The times., 1899-07-09
BURNING THE FLAG.
SebnstopOPs Secession and II
Strange Punishment.
From the Chicago Times-Herald)

(From the Chicago Times. Herald)
The story was told me years ago floating
by Dead Mans Slough one hot afternoon
upper Mississippi Fishermen sometimes
find corpses there attached to their lines.
See" said Bristow. the story teller.
pointing to a bay on the western shore of
the river, "Sebastopol was there once-a
bloody town that went out in the night.
How do know who laid it out or what be-
came of those who were there? Perhaps
the river swallowed it up. perhaps the
lightning blasted 1t out. l wasn't there.
But right where the waters breaking on
the bank now the town stood. and because
the bluffs and the hills bound it in they
call it Sebastopol, and the sugar and wheat
boats come and go, and the women and
children kidded about the streets. and the
men waited for the town to make EN- all
mlllionaires. All towns in that Sioux and
Winnebago country were gold mines in
those days-days when everybody had
dream.
"a boat throws out her lines one night
and ties up, and when the captain comes
ashore and the best OF the town was going
down his gully he tells as how the South
is for secession and going to quit the
North He says in the cotton fields men
were working with guns by their sides.
and that there was a new flag. one with
stars and bars. what was put up over the
other with Stars and Stripes. And it was
all about the niger Sebastopol didn't
care for niggers; there wasn't one in the
town. and those what come up on the boats
STAYED on EN- when at Sebastopol. One
what come ashore they put at foot OF
hill with the oak and the elm so thick
YOU couldn't see the top and they started
grt rha hon af-
ter him. And it was music TO the ears be-
low when the hounds reached him and the
veil OF his despair was shut off with the
yelp of the dogs. Did he get away? NO
body went TO see. He didn't come back,
but the dogs did.
Fifteen hundred miles away from
Washington Sebastopol learns of secession
| and decides it'll go out of the Union. too
and on a vote there were seventy-one men
for destroying the town flag, which was
proper banner of stripes and stars There
was one man, a Vermonter. whose name
| was Jessup. who voted for the flag, and he
| got his notice that night to follow the mig
| ger over the hills. only they didn't set the
| dogs after him. He takes his rifle and he
| goes to the top OF the highest bluff what
oyerlooks Sebastopol so high up he could
| look right down into the town, and he sets
right there all night. | heard as how when
/ morning come peOple, oc
sees him kneeling as IL he had prayers to
say.
"Ten o'clock that morning the town folk
| all meet in the little square what was the
landing place for the boats, and there's
some wood piled up there. and over the
| top OF the wood two men stretched the
| old flag. And then, to show they wasn't
| afraid, they brings out little girl all
| dressed in white and she has little torch
and she put that to the wood and it lights
up. Perhaps in ten or twenty minutes
| the flag and the wood is all gone, and
| Sebastopol is satisfied that It's seeded.
| The men was so excited they didn't work,
and the women hung about the doorways
| and wondered what would come next
Somebody said as how the South was go
| ing to take everything along the river
| from N'Orleans to st. Anthony. and as
how Jeff Davis would be king. Some of
| the Sebastopol people knew him. because
he'd been at Fort Prairie du Chen when
| he was in the Regular Army.
| while they were all speculating, some
| body looks up to the top Of the hill where
| old Jessup had gone. and there they sees
| the Stars and Stripes waving from pole.
and Jessup standing by II. leaning on his
gun and looking down. Nobody knew how
| no got the hag-suppose he must have
had it in his kit for a long time. II wasn't
| a big flag but big enough for all Sebasto-
| pol to see It and get redhot mad. The men