The assassination of Lincoln. Some of my own thoughts on this.

The assassination of Lincoln had been talked about and written about more than almost any event in history. I am not a doctor and will not speculate that perhaps he could have lived through his wounds, in fact I will not get in to his medical care much at all as at the time for head wounds there really was nothing much anyone could do. It was a forgone conclusion from the onset that Lincoln's wounds were mortal.

How the President could have been unguarded at a public event is frightening in itself. How Everyone else was so complacent including Lincoln on his safety. How that a audience that included many military figures was not even thinking of checking on the Presidents security detail. To state right now for the few people who may not know this. There was none!  The guard who was to protect access to the President was out. There was no security for the head of a nation that was still at war. I cannot fathom this?

Lincoln had not wanted to see the play that night, he had seen it before. But his ever nagging wife wanted too. Lincoln had long since learned that it was much easier to do what his wife wanted than try to change her mind.

 However, as the day of April 14 progressed Mary Lincoln was feeling a bit tired and suggested that maybe they forgo the play that night. But at this point Lincoln pushed to go. I guess it was two fold in his mind as it had been advertised, and he wanted to relax a little as it would be the first night out to the theater since Lee surrendered.  It seems that the fates were saying do not go. Lincoln asked countless people to go and all had other plans or just did want to go. I would guess in many cases it was not wanting to deal with Mary Lincoln. Who was known by Lincoln's secretaries as the "Hell Cat".

It is very hard to go by what Mrs Lincoln would recall about the afternoon  carriage ride with her husband. She was always delusional and sometimes would come up with something right out of the air. But he announced to her that he had never been so happy.  She told him not to say that, as that was what he had said before the death of their son Edward.

The war was ending and he was thinking about the end of his term and what they would do. Well he had four more years to go, so I am not too sure he was making much in the way of plans yet. But Mary Lincoln said he want to see the Holy Land, California, and as time went on several other places.


 After their long springtime drive they had dinner, of which Lincoln as usual did not really notice, but ate a little to sustain life.   That evening they finally got Major Rathbone and his fiance to join them for the play at Ford's Theater. Our American Cousin was playing. The play had been around for a while and had played all over with Joseph Jefferson and this was a bit of a rehashing of its previous success. However this time without Jefferson who was in Europe.

 The Presidential party arrived a bit late and worked their way to the box amid a large demonstration of approval for the President. This I am sure was what he needed, to just feel the approval of those who in many cases said he should be removed from office just one year earlier. Remember Lincoln was not at all popular during the war and by 1864 there was little doubt that he would be defeated for re-election.  So his political success and re-election was a surprise and now he was reaping his harvest of it.
The play had been interrupted by his arrival and it soon continued


During the play Lincoln had been observing people he knew and had dealings with. He was seen looking to and fro at people like General Burnside who was hard to miss with his massive whiskers on the sides of his face. In fact his name was reversed and we have sideburns in his honor. I am sure Lincoln was checking them all out and seeing who among the audience was friend or foe.

I will forgo all the info on John Wilkes Booth as we all know he shot Lincoln.  But how easy his access was is remarkable. Even though he was an actor and well known to everyone there including Lincoln who had seen him perform. He had earlier in the day set up the stage for his final performance before the public. Booth had figured it all out. The fact that Lincoln had no security detail made it ever so more easy.

Lincoln was tired and was enjoying the play and the audiences affections for him. He was pretty close to Mary that evening as they were holding hands. I can only imagine his thoughts that night. I doubt he was thinking much about the play, I am sure he was thinking of how to end the war, deal with the slavery issue specially in the border states, how to control the radical republicans, and what to do with all of the heads of state of the Confederate States of America and move as many slaves as possible out of the country.  I think his looking around the theater that night may have been part of his thinking of this and that. But we will never know.

During breaks in the play he felt cold and put on his coat. It also gave him a chance to stretch his legs he would wave at a few people here and there. In those days there really was such thing as central heating and the theater, which had been converted from a church could get drafty at times.

The box that the party had that night at Fords was a slight distance from the stage. Everyone in it needed to look to the right a little to see everything. Mary Lincoln was to his right. So save for when he was checking out the audience he was pretty much looking to the right.  When Booth entered the box with gun in hand he moved slowly up to his victim, but Lincoln I think sensed something and started to turn his head  to the left.  This is when Booth fired. The bullet entered about an inch and a half behind the left ear. The bullet worked itself to right behind the right eye socket.  So what did Lincoln see in that last instance of life as he had known it?   We will never know once again. But it is a chilling thought.


