The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-07-04
BELLE BOYD's CAREER.
The Noted Confederate Spy Had n
Varied Dife

tdFlSu
Wallace Putnam Reed in the Atlanta
Constitution thus writes Of the death
OF Belle Boyd
When read tire Constitutions tele
graphic columns yesterday morning |
was somewhat shocked to learn that
Belle Boyd was dead. In the days OF
my boyhood | regarded this woman
as heroine who was entitled to a
very high place in the history OF her
| country.
Belle Boyd was a Virginian OF good
family. She was an ardent COnfeder-
ate sympathizer, and at the very be-
ginning of our civil war she went to
work 10 aid the cause Of her friends.
She carried dispatches and did the
work OF spy until the Federal au.
thorities found it necessary to hunt
her down. The woman was arrested
time and again, but her ready wit and
wOmanly destinations made it easy for
her TO escape without serious punish.
ment. She was patriotic and utterly
fearle So. Frequently she took midnight
rides In localities which were con
sldered unsafe for the boldest men.
More than once rude Federal soldiers
arrested her ana searched her person
Tor dispatches, but she generally dis
nppoiiltSu tllclH w ucu sue cOQlu not
destroy the documents she carried she
swallowed them.
After she had made herself famous
as Is Confederate spy she visited At
lanta and was the recipient OF many
courtcSles from our best people. At
that time we had only one thea.
ter the Athcnean on Decatur street,
opposite the present kimball house.
| saw her there one night, escorted
by the late Colonel John W. Duncan.
She was elegantly costume,i and wore
diamonds, something unusual in those
days.
Here in Atlanta she made u lido i'm
preston, but after leaving here she |
had many misfortunes. At one time
she was imprisoned in Washington city
and her guards treated her with great |
brutality. FInally she was released, |
but on her way to Europe on block. |
ade runner her vessel was captured |
by Federal cruiser. Miss Boyd dis
herself on the occasion by |
slapping the cheek Of u Federal lieu
tenant, but later on she recorsidered
the matter and married her captor. A
few months later she persuaded hor
husband to resign, and in the course OF
q short time the civi! war was a thing
Of the past.
i'S'iS Ivy u Sai CSI was JlGu UTacJl-
caily over. She was a woman without
a country and her husband WAS ostra.
cised by his own people. Then She
began a hard struggle for existence.
Finding that she could not make q
living by writing for newspapers, she
entered the lecture field and during
the past thirty years she has visited
every city and town in this country.
Conditions and opinions changed so
rapidly that the poor woman lost ali OF
her friends. Even here, in the heart
Of the COnfederacy, she lectured to
cold aud unsympathctica audiences, and
On more than one occasion her baggage
WAS attached.
Her bluecoated husband died and
she married again, but the result did
not improve her fortunes. The brave
hearted woman had to fight her battle
alone, and now she is dead in q Wis
consin town, far away from her old
friends-far away from the Virginia
hills and valleys whore her beautiful
girlhOod was passed.
Dead near the snow line-this won
1erful woman OF the tropics
Dead where both man and nature are
cold and unsympathetic
Was the irony OF fate ever worse or
more cruel?
Poor Belle Boyd-when our real his
tOrian comes 10 the front she will have
her rightful place.