Secret Band of Brothers Part 9

Sugar Creek, October 24, 1825.

_Esteemed Brown_,--After two nights' hard travelling, I find myself well provided for, in company with our old "Bogus Friend," who informs me he has just returned from Toronto, Canada; and has brought some of the most splendid bogus I ever have seen, and sells it, in trade at 33-1/3, 28 in cash. I purchased two thousand of him, part trade, part cash; and he is to deliver it to you. He has sent a large quant.i.ty to Brookville, Indiana, and he will send your two thousand from Brookville. I let him have four horses, which I purchased from our Rising-sun Brethren. He sent them immediately to his lawyer, in or near Sandusky, who will forward them immediately to Michigan. I believe the horse trade is better, and a great deal more safe than the slave. There are many brethren living here, and of the best order, and live up to the principles of the Brotherhood; and of the many which live here, and in fact all through these parts, very few are considered other than men of the highest respectability. But I hear many making inquiry about our Lawrenceburgh Aurora, and Rising-sun brethren, and say the brethren have acted in many respects badly, and our friend ---- ----, in the burgh, who purchased the pork he s.h.i.+pped from some of them; they say that he has deceived them. I feel mortified to think he has no more principle: I want you to call and tell him he must settle, and I think he ought to know the same without advice. They are the wrong men for him to try to gull; I have every right to suspect him of dishonesty, when I think how much the Brotherhood has done for him, you and I in particular, and know how he treated us; and though we have given him all of the start he has, he would sacrifice us both, with our families, for a hundred dollars. I have found out that Sulivan did not make his escape, as he a.s.sured us he did, but was sold for seven hundred and fifty dollars. So you can depend he has swindled you and I; do not trust him farther than you can see him, and recommend him in the right numbers. This will be handed you by a brother living near the islands Sixty-two and Sixty-three, on the Mississippi; he is about to make a permanent location, and wishes to purchase six or eight blacks. If the lot we have an interest in have not left the burgh, he is the man: he says there are large bands of the brethren settled near him; I hope you can please him.

Yours in haste, ---- ----.

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[This describes the bearer as follows: BOLD, ARTFUL, TEMPERATE, LARGE and TALL, LIGHT-COMPLEXIONED, PLANTER by profession, HEAD DAPPLED GRAY; age from THIRTY to FORTY, QUICK SPOKEN.]

No. 6.

Indianopolis, November 5, 1825.

_Friend Brown_,--I have been waiting four days for your answer to mine of the 24th, and this day have the pleasure of receiving it. I am glad to hear that your friends in the east have not forgotten you; I had a letter forwarded me to this place, speaking of your liberality to the people in Pittsburg, when you visited there last spring, and our friends ---- & Co., the iron traders, are very anxious for another trade. I think they have made better use of their trade than our two Marietta merchants ---- ----; the latter, I believe, some of the boys got hold on, as he was going east, and he returned, one thousand minus, in clear dust, and his twelve hundred in coney. The Steubenville merchant is here, and has contracted with me for two hundred dollars' worth of coney, a.s.sorted; he tells me that a brother in a flat boat has been put aside for his plunder, which, sad to relate, was but little; and that he saw the wife of the deceased was trying to make up the amount at this time in Cincinnati; if she has not effected it, I think some attention had better be given her before it is too late, as she is satisfied it was done through mistake. You had better go or send some one to see her; you will find her on Sixth street, at the widow ----, or if you inquire at, ---- ----, cabinet-maker, on Sycamore. I will give ten; you will give the same: tell ---- ----, on Lower Market, he must do the same; it is a pity she should suffer through mistake. She is a fine woman, and all of the Brotherhood should befriend her. I hope you have, from your letter, become satisfied with the friends.h.i.+p of ---- ----. I told you they would not do--I have known them from boys, and the day they got that bogus from you so cheap, I would sooner have thrown it in the river. The airs they put on about that negro, satisfied me that they had forfeited all principles of honesty, which is the way with such men after they become able to live--never think they are beholding. I will write you again in a few days. The bearer of this I have learned is a good brother.