Lincoln was for all intents dead instantly and would have been dead  instantly if he had not been touched.  Perhaps that would have saved everyone from a very long painful night in a death watch. But once again as in all of this, who knew?

 The first in the box were two young doctors who after checking Lincoln out found he had no pulse or respiration. After finding no wound they felt in the back of the head and found the entry opening from the bullet. Reaching into the small hole they broke through a blood clot and Lincoln gave a moan or grunt and started to breath and his pulse returned. They knew very well as it was known in those days, nearly every head wound was mortal. The wound began to bleed. Not that blood was needed anywhere the box. The box was full of it. We often forget that after Booth shot Lincoln Major Rathbone tried to grab Booth who then stabbed Rathbone in the arm so deep it reached a bone and blood was coming out all over.  This is why the tests of DNA of Lincoln are always suspect. As they could be a mix of Rathbone's or Lincoln's blood. Rathbone was so badly hurt he would pass out from lack of blood later. Lincoln was bleeding, but not at the rate Rathbone was.


Lincoln was given a little brandy of which was swallowed. But this was all done as a reaction, not as a voluntary action on his part. To put it into 21st century terminology. Lincoln's brain  was starting to shut down like a computer. each program was closed and shut down. In 3 hours the brain would do a core dump and shut down and it would take the body another 6 to die off.

Lincoln was deemed too weak to be taken to the White House so he was carried across the street. It must have been a most dreadful procession. Screaming people, Moaning Rathbone near unconscious, all the while being dragged around by the hysterical first lady Mary. Mary Lincoln was never on solid ground emotionally and this brought her teetering over the edge.

He was brought into the Peterson house and brought into the back room and laid onto the bed. He was too big for the bed but there was no desire to move him again. The doctors kept watch and watched the right side of Lincoln's face start to swell and discolor from the bullet wound. Mustard Plasters were applied to his extremities and the warmth slowly left his body. The would would bleed heavily at times and at others hardly at all. in fact it stopped bleeding altogether around 5:30 in the morning.

Sheets were changed, pillows changed after they were too soaked with blood.  Every time Mary Lincoln would come in she would go hysterical, understandably of course. But this was too much for the Secretary of War Edmond Stanton. Who said loudly say get that woman out of here! It was Stanton who took the reigns of control of the United States and kept some order to a very disorderly evening. he was a no nonsense person who had a cold austere personality and was perfect for the job that night. He did this for several reasons, there was effectively no President, Seward the Secretary of State had been critically wounded and perhaps for he knew someone was trying to kill the at the moment Vice President Johnson.

It is often remarked by those there that they had no idea of the physical shape of Lincoln's body, He was just 56 years old, we often think of him being older. But he was a very well muscled middle aged man who had a body of a much younger man than supposed. His face showed all the years and more, but the face seemed to take it all and not the body at all.

By 1:00 am Lincoln started twitching his hands and body some. Also groans and moans and loud snorts would come from him various times. After the twitching Lincoln's brain had shut down. there was no response in the pupils and it was just a flat dead stare,

Now all that was waited for was the entire body to follow suit.  The last hours were filled with an awfully loud snore and snorting sounds as he would give heaving breaths and gasps. It was by those who heard it terribly awful to bear. It was the sounds of a body not ready to die. Soon a death rattle joined the other sounds (and there were many) coming from Lincoln's body.  Everyone waited for him to die.  Finally, as the sun rose to a cloudy rainy day, this finally happened at 7:22 AM.

Lincoln was dead.

The wallpaper from the room Lincoln died in.

Wallpaper from the collection of the Chicago Historic Society  Now known as the Chicago History Museum.  These pieces were scraped off the wall of the Peterson House by  reporter shortly after Lincoln's death. In fact batches of this wall paper were cut off and preserved by many.

A photo of the room Lincoln died in on April 15, 1865 This picture was taken the late morning of April 15, 1865. You will notice the wall paper, the paintings, the bed, the bloody pillows, sheets and bedspread. many of these items went the ways of the 4 winds. Sadly much has been lost. The bed exists in Chicago, as does a few items from the room. But the bedspread existed for a while and then vanished in the early 20th century. An industry existed on the day of Lincoln's death of taking cotton fabric and swabbing it onto the drying blood all around to create more relics for an endless grouping of people who wanted it. 

Also  a few other pieces of that wall paper from that room that has been enlarged. These have become in American historical relics today. In fact they have taken on an near religious quality as Lincoln has long since been looked as human and more of Christ figure in the history of the American republic.
 It is faded and losing some of its colors, but it is what it is and documented as such.

