Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-06-01
Is Wilkes Booth Still Alive ?

If the question were nsked, is John III.
Surratt still alive? there are few people
who would not be ready TO declare their
belief in the afiirmative., Is there any
better reason for believing that Wilkes
Booth is dead?
1t was thought that none of the assass-
nation conspirators could escape. Yet
one of them certainly did escape-and
why not more than one? Surratt man
well known in Washington--better known
than Booth--a man qualified by neither
nature nor training in the arts of disguise,
fed from the scene of his guilt, and not
the slightest trace of his whereabouts or
the direction of his flight (that is positively
known 10 be trace) has been discovered.
Might not Booth escape as easily as Sur
raft ? The intellectual superiority which
made him the leading spirit of the assassi-
nation plot, would also Lt's:le most likely
to enable him, above all the conspirators.
to devise successfully the means of his
own escape. His theatrical profession was
an important aid. Skilled not only in the
arts of adventitious disguise, but also in
the methods 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
knew him best. Logically, the chances
of his escape were greater than Surratt's,
and greater than any of those of his con-
.freres.
Twice since his supposed death, the as
sertion has been made that Wilkes Booth
did not die by The hand of :" Boston, Cor
bett. First by a 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 Maryland, where
Booth was about going on board vessel
bound to Cuba. The statement has never
been refuted, though probably few people
have thought it worth while to put any
faith in it.
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; tha
Booth, who was in the plot, was at tha
moment behind the theatre with the hors
es /; that from Washington they escaped
to Canada, and thence to the Island o
Cuba. There are some remarkable feat
ures about this mans story, as well a.
about himself. He details circumstances
that are wonderfully opposite to previous.
/ ly knows facts, and give at least an air Of
uyaisens6lance to his narrative that is tru-
ly really surprising. What he says about
going to Cuba corresponds in the essential
point with the statement previously men,
4 tlOlGNl. anu Will lllC Vi NDlNii IL IL
not probable he could have had any collu-
sion. The military authorities in Ken.
lucky do not seem to regard his state
ments as utterly unworthy 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 slight
est Importance. 1t is probably sheer
fabrication, intended to further some
scheme of escape from punishment fol-
horse stealing, the crime for which tht
prisoner is incarcerated. Its strange con
sistency may excite a suspicion that thu
man King had guilty knowledge of th'
assassination plot, and may know some
thing Of the present whereabouts of Bootl
and Surratt; but that Booth and no
King was the assassin of Abraham Lin
coin admits of no reasonable doubt. Tha
Wilkes Booth was the man killed in
barn at midnight, by the light of burning
. hay, is not, however, so well established
. The whole country was surprised whe
) the event was announced, that a man wit
t the mental resources of Wilkes Boot
, should have adopted SO lame and impo
i tent" method of escape as the chase an
capture revealed.
q But the body was identified. So it ha
: been printed. All who have had occasio
+ TO identify a dead human body well kno'
with what feelings of uncertainty the min
is impressed, unless there are well know
physical marks that the eye can recog
, nize. Death has stolen away the EXPIRE:
4 sion of life, and the beholder feels for th
Y first time that it was the soul looking OIL
v from living face that he knew, and ne
r the shape of clay now before him. Dta
men are like statues made by unskillfi
:. artists, mere caryatides that adorn til
= house that lasts till doomsday, and distir
y guishable from each other cnly by son,