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Show "KOSTOY CORBETT. SLAYER OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH NOW A DRUMMER. i Works for Topeka rima-lle Waa Recently Re-cently Reported te4 bat Mad Only r-araped from aa In.aae A.jlua. aa X Religion, tanatle. J (Topeka letter. When -Boxton" Cort-tt, the slayer of John Wilkes Booth escaped from the Topeka insane asylum In lvs. he was marked "dead" on the records of the Institution, and legally, if not literally, lit-erally, passed out of existence. Th conclusion on the part of the asyluin official that Corbett as dead was accepted ac-cepted by the public without question. The . ewspapers commented briefly mum the mvsterious disappearance. news of his death came back U tie Kansas officials. fniUted la Hoaloa. he flayer of John Wlike Booth served during the war In a Mas.-i.vchu-setts regiment enlisting in Boston. He was a h.ltr by trade. H:s real name was John Corbett. but a year or two ' before the war he was converted at a big revival meeting In Boston, and to commemorate the event took the name ' of the town In which It occurred. The ! winter he spent In Topeka he was the lou.les' shouter at the Salvation Army ' meetings ar.d never failed to take part ' In the street exhibitions c.f the organisation organ-isation For some years after he left the asylum he traveled tinder the nam of John Corbett. Recently he has again a.-umed the name of Boston " He worked for the C.avltts a long time before they aso iated him with the, man who shot Booth Finally they ; ,,i.,etted his identity and he a. knowl- snd Kansas speedily forgot tne eccen- ; trie character who was the active Instrument In-strument In avenging the assassination assassina-tion of Abraham Lincoln. And now. after thirteen years. Cor- ' belt has been resurrected. Kor more than four years paid he has been a traveling salesman for W. W. C.avitl ; Co.. who conduct a proprietary med- idne concern In Topeka. Both hia j employers and his guardian have in j recent times used every effort to in- j dure Corbett to return to Kansas. He has property Interests In Cloud county, coun-ty, and the government owes him over j $1.3u0 back pension, not a cent of which be will ever be able to draw ; until the fact that he is alive is established estab-lished by his own affidavit to that effect ef-fect It has been represented to him that his sanity will be easily established, estab-lished, and his release from the asylum legally secured, but Corbett Is wily and suspicious and refuses to set foot on Kansas soil. He live in snd travels through Oklahoma and Texas, and for a long time had headquarters at Enid, where he owns some property. George A. Huron of Topeaa Is his guardian. He wrote Huron some weeks ago that he never expected to return to Kansas and that the government govern-ment was welcome to his pension edged tilt he was "11.. Mori i orueii in a letter written to the firm some months since. W. W. C.avltt says he Is an excellent salesman and thit he has always made money for himss-lt and the firm. Many Texas towns bar patent medicine peddlers by ordinance, but Corh-tt pays no attention to ordinances ordi-nances and has worked practically every ev-ery town In Texas without having been molested. Corliett's farm Is about eighteen miles from Concordia. In Cloud county. coun-ty. He owns eighty acres of land, only about eighteen acres of which Is fit for cultivation. The returns from the f-rm are seldom more ihaP sum -lent to pr y the taxes. When Corbett waa committed to the asylum an effort was n-ade to secure a guardian In CI nil county, but his neighbor were all I afraid of him. and refused to take the job. George A. Huron was then appointed, ap-pointed, and has since looked after bis interests. Corliett drew a pension of a month. Following the government govern-ment custom, his name waa stricken from the rolls of the pension office after he had been missing three years, but if he were restored to citizenship he would be reinstated, and the government gov-ernment would owe him In the neighborhood neigh-borhood of $1.3"0. money. XV aa Alwav. I'eeallar. Corbett Is now 63 years old. He was . alwavs peculiar. From the time he j enlisted in the army the trend of his I mental idiosyncrasy was toward relig- j lous fanaticism. He was Intensely re- I ligious and wa always considered dangerous by his ndghUir In Cloud county. Corliett never married and up to the tm.e he was sent to the B-yVtm :iv: !"-- ' " Vi cUlm In '!,,nl comity. lie always ' went armed and his : -"'k was fortified 1 and equipped with every brand of j "fhisiting Iron'- known to the we. tern i trade. He labored under the delusion - - s 'BOSTON'- CORBETT. that members of the Booth family j were following him with the Intent to murder him. and it was almost worth a .stranger's life to set foot on his claim, or to walk across the street directly toward bim. Corbett was scut to the asylum as , the direct result of cleaning out the bouse of representatives of the Kansas ; legislature during the s.-sslon of 1ST8. He was serving ss sssistant sergeant-at-arms of the house and had charge of the ladles' gallery. One morning ; shortly sfter roil call he appeared In the gallery with a " revolver In his hsnd. He began shouting and gesticulating gestic-ulating and the house Immediately adjourned ad-journed without delay, some of the members crawling under the seats, snd others bolting through the doors and Into the committee room. A detail of police was called, and after some maneuvering. Corbett was surrounded and captured. His trial on the charge j of Insanity followed. He was given coniiderabl freedom st the Institution and was allowed to circulate at llberay about the grounds. One day the son of Superintendent Eastman rode out on horseback from Topeka to the asylum. Corbett was observed shortly after stsndlng near the horwe. but no especial notice was taken of him A little later an attendant saw him mount the animal snd disappear down the road, burning the w.nd as he went The officials and attendants who chased him never caught sight of him afterward. Three weeks later Superintendent Super-intendent Eastman received a letter stating that the horse was at Neve-desha Neve-desha awaiting orders Corbett waa reported to have gone to Mexico, from which country appreutlr reliable |