Who is this person?

[L Verge]

(03-10-2019 09:47 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Harry Houdini?

Absolutely correct! Mr. Houdini (although born nearly ten years after Lincoln's death) was a Lincoln fanatic and collected everything he could on the President. I would love to know what happened to that collection.

As for his eagle, its name was Josephus Daniel Abraham Lincoln - "Abe Lincoln" for short. Abe would appear at the end of Houdini's magic Whirlwind of Color trick with a flash of various scarves and fabrics being pulled from a small box.

Thank you to Jerry Madonna for telling us about the article on Lincoln's magician, Harry Cooke, in the current issue of Military History Quarterly. Houdini and Cooke were friends in later years - Harry Houdini was fascinated with Harry Cooke's escape from ropes that he performed for Mr. Lincoln.

I did look up more on Cooke (can't afford a subscription to that magazine), and there is an interesting piece of history about him being a Federal Scout for Lincoln and being caught, along with some other men, by Mosby's Rangers. The Union men were to be hanged the next morning, so they were each tied to a tree for the night. Cooke pulled his rope trick, escaped his tree, and then quietly rescued the others.

They divided into two groups - one attempting to escape through the woods and the other by crossing the Potomac. Cooke chose the river with several others and managed to get back to federal lines. Another party was sent out to search for the men who chose the land side. They were found hanging, but their bodies were also riddled with bullets.

Cooke had two Lincoln items which he treasured and kept with him all the time: a note signed by Lincoln appointing him as a scout and a two dollar bill given in appreciation of his rope trick. Mosby's men stole them both. When able, Cooke went to D.C. to visit Mr. Lincoln, hoping to get substitutes for his loss. The story is that he went to the White House after 8 pm on Friday, April 14, 1865, but the Presidential party had already left for the theater. Cooke went to the theater, bought a ticket, and shortly after being seated, heard the pistol shot...

And there is your abbreviated history lesson for this Sunday afternoon.