The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend.

4 T e Lfife, iOne, and Capture of/ John Wilkes Booth.
and Jezebel. John Surratt, a youth of strong Southern physiognoDIy,
beardless and lanky, knew of the. murder and connived at it. " Samn
Arnold and one McLaughlin were to have been parties to it, but backed
out in the end. They all relied upon Mrs. Surratt, and took their " uep"
from Wilkes Booth.
The conspiracy had its own time and kept its own counsel. Murder
except among the principals, was seldom mentioned except by genteel im
plication. But they all publicly agreed that Mir. Lincoln ought to be shot,
and that the North was a race of fratricides. Much was said of Brutus,
and Booth repeated heroic passages to the delight of Harold, who learned
them also, and wondered if he was not born to greatness.
In this growing darkness, where all rehearsed cold-hearted murder,
Wilkes Booth grew great of stature. lie had found a purpose consonant
with his evil nature and bad influence over weak men; so he grew moodier,
more vigilant, more plausible By mien and temperament he was born to
handle a stiletto. WVe have no face so markedly Italian; it would stand
for Cmsar Borgia any day in the year. All..the rest were swayed or per.
suaded by Booth; his schemes were three in order:
1st. To kidnap the President and'Cabinet, and run them South or blow
them up.
2(d. Kidnapping failed, to murder the President and the rest and seek
shelter in the confederate capital.
3d. The rebellion failed, to be its avenger, and throw the country into
consternation, while he escaped by the unfrequented parts of Maryland.
When this last resolution had been made, the.plot was both contracted
and extended. There were made two distinct circles of confidantsthose
aware of the meditated murder, and those who might shrink from murder,
though willing accessories for a lesser object. Two colleagues for blood
were at once accepted-Payne and Atzerott.
The former I have sketched; he is' believed to have visited Washington
once before, at Booth's citation; for the murder was at first fixed for the
day of inauguration. Atzerott was a fellow of German descent, who had
led a desperate life at Port Tobacco, where he was a house-painter. He
had been a blockade-runner across the Potomac, and a mail-carrier.
When Booth and Mirs. Su'rratt broke the design to him, with a suggesti'a
that there was wealth in it, he embraced the offer at once, and bought a
dirk and pistol. Payne also came from the North to Washington, and,
as fate would have it, the President was announced to appear at Ford's
theater in public. There the resolve of blood was reduced to a definite
moment.
On the night before the crime Booth found on whom he could rely.
John'Surratt was sent northward by his mother on Thursday. Sam
Arnold and McLaughlin, each of whom was to kill a cabinet officer, grew
pigeon-livered and ran away. Harold true to his partiality, lingered
around Booth to the end; Atzerott went so far as to take his knife and
pistol to Kirkwood's, where President Johnson was stopping, and hid themiu
under the bed. But either his courage failed, or a trifling accident'e.
rang,ed his plan. But Payne, a professional murderer, stood "game," and
fought his way over prostrate figures to his sick victim's bed. There was
great confusion and terror among the tacit and rash conspirators on Thur&
y night. They had looked upon the plot as of a melodrama, and found
to their horror that John Wilkes Booth meant to do murder.
Six weeks before the murder, young John Surratt had taken two splen
did "peating carbines to Surrattville and told John Lloyd to secret them.