A few more interesting things that might have made me stop passing notes to Jill Bishop and pay attention in history class.
Interesting Thing Number 1
Robert Lincoln didn’t look much like his father, Abraham Lincoln.
Interesting Thing Number 2
The night Abe Lincoln was shot, he had invited his 22 year old son, Robert, to the play, but Robert didn’t go. Robert was also an eyewitness to President Garfield’s assassination, and he was present when President McKinley was assassinated. I guess after McKinley, presidents stopped inviting him.
Interesting Thing Number 3
Robert Lincoln said that a very famous Shakespearean actor named Edwin Booth saved his life in 1863. Edwin Booth’s little brother was John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body.
There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform.
Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.
