The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-08-19

pared broke loose. Men in filthy. tat.
tered garments, and frenzied women in
rags were seen rushing or Keeling
among the flames. They were the Jail
birds who, as the price of their liber-
alton and pardon were to destroy the
city, and most thoroughly did they per-
form their work, delirious with intoxi-
cation and excitement. They no longer
sought to hide themselves, but ran on
Keeling to and fro, uttering savage yells
and imprecations, while they moved
blazing torches above their heads.
Orders were given to shoot every
drunken wretch on the spot, but their
task was accomplished. The fire was
raging at half a hundred places. The
French soldiers were hastily put in
marching order. C%onquerors of Mos
COW, they were obliged to make their
camp in the snow outside it's gates.
At Coruna in the war of the Austrian
shows how baleful an influence unlim-
tied Dutch courage" may exert.
The English sailors had made a land,
ing near Coruna, n as they advanced
upon the lower town it was vacated by
the Spanish, who retreated to the more
they retreated, however, they left where
it could easily be found an immense
quantity of wine. When the sailors
came upon it a debauch ensued, and
while they were in a condition of stu
por they were assailed from the upper
town. In the fight that followed some
two thousand were killed.
Among savages or semi-civilized peo-
pies the use of stimulants on the eve
of battle is quite a common practice.
The blacks of Australia are said to
have employed the leaf of a certain
plant which a great powers of invig-
grafton, and when used in large guam
titles it produced frenzy or madness,
which rendered them insensible alike
to fear or wounds.
The natives of Afghanistan use a
preparation made from the hemp plant.
1t gives them a tremendous temporary
strength, and to their natural courage
"a quality in which they are by no
means lacking-it adds a wild fury.
The Malays, from all accounts a mild
and inoffensive people in the main, but
having a remarkable propensity for
narcotic stimulants, go to the excess
in the use Of certain vile homemade
connections. While he is drunk, in the
superlative tense, the Malay equips
himself with a kris or dagger and runs
amuck. That is, he dashes through
his village at top speed, slashing at
any n who happens to cross his path,
and he continues this pleasant diversion
until knocked on the head.
But by far the most remarkable in
stance of the use of narcotics by ORR
entails as an incentive to nerve men to
deeds of blood was in the case of the
Fedavees in the twelfth century.
These creatures were hated and
feared from one end of the world to
the other. Caliphs, kings. emperors,
princes and sultans, whether Chris
tians, Mohammedans or Jews, all alike
lived in terror of the secret and uner-
ring stroke of these assassins. Philip
Augustus, king of France, warned that
he had been selected as a victim, in
stantly surrounded himself with a
guard Of chosen men,, and never ap-
peared in public unarmed. Nothing
could how the terrible power of these
murderers more fully than the answer
returned by their chief to an envoy
sent to him by the sultan. Bidding the
sultan's messenger to follow him he
led him to the top of a tower, whence
he ordered one of his subjects to fling
himself to h ground. The order was
instantly obeyed. He then commanded
another to stab himself, and it was
lone without question.
&C.," said the cEief to the envoy,
tell your master thai I have seventy
thousand men ready to do as much"
The headquarters of this nest of MUIR
derers was in the mountains south of
the Caspian sea. The society was I'M
der the control of a grand master,
known all over Europe as THE old
man of the mountains"
The first old man of the mountains
was Hassan Ben Soboh, who founded
the society in 1890 A. D. 1t flourished
On the secret pensions received from
kings, emperors and the great and rich
Of the world. Let one of these cease
in his payments and a Fedovee was
straightway sent to take his life, a
mission he seldom failed in.
The stimulus urging the wretch at