The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-02-24
TO BE CONTINUED.
The Pretended Belle Boyd nm Imposter.

Belle Boyd paid visit to Anderson not
long ago, the following statement by st.
Louis paper will have mournful interest
for. some of our charitable readers:
Perhaps the memories and incidents of
thirteen years ago are not pleasant, and
that is the reason the once famous Con-
pfederate spy has secluded herself from
the prying Investigations of the curious,
and in measure efectually concealed
from the public her identity with the
daring, dashing girl who, in the days of
our national distress, cast consequences
behind, and pursued her own adventu-
rous career. Perhaps, too, written in the
records of those days, are some passages
in her life which she would now wish to
be forever obliterated. 1t matters not
what the motive may be, the woman who
was once known far and wide as Belle
Boyd, and some of, whose exploits have
found an enduring place in history, has
for some years led the quiet life of q re-
spectacle matfon in the City of st. Louis.
No consideration, apparently, can induce
her to lay aside this quiet domestic Life
to appear again before the public, She
has another name now, and husband and
children, and if the individual lives, the
name, at least, has ceased to exist. Nor
does she or the very few persons who
know. her identity with the daring spy
care to recall that name again. from the
tomb of the years in which it is buried.
So careful has Mrs. - and her
friends been in guarding this secret, that
even when imposters have assumed her
discarded name, and traversed several
Southern States appealing to public SYM
pathy in the character of lecturers, she
has said nothing and charged her friends
to say nothing, and her silence has proved
to be the opportunity of the pretendsrs
to make money on her credit. Perhaps
the fact that the once celebrated Belle
Boyd is now o respectable matron, resi-
ding in this city, would never have been
revealed to the public had not her father
been member of the Masonic fraternity,
a fact which being known has been util-
lied by the fictitious Belle Boyd who has
travsrsed Alabama, Georgia, the Carroll
mas and Florida, everywhere calling upon
the brotherhood for advice and sympa-
thy. - ~
printed in an Atlanta paper, and that de-
scription was read by the brethren of
Equality Lodge, No. A, AT. and A. M,
at Martinsburg, West Virginia; to which
lodge D. R. Boyd, father of the real Belle
Boyd, belonged. These Masons had
known the real Belle in the days of her
girlhood as bright-faced, blue-eyed,
Tght-haired maiden, and they knew that
the one who called herself Belle Boyd,
with brunette complexion, black eyes
and hair dark as the ravens wing, was
mot the real Belle; so as late as the
22d of January the lodge prepared cir
cular letter addressed to the brethren
throughout tho country to beware of the
timposter. Among other things they
state: "The real Belle Boyd is now mar
ried, and living in st. Louis, Mo-, with
her husband and her mother, and two
brothers reside in Baltimore" This let
ter is signed by Alexander Parke, Jr.,
w. NJ, and B. Hughes, Secretary. !.
On bright Sunday mornings, a trio
consisting of an aged woman, a hale,
well-lopking man Of middle age, 2 rather
tall, thin lady Of middle 'age, with deep
blue eyes, light hair and sharp, Roman
features, may be seen entering certain
church in this city. The old lady is
Belle Boyd's mother, the gentleman her
husband, and the middle-aged lady is
the veritable Belle Boyd of the war
times.