Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-01-27

AaAAAoISAo, VIII SO lOuEo DIS pSOpke dIS
willing to pay for religion are quite
ready to preach it; and, in short, like
every one else who is not absolutely q
fool-our first consideration, in the
! conduct of whatever business the pub
lie think fit to entrust to us, is, not
to put too fine a point upon it, to
feather our own nests. It is quite true
that there are many men and women
working in connection with these as
sOciations and societies who, there is
no denying, are honest and disinter-
ested; and very good decoy ducks they
are too, to bring the money in. But
such men and women, though they do
not suspect it, are simply our tools.
We are not, of course, such fools as
to spoil our own. game by killing the
goose that lays the golden eggs. But
in our case the game is a very easy
one to play. If an attempt-success-
full or unsuccessful-upon the life of
some hated monarch or unpopular
statesman, the blowing up of a palace
or prison, or similar demonstration,
did not occur every now and then, our
subscribers would begin to think that
they were getting nothing for their
money, and supplies would cease. But
though much of the enormous power
which is given to us by the complete
control of all these societies, leagues,
associations and unions is used by US
for political purposes, We DO not hesi-
tate to use this same power il the
interests of our own pockets. For in
stance, if we heard that large sums
of money or other valuables were be-
ing conveyed from one place to an
other, or were secreted IN any part;c-
ular building, and we could az all our
selves of the power which we have
at our control to secure that sum Of
money for ourselves, we should not
hesitate about putting the machinery
into motion. Do you remember tho
mysterious robbery at the duchess Of
Doncaster's?"
"Why, yes!" gasped Number Seven,
for once genuinely surprised. "One
hundred thousand pounds in Jewels
and hard cash disappeared, no one
knew where"
PRECISELY" said the chairman cool
ly. "rhey did not realize so rluch as
that, however, although, owing to the
fact that we have agents in most Of
the continental cities, we have ex-
ceptional facilities for the disposal of
valuables.
THAT now, as case in point, could
never have been negotiated success
fully but for the intricate machinery
which we have it in our power to set in
motion. No ordinary 'conveyor'.-if /
may use the term-could have carried
that bit of business through to sue
cessful issue, even with the assist
ance of skillful confederates.
And the proceeds of that haul, do
understand that they were divided
among the seven councillors?" asked
Councillor Number Seven, with glitter
ing eyes.
Precisely. It was benefit perform
ance. You are still DESTROYS of assum-
ing the-shall we say-responsibilities
of councillorship?"
NEED you ask"
"And when would you like to CON-
mence the duties?"
"This minute
Good. Well, as have told you. we
do not, when we elect a new member
to the council, exact any solemn oath
OF secrecy from him. The rule-the
lnVariable rule-which We have adopt
ed in place of any such meaningless
exactlon is this. Whenever a new
member is elected, that member has
to qualify himself, so to speak, by
carrying out personally the first re-
movap which may be decreed by the
council. We do this as much for our
own protection as for any other reason.
The fact that a member is equally
committed with ourselves and has
rendered himself liable to the same
legal penalties, is the best guarantee
OF his loyalty that we could possibly
have. Do you follow"
Il follow" replied the new council
lor. doggedly.
"Well, this is the situation. We re-
Gently elected to a place on the council
Ito the very place you now fila
new member. He had taken life on
more than one occasion, and we
thought we were sure of our man, or
we should not have invited him to
join us. But we have since discovered
it is the one and only mistake of the
sort we have made-that we have been
misled in him. Not that he is not fully
as eager to accept esponsibility-even
the most dangerous responsibility
as any of us. On that ground we have
no cause for complaint. But the fact
is that when he joined US he was under
the impression that our motives were
entirely disinterested and patriotic.
The discovery that we were not al
together uninfluenced by personal
considerations was a shock to him,
and produced so great a revulsion of
feeling that-as we have ascertained
he is in communication with the po-
lice, in order that he may serve the
cause about which he Is so infatuated
by Kidding it of the ourselves
who in his opinion are its betrayeFs
and enemies. He is at this moment
alone on board the little yacht which
lies in a straight line a couple oe
hundred yards further out at sea than
this vessel. At present the police
know nothing of what he has to tell
them. The matter has not gone far
enough for that. All that he has done
is to send word to certain detective
that he has an important communica-
ton to make. He has asked that de-
tective-Detective Marten-to join him
at II o'clock tonight on board the
yacht to receive the communication.
His reason for SO doing is as follows:
The council was to meet on board this
yacht not tonight, but tomorrow