It is always interesting to touch a piece of history. In this case so much of that wall paper was scraped off the wall. The room had borders and decorative papers.  It is none the less amazing to touch this stuff. Sadly a large amount of those papers have vanished and been lost. So there are just a handful of people and places that have the wall paper.
I will write more about the assassination shortly.

The old doorway to the Knickerbocker Hotel

 The great hotel when it was new in the early days of the 20th century.

The door in the subway station on 42nd street and Broadway




The Knickerbocker Hotel was built by John Jacob Astor IV who would become one of the great hotel builders in New York City and sadly be lost on the RMS Titanic in 1912.  It would be were many of the great actors would hand out and where some say and some say not, where the martini was born.  Here lived Enrico Caruso, George M Cohan, Ernestine Schumann Heink, and a host of other great singers and entertainers. After J.J. Astor's death things changed and by late 1919 the hotel was closed and made into an office building. Amazingly the building has survived and still is a place where you can thrill to the thought of caruso singing from the top floors for the ending of WWI. Even many of Caruso's wedding pictures were taken on the roof of the Knickerbocker. But it still exists and it was interesting for me as I roamed around in the subway station on 42nd Street and Broadway I saw this door.  A door that has not been used in near a century.  I wonder what is behind it? Probably just junk. But it was through this door many of the greats of entertainment and NYC society walked. I am glad it is still there although 99.9% of New Yorker's have no idea what it is for.

Farewell Columbia University. Where I could work and enjoy the company of brilliant friends.

It has been my honor to be close to a few people at this wonderful school and I have been there countless times since 2004 on. This last Sept I was there for the last time. It was bittersweet and a bit sad. But I always do a lot of writing there in my journal and I have done several of my posts to this blog from there since 2006. It was a place I could work and study with my friends. So I wrote and did a bit of work on a last entry for my blog there . I also wrote a lot in my journal. I am on my 33 volume of my journal since it starting many years ago. I always like to have the book in the physical place that I write about so I can say the book "was there".  Now it has left, most probably never to return. It is part of our lives as we journey and change. We gain wonderful things and we lose them as well. So To Don, Chang, Xian, and a few others. Fare thee well as you all journey to different parts of the country and make it a better place.  Bye my friends. Hope I see you all someday soon.

My journal number 33 on a well used desk at Columbia University. Ending an era of eight years.

Finally after 17 years I have my clock, candles and mirror

I always wanted a French Clock with candles and a mirror in the background. Finally this year i have it. And I will say it looks more like a museum display than my little library. All the parts are Brass and gold highlighted. and I am very proud of it. I hope you like it as well.  I bought the clock in 1995. Found the candle holders around the same time. But this year as a gift I received this mirror and I love it. It is one of the loveliest gifts I have ever received and it is something very special to me.  So here is my finally gathered set in my library.  Of course the clock keeps perfect time I wind it every week. The candle holders did a lot of work during hurricane Sandy and I did not bother the mirror for fear of damaging it. But They make this quiet little room, just a little more special.

Hurricane Sandy and 81 interesting hours of living without electric.

Well it is all over for me, but not for many. As I write this much of New York City is plunged in darkness.  For me I found myself stranded with not much to do and so I tried to be creative and find ways to entertain and enjoy myself in the dark.  I had no idea how long it would last or that since there was a gas shortage no one could pick me up. So the first order of business when the Hurricane struck the winds were quite strong. I had removed much of my stained glass windows and put tape on the windows just in case there was something flying through the air.  I have often said in this blog that I like candles and I often like to light my library with them. Well in this case was well supplied. I had 40 candles on hand and 10 different fixtures to put then in. The power went early and I was thinking it would be a short interruption.  I set up candles all around and had matches here and there.  I have a old whale oil lamp from the 19th century and decided to use that as well.  It did not work too well, but for a short while I got to experience what that lamp was like in use.  For entertainment I read 5 books and listened to a wide selection of early recordings on a Victrola.

Here I lit a candle opera and read by this

 The early whale oil lamp in its short stint as a light

Just a slight glimmer of light comes from one room lit by candles



This was my rule for the next 3 days outside of cooking a lot of what was in the refrigerator so I did not need to throw everything out. Cooking by candle light is a unique experience as it is not easy to see and see where you put things.  Since there was no heat or hot water I boiled it for bathing needs. It was an escape to the 19th or early 20th century.  I like that era, but I was very glad to leave it too.

By the time I had reached 75 hours of this I was really starting to get tired of ordinary lighting and tried experimenting a little...I made some brighter lights of the candles by using aluminum foil ..In fact in one case I made a spot light using 3 tea candles .. Obviously I was tired and bored..   I like candles but I am not one to trust having them lit and not be monitoring the situation.  So I needed some light to get around and also needed to be totally safe...so I slept with one eye open.  Now that power has been returned within a few hours of this writing I will sleep now like a rock once this is done. It is nice to be back in the 21st century.