Yours, ---- ----.

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[This describes the bearer to have been BOLD, ARTFUL, TEMPERATE, TREACHEROUS, MEDDLESOME, IMPRUDENT, LOW and HEAVY, SANDY-COMPLEXIONED, a MERCHANT by profession, and that he had been a convict; his age between THIRTY and FORTY, disease SCROFULOUS.]

No. 7.

Indianopolis, November 9, 1825.

_Friend Brown_,--The town is full of our warm friends, and I am happy to say that there is a fine spirit existing. To-morrow night I will leave for Fayetteville; I have received your package of coney, and disposed of three thousand to the old doctor we met while we were in Canandaigua; he is the man we sold the flour to at Buffalo. He resides in St. Louis, Missouri, I hope he may do well, as he is a great man, and has more knowledge of mankind than any man of his age in America, and will trade from a pin to a steamboat. He tells me he purchased the lot of negroes which were in Madison, and he says that he heard, since he left, that three more had been deposited for sale by the same man; if so, he wishes you to write him a few lines to Terrehaute, and a copy of the same to Vincennes. He tells me he will be able to get rid of every dollar at these two places, and that he can purchase one hundred head of horses if he wished, all which have come from other states, and some fine blooded stock. I learn through friend ---- ----, of Bairdstown, Kentucky, that there has been some hard talk about Judge ----, at Lexington. I have no confidence in a man who drinks and gambles, as he does; I do not care how wealthy he is, nor how great a t.i.tle he wears; for my part I intend to keep clear of him, with all of his wealth and t.i.tle; and your friend in Maysville is another. I write in haste, and send it by our brother.

Yours, ---- ----.

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[This number describes the bearer to be BOLD, ARTFUL, TEMPERATE, IMPRUDENT, LARGE and TALL, of DARK COMPLEXION, by profession a MERCHANT; he is diseased with RHEUMATISM; his age from THIRTY to FORTY, hair DAPPLED.]

No. 8.

Lexington, June 3, 1827.

