Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1931, Page 77

. eegeg——p - THE SUND.\Y STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. it doimiirbivnnadburios B0 L Mo Incidents of the Assassination at the Old Baltimore &° Potomac Railroad Station at Sixth and B Streets, of the President’s Last Days, and of Guiteau’s Arrest and Trial Are Reviewed. BY JOSEPHINE TIGHE. EN minutes before 9, the morning of July 2, 1881, two middle-aged, silk- hatted, bewhiskered, important-look- ing gentlem2n, arm in arm, passed slowly through the ladies’ reception rocm of the old Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station at Sixth and B streets north- west. Among half a dozen other persons in the Teccption room was a man of small stature, of restless eye, nervous manner and ignoble ex- pression. He walked directly face to face to the two gentlemen arm in arm, drew a revolver and fired directiy at one of the men. This man wheeled about, another shot rang out and the victim crumpled and fell forward with a second bullet in his body, blcod spurting from a wound in his back. The man who had bzen shot was James A. Garfield, President of the United States. His assassin was Charles Julius Guiteau. Strollirg on the train platform were Cabinet Secretaries Willlam Windom, Roberf T. Lincoln and W. H. Hunt and Postmaster General T. S. James. Col. Jamiscn of the Post Office Depart- ment was a witness to the shooting and, rush- ing to the platform, cried out to the cofficials: “The President is shot!” *“Nonsense!” some one replied. “I saw it!” said Col. Jamison. The cabinet officers ran to the stricken Presi- dent. Secretary Blaine appeared to be the only cool and collected person on the scene, although he had his arm within the President’s when the would-be murderer made the Chief Executive his targat. Mr. Blaine was bending over the apparently dy.ng man and at the same time attempiing to kecp back the fast-forming crowd. Mrs. Sarah V. E. White, in charge of the reception room, reached the spot, ordered water, raised the President’s head, placed it in her lap and was bathing his face. Messengers were runnirg in search of doctors; a mattress was procured from sorewhere and the sorely wounded man placed upon it. Dr. D. W. Bliss, well known Washington physician of that time, and several other doctors finally arrived and the patient was taken to a room on the floor above. There a superficial examination showed Mr. Garfield to be scriously, perhaps fatally, wounded and Dr. Bliss considered it imperative that the distinguished patient be at once removed to the White House. So down the dong flight of stairs the mattress was carefully, tenderly carried and placed in a waiting police ambulance, surrounded by mounted police, and in 12 minutes of rapid criving the Executive Mansion was reached. HE President was laid upon the bed from which he had a few hours previously arisen happy in the knowledge that that day brought his first vacation in the four months since his inauguration, and with commencement exercises of his alma mater, Williams College, Williams- town, Mass., as his destination. With stern lips and set faces the physicians finished their examination and, as the first of his shock wore off, President Garfield asked Dr. Bliss about his true condition. “Remember,” he said, “I am rot afraid to die.” There were indications of serious internal hemorrhage and Dr. Bliss frankly replied that he feared death would come within a few hours. “God’s will be done,” Mr. Garileld said. President Garfield's attachment to his wife is a matter of history. Just before he was removed from the depot he roused suddenly from a semi-conscious state and said faintly to his friend, Col. A. L. Rzckwell: “I want you to send a message to my wife. Tell her I am seriously hurt; how serious I cannot yet say. I am myself and hope she will come to me. I send her my love.” At about the same time he apparently recognized his son Harry, who knelt beside him. Mrs. Garfield, convalescing from recent ill- ness, was at Long Branch, where her husband had planned to continue his vacation with her, when the fatal telegram from Col. Rockwell reached her. In a special car she at once began the trip to Washington, but it was late evening before she reached the White House and took up her badside vigil, which she kept until the rendezvous with death. Her husband was first to hear the carriage wheels on the gravel driveway and, smiling brightly, said: “That’s my wife. God bless the little woman!” Then the magnificent will power that had kept him up until he greeted her gave way, and on . July 3 telegraph and telephone wires, extra editions of the newspapers, gave the deeply depressing news that there was but one chance in a hundred for recovery. & It can be imagined with what apprehension and despair the Fourth of July was gone . through with, especially to those who remem- bered that three