached him with hands covered or ■concealed in any way. f “When Mr. Lincoln told me that for the third successive time he had ■dreamed of being assassinated I said that in my judgment further and unusual measures should be undertaken without an* hour’s delay for his protection. He looked at me In silence for a moment, a kindly smile in his great, tired eyes, and then slowly shook his head. “ ‘No,’ he said. If anybody Is wicked enough to want to kill me we can do nothing to prevent it’ “‘Possibly that is true, Mr. President,* I made bold to answer with all respect, 'still the very knowledge of the fact makes me all the more anxious.” "‘Well, Crook, what do you want to do?’ he said, tolerantly, so as not to hurt my feelings. “‘The first thing I want you to do, Mr. President, Is to cancel your engagement for this evening—to stay away from Ford’s theater.’ "'I can’t do that very well,’ he replied. "Finally I urged him to let me stay on duty and accompany him to the theater, but he would not hear of this either. , “ ‘No, Crook,’ he said kindly but firmly; ‘you have had a hard day’s work already and must go home to sleep and rest. I cannot afford to have you get all tired out and exhausted.’ “Then the president turned and with his kind, grave face, said:

** ‘Good-by, Crook.’ And he went into his own room, leaving me standing there in the corridor. “As the door closed after him his final words repeated themselves to me, seeming to echo over and oyer again. What he had said was, ‘Goodby, Crook.’ It was the first time he had ever used the words. Invariably when we parted for the night, he to seek rest in his own room, leaving me to pace up and down that corridor outside the president’s apartment on the second floor of the White House, he had said ‘Good night, Crook? But now, for the first time, he had said ‘Goodby.’ “As I turned to leave for my own little home, there to get what sleep I could, I wondered if Mr. Lincoln’s final words meant anything. By the time I had walked through the White House grounds I tried to put them away as being of no . importance whatever. I tried to pull myself together, remembering that for a long time there had been widespread fears lest some murderer should succeed in getting near Mr. Lincoln. Of course, he knew of such fears and possibly this knowledge had in some way recurred to him while asleep and had caused the thrice repeated dream. “It was not long after I had left the White House for my own home on that fourteenth of April, 1865, when Mr. Lincoln started for Ford’s theater. Within a few hours the world knew of the awful deed accomplished there. But the world did not know until afterward, in fact, the world at large may not know today, just how Wilkes Booth was enabled to rush into the box where sat the president and shoot him to death, although the incident is mentioned in a volume of recollec--1 tions which I have prepared with a colleague. “The president’s box, occupied by Mr. Lincoln’s party that evening, was not on a level with the stage. It was what would now be termed a box in the second tier and on a level with the dress circle of the theater, just above the orchestra seats. “When Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and their party sat down in their box that fateful night the guard who was acting as my substitute took his position at the rear of the box, close to an entrance leading into the box from ths dress circle of the theater. He was fully armed. His orders were to stand there and to permit no unauthorized person to pass into the box. His orders were to stand there and protect the president at all hazards. “The house was practically in darkness save the stage whereon the play was being enacted. The bodyguard 'knew why he was stationed just outside of the president’s box. He knew of the fears that some assassin would make an attempt on Lincoln’s life at the first opportunity. He knew how long and how carefully that precious life had been protected in every possible way. He knew how much it meant to the nation, perhaps to the future of civilization. But as he stood there on the post of duty the substi-

tute guard could not see the stage nor could he see the actors, although he could hear their voices. “As the moments sped by he became more and more Interested in the play as it unfolded itself beyond his sight, and, incredible as it may seem to those of the present generation, his curiosity overcame bls sense of responsibility. Feeling himself to be unwatched, unnoticed in the theater, this man deliberately deserted his post of duty, quietly walked down the dimly lighted side aisle of the theater and took a seat In the very last row in the dress circle then, while President Lincoln was thus left absolutely unprotected through this guard’s amazing recklessness, that Booth rushed through the entrance to the box to murder in cold blood one of the greatest and noblest men God ever

placed on earth. When the substitute guard realized afterward his own part in th© tragedy he was so overwhelmed by remorse that he died of its effects.”

He who has revealed this chapter of history connected with Lincoln’s assassination is now a man of seventysix, who has occupied a responsible position in the White House during all the administrations that have come and gone since he first was called there to serve Lincoln neatly half a century ago. He had spent nearly all his boyhood and youth in a small village in Maryland and after serving two years in the Union army had obtained an appointment to the Washington police force, with which he was connected when called upon to act as Lincoln’s bodyguard. It was on Thursday, January 5,1865, that young Crook was in his home, near First and M streets, N. W., off duty and resting, when a fellow member of the police force called and asked to see him. Crook went to the door and was told to report personally to President Lincoln at the White House, and to be there at precisely eight o’clock that same evening. “Of course I was surprised,” said Colonel Crook, in speaking of the occurrence. “Shortly before eight o’clock that evening I walked from my home to the White House, went directly upstairs to the president’s office and told the doorkeeper just outside that I had been ordered to report to the president personally. He at once threw open the door and I walked in. It was then exactly eight o'clock, and there for the first time I sftw Abraham Lincoln. He sat In a revolving chair on the farther side of the room before an old-fash-ioned desk, over which he was bending while examining some papers. “He looked up as I entered and said: “ ‘Mr. President, my name is W. H. Crook, I have been ordered to report to you for duty as your personal bodyguard.* “ ‘All right, Crook,’ the president responded, and turned to his papers again. I at once left the office and went downstairs and sought Thomas H. Pendell, who told me to stand near the Resident as soon as he should appear for the regular Thursday evening levee or public reception, which soon was to commence. The president and his party appeared at precisely nine o’clock, coming from the living rooms of the president’s household to the main floor* of the White House by a private stairway at the western end of the great building. From that night until the night he was shot it was my great privilege to look after the life and safety of Abraham Lincoln.”