Brooklyn Daily Eagle
New York, USA
4 May 1865
In an article entitled "The Assassination--An Accomplice
Arrested in This City." is found the following extract.
During the time of the detention of the boy in the Station House,
he told one of the officers the strange fact that
HAROLD HAD LIVED IN BROOKLYN
for several months prior to the formation of the plot to
assassinate the President and Cabinet, and was well known in this
city.
About a year since, it will be remembered, Fulton street was put
into a state of the most feverish excitement by the appearance of a
very tall, muscular man, with a huge black moustache, who was in
the habit of promenading the street every day between ten o'clock
and twelve, and sometimes in the afternoon. What made his
appearance so remarkable was the style of his habiliments, which
were decidedly outre. On his first appearance, he generally
wore nankeen pants, and in the course of a few days he came to be
styled the "nankeen swell," &c. He was generally accompanied in
his perambulations by a huge greyhound, which was in the habit of
taking the most of the walk by running against ladies and
gambolling around the "nankeen" individual, in a style which often
resulted disastrously to the dresses of ladied whom the man and dog
happened to meet. All this display, however, was made with a
motive, and, in a few days, by copious posters, handbills, &c., the
man in the "nankeen pants" was merged in
THE GREAT INDIAN HERB DOCTOR,
whose astounding cures of all the diseases to which flesh is heir,
had excited the wonder and envy of the disciples of Esculapius all
the world over. Subsequent investigation into the antecedents of
the imposing personage who had honored the City of Churches by
coming here to use his mighty talent in the healing art, on the
bodily ailment of our suffering citizens, showed that this great "
medicine man", who called himself Blackburn, was in reality named
DR. TUMBLETY,
and that the change in his name was a matter not of choice, but of
necessity, growing out of some matters which transpired before his
arrival here. At first the doctor was successful, as all men will
be who appreciate the value of judicious advertising, but by and by
his patients began to drop off and found it prudent to leave the
city. "His occupation," like Othello's, "was gone." He made a hit
in another direction, however, rumor having it that, like the
venerable Mr. Turveydrop, he had succeeded in making a good living
out of his "deportment," having gained the heart and hand of the
heiress of one of the richest families on the Heights, who fell in
love with him while on a professional visit.
The establishment of the doctor, which was situated
IN FULTON STREET
near to Nassau, consisted of a suite of three rooms which he
occupied as an office and sleeping apartments. Besides the doctor
these rooms generally had
TWO OTHER OCCUPANTS,
and it is of one of these that this article is written. These two
men were the hangers on or dependents of the doctor, occupying
different positions, however, in his esteem. The taller of them
was treated by the doctor as a sort of confidential valet, while
the other one, who was shorter and of a stouter build, performed
the duties of hostler to the two stylish looking piebald horses, on
which the doctor and his confidential valet were wont to excite the
admiration of foolish females. The most remarkable thing about the
doctor's establishment was the manner in which his wardrobe was
distributed. Almost every day the doctor had on some new garment,
and on the same day, the one which he had worn on the previous one
would be seen on the back of his valet, and the next day from the
valet to the hostler, and from thence for aught we know to the
second hand clothes' dealers. Everybody who has been in the habit
of travelling in Fulton street during the past year, will have a
distinct recollection of the doctor and his valet, and it was at
the time a general subject of remark, that the valet seemed to ape
almost unconsciously all the airs of his master, and appeared to
pay him the same deference which those who generally accompanied
them did. This fact will be recalled with fearful distinctness now
by many who formerly noticed it, for this accomplice of Booth and
Harold, who was arrested as above stated, and who knows the parties
well, stated to the police that this soi distant valet was
none other than
THE NOTORIOUS HAROLD
who is now awaiting the just punishment of his horrible crime, and
it would seem that he had attached himself to the Indian Herb
Doctor in the same manner in which he subsequently attached himself
to Booth from a womanish sort of admiration for his supposed
cleverness.
THE HISTORY OF THEIR ACQUAINTANCE
was stated by the boy to be as follows: Shortly before the arrival
of the doctor here, he made the acquaintance of J. Wilkes Booth in
Washington, and through him became acquainted with Harold. Harold,
who had some knowledge of the drug business, was then out of
employment and the doctor, who was just then in need of a person of
that sort to accompany him, offered Harold a chance to go with him
and Harold accepted the offer. When the doctor was compelled by
the force of circumstances to abandon his lucrative position here,
Harold went back to Washington, and this was the last that was
heard of him until the commission of the fearful tragedy which has
eternally linked his name to infamy.
