1855-6 caused an
abundant supply of water in the river next spring. The naviga-
tion of the Minnesota for the season of 1856 was opened on
April loth by the Reveille, a stern- wheel packet, in command of
Captain R. M. Spencer. Four days later, the Globe, with Nel-
son Robert as captain, departed from St . Paul for the same river,
and she was followed the next day by the H. S. Allen.
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 143
The Reveille was considered a fast traveler, and as an in-
stance of her speed it is recorded that on her second trip of this
year she left St. Paul at 2 p. m. on Thursday, April I7th, with
132 passengers and a full load of freight, and arrived at M'an-
kato by Saturday ; and that leaving the latterplace at 5 a . m . the
next day, she reached St. Paul by 8 p. m. that evening, after
having made twenty- four landings on the way.
On the 5th of May, the Reveille landed at Mankato a com-
pany of settlers numbering two or three hundred, known as the
Mapleton Colony; and the following Saturday (May loth) the
H. T. Yeatman landed at South, Bend a company of Welsh
settlers from Ohio, numbering 121 souls. The Yeatman was
a large stern-wheel boat, about the largest that ascended the Min-
nesota, and this was her first trip. She continued in the trade
only a few weeks, while the water was high. Her captain was
Samuel G. Cabbell. Regular trips were made this year by sev-
eral boats to Fort Ridgely and the Lower Sioux Agency, and
some ascended to


the Clarion, which had been bought the year before
by Captain O. D. Keep and brought back to the Minnesota,
where she had done such good service in 1853 under Captain
Humbertson. Captain Keep and his clerk, John C. Hoffman,
resided in the vicinity of Shakopee, and they kept the Clarion in
the Minnesota trade until she sank near the St. Paul levee two
or three years later.
Two fine new boats, destined to do much service on the
Minnesota, entered this year. They were the Frank Steele, a
splendid side-wheel packet owned by Commodore Davidson, and
the Jeannette Roberts, a large stern-wheel packet owned by Cap-
tain Louis Robert. The Antelope, a small craft which Captain
Houghton ran regularly for years between St. Paul and Chaska,
began her career this season. Other important boats which en-
gaged in the Minnesota tradethis year for the first time were
the Medora, J. Bissell, Isaac Shelby, Fire Canoe, and Red Wing,
all good sized packets, especially the last two.
During the spring of this year steamboating on the Minne-
sota was unusually brisk. Eighteen boats arrived at St. Peter
during a single week in May, and by June 1st thirty- four boats
had passed that town for points above. It was no unusual occur-
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 145
rence to see two or three boats unloading at once at the Mankato
wharf .
The names of the boats which left the St. Paul wharf this
year 1857 for the Minnesota, and the number of trips made by
each, were as follows : Antelope, 105 trips ; Jeannette Roberts.
40; Isaac Shelby, 36; Medora, 29; Frank Steele, 20; Equator,
14; Time and Tide, 13;


Clarion, 12; Minnesota, 8; Ocean Wave,
6; J. Bisscll, 5; Red Wing, 3; and Fire Canoe, i. The total
trips were 292, an increase of 85 from the year before. The
last boat was the Antelope which arrived at St. Paul on the
1 4th of November.
The winter of 1857-8 proved very mild, and the river broke
up unusually early. The first boat to leave St. Paul for the
Minnesota was the Jeannette Roberts, Captain Thimens, on
March 2Oth, but the Medora, Captain Charles T. Hinde, follow-
ing in a short time, passed her before reaching Shakopee. In
doing so, the boats rubbed too close together, and one of the Me-
dora's wheels was injured, so that she had to tie up an hour or
two for repairs. She managed again to overtake and pass the
Jeannette while the latterwas unloading at Traverse des Sioux,
and reached Mankato as the first boat on the morning of March
22nd, followed there an hour or two later by the Jeannette.
Notwithstanding that there had been hardly any snow the
previous winter, the heavy spring and summer rains kept the
river in a good navigable condition, and boats of the size of the
Frank Steele and Isaac Shelby were able to ascend to Mankato
late into September. The Freighter was the only new boat to
engage in the Minnesota trade .
This spring J. R. Cleveland and C. F. Butterfield built a
barge at Mankato 75 feet long by 12 feet wide and 4 feet high,
which they christined "The Minneopa." It was employed by
Mr. Cleveland during the period of low water for many years
in the Mankato traffic. It was operated


