Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-02-12
to the right and continued to the

inns at the sign pointing to DIR. n
to the right and continued to the
Navy Yard bridge.
1.-THE old bridge was a little to
the right and a low level timber
and plank bridge at that time, :"
Msgr. McAdams said. "It was here
that Sergt. Silas T. Cobb chal-
lenged him and he said his name
was Booth. You have to remem-
Der that everything was relaxed
because the war was just over.
Lee had surrendered on the 9th
and this was the 18th. The SER
geant let Booth go through. He
was alone then. It is thought by
many that David Herold, the 49,
year-old, weak-witted clerk who
accompanied him, was the man
who gave his name as Smith and
crossed ten minutes later. They
met on the road"
We crossed the bridge and went
up Nichols avenue and turned to
the left on Good Hope road.
eventually turning to the right on
Naylor road, crossing the Military
highway, passing the Quonset Inn
and turning to the right again on
Route 5 at Silver Hill.
"You see." said Msgr. McAdams,
II knew the Surratt family. A
grandson of Mrs. Mary Surratt
(wfo was hanged as one of the
conspirators) was a classmate of
mine at Loyola College in Balti-
more. He became a physician. DR..
Reginald Tonry. Through him I
met his uncle, John Surratt, Mary
Surratt's son. He was not ap-
pretended at the time but was
arrested in Egypt two years later
and brought back and tried in
District Court before a civilian
jury who could not reach ver-
dict. He was employed by the Old
Bay Line in Baltimore when I
knew him. He was one of the
handsomest men I have ever seen.
I believe he was in the conspiracy
to kidnap Lincoln but not to
murder him.
And let me tell you something
that I got from the Surratt family
that you won't find in any of the
books. Louis Weichmann, who
lived at the Surratt boarding
house and was the chief witness
against her in the trial before the
military tribunal"
Here I interrupted.
"Monsignor," asked, sis the
Surratt boarding house still stand
ing?"
Certainly" he said, cts on H
street near Sixth. Five forty-one
was the number. It's a Chinese
restaurant now"
He resumed his story:
"One day in the Surratt living
room, while young Weichmann was
helping Annie Surratt, Mrs. Sur
rats daughter and the mother of
my friend, DR.. Tonry Weichmann
tried to kiss her.
Now Weichmann was from
Baltimore. His parents were work.
ing class Germans. Mrs. Surratt
was jenkins, an old Maryland
family. She had attended Miss
Martins finishing school in
Charles County. Her daughter
knew she was not a girl to be
kissed by a boarder whom she con-
sidered beneath her. And she laid
him out. He never forgave her.
That's why he had it in for the
Surratts at the trial. He later
drank himself to death, saying
he was responsible for the death
of an innocent woman"
We came to Clinton which was
once called Surattsville.
Except for the removal of a
fence, the Surratt house looked
just as it did in pictures made
of it 80 years age. It was a
tavern then. Mrs. Surratts' hus-
band died early in the Civil War
and she decided to run a Washing
ton boarding house, leaving a
tenant in charge of the country
tavern. The Surfatts were South
ern sympathizers, as was almost
everyone in Southern Maryland,
and her son John was engaged as
a courier to the South through the
latter years of the war.
See that door on the left?"
asked Msgr. McAdams. THAT was
the entrance to the bar room.
"Weichmann testified that he
drove Mrs. Surratt out here on the
afternoon of the 14th. the day of
the assassination, and that she
carried a package containing
glass which proved to be John
Wilkes Booths binoculars.
Booth and Herold stopped here.
Booth didn't get off his horse.
Herold went in and got the binocu-
lars and two carbines that mad
been concealed there several days
before from the tenant-operator,
a man named Lloyd. He also got
a bottle of whisky. Booth drank
on horseback. Lloyd testified later
that when Herold brought back
the bottle it was pretty nearly
drunk
you see Booth was what they
called a four bottle man. He
could account for four quarts a
day, but he drank brandy, not
whisky. No one could drink four