Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Actor

February 28, 1862, New York City

Walter was waiting inside the Continental Club on Broadway. The signs on front of the tavern advertised the appearance of "P. T. Barnum's Famous Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng, with Master of Ceremonies, General Tom Thumb!" The atmosphere was cloudy with cigar smoke, the sound of clinking glasses, and the laughter of New Yorkers who were looking for an escape from the realities of wartime. I wonder why Booth wanted us to meet here? Walter was wondering, just as a tall gentleman sauntered up to his table and bowed deeply before him. "Mister Ellwood, I presume?" said Booth, in his eloquent stage voice.

"Yes, I've been expecting you, Mr. Booth. Please be seated." Walter pulled out a chair and motioned for the younger gentleman to sit.

Booth looked both ways across the bar, as if he were being followed. "I think we'd be better positioned back here," he said, moving toward a sheltered table near the rear of the establishment. It had red-velvet curtains in a semi-circle and over the top, to keep the sound inside, yet they could both still watch the stage presentation. Johnny Booth seemed eager to watch, as he squeezed into the cushioned seat and immediately pointed to the little man in the miniature Union Army uniform who was taking the center place on-stage. "Look at that!" he laughed, "General Ulysses S. Grant has come to tell us how badly the North is losing! Oh, but he should change whiskey brands, as it appears he has recently lost some stature."

Walter smiled at the jest. I'll let him begin. They want me to learn from him, so I'll let him convene. When the waiter came, he ordered a pint of ale, and Booth ordered a bottle of champagne. The man was an active sort, constantly gesturing and smoking from his long, European cigar. Walter was most impressed by Booth's eyes. They were deep and darkly mysterious, and they had the intense quality of searchlights cutting through fog when they looked at you.

On stage, General Tom Thumb, all of three feet tall, was joking about first meeting the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. "Chang had joined the Union cause, but his brother, Eng, was a Rebel! No matter how hard they try to separate, these days, it seems they can't break their union," said the little general, and the audience roared with laughter. Everyone except John Wilkes Booth, that is, who was frowning into his champagne glass.

"He's an idiot!" said Booth, twisting his mustache like the villain in a melodrama. "Chang and Eng Bunker are Southern gentlemen who live in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, a slave state! They own at least two hundred slaves between them and run a one thousand acre tobacco plantation!"

When Tom Thumb brought the twins out, they were each wearing uniforms, one of the Union and one of the Confederacy. They seemed to serve as a humorous metaphor for the insanity raging all around. "Well, sirs, will you partake of some whiskey?" asked General Tom.

"Is it Southern whiskey?" asked Eng.

"No, it's a good Yankee potion!" said Tom.

"Then give it to him. I'll not taste a drop!" said Eng, and Tom handed the bottle to Chang, who immediately began guzzling down the liquid.

General Tom pointed to Eng, and said, "Strange thing about these two. When Chang drinks, Eng gets drunk!"

On cue, Eng began to act inebriated, singing loudly, and trying to get up to dance, but each time he tried to rise, Chang would hold him back in a comedic rendition of "push me, pull you." The audience was enjoying every minute of the act.

Booth, however, had seen it all before, and he chose this moment to begin his lecture. "They did not explain your mission to me, Mister Ellwood, but I am certain it is of extreme urgency to our cause, and I do not ever question my superiors' wisdom in these matters. Therefore, I am going to do everything in my power to assist you in your patriotic endeavor. I am, you see, an actor. My genius is that I can make people believe I am one thing, when, in actuality, I am something quite different. Just tell me your target, and I will assist you with any poison or ruse we will need to develop in order to succeed."

Booth went on to explain how he had been a member of a network of spies and smugglers known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, operating between Richmond and Montreal, Canada. Relentlessly, the group implemented many underground activities, including blockade-smashing efforts along the East Coast and the disbursement of medicines (largely quinine and laudanum) down from Canada, through Union lines, thence to Virginia. The young actor was ready and willing to assist Walter in his effort to assassinate John Ericsson, and they shook hands and agreed to meet at Walter's hotel room following Booth's appearance in a Broadway play called The Apostate.

As Walter left the club with Booth, they stopped to greet Chang and Eng and the little general, who immediately recognized the actor when he approached. "Johnny Booth!

You rapscallion!" said Tom, reaching up to shake the tall man's outstretched hand. "Did you hear? I am courting Lavinia Warren of Massachusetts. Her family name is Bump, and I call her my 'little bump in the road,' but Mister Barnum changed it for her, as he said it sounded ghastly."

"Ah, yes. P. T. Barnum, ever the showman," said Booth. "General, Misters Chang and Eng Bunker, I want you to meet Mister Simon Ellwood of Great Britain."

As Walter shook the hands of the little man and the two joined-at-the-hips brothers, he was thinking about his Penelope, and how she would have been entranced by this experience. Aberrations of Nature were a frequent amusement to her, and she and Walter had once spent an entire fortnight visiting Mister Barnum's circus when it came to London in 1860. Penelope's favorite exhibit was the "Freak Sideshow," and now Walter felt he was an honorary freak. He hoped this young actor of the mysterious Knights of the Golden Circle would not prove to be an anomaly as well. If they did not succeed this time with their plot, then there were some men in England who would pay Penelope a visit, most certainly causing her natural damage beyond repair, and Walter could never stand for that!