Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-02-19


our next expedition to the woods.
When we got out of all hearing of
the village, at word from our leader
we suddenly piled on Bill, as one of
the boys said afterwards, like thou
sand of brick. 1t had been proposed
to bring rope with us to tie him up
with, but it was considered to be more
the correct thing to use twisted twigs
which we had reason to believe was
the usual device for tying up the VIC
tins of the Indians, and besides bark
of tree which we had stripped there,
gave long slender strings from the in
side which we twisted into very pre-
sentable ropes, and in less than no
time Bill Simmons was tied up with
his back to sapling, his arms bent
round behind it, and his legs firmly
wrapped up in the homemade rope.
Then council of torture was appoint
ed who discussed the advisability of
shooting him to death with arrows at
a distance of ten feet away, or leaving
him there to starve to death or to be
eaten by the bears and lions and tigers
which we were convinced roamed at
night through those woods. Despite
his mature age of IA years and week
Bill Simmons wept and begged and
prayed for mercy. At last we agreed
to let him 60 if he would tell us what
we had so long wanted to know, the
different signs and passwords of the
Independent Order of Good Templars.
Bill was only too glad to escape on
any terms. If he had been little
sharper he would have given us bogus
signs as easy as the genuine ones, but
the thought of doing that never SEEM
ed to enter his mind. He gave away
the whole thing. The password, it
seems, was changed every month and
the word for that month was Frugal
ity."
We had to unbind Bill so that he
was able to give away the signs. The
first sign was the forefnger of the
right hand laid upon the lips, this sig
nifies eternal silence. The grand hail
ing sign by which one Templar was
to know another was brushing the
hair back from the brow, an action
which was so common as to pass un-
noticed by the uninitiated. AS the
very commonness of this action might
lead to mistakes and make one Tenn
plar think that another who had un-
consciously given this sign, was a
Good Templar and thus lead to the
giving away of the secret, further signs
and words were necessary. The grip
was given by turning in toward the
palm the third finger of the right
hand and shaking hands in that way.
If this grip was given the person who
received it said:
"Why do you turn your fnger?"
The other SAID, Because of a word"
"Have you the word ?" said the first.
II have it,"
"Will you give it to me?"
81 will give it in sections"
what is the first section ?"
Then the other said, "Tem" and
the questioner replied "per" while the
other added "ance," which formed the
word temperance" Then they rec
ognized each other as true brothers in
a great cause.
We executed a great war dance
around Bill Simmons when we found
out the closely guarded secrets of the
independent order. We swore Bill
by terrible oath never to divulge
the fact that we knew the signs, grips
and passwords, and of course he was
just as anxious to have the facts con-
cealed as we were. But, alas, little
knowledge is a dangerous thing, as
we found out at the next meeting of
the Order of Good Templars. Luke
Sharp, in Free Press.