Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-04-14
DR.. Mudds Account Of Booth, the As
sasslu. 81 HIS E0naa.

4 correspondent of the New York Ter
ak hunted up Dr.. Mudd, at his home in
Maryland. The Doctor was scared when
told his visitor was reporter, and did not
want to say anything, but talked little.
We quote the correspondence #
Above the middle height, With AIRED.
dish mustache any chin whiskers, a high
forehead and attenuated nose, his appear
ance indicates man of calm and Glow re-
Election, gentle in manner, and of very
domestic turn. He says be was born with
IN u few miles of this house, and has lived
all his life in the country. His whole de-
sire now Is TO be allowed to gnend the
balance of his days quietly in the bosom of
his family. In his suuken, lusterless eve
pallid lips and cold, ashy complexion. one
can read tie words Dry Tortugas' with
terrible significance. In the prime of his
years, look ing prematnrely old and care
worn, there are few, indeed, who could
gaze on the wrock and rayage in the face
of this nan before them without feeling
a sentiment of sympathy and comm ;sera
ton. Il lave come home, said the Doct-
or, sorrowfully, 'to find moth ng left me
but my house and family. No money. no
p DIVISIONS, no crops in the ground, and no
clear way before me where to derive the
means of support IL my present enfeebled
condition. There was no deception here
In the seanty furniture of the house, and
in the pale, sad countenance of the speak
or, there was evidence enough of poor and
altered fortune. It was now evening, and
growing rapidly dark. A big fire blazed
on the ample hearth, Mrs Mudd, an in
telligent and handsome lady, with one of
her children, joined the Doctor and our
selves in the conversation over the events
of that memorable April m orning after
the assassination.
t'Did you see Booth Mrs. Mudd 2 we
inquired with feeling Of intense interest
to hear her reply.
eyes she replied, I saw himself and
arold after they entered this parlor
Booth stretched himself out on that sofa
there, and Harold stopped down to Whis-
per something to him.
Glow did Booth look?'
"'Yery bad. He seemed IS though
he had been drinking very hard his eyes
were red and swollen, and his hair in dis
order
"7Did he appear to suffer much?
"'Not after he laid down Oh the sofa.
In fact, it seemed as if hardly anything
was wrong with him then
What kind of fracture did Booth 8us-
tain p we inquired, addressing the Doctor.
"'Well,' said he, after he vas laid down
on that sofa and having told me that his
leg was fractured by his horse falling on
him during his journey up from Richmond,
l took knife and split the leg Of h s
boot down to the instep, slipped it off and
the sock with it then felt carefully with
both hands down along his leg, but at first
could discover nothing Ike orepitation,
until, after asecond inyesti2 alton, found
on the outside, near the aukle, something
that felt like indu! ated flesh, and then for
the first time concluded it was a direct
and clean fracture of the bone,,I then i'm.
provlsed out of pasteboard sort of boot
that adhered close enough to the leg to
keep 1t rigidly straight below the knee,
without at all interfering with the fexion
OF the leg. A low-cut shoe was substitu-
ted for the leather boot, and between 5
and 6 oclock in the morning Booth and
his companions started off for a point on
the river below
-" How did Booths horse took after his
long ride 2" We inquired.
The boy, after putting him in the
stable, the Doctor replied, reported that
his back, underneath the forward part Of
the saddle, was raw and bloody. This
circumstance tailed with Booths account
that he had been riding all day previous
from Richmond, and no suspicion arose in
my mind for an ms tant that the man whose
leg | was attending to was anything moro
than :, bat he represented himself