Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-01-10

The Fate Of the Animal ON Which He
Escaped After the Assassination.

| The Fate Of the Animal ON Which He
Escaped After the Assassination.
/ THE STORY THAT 1T PASSED INTO THE POSSES
SION OF AN ExPREssMAN DENIsD-A LITTLE
CHAPTER OF UNwRITTEN HISTORY TOLD BY
MR.. ALLISON NAILoR.
| The New York .S,,, prints story from the
Putnam Comm Weekly Standard about the
I horse that bore J. wilkes Booth from Washing
ton after the murder of President Lincoln. to
the effect that the animal was contiscated, sold
| by auction and fell to the Soldiers Express
company OF New York. subsequently, 1t was
purchased, the story says. by Brooklyn ex-
pressnan. and in 1869 came into the possession
OF Col. John A. Peal. of Abingdon. Conn.,, who
treated it kindly. About three years ago. the
story says. the horse. which was allowed to
roam at will on account of its advanced age.
|. fell into ditch and was killed.
When a STAR reporter showed this story to
Mr.. Allison Nailor. the livery stabeman. to-day.
that gentleman after smiling over the great
variety OF stories that have been given currency
respecting j. Wilkes Booth and his horse, said:
IF Booth got another horse after crossing. the
river there may be some foundation for this
story. No expressman ever got the horse that
he rode out OF this city. Nor was any horse con-
iiScaleU when bOOIn ana Her0lQ were captured.
They had no horses with them"
Where did Booth get his horse:" asked THE
STAR reporter
HE hired horse said MFR. Nailor. ''from
jim Humphrey. Atzerodt kept his horses here
II you have time to listen will tell you a little
unwrltten histOry-s0metactst that do not appear
i'll the record. After the assassination we kept
our mouths shut. for II {. man was supposed to
know anything he was put into the Old Capitol
prison"
Mr.. Major here drew a rough diagram indi-
eating the streets and avenues lii the center Of
the city and the location of Stewards house on
| l519 street, opposite Lafayette square, Ford's
theater on 10th street. and Majors stables Oh
street
''Atzerodt." he said, when he had drawn the
diagram. kept his horses with me. That day
he came TO the stable with Herold. AtzerOdt
took one of his horses. ard Herod hired one of
my horses. roam. a singie-fOOted racking roam,
That night Atzerodt came back to the stable
without Rerold. John Fletcher. since dead,
who was foreman of the stable then. was little
anxious about the horse. as he thought HerOld
was drinking. AtZerodt said Herold would
| come back. and Invited him to drink. and they
went together to the old Oyster Bay and drank.
Fletcher then returned to the stable and sat
down to wait for HerOld. as the horse was
valuable one.
Now" said Mr.. Naor, turning to his dia-
gram. when Payne went into Stewards house
a man waited outside mounted on one horse
Herold. and I'll tell you why am sure of it, The
/ man upon hearing the noise of struggle in the
house ct Payne's horse go and started away.
He rode down Pennsylvania avenue. The night
was bright moonlight night and was very
quiet The city was still under guard then and
the nights were always still and quiet Now
Fletcher sitting in front OF the stable. heard the
footballs OF horse coming down 18TH street
and turning into the avenue. The peculiar clat-
ter made by single-fOOtad racker can be dis
tingushed at once by an experienced horseman
Fletcher. hearing this peculiar sound. concluded
that Hprold was coming in. and. as he was rid
ing hard. that he was drunk. He ran up to the
18th street corner for the purpose of intercept
Ing nlm The horseman came on, and seeing
Fletcher in the way. turned up 18th street
Fletcher could see in the moonlight that it was
our horse. The hOrseman went up 18th street to
I and turned down F. Now you see that he was
going right towards the alley back of FOrds
theater, where it is probable he expected to find
Booth. The next trace we get of the horse was
south OF the Capitol, going east. Fletcher had
heard Herold and Atzerodt talk great deal of
the lower counties OF Maryland. and thought
Herold would go in that direction. He made
up his mind to overtake him if possible, and get
the horse. Returning to the stable. he saddlPd
another horse. and started down Pennsyl-
vania avenue to the Capitol. AS he went
up Capitol hill he met two gentlemen.
and asked them if they had seen man On a
light roam horse go by. They said that two
men had just gone that way. One of them the
larger man, with black mOustache was riding
light roam horse. This larger man was Booth
He had, undoubtedly. exchanged horses with
Heroid- A singe-foOted racking horse is the
easiest horse to ride. 1t has an easy gait the
motion being like that of cradle. Booths own
horse was hard riding horse. His leg was
broken. and there is no doubt that the horses
were exchanged so as to give him the one that
rode easiest. Fletcher hurried on down to the
Navy ! ard bridge. where guards were stationed
Inc guards said the two men had Just passed
over the bridge. They told Fletcher that he
could go over. but could not get back again
that night as they were expecting to receive
the countersign every minute. and after they
got it no one could get back over the bridge
Fletcher concluded then to give up the chase
and returned to the stable. During all this
time Of course he knew nothing of the assass-
nation of the President or OF the ATTEMPT on
Stewards life. He noticed groups of people on
the Avenue as he rode along. When he had put
up his horse he went over to Wizards hotel
where large crowd was collected, and was
there told of the happenings of the night. Some
man VINO mad seen person on a roam horse
riding down the Avenue spoke of it, when
Fletcher said, why. that was our horse I'm
mediately there were two detectives at his side
the place was filled with Bakers men-and he
was taken into custody. He gave the first
information as to the direction in which Booth
and HerOld had gone. and within an hour after
they left the city. II the clue had been followed
then. they might have been captured that night"
DID you ever get your roam horse back? ~
asked The STAR reporter.
No" said Mr.. Nailor, land Mr.. Humphrey
never got his
"What became of them?"
- few days afterwards. when Booth had
been shot. and Herold was a prisoner on board
ganboat down by the navy yard we got per-
mission from Gen. Augur, who was then in COM
mand here, to have one of the government de-
tectlves ask HerOld what had become of our
horse. Herold said that the next dav after
leaving this city he and Booth had killed their
horse in swamp in lower Maryland. 1t was
not swamp. but a pine thicket. They had
concealed themselves there and killed the
horses so they would not betray their presence
there. If another horse happened to be passing
in the road. you know, a horse would neigh
and make disturbance. which they thought
might lead to their capture. So the horse
which Booth rode from this city was killed the
day after the assassination. and was never con-
hscated, owned or driven BY any one else.''
Pedestrians Have the Right Of Way.