_Dear Brown_,--I have at last arrived in this wealthy part of Kentucky, which I a.s.sure you is a treat for a man that has been so much exposed to the fatigues of travelling over cliffs, and swimming creeks, and all other inconveniences that man could imagine. I arrived at Winchester, Kentucky, where our old friend resides. It was two o'clock when I arrived, but I found him in his shop playing cards with a black journeyman old sledge, at twenty-five cents a game, and you ought to have seen him scrabble for the cards when I rapped upon the window. I left Winchester for Maysville, where I remained four days with our friend, the same old block of sociability; yet he tells me he does well in the stock trade. He says he sold forty odd horses in one year. Since he has lived in Kentucky, over two hundred, which you know is over fifty per year. From Maysville I crossed the river through the Sciota region, by the way of Portsmouth, then to Chillicothe; from there on to Zanesville, from there to Wheeling, and then to Was.h.i.+ngton, Pennsylvania; returned to Wheeling, then to Parkersburgh. I did not call at Marietta; there has some difficulty taken place in that region. From Parkersburgh to Charleston, Kanhaway, with but little delay. Our saline friends are great dealers in "coney." I met twenty-six in one day at the old "Col." He is doing his work clean, without any risk. There are, he tells me, upon an average, five horses sold per week from Sandy among the friends of the trade. I left Charleston; had a tedious journey to this city. Lexington is a humane place, but dangerous to move, unless you do it through some of the old wealthy friends of the trade. I must now say to you that I have done well in my small way. I have cleared over two hundred per month. I found our friend, of the Blue Lick region, who tells me the house trade is good along the road; that the coloured boys do it all, and are not suspected. (_In speaking of the house trade, he had reference to the entering of houses by the slaves, pillaging, &c., which would be laid to white men._) Well, now, I am through with my travels for the present. Let me give you some little of the history of our Dearborn brother, which I a.s.sure you is novel. I told you he would never do, and I suppose, ere this, you have found I was right. I cannot be fooled easy. You thought that from the simple fact that he traded in horses well, (_meaning that he stole horses well_,) that he would not fail to be useful anywhere I wished to place him; but he returned home, I suppose you discover, without a dollar, and made sixty the first night we arrived in Cincinnati, off of a cheese trader that slept in the adjoining room. He wanted to return the next day to the burgh, but I prevailed upon him to stop, as suspicion rested not upon us. He remained according to my request, and I never have come across such an industrious man; but he had not much courage, less than any man of his age I ever met, and not one particle of judgment in human nature. When we arrived, I cautioned him about trading with any of the brethren of the city without my consent, knowing, as I did, the city brethren were "celish;" however, he a.s.sured me his trade was "bogus;" that you had supplied him with cut quarters, which no other person dare offer, and that he had done well even with them. (Cut money was, at an early date, used as change; one dollar cut in four pieces answered as twenty-five cents each.) I found he was bent on the "bogus" trade, and I told him to hold on a few days, and that I would a.s.sist him to some; that I had not the first dollar, but would find out through the brethren when I returned from our friend's in the country--nine miles. I then left him at the boarding-house, and promised to return the next day. I returned according to promise; called at our boarding-house, and upon inquiry learned he was out in the city. I took a stroll up to our friend's, the coffee-house keeper, in Market street. While I was pa.s.sing through the market-house, I pa.s.sed by a man with a large load upon his back. I could not discover what the bulk was. I pa.s.sed on to the coffee-house, where three of the boys were dividing one hundred and sixty-five dollars, the proceeds of the day's work, which, they informed me, they had obtained from one of the soft-sh.e.l.l brethren. That in the course of the day they had met a countryman, and seeing he was apparently upon the look-out for speculation, they had finally entered into conversation with him, and had accidentally shown him some bright half dollars, and told him they were counterfeit. "What," said he, "bogus?" "Bogus, indeed," said one.

"And do you know what, bogus is?" He said he ought to, and they then tried him, and found him one of the right kind of brethren to skin; and that they did in the following manner: Finding that he had money and wanted "bogus," they set upon a plan to deceive him; which they did by showing him the new half dollars, and telling him they were good coin; and that if he wished he could have them at fifteen dollars for a hundred dollars of "bogus." He agreed to purchase one hundred and sixty-five dollars' worth, which they were to supply that evening. That they were to meet him in the Fifth street market-house, and deliver his bogus in a tobacco keg headed up. He of course took it for granted that all was honest. They separated from him, purchased a tobacco keg, filled it with stone-coal cinders, within an inch of the top, packing them very hard to make them weigh heavy. They then put a false head one inch from the top, upon which they put two hundred copper cents. They then placed another head upon that, confining it tight with a hoop. After preparing it, they rolled it into the market-house where they had met. He had paid them the one hundred and sixty-five dollars for the cinders, which he supposed to be the most beautiful bogus, and when he lifted the keg he was satisfied all was right; _and how could he doubt it, they were brethren!_ and they were then dividing the spoils. I suspected, from description, it was our Lawrenceburgh friend, but remained silent, and returned to my room where I knew I could ascertain. When I went, I discovered my friend just ascending the stairs, with a large keg upon his shoulder. "Halloo," said I, "what upon earth have you here?" He dropped the keg, as though he had been shot, making a crash to be heard a half mile distant, but fortunately no person about the house appeared much disturbed. The old lady came to the door, and wanted to know what was the matter. I told her my friend had fallen, but that no damage was done. She retired. As soon as he discovered it was me, he raised his burden once more, and carried it to the room. "Come in, sir," said he.

"What have you here?" said I. "That I will show you, in a few minutes."