the year be-
fore. The steamboats Belfast and Equator and the barge Min-
neopa also plied on the river this year, but the number of their
trips cannot be given .
In 1859, the river broke up early after a mild winter, and
the Freighter arrived at Mankato, the first boat, on March 27th,
having left St. Paul two days before. An abundant rainfall
kept the river in good navigable condition its entire length
through most of the season. The Favorite, an excellent side-
wheel packet of good size, built expressly for the Minnesota
trade by Commodore Davidson, entered as a new boat this spring .
As the water was quite high in the upper Minnesota, Cap-
tain John B . Davis of the Freighter conceived the idea of cross-
ing his boat over from the Minnesota to Big Stone lakeand
thence to the Red river, and accordingly about the last of June
he attempted the feat. Whether the crew found too much whis-
key at New Ulm or the boat found too little water on the divide,
authorities differ, but all agree that the captain and his crew
came home in a canoe about the last of July, passing Mankato
on the 25th of the month, having left his steamboat in dry dock
near the Dakota line. The Freighter was a small, flat-bottomed,
square-bowed boat. The Indians pillaged her of everything but
the hull, and that, half buried in the sand about ten miles below
Big Stone lake, remained visible for twenty or thirty years. The
captain always claimed that if he had started a month earlier
his attempt would have been successful.
The steamboat arrivals at Mankato this year


of the larger boats
were able to ascend it. A number of small boats of light draft
were, however, put into the trade instead, such as the Little
Dorrit, the Eolian, which Captain Davidson had succeeded in
raising the fall before from the bottom of lake Pepin where she
had lain since the spring of 1858, and the Albany, a small new
boat of very light draft which Captain Davidson had built the
winter before expressly for the Minnesota in low water. The
Jeannette Roberts managed to get up as far as Mankato a few
times, and once in July, when there was a small freshet, even to
the Sioux Agency. After a little rainfall in June, the Time and
Tide, the Favorite, and the Frank Steele, came up as far as St.
Peter for a trip or two. Mostof the time, however, the Albany,
which the old settlers used to say only required a light dew to
run in, was the only boat which could float at all above the Little
rapids. For a time she supplemented the Favorite at the rapids,
but finally the water 'got so low that navigation suspended entire-
ly, except .that the little Antelope kept her trips to Shakopee and
Chaska. Cleveland's barges (for now he had two of them) had
the monopoly of the Minnesota river traffic for the most of the
season. They could carry ten or twelve tons each, and were
kept busy until the river closed in November. There were only
250 steamboat arrivals at St. Paul from the Minnesota this year,
and the Antelope made 198 of these.
The spring of 1861 opened with a bjg flood in


the Minne-
sota. The first boat, the Albany, left St. Paul on March 3Oth,
and arrived at Mankato the 1st of April. She was officered by
148 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
J. V. Webber, captain (who was now the owner, having pur-
chased her from the Davidson company in March), Warren
Goulden, first clerk, and Moses Gates, engineer. It was claimed
by the older Indians and traders that the upper Minnesota was
higher this spring than it had been since 1821. In April the
Jeannette Roberts ascended farther up the river by two miles
than any steamboat hud ever done before, and might easily have
accomplished what the Freighter attempted and failed to do in
1859, to wit, pass over into the Red river, if she had tried; for
the two rivers were united by their high flood between lakes
Big Stoneand Traverse.
This season the Minnesota Packet Company, of which Cap-
tain Orren Smith was president, put two first class boats, the
City Belle and Fanny Harris, into the river to compete with the
Davidson and Robert lines. The Fanny Harris, on her first
trip, which occurred during the second week in April, went to
Fort Ridgely, and brought down Major (afterwards General)
Thomas W. Sherman and his battery to quell the southern re-
bellion, w r hich had just started. With her also went the Fav-
orite and brought down Major (afterwards General) John C.
Pemberton, with his command of eighty soldiers, the most of
whom, being southern men, were much in sympathy with their
seceding brethren.
The City Belle made her first appearance at St. Peter and
Mankato on May i8rh, under command of Captain A. T. Cham-
blin. She was


MINNESOTA RIVER, 149
year, 1861, on one of these barges. It comprised 4,000 bushels,
and was taken direct to La Crosse. Heretofore it had been
shipped in sacks. Wheat had now become the principal export
of the valley. During the earlier years nearly all the freight
traffic on the river had been imported, but by this time the ex-
port of grains had grown to be an important item . With so many
Indians in the valley the shipment of furs, which at first had
been about the only export of the country, still continued valu-
able; but furs, because of their small bulk, cut but little figure
in the boat'ing business. This year the value of the furs from
the Sioux Agencies was $48,416; and from the Winnebago coun-
try, $11, 600.
The spring of 1862 witnessed another great floodin the
Minnesota, and navigation was opened by the* Albany . She
only got as far as Sr. Peter on her first voyage, arriving there
on April 3rd, and reaching Mankato on her second trip on the
1 3th. The Pomeroy, an excellent new boat, was put into the
trade this spring by the Davidson company. Two small boats,
the Clara Hines and G. H. Wilson, entered the Minnesota also
for the first time this spring. Messrs. Stagg and Handy of St.
Paul put a small boa f called "New Ulm Belle," which they built
with the machinery of the Clarion, also into the Minnesota traf-
fic, in charge of Captain Scott. The Favorite, officered by Ed-
win Bell, captain, and N. B. Hatcher, clerk, and the Jeannette
Roberts, officered by Nelson Robert, captain, and Jack Reaney,
clerk, were active in