These methods add much to your lighting if you need to have candles due to a power outage.

My three candlepower spotlight with just one candle light at the time.  It worked very well.


So now I will sleep and rest well knowing that there is electric once again running through the house. I remember how it happened at 2:40 this morning.....I was listening to a  1902 record of Silas Leachman  singing as the lights came on...After 81 hours I let out a yelp of joy and laughed and blew out the candles....  Now it is all history.. Sandy goes into the record books and into the memories of many people like myself. My thoughts and wishes go to all who are still out of power.    Good Night..or should I say  Good Morning.

A molded blue plastic Lincoln for my collection from Chicago.

This is the plastic molded Abraham Lincoln in blue.  It was two dollars and so reminded me of the plastic molding machines at the worlds fair in New York. Those machines made plastic dinosaurs for ten cents and I remember I bought one. So while at the former Sear's Tower in Chicago I saw one of those machines and had to have a molded Lincoln in blue.  

The special Lincoln molding machine at the former Sear's Tower. Which is just like the machines at the world's fair of 1965.

My rant of my time, thoughts of life, government, national and world politics and the presidential election Oct 2012

I have have at times enjoyed ranting or bantering about at things and enjoying at times and perhaps belaboring it as well. But I wanted to talk about my philosophy of my time and thoughts of history as I see it in the month of Oct of 2012.

 I am not one to speak to please, I like to speak as I see things, be it popular or not. If one writes to please while stating what they see, they are really not honest. They are doing their best to be everything which will really amount to nothing.

  I can see that there is great dissatisfaction in the country with its government and its lack of honesty to begin with and its lack of being everything that it was promised to be. Remember change? Well it got lost and the open presidency is very hidden, and all that was to be removed and government red tape was to change. Well it has not. In fact it is much like an extension of the Bush White House in many ways. 

  

I am not sure where this election will go?  I am of the belief that it will be very close. As you have a rather poor president and running against him is another who is not exactly sure what he stands for. Somewhat like a    "Chameleon with Amnesia"    So we stand at a rather bad area of time. I fear if Romney wins there may be riots and political unrest, if Obama wins there will be financial panics due to the bad actions of the last 4 years. So we are between a rock and hard place in this country.

 Neither of the two running is much to speak of. 

As we are progressing through the second decade of the 21st century the world is in rapid change. Change that is not good, change that may cause a massive void between peoples and countries. What is happening in Europe is frightening. The Euro is in trouble. Some countries in Europe are in very bad condition. The Middle East looks like it wants to explode.  What will 2013 bring to that region if not before?  Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and a few more countries are very tense right now. 

 The United States and its prison in Cuba is still there, the lack of and weakening of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in our society is worrisome. The craziness of the battle over the 2nd Amendment is also troublesome and what to do to educate much of the public what "well regulated" means. 

What about the massive amount of money being printed by the Federal Reserve ?  Being printed to boost the economy, but in its haste is the government reversing the end result? 

 Will money provided by a country in severe debt, be worth that much after a time? One should always remember the term "hyper inflation".  This has happened to other countries and while I am not saying it will happen here, we are very much on a downward spiral economically and will be far further in trouble by the years end. It does not matter who the president is by that point, the current one has done little to help and a new one will not be able to right away.

Historically we are in a rough period of time. The world is wound as tight as an over wound clock. The people of this country are lazier than they have ever been. The economic situation is far worse than anyone wants to admit and it will not be long before the Stock Market goes into a massive correction.  

Where does it all lead?

I often like to ask people about what they read. What I hear is shocking quite often. I would say that 60% of the people I ask have not read a book in years. Nor are they interested in the country or the world around them. I find that perhaps 30% have read a few books here and there and the remaining 10% reads everything they can and looks at the world and the country with questions and comments. 

I have a my list of things that need special attention in this country and should be funded or ways found to fund them, fix them, restore them, or get rid of them.

1. Revamp our education system.

 We are becoming the laughing stock of the world as we drop lower and lower in our scores, our understandings, and how we are taught. I think we should be far harsher in school. Flunk kids who do not pass, expel kids who cause problems, stop this hand holding and other nonsense and trim the budgets on many of the unproductive schools. There are massive amounts of money put into many city schools and the end result is half the kids cannot read or write at a 6th grade level? If kids want to learn, give them the chance, if they could care less put them in a military school and force them to behave and study. It is time we stop being wimps in education and use a few kicks in the ass. Maybe a draft and a 2 year stint in the army is not bad thing. many other countries have it. 