I knew all the time, and though I was vexed, I could not refrain from laughter. "You laugh," said he, "and well you might, if you knew the speculation I had been making to-day." He soon got a hatchet to show me his treasure. I never saw a man so perfectly carried away at the prospect he had in store. He was nearly exhausted by carrying such a burden so far. The perspiration drops were oozing out of his forehead, and he effected the opening of the keg with no little trouble. "Now, sir," said he, "you may laugh, if you please; raise that head and see if there is not something in store to laugh at." I did as he bade. I lifted up the head which covered his treasure, when to his surprise a few black copper cents made their appearance. "Copper bogus," said I. "I believe in my soul they have mistaken; let's examine further." He soon discovered the false head, which he raised, and in a double surprise cried out, "My conscience, I won't trade. No, I will have my money back!

I will sue them." "Who will you sue?" said I. He came to a stand, then remarked, "Really, I can't tell who they were. They gave me no name, but I will take them for swindling if they don't give it up. I will swear,"

said he--then he paused and I took the word from his mouth, and told him that I would swear that he was a fool, and had better return to Dearborn county and plough corn. He laid the coppers one side, being about two hundred, then carefully headed the keg up. We went to bed. During the night he arose. I heard him going downstairs. The next morning I discovered that both him and the keg were missing. I never heard from him afterwards, but hope, if he is at home, that you will hereafter keep him there.

Yours, in haste,

P.S. I hope you will answer this immediately. Direct to Nashville, Tennessee. This Brother is a true blue.

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[This describes the bearer to be CUNNING, TEMPERATE, TREACHEROUS, IMPRUDENT; size LOW and HEAVY; by profession a PHYSICIAN and a MERCHANT; disease RHEUMATISM and FACE DISFIGURED; age from FORTY to FORTY-FIVE; QUICK-SPOKEN.]

No. 9.

Lawrenceburgh, April 9, 1827.

_Friend Brown_,--I am happy to have the extreme pleasure of introducing to your acquaintance one of my most intimate friends. He visits the city on business, which may require a.s.sistance; if so, you can confer no greater favour on your humble servant, than by serving him.

Yours, in haste,

The following was taken from the same sheet, having been interlined in fine hand in sympathetic ink, which was entirely a secret to the bearer, and read when warm, as follows:

_In a side pocket made upon the inside of an old black velvet vest, you will find eighteen hundred dollars in United States money. In an old hair trunk, tied around with a rope, he carries twelve hundred dollars in silver. He is fond of spirits, and occasionally gets drunk, and when drunk, has no memory, and would not acknowledge the fact of being drunk for twice the amount. He is a man of wealth and of honour. Destroy this immediately._

The history connected with the above letters may be considered of great importance to explain the villanies of this band; and from the circ.u.mstances connected with this history, I have every reason to have full confidence that the same letters this note refers to, were the occasion of the bearer being robbed of some thirty-one hundred dollars.

We will now give the foundation for our belief. During the examination of my original package of letters, I discovered a very familiar name attached to one of those apparent business letters, which caused me to examine the import, and upon so doing, I found that it contained the same which I have given, with a few omissions which I considered of importance to my personal safety, viz., the names of the parties, the place of residence of the man robbed, &c. When I found that I had a familiar name to so base an article, to satisfy myself that it was not a forgery, I examined the same person's signatures which had been written in the year 1827, and found they compared satisfactorily to my mind. I then set upon a plan to ascertain from the man who lost the money, without his having an idea of my intention, which I did as follows. I wrote to a responsible man living in the same place, to know of him if such a man of his village had ever lost any money, and if so, what amount, the date he lost it, &c.; to which I received the following brief note: "Sir,--You have written me upon a subject which I was not familiar with at the time I received your letter, but have made inquiry, and found that in the spring of 1827, the person alluded to in your letter was robbed while in Wheeling, on his way to Philadelphia, out of rising three thousand dollars: which money he has never heard of. He is a man in good circ.u.mstances, and was at that time, in fact he has always been, considered wealthy. I conversed with him one time upon the subject, but he dislikes to have it mentioned to him. You likewise wished me to inquire if he received any letters of introduction or recommendation previous to his departure, on the date mentioned. He had several, and with one exception, they were all from his best friends.

