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Document 83841 LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION: AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT Later a Senate page and an actor, Joseph H. Hazleton recalls the fateful day and his conversation with John Wilkes Booth. Printed Manuscript signed: "Joseph H. Hazleton", 1p, 8½x11. Photograph of Hazleton printed at upper left. Entitled: "The/Assassination of President Lincoln/By Joseph H. Hazleton (An eye witness)". PROVENANCE: THIS PRINTED MANUSCRIPT IS AN EXTRACT TAKEN FROM AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE FEBRUARY 1927 ISSUE OF "GOOD HOUSEKEEPING" MAGAZINE. THE MULTI-PAGE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY CAMPBELL MacCULLOCH IS ENTITLED: "THIS MAN SAW LINCOLN SHOT". MacCulloch introduces the reader to Hazleton and then gives Hazleton's eyewitness account of which the item offered here is an extract. HERE IN PART IS MacCULLOCH'S INTRODUCTION BEFORE WE DETAIL HAZLETON'S SIGNED DOCUMENT: "The detail of that terrible crime...was witnessed by some hundreds of persons, nearly all of whom have joined the great majority. OF THE FEW WHO MAY REMAIN, THE SCENE IS STAMPED WITH INDELIBLE CLARITY UPON THE MEMORY OF ONE WHO ON THAT DATE WAS JUST TWELVE YEARS OLD, THE LAST EMPLOYEE OF THE HISTORIC PLAYHOUSE NOW REMAINING ALIVE. A GRIZZLED ACTOR NOW, JUST PAST HIS SEVENTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY...THE MAN IS JOSEPH HAZLETON, , formerly program boy at Ford's Theatre in Washington, and he stood that terrible night in the left-hand aisle of the house, gazing in rapt adoration on the face of Mr. Lincoln. I found Joseph Hazleton stretched in a chaise lounge on the balcony of the Windsor Sanitarium at Glendale, California, slowly recovering from an illness. Age may have restricted his activity, lined his features and grizzled his locks, but it has impaired not at all his memory. IT IS PERHAPS BUT AN ODD COINCIDENCE THAT HE TOLD ME HIS TALE OF THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON THE DAY THAT ROBERT TODD LINCOLN, LAST SURVIVING SON OF THE MARTYRED PRESIDENT, WAS BEING LAID TO REST IN A QUIET NEW ENGLAND COMMUNITY. When I mentioned it, Hazleton nodded. 'Yes he said, the shadows are growing very long'...Following the great calamity that closed forever Ford's Theater, Hazleton continued at his schooling for another year and then became a Senate page, having been appointed by William Pitt Fessenden, Senator from Maine and later Secretary of the Treasury in Grant's cabinet. From there the youth moved into the postal service as a railway mail clerk, and thence to the stage. HIS ADOPTION OF THE ACTOR'S PROFESSION WAS THE DIRECT RESULT OF THE ADVICE OF TWO MEN AND CURIOUS IS IT THAT THESE TWO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JOHN WILKES BOOTH. BUT HERE IS JOSEPH HAZLETON'S OWN STORY: " HERE IS PART OF THE TEXT OF THE DOCUMENT BEING OFFERED. Begins: "On the 14th day of April, a little school boy, with his school books in a strap thrown carelessly across his shoulder, romped down Tenth Street in Washington, D.C., and as he approached old Ford's Theatre there stood in front a tall, stately man, swarthy of complexion, raven black curly hair, a drooping moustache, and a wondrous kind eye. That man was John Wilkes Booth...The little school boy was myself...He beckoned me over to him, lifted my cap from my head, ran his fingers through my hair and said: 'Well, little man, are you going to be an actor some day?' I replied: 'I don't know, Mr. Booth, perhaps.' Little did I dream at the time that I would spend fifty years of my life in the theatrical profession. Booth took from his pocket a little folder, which contained the coin of the day commonly known as 'shin plasters' of the denominations of five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents. Handing me a ten cent plaster, he pulled my hat playfully over my eyes, patted me on the shoulders and bade me run buy myself something...Well, I went around the Theatre that night, as was my custom...It was a gala night, the play was 'Our American Cousin' and Laura Keene was the star. Almost everyone knew that the President would be there...The house was packed, the gold lace of the Army and Navy predominating. The President and his party came late, the second act was on, and as Mr. Lincoln entered the audience rose en masse and cheered, Mr. Lincoln came down to the front of the box...bowed his acknowledgments and took his seat and the play went on. The third act was on and I was standing directly opposite the President's box, looking up at him...to see how he was enjoying the play. I happened to turn my head toward the main entrance and saw Wilkes-Booth enter. He stopped a moment to say a word to Mr. Buckingham, the door-keeper, then started upstairs to the Dress Circle. As he passed along the side aisle toward the President's box, I noticed the change in his dress. When he spoke to me in the afternoon he was dressed in the height of fashion...now he was wearing heavy riding boots, spurs, a blue flannel shirt and an army slouch hat. I wondered...what he was doing there on such a gala night dressed in such a garb. I did not have long to wait, there was a flash, a report and President Lincoln has been assassinated. There are not words in the English language to describe the awful hush which fell over the house...no one seemed to take the initiative, until Laura Keene, rushing down to the footlights, cried, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, the President has been shot!' then all was pandemonium. WHEN BOOTH FIRED THE SHOT HE DROPPED THE WEAPON, a single barrelled (sic) affair, called a derringer, and drawing a Bowie knife ran to the edge of the box. Major Rathbone tried to stop him, and received an ugly wound on his arm. Booth leaped over the rail of the box to the stage, but his spur caught in the American flag which draped the box and he fell to the stage...TO MY DYING DAY I SHALL NEVER FORGET THE LOOK OF ANGUISH AND DESPAIR ON THAT MAN'S FACE, AS HE HALF DRAGGED HIMSELF TO THE CENTER. THEN BRANDISHING THE KNIFE ABOVE HIS HEAD AND WITH A MANIAC STARE, CRIED OUT, 'SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS'. He managed to get to the stage door where his horse was being held, mounted and rode rapidly away...But let's leave Booth and return to the theatre. They carefully lifted the President and carried him across the street to the home of Mr. Peterson, one of our merchants. The building is now being used as the Olroyd Lincoln Museum...." On buff-colored paper. ¼-inch tear at upper blank edge has been repaired with tape on verso. Fine condition. accompanied by a photocopy of the entire "Good Housekeeping" magazine article. Pages stapled together in upper left blank corner. Fine condition. Two items. SEE IF DOCUMENT 83841 IS FOR SALE RIGHT NOW!!
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