of the piece-one of those singularly written compositions which have at least the merit of giving entire relief to an audience engaged in mental action or business excitements and cares during the day, as it makes not the slightest call on either the moral, emotional, esthetic, or spiritual nature—a piece ("Our American Cousin,") in which, among other characters, so call'd, a Yankee, certainly such a one as was never seen, or the least like it ever seen in North America, is introduced in England, with a varied fol-de-rol of talk, plot, scenery, and such phantasmagoria as goes to make up a modern popular drama-had progress'd through perhaps a couple of its acts, when in the midst of this comedy, or tragedy, or non-such, or whatever it is to be call'd, and to offset it or finish it out, as if in Nature's and the Great Muse's mockery of those poor mimes, comes interpolated that Scene, not really or exactly to be described at all (for on the many hundreds who were there it seems to this hour to have left little but a passing blur, a dream, a blotch)—and yet partially to be described as I now proceed to give it. There is a scene in the play representing a modern parlor, in which two unprecedented English ladies are inform'd by the unprecedented and impossible Yankee that he is not a man of fortune, and therefore undesirable for marriage-catching purposes; after which, the comments being finish'd, the dramatic trio make exit, leaving the stage clear for a moment. There was a pause, a hush as it were. At this period came the murder of Abraham Lincoln. Great as that was, with all its manifold train, circling round it, * * * and stretching into the future for many a century, in the politics, history, art, etc., of the New World, in point of fact the main thing, the actual murder, transpired with quiet and simplicity of any commonest occurrence—the bursting of a bud or pod in the growth of vegetation, for instance. Through the general hum following the stage pause, with the change of positions, etc., came the muffled sound of a pistol shot, which not one-hundredth part of the audience heard at the time—and yet a moment's hush - somehow, surely a vague, startled thrill—and then, through the ornamented, draperied, starr'd and striped space-way of the President's box, a sudden figure, a man raises himself with hands and feet, and stands a moment on the railing, leaps below to the stage (a distance of perhaps fourteen or fifteen feet), falls out of position, catching his boot-heel in the copious drapery (the American flag), falls on one knee, quickly recovers himself, rises as if nothing had happen'd (he really sprains his ankle, but unfelt then), -and so the figure, Booth, the murderer, dress'd in plain black broadcloth, bare-headed, with a full head of glossy, raven hair, and his eyes like some mad animal's flashing with light and resolution, yet with a certain strange calmness, holds aloft in one hand a large knifewalks along not much back from the footlights turns fully toward the audience his face of statuesque beauty, lit by those basilisk eyes, flashing with desperation, perhaps insanity-launches out in a firm and steady voice the words, Sic semper tyrannis-and then walks with neither slow nor very rapid pace diagonally across to the back of the * * * stage, and disappears. (Had not all this terrible scene-making the mimic ones preposterous had it not all been rehears'd, in blank, by Booth, beforehand ?) * * a scream A moment's hush, incredulous the cry of Murder- Mrs. Lincoln leaning out of the box, with ashy cheeks and lips, with involuntary cry, pointing to the retreating figure, He has kill'd the President. * And still a moment's strange, incredulous suspense-and then the deluge! - then that mixture of horror, noises, uncertainty(the sound, somewhere back, of horse's hoofs clattering with speed) — the people burst through chairs and railings, and break them up-that noise adds to the queerness of the scene-there is inextricable confusion and terror women faint- quite feeble persons fall, and are trampled on-many cries of agony are heard -- the broad stage suddenly fills to suffocation with a dense and motley crowd, like some horrible carnival-the audience rush generally upon it — at least the strong men do-actors and actresses are all there in their play-costumes and painted faces, with mortal fright showing through the rouge, some trembling-some in tears-the screams and calls, confused talk-redoubled, trebled-two or three manage to pass up water from the stage to the President's box-others try to clamber up-etc., etc. In the midst of all this, the soldiers of the President's Guard, with others, suddenly drawn to the scene, burst in— (some two hundred together) — they storm the house, through all the tiers, especially the upper ones, inflamed with fury, literally charging the audience with fix'd bayonets, muskets, and pistols, shouting, Clear out! clear out! * * Such the wild scene, or a suggestion of it rather, inside the play-house that night. * * Outside, too, in the atmosphere of shock and craze, crowds of people, fill'd with frenzy, ready to seize an outlet for it, come near committing murder several times on innocent individuals. One such case was especially exciting. The infuriated crowd, through some chance, got started against one man, either for words he utter'd, or perhaps without any cause at all, and were proceeding at once to actually hang him on a neighboring lamp-post, when he was rescued by a few heroic policemen, who placed him in their midst and fought their way slowly and amid great peril toward the station house. * * It was a fitting episode of the whole affair. The crowd rushing and eddying to and fro—the night, the yells, the pale faces, many frighten'd people trying in vain to extricate themselves - the attack'd man, not yet freed from the jaws of death, looking like a corpse-the silent, resolute half-dozen policemen, with no weapons but their little clubs, yet stern and steady through all those eddying swarms -made indeed a fitting side-scene to the grand tragedy of the murder. They gain'd the station house with the protected man, whom they placed in security for the night, and discharged him in the morning. * * * And in the midst of that night-pandemonium of senseless hate, infuriated soldiers, the audience and the crowd-the stage, and all its actors and actresses, its paint-pots, spangles, and gas-lights-the lifeblood from those veins, the best and sweetest of the * * * land, drips slowly down, and death's ooze already begins its little bubbles on the lips. Such, hurriedly sketch'd, were the accompaniments of the death of President Lincoln. So suddenly and in murder and horror unsurpass'd he was taken from us. But his death was painless. ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER, 1785. Wee, sleekit,1 cow'rin', tim' rous beastie, I wad1 be laith5 to rin and chase thee, I'm truly sorry man's dominion Has broken Nature's social union, And justifies that ill opinion, 1 sleekit, sleek. 2 needna, need not. 3 bickering brattle, clattering scamper. 4 wad, would. 5 laith, loath. 6 pattle, plough-staff. |