One he had given him by a man residing in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, was for the purpose of introducing him to Daniel Brown, a merchant of Dearborn county, whom he met in Cincinnati, on his (Brown's) return, and had but a few moments' time to converse with him, after he gave him the letter. You, therefore, know all I can ascertain about your request." I could then see through the whole lead of his misfortunes, and it is about in this way. The letter which he bore to Brown, having the particulars concerning his temperament, likewise the amount of money, &c., enabled Brown to set the band upon him, who robbed him, and then divided with Brown and his Lawrenceburgh friend. These letters I had transcribed and put them up and lectured to the citizens of Lawrenceburgh concerning the horrible fact of their existence; and these are the letters spoken of, that made the pigeon's flutter, and likewise caused so many threats of my a.s.sa.s.sination; and all that prevented them was, that they feared whoever might have the handling of the papers hereafter might handle them with less mercy.

CHAPTER XIII.

I have frequently, in the course of this work, had to notice the very intimate connection which those concerned in the administration of justice, or ostensibly in the suppression of crime, had with those who perpetrate it. In all of our large cities, this occasionally forces itself into public notice. Anxious as the authorities always are to conceal any thing of this kind, it accidentally leaks out. The opportunity for concealment, and the advantages afforded by official station, have not been overlooked by the Brothers, and the police of every city contains several of the fraternity. In all fairness, however, the great ma.s.s of crime connected with such establishments ought not to be laid to their charge. The very wish to be connected with the police, indicates a morbid disposition of the mind--a desire to be familiar with crime; for it is necessary to detect it successfully, to come in contact frequently with the criminal. In consequence, by familiarity, crime loses its enormity: the police officer sees how seldom the perpetrator is detected; how often, when detected, he escapes unwhipped of justice; he connives at some petty offence, in the hope of entrapping the criminal in some more flagrant act, and tampers with crime, till the little moral sensibility he had when he entered the service is destroyed. This is obviously a true picture of human nature; but I must proceed with the story, which suggested these remarks.

In no city of the Union has the depredations of the Band of Brothers been more extensive than in Cincinnati, Ohio, yet there seems to be a prevailing wish, entertained even by those who have witnessed their ravages, to doubt the existence of any such organization. Nor am I surprised at this incredulity--the thought that we are surrounded by hundreds of individuals, sworn to protect and a.s.sist one another in their ravages upon our lives and property, is no very pleasant prospect for contemplation. Sincerely I wish it were merely a dream of the night, but the unaccountable and sudden downfall of some of the most respectable and talented families of that city convince that it yet exists in all its awful realities. In confirmation of this I will introduce the history of one family, guarding myself as much as possible from saying any thing that might hurt the feelings of any of the relatives yet living. It consisted of five boys--at least that number is all that has come under my notice; the eldest, at the age of sixteen, connected himself with bad a.s.sociates, was committed to the jail on a charge of theft, and convicted. In a short time the next brother followed in the same course, and shared the same fate. The remaining children were yet young, and to preserve them from the vicious habits of the elder ones, the father kept them at hard labour every day. We are not intimately acquainted with the character of the father, but we never heard any thing laid to his charge but that he was a dissipated, and so far an immoral man. He at least gave his children an example of industry, and could not be suspected of training them in dishonest practices. The eldest son was pardoned, or served his time out, we forget which, and came home to his father's house; but was soon taken in another misdemeanour, and sentenced to ten years' confinement in the Kentucky State Prison. At the expiration of his term the second also returned, but fearfully depraved and abandoned. He seemed to take a delight in all manner of wickedness, and bore evidence that he came from a good school. After a few months of dissipation, supported by robbery, he was again taken, convicted the second time, and sent to the State Prison. From it he made his escape, and found his way to Vicksburg, but on attempting a robbery, he was detected, and shot through his left shoulder, the ball fracturing the bone very badly. One day while he was under arrest, several men visited him; he was alarmed when they first entered, but soon regained his self-possession. One of the party inquired why he seemed so much affrighted at their entrance; to which he replied, that at first sight he had taken one of them for a man of the name of Phelps. [A robber who was afterwards taken, and attempted to break from jail, but was shot down in the streets of Vicksburg. For particulars see "Gambling Unmasked."] A very friendly feeling was soon established between the robber and his visitors; in a few days he was taken from jail, and bent his way for New Orleans, where he was again detected in the very act of robbery, but in attempting to make his escape was shot down by the captain of the guard.

