Questions and answers from Quora/Reddit that I find amusing or insightful.
**Copied directly from the post itself, so if there's typos I didn't make them.
**Some questions have multiple answers.
**A crap ton of posts from Ethan James because I love...
In late 1864, Edwin Booth was one of the most esteemed Shakespearean actors in the United States and also toured in Europe and Australia; he was legendary for his portrayals of Hamlet (and in fact a statue of him as Hamlet stands in Gramercy Park in New York City even today).
While trying to buy a train ticket on a crowded platform in Jersey City, New Jersey, Edwin saw a young man pushed by the throng of people until his lower body was off the platform and under the train itself. Edwin forced his way through the crowd, seized the young man by the collar, and yanked him out of harm's way before the train started moving.
The young man recognized his savior as Edwin Booth, just as someone today might recognize Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, but Edwin never got the young man's name; he simply went on his way after being profusely thanked for his act of heroism.
It was some months later, after receiving an official letter of thanks from the office of Ulysses S. Grant (then the commanding general of the U.S. Army under President Abraham Lincoln), that Edwin found out that the young man he had saved was Robert Lincoln — the son of the president.
In April of 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by another actor, John Wilkes Booth — who happened to be the younger brother of Edwin Booth.
Edwin did not share his brother's views, in fact was at odds with him over them, and disowned John afterward, forever forbidding the mention of John's name in his presence. He said the fact that he had potentially saved Lincoln's son was his only source of comfort following Lincoln's assassination by his brother.
So Edwin Booth randomly saved the life of the son of the president just months before his own brother assassinated the same president.
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