Chamber of Horrors at Griswold Store

Collection of Grewsome [sic] Relics Incident to Martyrdoms of Three Presidents.

     There is on exhibition in Griswold’s show window relics of our three martyred Presidents, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, which are interesting and valuable for impressing historical facts on the minds of observers, although in themselves they are somewhat gruesome.
     A placard gives the date of birth of the President, time he was shot and when he died, and by whom he was murdered.
     There is a campaign watch charm dated 1864 with Lincoln’s portrait on one side and Johnson’s on the obverse; a piece of tanned skin taken from the forearm of Guiteau, the slayer of President Garfield, by Dr. Appleby of Georgetown, D. C. Dr. Appleby was one of the two surgeons who performed the autopsy immediately after the execution and vouches for the genuiness [sic] of this relic. It is now owned by Warren Burnham of this village.
     The third relic is a piece of wood cut from the floor on the exact spot where President McKinley stood when shot by Czolgosz. This was cut by E. T. Griswold. It was the first piece so taken, and which resulted in the immediate clearing of the room by guards and the ultimate railing off of the spot to prevent the dilapitation [sic] of the building by relic hunters.