This same year of his death the third brother got into difficulty, and was sentenced to the Penitentiary for three years. Before the expiration of his sentence, the fourth was convicted. The fifth boy at this time was about seventeen, and he too was caught stealing, convicted, and received his sentence about the time the fourth regained his liberty.

The third brother, after serving the specified period in what is called the _Penitentiary_, took his way south, where he was again committed for robbery, and sentenced to five years' confinement in the Louisiana State Prison. At the expiration of that period he started for home, but when near the island of Sixty-six, on the Mississippi, he concluded to take a trunk and jump overboard. This feat he accomplished successfully; but unluckily for him, it was in the same year in which so many outlaws were put to death by the citizens, and having connected himself with a band who were at that time flooding the river with counterfeit coin, negro-stealing, and indulging in all manner of villany, he was taken by a company, and with about forty others put to death, some being shot, and others tied up in sacks and thrown into the Mississippi.

The fifth brother was now in the Ohio Penitentiary, the fourth in the Indiana State Prison, but the eldest brother was released from confinement, and returned to Cincinnati. His long confinement, however, seems to have had no very beneficial effect, for in a few months he was again convicted of pet.i.t larceny, and sentenced to serve in the chain gang. Here he conducted himself so well as to gain the unqualified commendation of one of the drivers, who in consequence treated him indulgently. About this period, there was much excitement, caused by the frequency of night robberies, and no trace of the thieves could be found, by which they could be detected. The most vigilant means were used, and many were sent to the jails and penitentiary, but still the robberies went on. Among those committed at this period, was the fifth brother, who for a short period had enjoyed his liberty. The eldest brother served out his time in the chain gang, and after being liberated, suddenly disappeared; and, which surprised many, the driver of the chain gang disappeared at the same time. A day or two after their disappearance, a drover from Kentucky, who had been at Cincinnati, and was on his way home, was taken from his horse, robbed, his throat cut, and left for dead upon the road side. They had, however, merely severed the windpipe, and on being discovered, he was able to give such information as led to the detection of the driver and his friend, the convict. They were arrested, and identified by the mangled drover; and the citizens, knowing the desperate character of the elder brother, who had served an apprentices.h.i.+p in their own State Prison, gave them a trial according to "Lynch" custom, and hung them both. Thus ended the life of the eldest of the brothers--the third who had suffered the penalty of death for their crimes.

The suspicions of the people were excited by this occurrence, and a train of investigation set on foot which left no doubt but that the recent robberies were committed by the chain driver and his gang. At night they were freed from their chains, allowed to prowl about and plunder, and brought their spoils to the prison, where it could easily be stowed away without suspicion. We believe that we are quite within the mark, if we attribute one-eighth of the robberies committed in large cities, to the police, or perpetrated with their connivance. Many, we hesitate not to say, are done by men whom the public believe to be in prison. It has become a proverb, "Set a thief to catch a thief," and the public seem to have acquiesced that thus it shall ever be. There is an allowed and constant connection between the criminal and the officer engaged in suppressing crime, but whether it be necessary and unavoidable, or the best disposition possible, deserves some consideration. The hangman is in general only a little more fortunate than his culprit. The leader of a band of Regulators is commonly more ferocious, and as lawless as the victim against whom his fury is directed. The lawyer unscrupulously pockets a fee, which he knows has been obtained by the plunder of the citizen. Not a few of them hang about our jails, prying into the means of the prisoners, and divide with them the spoil, sheltering themselves from communicating any disclosures they make under their judicial privileges. But if justice be the end of the law, why should the communications of a prisoner to his counsel be held sacred? If the case be undefensible otherwise, why should it be defended, unless it be to give a fee to the lawyer, at the expense of justice? With all deference to the legislators of our country, and to the gentlemen of the legal profession, this seems a privilege not to be envied: to _know_ that you are a.s.sisting to defraud, but debarred by custom from disclosing it; to know that the culprit is guilty, and deserves punishment or restraint, but to send him forth again upon society to commit further crime.

