As a weekly periodical, The Youth’s Companion could keep its readers apprized of the recent events of the Civil War. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865, the Companion began a commentary on the murder and on those who conspired to commit it. Some of the magazine’s conclusions may seem startling to modern readers: that Lincoln was killed in a theater was a source of sorrow to the editors, who weren’t alone in condemning the place. Nor were they alone in blaming sensational literature for society’s ills—though few others may have ascribed the assassination to it.