Presidents of the United States had died on Independence day—Thomas Jeffer- son and John Acams in July, 1826; James Monroe in 1831. George William Curtis wrote, “In every household there was hushed and tender silence #s if one dearly loved lay dying. * * * Public festivities were stayed. * * * Reverent con- gregations bowed in prayer. In the British parliament Whig, Tory and Radical listened to catch from the prime minister latest tidings of the sufferer.” In the United States, torn with political strife, distorted imagination and hurled vilifi- cations, the fact that Garfield had shed blood for his country, was even dying for it, brought saner, calmer vision. Parties and individuals finally admitted that the maligned Garfield had proven an able statesman, a courageous man, a Christian gentleman; a man of mild, kindly character, of clean simple life. 7 COME weeks before the shooting Col. Knox warned the President that he should have a bodyguard, to which Mr. Garfield repiied, “I must come and go as usual. I cannot sur- round myself with a bodyguard. If the good of this country, the interests of pure govern- ment and of the people against one-man power demand the sacrifice of my life, I think I am ready.” From July 4 until July 22, hope for the life of the head of the Nation alternately “At the Depot After the Shooting.” strengthened or waned; there were days when he seemed improved, days when he languished pitifully. On July 22 a rigor occurred as the wounds were dressed and a slight operation was performed. The intense heat was against . the patient and an air-cooling apparatus, sim- ilar to that then used in mines, was intro- duced into the White House. This reduced the temperature in the sick room to 75 degrees. The last of July a piece of fractured rib was Garfield Memorial Tablet in the old Baltimore and Potomac Railway station. removed and some relief experienced, but by the middle of August it was all too evident that the President was suffering from blood poisoning. He longed for a change of air and for the sea. Malarjal conditions about the White House at that time were thought to be retarding his recovery. It was finally decided by the corps of physicians and surgeons that on September 6 Mr. Garfield would be removed to Elberon, Long Branch. The train, the car, the bed on which the journey was to be made were thoroughly inspected by Surg. Gen. Barnes and Drs. Bliss and Agnew, the train itself being ruxae:. distance of 5 miles while vibrations were tes - . s . o ——an. 3 The Assassination. (From an old print.) O disturbance occurred in the wounded man’s condition during transfer from the ‘White House to the Francklyn Cottage, Elberon, and the President during the trip insisted on window shades being raised that he might view the scenery and watch the crowds of silent, bare-headed people gathered at every station. At Elberon railrcad tracks were laid frem (From an old print.) depot to cottage and a surveyor preparing for them said to a lady that her beautiful flowers would be laid waste, as the trackage passed directly through her garden. She replied, “I am willing you should ruin the house—all I have—if it would only help to save him!” And through her spoke the voice of a Nation’'s grieving people. The presidential car was detached at EIl- beron station and pushed to Francklyn Cottage by gangs of men. At its destination, the car stopped and a soldier mounted to the roof and dropped a large sailcloth awning to insure pri- vacy of removal from train to house. When the President was laid upon ‘the bed, on the first floor, he asked that the bed be pushed to the wide-open window that he might see the water; and that night he slept better than for weeks. The following day Mr. Gar- field sat in a reclining chair, listening to bells ringing from a’ little chapel scross the way. “Crete,” he said to his wife, “wtig are the bells ringing?” She replied that the villagers were going to church to pray for his recovery. Mr. Garfield listened as the strains of “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” wafted heavenward, and a tear trickled down his cheek. ‘The Elberon days clicked slowly, slowly by, to the Nation; slower still to family and physi- cians, who finally saw that a soft feather from the wings of the Death Angel had drifted down on the President’s pillow. He became weaker each day and finally death was bttt a matter of hours. On September 19 Drs. D. W. Bliss, Frank H. Hamilton and D. Haynes Agnew is- sued the last bulletin, whose opening sentence read, “The President died at 10:35 p.m.” After simple prayer service, two days later, the casket containing the martyred President of the United States was placed on a heavily- draped funeral train and returned to Washing- ton. On arrival here the casket was taken directly to the Capitol and laid in state in the rotunda. For two days steady lines of mourners viewed the body. Masses of