Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1886 — LINCOLN’S LAST NIGHT. [ARTICLE]

LINCOLN’S LAST NIGHT.

Vivid Description of the -Scenes That Followed the Assassination. Keeping the Death Watch at the Bedside of the Dying Lincoln—Actors in a National Tragedy. “I got the best of Secretary Stanton one day,” said Noble McClintock, proprietor of the Seven Stars Hotel of Frankford, one of the oldest and best known road houses in* Philadelphia, to • repdrter. - “For nineteen weeks I had charge of Ford’s theater in Washington, with my company of the Twenty-fourth Veteran Reserve Corps. I was ordered to the theater an hour after the assassination. My instructions were to admit no person unless he had a pass signed by Secretary Stanton. One day the Secretary brought a number of friends around to see the building. They all had the proper passes except himself. I admitted them, but refused to let him in. He went away, wrote a pass, and came back with it. He then congratulated me for living up to my orders. “I have a bill in my possession that I believe President Lincoln had in his hand the night he was shot,” said Mr. McClintock. “On my arrival at the theater with my company I immediately went in the building. On going into the President’s box I picked the bill up from the floor. It was lying under the chair in which Mr. Lincoln had been seated. I have kept the relic from that" day td the present time.” The bill in question is yellow looking with age, has a piece of ths left-hand opper corner torn off and is otherwise damaged. “I presume there are other bills of that fatal night’s performance still extant,” continued McClintock, “but this is the genuine one from the President’s private box and I would not take hundreds of dollars for it.” Many of the persons whose names appear on the bill are dead. The man who played “Binney” that night is living at the Forest Home, a few miles above the Seven Stars hotel, on the Holmesbutg turnpike. Harry Hawk is still a favorite comedian, traveling around the country with combination companies. Laura Keene has passed away.

AT THE FOKEEBT HOME. A mile this side of Holmesburg, on the Frankfort or Holmesburg turnpike, is the fine old country seat where the great tragedian Forrest whiled away some of his leisure moments and which he left for the maintenance of aged actors. In its summer dress it is ■one of the loveliest spots in the suburbs ■of Philadelphia. The terms of the will allow but twelve members of the theatrical profession there at a time. There are ten guests there now, five of whom are ladies, all happy and contented, and patiently waiting for the ,-shifting of the last scene. The.. view from the rear portico of the hofuse.with the beautiful fields and fallows stretching toward the Delaware, is enchanting. There is no rough boards, pulleys, ropes, and strings, no bedaubed scenery for these people to look at, no reipinders of “behind the scenes;” but *ll around them are choice gifts of bountiful nature. “They live like princes of the realm,” said Mr. Mardon Wilson, the Superintendent, who for the last two years has had charge of the place and has made it blossom *s the rose. There are 120 acres of ground in the estate. The farm, which is said to be one of the most productive farms contiguous to Philadelphia, is rented, and yields a handsome revenue. On each side of the rear porch are the •two statues of comedy and tragedy • which formerly graced the stairway of thf old Chestnut Street Theater, above Sixth street Probably the best-known professional at the home is Mrs. English, the mother of Lucille and Helen Webster. What rapid and eventful life her gifted daughters led on the stage! Jacob Thoman, who once gave promise of becoming the leading tragedian of the age, is there, as is Also G. G. Spear, who saw Booth leap upon the stage, flourish his dagger, and heard him cry, "Sic Semper Tyrannu*’’ as he disappeared behind the - scenery. Herr Kime, a graceful Old man, over 70, the Blondin of America, 'who astonished the older generation by his wonderful tight-rope dancing, is one of the guests. The r others are Sophia La- Forrest, Mrs. Mary. Ei Burrough, Rachel Canton, Miss Jane Parker (Mrs. Champney), J. Alfred Smith, and J. Ward

