Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-22
The Perxersion of Htstorx.

The current fad for picturesque history
Is enabling the space writers to work off
some extraordinary yarns. A curious in
stance of this sort Is the story palmed off
upon Philadelphia paper. and which is
low going the rounds of the press unchal-
lenged, put in the mouth Of a colored man
named Nathaniel Sims, who, 1t Is alleged,
was "in the early sixties" q waiter for
Mrs. Mary E. Surratt. The narrative goes
on to say:
THE missis lived at Surrattsville, about
seven miles from Washington. and, being a
lady Of wealth owned considerable of the
village.
"She entertained frequently. John Wilkes
Booth was a frequent visitor at the house,
he being very intimate with my mistress
son, John Surratt. Booth, kind of help
less fellow. required a good deal of waiting
on. and from him received the first money
l could say was mine. About two months
before the taking off of President Lincoln
Booth was at the Surratt mansion steady.
A few days before the shooting of the
President Mrs. Surratt and I went into
Washington, and she bought nine or twelve
pistols at gunsmiths. They were put in
little coffin. which the undertaken hauled
IN his hearse across the Eastern branch
bridge. The guards supposed it was a
funeral, and made no attempt at search
ing. Mrs. Surratt after reaching home
hung the pistols around on the walls of
her room.
ION the night Of the assassination Booth
and John Surratt ate supper together and
left the house. About midnight Booth re-
turned. and 1 heard Mrs. Surratt clap her
hands and exclaim. Tn glad the old rebel
Is dead'-mean!ng our noble Lincoln. That
same night helped Booth into the saddle,
Ind he shot down the pike as If demons
were after him. On opening the house next
Torning was surprised to see the piazza
asked if Booth had been at the house dur
Ing the night. and 1 replied that he had.
In short time my mistress and all hands
about the place were taken to Washing
ton"
The assassination of President Lincoln
was perpetrated on the 14th Of April, 1865,
little more than thirty years ago. and 1t
is curious illustration of the way in
which the great facts of history are for
gotten in this rushing period that this
absurd fabrication concerning the events
of that great tragedy should pass unchal-
lenged. The facts that Mrs. Surratt was
living in Washington at that time; that her
house on H street was described and pic
torially represented from one end of the
country to the other as the ''nest" of the
conspiracy; that both she and Payne were
arrested in that house, and that a great
part Of the evidence at the trial of the con-
spirators conferred upon that building, seem
to have dropped utterly into oblivion.
A similar instance of the public forget
fitness occurred not long ago. and curiously
enough a Philadelphia paper was again
the spors for the story. and curiously
enough ''colored person was again the
story-teller The narrative was located in
Baltimore, and gave the particulars Of an
interview with very respectable colored
woman, who told how she entertained the
wife of John Brown at her house in that
city at the time of the execution of Brown,
with long story Of what Mrs. Brown
said and did on the occ aston. and how she
bewailad that she had not been permitted
to be near her husband or to see him before
the execution. This story. too. went the
rounds unquestioned, though it seems that
every school boy must have known that
Mrs. Brown was quartered at Harpers
Ferry at that time; that she was taken up
to Charleston the night before the execu-
ton and spent some hours with her hus-
band in the JAIL that she returned to
Harper's Ferry that night, and that after
the execution she accompanied her hus-
bands body on the train north.