How have we not included the Booth brothers on here?
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.
Robert Lincoln, in a 1909 letter to Century Magazine, tells the tale of being saved from injury by Edwin Booth, brother of the infamous John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Robert Lincoln’s father, Abraham. Edwin Booth, an actor and the founder of the Players Club (only a stone’s throw from LQ Headquarters!) was born on this day in 1833.
