Morris tribune., 1908-09-05
BURNING THE FLAG.

@Oa ing Dy DGdu MAIL B Slough one uOt
afternoon. The slough is bayou Of
the 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 became of those who were
there? Perhaps the river swallowed it
np; perhaps lightning blasted it out.
wasn't there. But right where the wa
ter's breaking on the bank now the
town stood, and because the bluffs and
the bills bound 1t in they called it Sc
bastopol, and the sugar and wheat
boats came and went, the women and
children kidded about the streets, and
the men waited for the town to make
'em all miIlionaires. 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
tain comes ashore and the best Of the
town is going down his gullet he tells
as how the south is for secession and
going to quit the north. He says in
the cotton fields men are working with
guns by their sides and that there is
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 town,
and those what come up on the boats
stayed on 'em when at Sebastopol. One
what come ashore they put at the foot
OF a hill with the oak and the elm SO
thick that you couldn't see the top, and
they started him on the climb up with
the hounds aftee him. And it was mu-
sic to the ears below when the hounds
reached him and his yell Of despair
was shut off with the yelp Of the dogs
Did he get away? Nobody went to see.
He didn't come back, but the dogs did
"Fifteen hundred miles away from
Washington. Sebastopol learns of Sc
cession and decides it'll go out of the
Union. too, and on vote seventy-one
men is for destroying the town flag,
which is proper banner of stripes ,
and stars. There was one man, a Yer
mopter, whose name was Jessup, who
voted for the flag, and he got his notice
chat night to follow the niger over the
hills, only he didn't get the dogs after
him. He takes his rifle, and he goes to
the top of the highest bluff what over
looks Sebastopol, so high up be could |
look right down into the town, and be |
sets there all night. l heard as how |
when morning came some people, may
be women, sees him kneeling as if 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 puts
that to the wood, and it lights up. Per-
haps in ten or twenty minutes the flag |
and the wood are all gone, and Sebas-
topol is satisfied that it's seeded. The |
men was so excited that they didn't
work, and the women hung about the
deorways and wondered what would
come next1 Somebody said as how the
south was going to take everything
along the river from New 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 speculatin
somebody 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 it,
leaning ON his gun and looking down.
Suppose he must have had it in his kit
for a long time 1t wasn't a big flag,
but big enough for all Sebastopol to see
1t and get redhot mad. The men goes
for their guns, the women get inside
the houses, and there's going to be
|
to get uD to Jessup, and that was a
straight Climb through the brush to
where he was A couple of men took
q shot at him from the town, but he
never moved. and the first fellow that
got anywhere near him Jessup gave
him warning and shot him dead. That
stopped the others. and they went to
specializing. They speculated all day
and night and for several days. but
Jessup and the dag didn't move until
they got ready to.
when they did go nobody saw them,
and the next word what comes to Sc
bastopol was that the regulars at Fort
Smelling had been notified Of what the
town had done and there was going to
be trouble. Sebastopol laughed, but
just like a woman who has the lung
trouble, not bad. but coming slow and
gradual the town fades away. This
family goes and that one, the docks
break away, the flood comes, the
haNSna ty1rnh1o IN f;y,,hAr xun1vAc