Typescript of Keach's dramatic eyewitness account of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, two pages, 6.5 x 9, signed at the conclusion in ink, "I certify that foregoing is a fair and truthful description of what I saw and heard. Troy, N.Y., Feb'y 25, 1916, Calvin E. Keach." In part: "Nobody was in the President's box when the performance started, yet the audience kept their eyes in that direction more than on the play. Finally, after nine o'clock, the President…entered and the whole house arose amid handclapping, flag waving and other expressions of approval, which continued until President Lincoln had bowed his acknowledgement and was seated. The curtain had gone up for the second act when a man was seen to pass hurriedly behind the rows of seats leading to the president's box, and enter it through the same door the president had used…Soon a pistol shot was heard and smoke was seen coming from the box almost immediately. Then the audience, from the center of the theatre, could see two men in a struggle… Booth then vaulted himself over the rail of the box…I remember vividly a little piece of the silken flag which clung to his spur when he raised himself from the position in which he had fallen, limped to the center of the stage and in a tragic manner held the dagger aloft as he shouted the motto of Virginia—'Sic Semper Tyrannis!,' adding, 'The south is avenged.' He then ran across the stage and disappeared." In fine condition.
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