Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-09-27

to q few surprises, such as the gam
bier from the Empire, but in general
the gathering consisted Of those whom
should have characterized as solid cit
1zens-Barnes. the hotel keeper; Him.
melwright and men of his stripe. They
were all armed and all very grave and
sober. Danny ran his eye over US one
by one
Meeting Come to order" he COM
manded briskly. "This is a vigilante
meeting. hope you all realize what
that means. There are just thirty Of
us here, and Morton's gang Is proba-
bly, hundred strong when it Is all to-
gether. We cannot fight them, but we
can give the honest, decent men Of
this camp q chance to fight them. I
myself believe the honest men will
back US and am willing to risk It. II
any Of you who are here now think
differently say So"
He paused. but no one spoke up.
III anybody doesn't want to 60 into
this now 10 the time to back out. Just
keep your mouths shut; that Is ALL"
He paused again. but again no one
moved.
that's all right" observed Danny.
with satisfaction. He lifted a paper.
Listen to this: We. the undersigned,
agree, a. we are decent men. to stand
by each other to the last, to avenge
the death Of any ono Of US and to obey.
the orders Of our leaders. And If we
fall In this may God deny US mercy
Boys" said Danny Randall earnestly.
this Is serious. II we start this now
we've got to sec it through. We are
not much on Bible oaths. any one Of
US. but we must promise. Frank Mum
roe, step forwardv' ..,....
One by one Danny Randall called us
forward and administered his simple
oath. The fire leaped and with it the
mighty shadows. Outside the circle
Of light the tall pines and fir trees
watched US like q multitude standing
witness. The mems faces were grave
There was about the toughest of them
something noble. reflected from the
earnest spirit Of Justice.
Randall had the plans all made, and
he detailed them rapidly. We were to
arrest four men only, and he named
them-Morton. scarface Charley, who
had recovered: . gambler named Cat
lin and Jules. the proprietor Of the.
Empire. '.r
"Crawford II back in town." said
some ona
snake It 1--WE them" said Danny in
stantly.
Next came up the vital questions Of:
ways and means. Many were In favor
Of night surprise and an immediate
banging before the desperadoes could
be organized for defense. Danny had
a hard time showing them good rea-
sons against this course. but at last he
succeeded .-
'This must be done deliberately and
publicly" he maintained. otherwise
It fails Of Its effect We've got to show
the gang that the camp Is against
them, and that won't be done by hang
ing some Of them secretly"
Suppose the camp doesn't back US
up?" Queried miner.
Remember your oath, gentlemen"
was Danny's only reply to this.
1t was decided at last that five COM
mittees should be appointed to arrest
each Of the five men, that the prison
ers should be confined in a certain $50
lated log cabin and that the execution
should take place in broad daylight
There remained only to apportion the
committees. This was done, and at
about 2 or, o'clock we quietly dis
persed. was instructed to cooperate
with three OF the miners in the arrest
Qf Catln.
~ 10 Continually