2 MassTransit??????

Where has our mass transit gone?  Why are tons of monies put into special interests, more highways and other useless billion dollars projects?  A good deal of money should be used on improving and restoring our mass transit systems as they were before GM worked hard on destroying them. In fact I think GM should be fined just like any other company that has hurt the public or damaged our infrastructure for what they did in the past. As far as I am concerned GM is as guilty as the tobacco companies, the companies that used hazardous chemicals in the past and now are fined for it, companies that damaged our rivers and lakes and those who knowingly hurt our infrastructure.  Remember it was GM that knowingly destroyed all of the trolley and rail lines that connected all of the towns and cites and replaced them with buses. (made by GM of course) It is shocking but it is still harder to use Mass Transit than it was in 1920!


 Fine them..If they go out of business...some company will buy them and if not unemployment is cheaper than billions for the GM. If we had a decent mass transit system and competing companies we would not need so many cars anyway.  Besides aren't we trying to cut back on cars anyway?  Well screw many other projects and fix the infrastructure and the what we call now "Light Rail Systems"  That is our new word for Trolley. Perhaps everyone is embarrassed by what was done to this country by big business and the creation of the H'way system lobby which amazingly was powered by GM.  Let's think green? or is that just a hollow statement?  Where is the Mass Transportation Lobby ??  Far more important than most others I would say.

If we wish to do as we preach, and use mass transit. There should be a decent mass transit system to be used. I have no problem with using prison labor, unemployed, Welfare, or others and give them work to do and give them a wage while doing it. Lets get this country going again, rather than sitting on our rapidly enlarging asses while Rome burns.

  Fix the problems with labor and mass transit now before it is too late. Remember during the depression we have WPA camps and projects. Why not start that again and give people who are not working a job building up America like they did in the 1930's. It will give them pride in what they do and for the lazy ones, it would get them off their ass.

3. Religion in Government

It is a stupid thing to begin with and has nothing to do with Government at all. If you want trouble put religion in something and it will be more nasty, screwed up, and vicious than most government programs.  Jefferson and Madison were right, a wall of separation is between government and religion. If you need examples, visit the middle east.

4. TERM LIMITS

This is most necessary as we have some of the most useless pieces of humanity in Congress. 2 terms for Senate, 4 for the House of Representatives. If I see another useless old derelict celebrating their 50th year in  the Senate or the House I will scream.

 12 years max for any of them.


  Time to stop the madness of complete power in Washington.  I am also tired of seeing the Senate and much of the house looking like a retirement home. I have nothing against being older, I am.  But I do not want the country run by a bunch of old fogies in their 70's. Countries and ideas deserve new blood, ideas, and the chance to take risks. Old people don't take risks.  Time to go away and write your book about all you didn't do. I think we should have age limits for the Congress and the Senate.  I do not want to see another 100 years old useless Senator who spends most of his time in a hospital keeping him alive.  That is obscene, and derelict of the duties of a public servant.   75 years of age is old enough and time to leave. That is fair and makes sense.

   The average age of the Senate is 63 years.  There are 15 aged 75 and older and the list of 70 up is another big chunk.

The average age of the House is 58 years.  There are a mess of over 75's in there. In fact there is one member who has been in the house for near 50 years.  Good lord time to go home.

5 Supreme Court

I feel that just like the cardinals in Rome there is an age in which you can no longer vote.  I am against the life time appointments of the justice system. Talk about a country club...There you have it. A small group of old men and women (save for a few) who look like they should be playing checkers at the home.  I want a test to see if a justice is still in complete control of their faculties I am also a fan of term limits for them  15 years at max. then get a new one. Otherwise it will stay as it is and not embrace new ideas by young people of 60 years of age. What is  the average age of the Supreme Court?   66 years. That means there are quite a few over that.

6.   POT     

Did we not learn something with prohibition? (1919-1933)  We made liquor illegal and there were all kinds of organized crime figures crossing the borders with booze. The borders were the shores of America. Rum runners like Joe Kennedy who made much of his loot as a drug runner, (the drug was boose) not much different from who is crossing the border now with drugs. So have we not learned anything?  Make it legal and it will kill off the drug runners and the USA can tax it.  Who could ask for more?  Just think a little. That is why we have to get rid of the class of 1935 out of the Congress.  Get more people born after 1960 or later. If we have fresh minds we will have new ideas.  Think  think

These are just a few for my rant right now.  I will write more and annoy some, please others and most probably confuse the rest.