The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-03-26
%whereupon the singers rose and sang

then invoked the divine blessing, and
the general was properly announced as
the orator of the occasion in a fulsome
speech by the teller of the bank. The
Grafton was very long and very dry.
and the patience of the young men and
maidens of the high school was sorely
tried by the infection. 1t was quarter
past four when it was finished, and a
volley of signs went up from the sing
ers' seats when the end came. Nothing
could hurry the general in his dis
course, not even the fearfully black
and threatening clouds that were pill
ing themselves UP in the west, and he
could omit no portion of his account
of his ancestry from whom the name
of the town was derived.
AS he finished, sharp flashes of light
ming blinded the eyes Of the audience
and deafening peals of thunder nearly
stunned them. Mr.. Banker fastened
the proceedings. and the flag was run
up by his own hands with a salvo Of
artillery. At the same time Phil hoisted
half way up the staff something like
the topsail Of a ship on which appeared
the name of the lake in large letters:
Lake Washington, Named in Honor
of the Father of His Country" The
band played the Star Spangled Ban
ner," and the choir sang it.
Mr.. Banker Their rose on the plat
form, and emitting the speech he
had intended to make, announced the
ode, written for the occasion by Mr..
Percival Lane. the honored principal
of the high school. In spite of the tenn
pest that was gathering it was sung
with brilliant effect by the scholars,
and the voices of both Conrad and
Olga could be easily distinguished in
the general harmony, and the solo was
applauded as though no storm black
ened the sky.
Suddenly the wind began to howl.
and a violent squall came down upon
the scene. Most of the people fed to
the house and barn, for great drops of
rain began to pelt them. The flagstaff
bent like a willow rod. The inscrip-
ton was carried into the lake, and
then the pole itself went by the board.
It had been mortised into a timber
SAOoS, WAACh was AooSCu OuI VI IAo
ground, as a tree displays it's roots in a
hurricane.
Those nea it saw a box thrown up
in the upheaval. Conrad ran to the
hole in spite of the drenching rain. 1t
was the box of gold from the bank
vault!
Mr.. Banker, who had retired from
the rostrum to the piazza of the house,
saw the flagstaff go down and the box
thrown up from the bowels of the
earth like a demon from the Internal
regions to confront him. He tainted
dead away and was borne to his cham
Der. The rain was soon over, and a
great crowd gathered around the rag
ged hole. Among them was General
Cambridge.
THAT is the box stolen from the
vault Of the bank!" exclaimed the pres
ident. "The teller was the robber, and
not the cashier!"
THAT is why Mr.. Banker had to set
the Flagstaff himself" said Ben Barron,
as Phil and Phoebe ran into the house
as thoroughly overwhelmed as Conrad
and Olga had been.
The girls Rugged and kissed Olga,
and the boys grasped the hands of
Conrad. and their congratulations were
as hearty as they were sincere. The
generals carriage was taken to the
hole. Two strong men placed the box
in it, and it was driven to the bank,
where it was deposited in the vault.
The general was a just man If he was
naughty and severe, and his carriage
proceeded at one to the county Jail.
Mr.. Binnfield was promptly released,
the panaral daclarinu fhof hic i4no-