Frederick Demond

[John Fazio]

(08-21-2015 01:38 PM)Pamela Wrote:  Has anyone seen an advertisement for Surratt's Rockville and NY lectures? I read the one for the DC lecture, which was cancelled, and one of the headlines was "His life among the Papal Zouaves". He made no mention of the Zouaves or any of his time in Europe in the Rockville lecture, except to say, "...I concluded to seek asylum in foreign lands." John's cliff leap was known to the public and I would have thought he would have included it as part of his "thrilling" adventures. Lipman was in the audience in NY lecture, and said in the newspaper article that, "....the most curious part of the story is, that when I attended a lecture he gave in this city in 1870, he singled me out among the audience and embraced me with gratitude."

Pamela:

An interesting observation. Of course, Lipman's attendance at Surratt's lecture in New York comes from Lipman. If one is disinclined to believe Lipman, then this too, obviously, becomes suspect. As you know, I am one of those incllined to believe him. Therefore, I accept this item as true too. And it all seems to fit quite well, i .e. we now know with certainty that Lipman and Surratt served in the Papal Zouaves in Italy at the same time; that Lipman gave an account of Surratt's escape that is very different from the orignal account given by Surratt's Zouave "captors" to their superiors; that Lipman was in the audience at the New York lecture; that for this reason, Surratt could not very well speak of the spectacular leap version of his escape (which had already been changed twice anyway); that he therefore said nothing about his escape, at a time and in circumstances that were conducive to his addressing the matter; and that he singled out Lipman at the end of the lecture to express his gratitude. For what? For helping him escape! What else?

John