Five actors who lived at the home since its opening, seven years ago, have died. They were buried on the place. Their bodies were recently exhumed and found to be in a remarkable state of preservation. They were placed in a lot, purchased by the trustees, in Uppst Cedar Hill Cemetery, near by. G. G. Spear is the only one of the company mentioned in the programme printed above who ia, now in Philadelphia. Harry Hawk lives here, but is playing with Bidwell’s Stock Company in New Orleans. Mr. Spear was seen yesterday at the Forrest Home. He was found a white-haired, thin-faced, bed-ridden old man, over eighty years of age. His health is broken completely, and his memory has left him, and he can now recall but little of the fatal night of April 14,1865. For over two years he has been confined to his bed, and his death is believed to be close at hand. AFTER THE ASSASSINATION. The most vivid description of the incidents of that night after the assassination is given by Hon. Mannsell B. Field, for many years Judge of the Second District Court of New York. He was in April, 1865, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. —* “It was an April afternoon in the year 1865. I was driving alone on the Fourteenth Street Road in the direction of the soldiers' home. Presently I heard a clatter behind me, and, looking out the carriage window, I saw Mr. Lincoln approaching on horseback, followed by the usual cavalry escort He soon came up to me, and, while he rode for some time at my side, we conversed together on different subjects. I noticed that he was in one of those moods when ‘meloncholy seemed to be dripping from him,’ and bis eye had that expression of profound weariness and sadness which I nevei’ saw in other human eye. After a while he put spurs to liis horse and hurried on, and he and his followers were soon lost to view.

“The next evening I was sitting alone in the reading room of Willard’s Hotel, where I resided during the absence of my family from Washington. Presently I was joined by Mr. Mellen, special agent of the Treasury Department I never saw the hotel so apparently deserted as it was that evening. The usually crowded corridors were empty. Ten o’clock came and Mr. Mellen left mo to retire td his room. I then picked up the evening newspaper, intending, after I had read it, to follow his example. Scarcely had I commenced reading, when two men rushed headlong into the hotel shouting that the President had been shot at "Ford’s Theater. I sprang from my seat to follow them to the office, but before I could reach it a third person entered, more calm than the two who had preceded him, and confirmed their statement.— THE MEETING WITH MR. LINCOLN. “I immediately dashed up stairs and called Mr. Mellen. He was already partly undressed, but he got ready as soon as possible, and together we marched down E street to the theater. We found assembled in front of it about a hundred persons, many of whom knew us. They crowded around us, and each of them had a different story to tell about what had occurred. We learned that five minutes before our arrival Mr. Lincoln had been carried over to the house of Peterson, a German tailor, in Tenth street, and directly opposite the theater. I do not remember what became of Mr. Mellen, but lat once entered the house, the street door of which was standing open. In the hall I met Miss Harris, the daughter of Senator Harris, of New York, who had been one of the Presidential party at the theater- As soon as she saw me she exclaimed: ‘Oh, Mr. Field, the President is dying, but for heaven’s sake do not tell Mrs. Lincoln!’ I inquired where Mrs. Lincoln was, and was informed that she was in the first front parlor. She was standing by a marble-topped table in the center of the room, with her bonnet on and gloved, just as she had come from the theater. As I came in she exclaimed: ‘Why didn’t he shoot me? Why didn’t he shoo tme ?’ I asked her if there was anything that I could do, and she begged me to run for Dr. Stone, the President’s family physician. I started to do so; but met in the hall Major Eckert, of the War Department, who told me that the Doctor had already bepn sent for, and, not having yet arrived, he was. himself going to bring him. I returned to the parlor, made this explanation to Mrs. Lincoln, and inquired if there was anything else that she desired me to do. She requested me to try and find Dr. Hall, a retired physician of the highest reputation. It took me a long time to reach him, for he lived at a distance, but I finally succeeded, and started with him to walk back to Peterson’s house. As we approached it we found a military cordon drawn around the door, and, although the doctor was permitted to pass, the same privilege was refused to me. “I returned to Willard’s Hotel and went up to the room of Mr. Rufus Andrews, then recently surveyor of the port of New York, where I met the late City Judge Russell. I remained there perhaps two hours, and then again started for Peterson’s house, accompanied by Mr. Andrews. When we arrived there we found the guard withdrawn and no difficulty in getting in. We proceeded directly to the room in which Mr. Lincoln was lying, a small extension room at the end of the hall, from which you descended to it by two The room was plainly furnished and there were some prints hanging upon the wall. The President was lying transversely across the cottage bedste ad, as he was too tall to be placed in any other position. His head was supported upon two pjllows on the side nearest the windows and his feet rested against the opposite end of the footboard. Dr. Stone was sitting upon, the bed. Secretary Welles occupied a rock ng-chair,. which he did not vacate; I believe, during the entire night Surgeon General Barnes was sitting in an ordinary chair by the bedside, holding Mr. Lincoln’s left hand. All the other persons in the room were standing. Senator Sumner and Robert Lincoln were, the greater part of the time, leaning over the headboard. 1 THE DYING PRESIDENT’S APPEARANCE. “From time to time Mrs. Lincoln was