flowers were banked about the walls of the lofty, noble room, but only one piece was placed upon the casket—a magnificent floral wreath from Queen Victoria. Funeral services were held Friday, Septem- ber 23, at 2 in the afternoon, the Rev. Frederick D. Powers, pastor of the Vermont Avenue Christian Church, where the Garfields wor- shiped, officiating. He was assisted by the Rev. Dr. Rankin and the Rev. Isaac Errett. ‘The services over, the casket was placed in a hearse. A single gun fired from Hanneman'’s Battery, the 2d Artillery Band stiuck up the funeral march and through a crowd of 40,000 perscns, gathered about the Capitol, the pro-., cession moved to the Baltimore & Potomac station—where Mr. Garfizld had received the assassin’s bull:t—and the last lap of the sad state journey began. After lying in the catafalque of the park, at Cleveland, the re- mains of the second martyr President of the United States temporarily were laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, with the new President, Chester A. Arthur, looking gravely on Garfield's aged mother exclaimed after the ceremonies, “It is wonderful how I can live upon the thoughts of him!” ESIDENT ARTHUR returned at once to Washington, and with a sigh took up the heavy duties cf office. The king was dead. Loong live the king! But the king’s assassin was alive, behind bars in the District Jail. Officer Kear- ney, hearing the shots at the depot that por- tentous July day, ran into the station in time to arrest Guiteau near an exit. “I did it!” Guiteau admitted, “and will go to jail for it.” The blotter at headquarters read: “Charles Guiteau, arrested 9:25 a.m., July 2na, 1881, for shooting President Garfield; aged 36: born in the United States; a lawyer by profes- sicn; weight 130 pounds; has dark, thin whisk- ers and sallow complexion; dressed in dark suit with black slouch hat.” On the assassin was found the following let- ter, addressed to Gen. Sherman: “I have just shot the President. I shot him several times as I wished him to go as easily as possible. His death was a political necessity. I am a lawyer, theologian and politician. I am a stalwart cf the stalwarts. I was with Gen. Grant and the rest of our men in New York during the canvass. I am going to jail. Please order out your troops and take possession of the jail at once. Very respectfully, Charles Guiteau.” A sécond letter stated that the President’s death would reunite the Republican party snd save the Republic; that life was but a flimsy dream, anyhow. He said he had no ill will toward President Garfield, and that he was leaving some papers for the press with Byron Andrews, journalist, at 1420 New York avenue. He remained in jail, committed by Judge Snell, during the interval between the shooting and the death of Mr. Garfield, and his life was that of an ordinary prisoner, except that he was kept in absolute conventry, not a jailer answering his persistent questioning, not a newspaper being allowed him. He made an at- tempt with a ‘“cheeser” knife (manufactured from a steel shoe shank) upon the life of Guard W. C. McGill, and twice were there attempts on Guiteau's life. Once, when Thomas Mason, an efficient Virginia soldier, fired into Guiteau's cell during squad relief, but missed the mur« derer. The second, by William Joncs, who une successfully fired a pistol into the van in which Guiteau was riding on his way from the trial. Gen. J. S. Crccker, warden of the jail, broke the news of Mr. Garfield's death to his assassin two ‘days after it occurred, watching closely for effect of the pronouncement. There was none, Guiteau calmly remarking, “Well, I'm glad the President is out of pain.” B> " Charles Julius Guiteau was born in Freepat, I, about 1842. At about the age cf 18 he joined the Oneida Community, lived there somq years in apparent contentment, but finally left, full of anger and with threats to publish an expose of the communities’ peculiarities. He assumed the title of “reverend,” and traveled about the ccuntry preaching and lecturing, pil- ing up bad debts, mistreating his wife and un- successfully suing the Chicago Tribune and New York Herald for libel. GRAND JURY, Octobzr 8, 1881, found a true bill of 11 counts against him, and six days later he was brought before Judge Walter S. Cox by Marshal Henry and arraigned. Guiteau’s brother-in-law, Henry Scoville, ap- peared as his lawyer, and later Lee Robinson of Virginia and Washington was added to the defense. Walter D. Davidge and Judge Porter of New York directed the Government's side. Three days were neccssary to select a jury, which was finally made up cf the follow- ing names: John P. Hamlin, restaurant keeper; Fred W. Brandenburg, cigar dealer; Henry J. Bright, retired merchant; Charles J. Stewart, merchant; Thomas H. Langley, grocer; Michsel Sheenan, grocer; Samuel F. Hobbs, plasterer; George W. Gates, machinist; Ralph Wormley Continued on Tw:ljth Page