but found he could not kill him there without danger of killing some one else. He noticed that the President sat near a window. After church he made an examination of the window, and found he could reach it without any trouble, and that from this point he could shoot the President through the head without killing any one else. The following Wednesday he went to the church, examined the location and the window, and became satisfied he could accomplish his purpose. He determined to make the attempt at the church the following Sunday. Learning from the papers that the President would leave the city on Saturday, the 18th of June, with Mrs. Garfield, for Long Branch, he, therefore, decided to meet him at the depot. He left his boarding place about 5 o'clock Saturday morning, June 18th, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth Street, and fired five shots to practice his aim, and be certain his pistol was in good order. He then went to the depot, and was in the ladies' waiting-room of the depot, with his pistol ready, when the presidential party entered. He says Mrs. Garfield looked so weak and frail that he had not the heart to shoot the President in her presence, and, as he knew he would have another opportunity, he left the depot. He had previously engaged a carriage to take him to the jail. On Wednesday evening, the President and his son, and, I think, United States Marshal Henry, went out for a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed them, and watched them for some time, in hopes the carriage would stop, but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening, July 1st, he was sitting on the seat in the park opposite the White House, when he saw the President come out alone. He followed him down the avenue to Fifteenth Street, and then kept on the opposite side of the street upon Fifteenth, until the President entered the residence of Secretary Blaine. He waited at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets for some time, and then, as he was afraid he would attract attention, he went into the alley in the rear of Mr. Morton's residence, examined his pistol and waited. The President and Secretary

Blaine came out together, and he followed over to the gate of the White House, but could get no opportunity to use his weapon. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, he breakfasted at the Riggs House about 7 o'clock. He then walked up into the park, and sat there for an hour. He then took a horse car and rode to Sixth Street, got out and went into the depot, and loitered around there; had his shoes blacked; engaged a hackman for $2 to take him to the jail; went into the water-closet and took his pistol out of his hip-pocket, and unwrapped the paper from around it, which he had put there for the purpose of preventing the perspiration from the body dampening the powder; examined his pistol; carefully tried the trigger, and then returned and took a seat in the ladies' waiting-room, and, as soon as the President entered, advanced behind him and fired two shots.

“These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I give them to the public to contradict certain false rumors in connection with the most atrocious of atrocious crimes."

The pistol used by him was a double-acting fivechambered revolver, of 44-100 of an inch calibre, known as the "British Bull-dog" pattern. In regard to his trial, the Grand Jury for July, in the District of Columbia, were discharged on July 8th, the District-Attorney not presenting Guiteau for indictment, because of the following letter from the White House physicians :

"SIR: In reply to your inquiry as to the condition of the President, we would say that up to the present time he has done exceedingly well for one who has received so dangerous a wound; but while we anticipate recovery, it is not yet possible to assert with confidence that his injuries may not terminate fatally. "Very respectfully,

"D. W. BLISS,

J. K. BARNES,

"J. J. WOODWARD,

ROBERT REYBURN."

If the President should not die for a year and a day, Guiteau, under the common law, cannot be tried for murder.

His crime was, of course-as all particularly noticed crimes are-followed by a slight epidemic of crime. Several lunatics appeared in Washington almost immediately that Guiteau's deed was known, and wanted to shoot some one or other, fully bearing out what President Garfield said a year ago concerning himself and attempts on his life: "I have always supposed that a man who occupies so exalted and powerful position, as does the President of the United States, must exert a fatal fascination over a man of morbid mind, who seeks his life for revenge or any other motive."

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE LESSONS OF THE HOUR.

Τ

HERE are always timid men in a nation, men who feel inclined to adopt some temporary, easily suggested device to bridge over any disaster. Such device is usually superficial and wanting entirely in adequateness, while it too often does more evil in principle than it accomplishes good in fact. The terrible crime that darkened our land and shadowed to sadness our national birth-day, brought naturally to the front our timid innovators—those who were ready to consent to anything that satisfied their feelings, and suaged their honor, in order that it might not "happen again."

Two propositions emanated from these wellmeaning citizens, one with reference to Guiteau— an expression of national desire; the other with reference to the President-a measure of national safety. The first partakes of the nature of revenge. Guiteau's offense under the law is shooting "with intent to kill," punishable with eight years' imprisonment for a first offense, and with fifteen years for a second offense. Insanity, according to

the law of the District of Columbia, which follows the old English law, cannot be pleaded in defense of his crime, because insanity is held not to exist where there is premeditation. Guiteau, therefore, will be tried for shooting "with intent to kill.” Possibly, by a liberal construction of the law, he may be sentenced to twenty-three years in the penitentiary, the first shot fired at the President being counted a first offense, and the second shot a second offense. Possibly, also, the court in its discretion may make the sentence one of solitary confinement. This then, twenty-three years in solitary confinement, is the utmost possible, but not the probable, penalty that can be meted to Guiteau for a crime that made the world shudder.

How inadequate! is the prompted thought in the reader's mind. That a dastardly villain who sought out the life of the beloved chief of fifty millions of people, who in cowardly fashion and with coldblooded purpose shot down the liberties of those people, should be guarded by even Justice with gentle hands against the clutches of the masses, should be shielded from the vengeance he so richly deserved and sentenced only to twenty-three years— what a mockery it seems on our sympathy for the President, what a travesty upon our love for the victim! And yet, the very inadequacy of the law's sentence to satisfy our condemnation of the deed should "give men pause" and recall all their senses to deal with the case in exact ac