" A sudden suspicion
flashed upon me, and stepping to your side, I exclaimed, "Don't open
it; it means mischief!"
When I had looked at it more nearly, I said, "It's an infernal
machine" or "a torpedo." I carried it over to the Capitol, opposite to
your rooms, where Mr. Broom, one of the clerks of the Supreme Court,
joined me in the examination of your mysterious looking present. It
was put in water, and afterwards we dashed off the lid of the box
by throwing it against the wall in the carriage way under the Senate
steps. About a dozen copper cartridges were disclosed--those used in a
Smith & Wesson pocket pistol, it appeared afterward--six of them lying
on each side of a bunch of friction matches in the centre. The sides
of the cartridges had been filed through, so that the burning of the
matches might explode the cartridges. The whole was kept in place in
a bed of common glue, and a strip of sand-paper lying upon the heads
of the matches was bent into a loop to receive the bit of thread,
whose other end, secured to the clasp of the box, produced that
tension and consequent pressure requisite to ignite the matches upon
the forcible opening of the lid. To make assurance doubly sure, a
paste of fulminating powder and alcohol had been spread around the
matches and cartridges.
There was a newspaper slip also glued to the inside of the lid, with
words as follows: "Monday, Oct.
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