The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-07-24

pom tlnS IL At one man dIIer announcer.
That's a lie, a lie, a lie,' he
shrilled. I'll shoot any man who
says such things about me-
Il can tell you there was scatter
| ing. Most of the town had come in
to listen to the hearing, for Boston
Corbett was a notorious chap. They
trampled each other getting to the
doors and windows. One old attorn-
| ey, who was crippled up with rheu-
matism and knew he couldn't make
much showing in run, crawled un-
| der a small table, and it was with
difficulty that we got him out.
But Boston didn't shoot, and
nothing was done to him either. They
quieted him down and talked to him,
and he went back to his hillside
eighty, the cabin and the pony.
"Of course we realized before long
the chap was crazy. He would 90
along quietly enough and then break
out in some new and unexpected way.
| l remember, for instance, the time
| Judge Dan Brown, Of the probate
court, got up a scheme to have Boston
! give a lecture on his life and his kill
| ing of J. Wilkes Booth. Here was
Boston, a celebrity who had been liv-
ing right in our own country and no.
body had thought to capitalize him.
1.-The first lecture, they agreed was
| to be in Concordia, and I think every
one in town must have bought tick
| et At any rate the Presbyterian
| church, the biggest building in town,
was crowded full when the night of
| the lecture came, and the people
were standing in the doors and win
dows. Judge Brown got up and in
troduced his protege-the famous
Boston Corbett, the man who had
killed Lincoln's slayer, and who
would now give his own story of just
how it happened.
And then Boston stood up, his
long hair brushed and oiled and pull
ed back from his forehead, and
launched into his speech-or sermon,
rather. For he told never a word
about himself, never word about
Wilkes Booth or the war, or anything
else he was advertised to speak upon.
He talked religion to 'em, shouting,
| ranting, street preacher religion,
Repent and ye shall be saved!'
Dan Brown was so mad he could
have wept or beaten Corbett, but he
did neither. He talked to him quiet
ly and gently, and finally they agreed
t6 wait awhile and then he would
lecture again-this time out of
town.
$50 Judge Brown took his notable
down to Junction City, advertised,
sold tickets-and Boston did the same
thing over again. That was the last
time he ever appeared on the lecture
platform.
He kept on living here for num-
ber of years; the same sort of a rec
ord of wild eccentricity. He rode
and shot, and he was a wonderful
shot. have seen him bring down a
barn swallow with his revolver, or
one of these circling prairie birds
that we call 'bullbats,' and people
around Concordia had wholesome
respect for his shooting talents.
Every now and then he would make
one of his wild, foolish gun plays
here in town, but he never shot any
one and everybody understood he was
not accountable, so nobody tried to
shoot him.
"a good many folks were friendly
with him, and finally one of our local
Republican politicians got him a job
as door-keeper at the legislature in
Topeka
That appointment took Boston Cor
bett away from Concordia perman-
emily. For one day in February,
1887, he appeared at the capitol with
a drawn revolver, shouting that he
meant to kill the speaker of the
house. Doorkeepers and sergeants-
alarms fled; legislators scurried
down the corridors like frightened
jackrabbits, Corbett caught up with
one man who resembled the speaker
and shouted to him:
You can discharge me, Mr.. Speak
er, but you can't scare me-"
The legislator assured him that he
wasn't the speaker and Corbett let
him go. Finally the crazy doorkeeper
! was captured by Topeka policemen
and was sent to an asylum in Topeka.
He stayed there a little more than a
year and seemed to be improving dis