Mr. Smythe was the "man in the Garrett barn"

[loetar44]

Just FYI. Any comments?

From: "The Great American Myth" by George S. Bryan (1940) p. 361/362

A new Booth escape story appeared in a letter to the New York Sun (January 24th, 1940.) The letter, signed A. L. Q. and dated New York, January 23rd, told of a Mr. Smythe who . . . lived three or four doors from Mrs. Surratt in Washington. At Mr. Smythe's house, Mr. Booth, Dr. Mudd and many other wealthy and loyal Southerners met and discussed the plot. The Southern gentlemen all owned and rode horses. Mr. Booth's and Mr. Smythe's horses were identical. On the night that President Lincoln was shot a Negro held Mr. Booth's horse—not far from the stage door of the theater—and Mr. Smythe's horse stood saddled, bridled and untied at Mr. Smythe's door all the evening. When word came that the President was shot Mr. Smythe jumped on his horse and dashed off in the opposite direction from that planned for Mr. Booth.

Mr. Smythe's children —a boy of 6 or 7 years, and a girl of 9 years — were taken to New York to their uncle on Sixty-second street, near Third avenue, by different routes and his wife followed. They lived in seclusion there for many years, waiting for the father and husband, but he never came. He was the man who was shot in the barn, whose horse was traced, as had been planned, and who hoped to deter pursuit.

Mr. Smythe's children were my playmates on Sixty-second street. We were told by them all about their flight from Washington, and about Dr. Mudd. Mr. Booth and Mr. Smythe were both dark, handsome men with long black mustaches. One was scarcely distinguishable from the other. My parents lived in the nearest house to the uncle, Mr. Smythe, on Sixty-second street. His house is a four-story brick house, the only original house still standing on the north side, about the eighth house from Third avenue. It was owned by a Mr. McClusky.

A detailed and ingenious story —with not only "scarcely distinguishable" men but "identical" horses! Here is "a Negro" holding John Booth's horse "not far from the stage door" of Ford's, whereas "Peanuts" Burroughs is known to have held the animal at the back door. The only "Mr. Smythe" in the Washington directory for 1865 is Perrence Smythe, carpenter, residing not on H Street (where Mrs. Surratt lived) but at 398 Twentieth Street(west); and in the New York directory for 1864-1865 and 1865-1866 there appears to be no entry under Q on East 62nd Street. But even if there were a Smythe on H Street and a Q (Quackenbush,Quantrell, Quincy?) on East 62nd Street (then in a region of scattered houses without numbers), that still would not prove that Booth survived.