The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-04-20

ANDERSON, S. c., April 5, 1898.
Il hundred mimic tragedies had
been enacted in the old National
Theatre before John Wilkes Booth
fred the fatal shot chat rang out over
the world. Good Friday night, in the
year 1865, bequeathed to history a
memorable tragedy, and to the South
lard a grievous and awful legacy. In
his cruel, CHASTITY and guilty shot,
Wilkes Booth wronged the dead,
wronged the South, and tortured his
own soul. For the South, poor but
proud, faithful even to truth and
right, to honor and knightly chivalry,
never unsheathes a secret sword, or
sdims the immortal story Of her glori-
Gus sons, who wore the grey, and
nobly followed the 'sfery cross Of
Jackson and Of Lee It is this man,
Wilkes Booth, tue assassin OF Abra-
ham Lincoln, whose history we would
briefly trace.
The son of the English actor,
Junius Brutus Booth, Wilkes was
born in Baltimore in 1889, and, like
his father, became an actor, inherit
ing a reckless love of tragic drama.
AZ Ford's Theatre, in the city OF
Washington, on the night Of April
18th. 1865, President Lincoln occu-
pied his private box. Here Wilkes
Booth fred the fatal shot. Then
rushing to the front, he exclaimed,
Sic semper tyrannis the South is
avenged He then leaped over the
box down to the stage below, and in
the leap caught the spur on tbe heel
of his shoe in the bunting draperies,
falling and breaking his leg, but he
made his escape through the rear cf
the stage (where outside he had in
waiting youth, an accomplice, by the
name Of Herold, with one Of the fast
est horses in the city,. Booth mount
ed, and he and his deluded follower
made their escape, going go miles that
night, crossing the Potomac over into
Maryland, stopping at the home of
Or. Medd. @
This awful tragedy annulled the
5Sherman-Johnson convention, so full
of promise to the South. and deprived
the South in her most fearful crisis Of
the great Kentuckian, Abraham Lin
coin, who would, if spared, have
proved the South's best friend, and
the tragedy Of whose life and whose
death shall exist forever on the his
toric page, man pronounced by Hen
ry Grady the great statesman, patriot
and typical American.
The occasion chosen by Booth and
his conspirators could not have been
more favorable to do their bloody
work. It was just after Lees surren-
der, as the close Of the four years
war, when military rigor was relaxed,
and travel north and south was open
ing. Certain 1t is that if military re-
strictions had been drawn as closely
as it was while active hostilities were
in progress, the chief assassin and his
assistant never would have thundered
past the sentinel on the navy bridge
and escaped into the yet hostile South.
As soon as the news of the ,assassina-
Stion reached the war department
thousands of soldiers, policemen and
detectives we're despatched to guard
every possible avenue Of escape, and
fabulous sums of money offered as a
reward for the capture Of Booth,
Herold and Surratt, Surratt being
son Of Mrs. Surratt, at whose house
meetings had been formerly held
planning the killing of Lincoln.
Col. Baker, brave soldier of that
time, headed party Of fifty men, in
the pursuit of Booth, and was the FIRST
TO discover his hiding place on Gar
rett's farm, April 9th. There con-
eealed in an old tobacco house, Booth
and Herold were discovered. Herold
gave himself up, but Booth refused to
surrender, saying they could prepare
a stretcher for him, he would never
give himself up. At this, Col. Baker
fred the barn with shuck torch, and
Booth made one more leap for freedom.
AS he sprang out of the door he was
shot by Boston Corbett almost in the
same place Booth had shot lincoln.
His body was caught up and placed
under an apple tree, and he was re-
viyed by the use Of a stimulant long
enough to murmur these words: "Teli
mother that died for my country.
The body was then placed in an an
cient aud decrepit market wagon,