The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-04-26
Els wilkes Booth Still Alive z,

AtoiA VIZ OaiSs'So 10o.s'''S L o'V,
lican newspaper, and is probably the
strongest case that can be made, out OF
the inquiry in nsquestion
IF the question were asked, is John ID.
Surratt still alive ? there are few people
who would not be ready to declare their
belief in the affirmative. Is there any
better reason for believing that Wilkes
Booth is dead7 - u Il
It was thought that none of the assas-
sination conspirators could escape. Yet
one of them certainly did escape-and
why not more thaa une? Surratt, aman
weflknowni in Was,.ington-better known
than Booth man qualified by neither
nature nor training in the arts of dis
guise, fed from the scene Of his guilt,
and not the slightest trace of his wherea-
bouts or the direction Of his fight Chat
is positively known to be trace has sheen
discovered. Might not Booth escape as
easily as Surratt? The intellectual su-
periority which made him the leading
spirit of the assassination plot, would al
SO be the most likely to enable him, above :,
all the conspirators, to devise successful
ly the means of his own escape. bis
theatrical profession was an Important
aid. Skilled not only-in the arts of ad-
yentitious disguise, but also in the. meth
DDS of changing his personal identity to
that of an individuality not his own, no
man was better qualified to cheat the
senses even of those who thought they
klew him best. Logically, the chances
of. his escape were greater than Surratt's,
and greater than those of any of his con-
freres.s s8e. ts.s
Twice since his supposed death, the as
sersien has been made that Wilkes Booth
did not die by the bullet of "Boston"
Corbett. First by o man who published
a.statement over his-own. name declaring
that he saw him, recognized him, spoke
to him, and was recognized by him IN
turn. This event, it was alleged took
place at small port (the name we have
forgotten) on the eastern shore of Mary
land, where Booth was about going on.
board a veasel bound to Cuba. The state.
m,ent has never been refuted, though
probably few people have thought it
worth while to put any faithrin it. o.
The second statement is made by a
man named Sterling King, at present an
inmate of the City Prison at Louisville.
This person asserts that himself, and not
Booth, was the assassin of Mr.. Lincoln;
that Booth, who was in the plot, was at
that moment behind the theatre with the
horses that from Washington they es-
capped to Canada, and thence to the Is
land of Cuba. There are some remarka-
BILE features about this mans story, as
well as about himself He details circum-
stances that are wonderfully opposite to
previously known. facts, and gives at
least an air of vraiSembldn to his nara.
tive that is really surprising. What ne
SAYS about going to- Cuba corresponds in
the essential point with the statement
previously mentioned, and with the au-
thor of which it is not. probable he could
have had any collusion. The military
authorities in Kentucky do not seem to
regard his statements rs utterly unwor-
thy of credence, for they have taken the
trouble to write them down from his lips
and forward them to the authorities at
Washington.
We do not attach to this story the
slightest Importance. It is, probably
sheer fabrication, intended to further
some scheme of escape from punishment
for horse stealing, the crime for which
the prisoner is incarcerated. It's strange
consistency may excite q suspicion that
the man King, had guilty knowledge of
the assassination plot, and may know
something Of the present whereabouts OF
Booth and Surratt; but that Booth, and
not King, was the assassin of Abraham
Lincoln, admits of no reasonable doubt.
That Wilkes Booth was the man killed
in abarn at midnight by the light of
burning hay, is;not, however so well es-
tablished. The. whole country was sur
prised when that event was announced,
that man with the mental resources of
Wilkes Booth should have adopted SO
flame and lmpotent" method of escape.
asstheschase and capture revealed.
But the body was identified. So it has
been printed All who have ever had oc-
casion to identify dead human body
know with what feelings of uncertainty
the mind is impressed, unless there are,
well known ply ysical marks that the eye
can recognize. Death has stolen away
the expression of life, and the sbeholder
feels for the FIRST time that itwas the soul
looking out from a living face that he
knew, and not the shape of3clay now be-
tore him. Dead men are like statues
made by sunskillful artists-mere carya-
tides to adorn the house that lasts till
doomsday, and distinguishable from each
other cnly by some popularity Of the
carving. Hundreds, and perhaps thou
sands, of mistaken identifcations have.
occurred during the war, even when the
body sought for was that of near and
familiar friend, In o neighboring city,
not long ago, a father identified the body
Of his daughter who had taken her own
,ifc Deem and terrible. was the anruish