brought into tho room, but she never remained there long. The President’s eyes were closed and ecchymose. Below the lids and around the cheek bones the flesh was black. Blood and brains were oozing from the wounds in’his head upon the uppermost of the pillows which supported it He had been stripped of all clothing, and whenever one of the physicians turned down the sheet which covered his person, in order to feel the beating of his heart, his brawy chest and immensely muscular arms revealed the hero of many a successful wrestling match in his youthful days at New Salem. “His breathing was for a long time loud and stertorous, ending in deep drawn sighs. He was totally unconscious from the. moment that he was struck by the assassin’s bullet. Except for his breathing and the sobbing of his wife, son,ahd devoted servant, not a sound was to be heard in that chamber for hours. The dropping of a pin might have been audible. “What a tragic episode in life's history was this to all their assembled. And not only to us, but to the nation and to the world. “His pulse was vacillating all through the night—at times strong and rapid and at others feeble and slow. His vital power was prodigious or he would have died within ten- minutes after he was shot.

“The night wore on, long and anxious,and finally the gray dawn of a dull and rainy morning began to creep slowly into the room. And still the martyr lived—if living it could be called. “The town clock struck 7. Almost immediately afterward the character of tlie President’s breathing changed. It became faint and low. At intervales, it altogether ceased, until we thought him dead. And then it would be resumed again. I was standing directly opposite his face, with my watch in my hand. “At last, at just twenty-two minutes past 7, he ceased to breathe. “When it became certain to all that his soul had taken its flight Dr. Gurley dropped upon his knees by the bedside and uttered a fervent prayer. Never was a supplication wafted to the Creator under mere, solemn circumstances. ~ after‘thei.ast agony. . “ When it was finished most of” the persons assembled began slowly to withdraw from the chamber of death. J, however, with a few others, remained. We eloped the eyes completely and placed silver coins upon them, and with a pocket handkerchief we tied up the jaw, which had already begun to fall. Mr. Stanton threw open the two windows of the room. Just then Peterson entered and rudly drawing the upper pillow from under the head of the dead tossed it into the yard. Shortly afterward we retired from the room. Mr; Stanton locked the door and stationed a sentry in front of it. I then went to the front parlor, where I found Dr. Gurley again praying, Mrs. Lincoln was lying upon a sofa mourning, and her son Robert was standing at her bed. When Dr. Gurley had finished his prayer Robert Lincoln assisted, his mother and together we walked to the front door. The President's carriage was standing before the house in the dripping rain, as it had stood there all through that terrible night. As Mrs. Lincoln reached the doorstep she cast a hurried glance at the theater opposite and three tjimes repeated: ‘Oh, that dreadful house I’ She was then helped into the carriage, which drove away. [i “Perhaps the most affecting incident connected with this drama occurred an hour later. Mr. Lincoln’s body, enclosed in a plain wooden box, around which was wrapped the American flag, was borne from the house by six private soldiers; then placed in an ordinary hearse, behind which the soldiers marched like mourners, and so carried it to the Executive Mansion. “I walked back to Willard’s alone that morning. Just as I turned from Tenth into E street I met Chief Justice Chase hurrying in the direction. His eyes were bloodshot and his lace distorted Rs I had never before seen it. ‘ls he dead?' he asked. I answered! ‘Yes,’ and gave him a very brief account of Mr. Lincoln’s last moments. He passed on, and half an hour later he proceed to the Kirkwood House, accompanied by some of the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet and administered there the oath of ofiiqe to Andrew Johnson as President of the United States.”