Our readers may be anxious to know what became of the other two brothers, the fourth and fifth. At this moment we believe they are both in the State Prison. Now how was the ruin of this once respectable family accomplished? Why did the fate of the elder not deter the younger from crime? Were they merely drawn along by the contagion of ill-example, or were there more potent influences at work in their destruction? And why did punishment and penitentiaries do so little in their reformation? The greater part of their lives were pa.s.sed within their walls, cut off from the influence of evil, but we see no sanitory effect. We will not answer these questions directly, but in the course of this work will supply the reader with materials to answer them for himself. We have every reason to believe that the eldest and the second were entangled in the meshes of The Secret Band of Brothers, in a manner from which there was no escape. They are ever on the look-out for any individual who has forfeited his character, and who promises by his ingenuity or dexterity to be a fit tool for their purposes. Their agents are to be found in all the professions, in the magistracy, and in the prisons and penitentiaries; sometimes, under the vail of hypocrisy, a.s.suming a fair exterior at the time they are engaged in all manner of villany; at other times, when their influence in any place is in the ascendency, openly showing their real character. Men can be found in many of our towns so notoriously profligate, that not one individual in the place could be found that would say they were honest men, yet through solicitation, party spirit, and sometimes through fear, they are elected to official stations. It is one of the leading objects of the Secret Band, to have as many of the brotherhood in the magistracy as possible, and neither money nor importunity are spared to effect their object. They know what they are about: they are too sagacious to suppose that a thief will catch a thief; that a gambler will suppress gambling, or a drunkard promote temperance; and it would be well that those who really desire any of these objects, were equally "wise in their generation."

CHAPTER XIV.

The spring of 1833 found me travelling through the Choctaw nation, which, at that time, with the exception of the government posts, was a wilderness. Fort Towson, Duxborough, Jonesborough, Lost Prairie, Horse Prairie, Pecan Point, and several other places throughout this wild and newly settled country, were crowded with every kind and description of people from the states, from, the government agents and contractors to the wild and mysterious refugee--the latter being very numerous, and having settled upon the south side of Red river, to evade the pursuit of the United States' officer of justice, that portion then being considered within the boundaries of Texas. The whole region was one of peculiar debas.e.m.e.nt in all respects. As might be suspected, seasoned as it was with such a population, drunkenness, debauchery, and murder walked abroad, hand in hand, day and night. Human life was valued no higher than the life of an ox or a hog, and the heart of the settlement was cold, and palsied to the most remote touch of feeling, and hardened to the recital of brutalities and crimes of the most indescribable enormity. Men talked of their evil doings, their deep, revolting guilt, with the most impudent freedom, and laughed and chuckled over them as though they were the best jokes in the world!

It was in one of the Texan settlements, in this rude, wicked tract of country, that an incident came to my knowledge, quite by accident, which I will relate. The settlement contained some seventy to eighty people, men, women, and children, white and black. I was taking a stroll with one of the settlers among the cabins and huts, he being familiar with the occupants of each, their habits and history. When we pa.s.sed a spot worth notice, he gave me the character of the owner, his wealth, &c., and although all about the settlement wore an appearance of the most abject poverty, I was surprised to find the wealth which many of the inhabitants of so desolate, dreary, and forbidding a place possessed. We finally came to a small log cabin, at the extreme end of the settlement, apparently about twenty feet in length by eighteen deep, a story and a half high.

"Who lives here?" said I.