Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-17

NslN has MOI SlitSNiutNl iN VI any SNf
stock or bond Of the company. These dcnials
pretty thoroughly incapacitate that Islander for
further service, lint we have no doubt there are
more in reserve, quite as enormous and quite as
baseless.
A dispatch from London states that Mr.. SUM
ner viii positively decline the democratic and
"liberal" nomination for governor We felt
sure that he had not consented to such use of
his name. If those who made the nomination
bad understood him as well as he is understood
by his best friends in Massachusetts, his name
would not have been used in this way. Mr.
Bird knew it was an improper thing to do, and
opposed it; but not many others in the two con-
yentions had ever been earnest friends Of Charles
Sumner. The great crowd of his old friends
will vote for Grant and Wilson; but they have
not, on this account, ceased to feel deep inter-
est in him. They are glad to know that his
name has not been msused, in this case, with
his consent.
A curious story is told of one Thomas G.
Boyd of Sweetwater, East Tennessee, which
would make a capital plot for Charles Reade, il
he knew enough Of the scenery, people and
manners Of that region to give it the necessary
local coloring. Boyd was a claim agent and
had made a considerable fortune in that bust
ness, besides acquiring a reputation not alto
gether spotless. The United States attorney for
that district had his attention called to Boyd's
proceedings, and found evidence enough of mis-
conduct TO furnish material for twenty-five in
dctments Tor making up and presenting to the
departments fraudulent claims and other kin
dred Offences on each of which he was
held to bail in the sum OF two thousand
dollars Mr. Boyd did not wish to be
tried on these charges, and in order to
escape it his ingenuity and impudence
prompted him to write a letter to President
Grant, asserting his innocence, representing
that the numerous trials would be expensive to
the government and himself, and suggesting
that the president should cause the prosecution
to be dismissed in consideration of Boyd's prom
Use TO use his influence, which, he said, was
great in that part of Tennessee, to promote
Grants reelection. The president read the let
ter, and referred it 10 the attorney general, who
sent it to the district attorney who had Boyds
prosecution in charge, and he allowed it to be
published in 4 republican paper in Knoxville.
This repulse was severe disappointment; but
Boyd's ingenuity supplied another resource
to escape his trial and save his forty
four thousand dollars bail. He set out
one day, accompanied by two friends, on an
expedition expected to occupy two or three days
professedly to look up witnesses for the trial
The friends reappeared three days after with a
shocking story that they had been attacked,
seized and bound by five masked men, who shot
Boyd and burned his body, !and, after keeping
the two friends bound for some hours, at last
released them. Search in the place indicated
revealed the remains of a human body so far
consumed that Identification was impossible
They were gathered up by Boyd's relatives and
buried with the usual funeral ceremonies. The
Masonic lodge of which Boyd was a member,
however, declined to perform their distinctive
funeral rights because the body was not
certainly identified This, or some other
fact, led to a suspicion that the enterprsing
Boyd was still among the living, and the sus-
picion once entertained grew in many minds to
a conviction. To invent the story OF his own
death when life in that neighborhOod and in
those circumstances involved much unpleasant
ness was seen to be quite in accordance with
Mr. Boyd's character. In despair of solving the
mystery forithemselves some of the inqusitive
neighbors sent for detective who, after hearing
all that could be told and examining all the
localities, ,reaected for a time, and then an
nounced his belief that, if the grave of a
certain negro, who had died few
days before Boyd's disappearance, should
be examined, it would be found empty. 1t was
examined, and the searchers found what they
expected-no body. The grave supposed to be
occupied by the remains OF the lamcnted Boyd
was next examined, and its contents were pro-
nounced by ANTAGONISTS to be undoubtedly parts
of the body of negro. Thereupon MIR. Boyd's
relatives dried their tears, while the sureties on
his bail bonds became sincere mourners There
is more real desire to see Mr.. Boyd again in that
neighborhood than his warmest admirers could
ever have auticipated