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Weinman's seated statue, which is in the memorial at Hodgenville, Ky., the birthplace of Lincoln. This was greatly admired by Robert T. Lincoln and his family.

THE PROPHECY OF ANTONY

HE Lincoln Centennial recalls to memory a strange episode in the career of the President's assassin which, except in conversation with intimate friends, I have never hitherto deemed it necessary to mention. It occurred about five months before the consummation of the terrible deed which ended the President's life.

In the latter part of November, 1864, at the time when the gallant Sherman was leading a Union army through Georgia, alas! to wreck and destroy its homes, but nevertheless in the end to reunite and restore a distracted country, "Julius Caesar" was announced by the management of the Winter Garden theater in New York. It was to be given for a benefit, and in the cast were Junius Brutus, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth, playing respectively Cassius, Brutus, and Marc Antony.

The Winter Garden was on the west side of Broadway, between Bleecker and Amity streets, the entrance to the theater being through the Lafarge House, a large and handsomely appointed hotel, then of the first class. Its approach resembled that of Niblo's Garden, on the east side of Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets, the entrance to which was through the Metropolitan Hotel.

At that time the increasing frivolity of theatrical entertainments, so much out of harmony with the grave events that were daily exciting the emotions of the public, had greatly lessened their attractiveness, but "Julius Caesar," with the three Booths in it, was a bill that could not be resisted.

BRUTUS' FATEFUL WORDS

The curtain rose promptly. The opening dialogues of the play so artistically arranged to foreshadow its dread denouement, excited no interest. The audience awaited the entrance of the, brothers; even the minor actors hurried over their parts to make

way for the appearance of the sons of the famous Booth. When Edwin and Junius Booth appeared they were greeted with enthusiastic applause. The dialogue that ensued between the openly dissatisfied Cassius and the brooding but unresolved Brutus was listened to with deep attention, but without demonstration, except that a feeble hand clapping, which passed without notice, was heard from the gallery at these words of Brutus:

Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this;

Brutus had rather be a villager

Than to repute himself a son of Rome

Under such hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us.

Some months afterwards and in connection with the affairs of this eventful evening I recalled this incident. It may have been accidental, but I did not think so, nor do I now. The draft riots prove that at that time New York was plentifully stocked with people who regarded the measures of the administration as "hard conditions."

When Mr. Varrey and John Wilkes Booth appeared, there was some slight applause, due more to the conspicuous characters they portrayed than to any great appreciation of the actors. Except that he was one of the three famous brothers, John Wilkes was but little known in New York; while Varrey was still less known and now appeared for the first time in the character of Caesar. Booth was a handsome young man, with a fine stage presence and admirably costumed, but until in a later scene his turn came to speak the praise of Caesar he played listlessly and, as subsequently recalled, with marked absence of mind. Until the exigencies of the tragedy brought the actor's assumed character and his own thoughts into some sort of harmony he seemed to move through the play with indifference. Was it because beneath the toga of Marc Antonius there throbbed the secret passions of a Cassius, or of a Casca?

As the play proceeded, the actor warmed to his part and in the great speech beginning:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

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