the trade this year as usual.
The register of boat arrivals at Mankato for the year shows
a total of 70, as follows :
From below 'From above
Albany 19 I
Jeannette Roberts 13
Favorite 9 I
Clara Hines . . 8 I
Pomeroy 6 I
Ariel 2
G. H. Wilson I
Total 58 12
The length of the period of navigation, from April I3th to
July 20th, was three months and seven days. Wheat shipped
150 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
from Mankato on these boats amounted to 62,000 bushels, and
8,000 bushels were shipped from South Bend.
Below the rapids, navigation continued until late in Novem-
ber, and the total anivals at the St. Paul wharf from the Min-
nesota were 413, the largest record in the river's history. The
fall navigation may have been slightly stimulated by the require-
ments of the Sioux war. Immediately on newsof the outbreak,
the Favorite, under Captain Bell, carried the first soldiers of
General Sibley's command, with such arms and ammunition as
could be hastily gathered at Fort Snelling and St. Paul, to the
defense of the frontier, taking them to Shakopee and one com-
pany as far as the Little rapids .
The Jeanette Roberts was the first boat in 1863. She ar-
rived in Mankato on April 3rd, and was there greeted by the en-
tire population of the town, including about 1,000 soldiers, who
made the echoes ring with their cheers . It was customary in those
steamboat days for young and old, male and female, in every
town along the river, at the deep baying sound of the first whistle
to gather at the levee to welcome the first boat. To the lonely
pioneer, the vigils of


a long winter in the wilderness \vere trying,
and the arrival of the first boat was an important event in his
life, when he heard from his childhood home and the outside
world, and when his exhausted larder would be replenished and
a few relishes \vould relieve the monotonous round of corn cake.
Much of the traffic this year consisted in transporting troops
and supplies in connection with the Sioux war. The Favorite,
the winter before, had been lengthened by cutting her in two
and inserting a piece thirty feet long into the middle, just ahead
of the machinery and wheels. This materially increased the
boat's capacity, but rather spoiled her appearance. She was
taken entirely into the Government service this season, and one
of her first duties was the transportation of the 270 condemned
Sioux from their Mankato prison totheir new quarters at Dav-
enport, Iowa. They left Mankato on April 22nd, and the forty-
eight acquitted Indians with fifteen or twenty squaws, who had
been acting as cooks, went with them .
During the winter, under the religious instruction of the
missionaries, Williamson, Riggs, and Pond, a wonderful trans-
formation had occurred in these wild savages of a few months
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 151
before, a transformation that proved sincere and lasting, and
as they sailed down the river, they sang religious hymns in their
native tongue. Affecting, indeed, was the scene, as in passing
Fort Snelling and St. Paul, where their squaws and papooses
were imprisoned, they sang their favorite hymn, "Have Mercy
upon us, O Jehovah," to the tune of Old Hundred.
In May the Winnebagoes were to be removed from Blue
Earth county to their new


agency in Nebraska, and on the even-
ing of the 8th of this month the Pomeroy and Eolian arrived at
Mankato to take part in the transportation of this tribe. Eleven
hundred of them had already pitched their tepees in what was
called Camp Porter, on the river bank just back of where now
stands the Hubbard and Palmer mill in Mankato. A few days
before, a party of them had killed two Sioux who were visiting
their agency, and, stretching their scalps on a couple of hoops
decked with colored ribbons and fastened to poles, they paraded
the streets with them . On this night of May 8th, from sundown
to sunrise, the people of Mankato were regaled with the tom-tom
music and savage yells of the scalp dance. On Saturday, May
9th, they began to embark, 405 goingon the Pomeroy, and 355
on the Eolian. Both boats started from the Mankato wharf at
two o'clock in the afternoon. Conspicuous on the Pomeroy's
hurricane deck were planted the poles bearing the two Sioux
scalps, around which sat, first, the war party o^f about twenty
young bucks, half naked, their bodies daubed with mud and
paint, and with wreaths of green weeds and grass on their heads,
and next to them squatted a number of other warriors, all chant-
ing in time with two or three tom-toms a monotonous "He-ah,
he-ah/' as they journeyed down the river, a scene quite in con-
trast with that presented by their Sioux brethren on their de-
parture two weeks before. The next day, the Favorite took 338
of the remaining Winnebagoes, and on the I4th the Pomeroy
came after the last of them.


In all there were 1,856 removed.
Besides the traffic incident to military operations, there were
shipped from Mankato alone over 60,000 bushels of wheat this
spring. The Prairie du Chien Railway Company put a new
boat, named the Flora, into the Minnesota river trade this season .
She was a stern-wheeler of about the size of the Jeannette Rob-
erts.
152 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
The summer of 1863 was exceptionally dry, and though
boats were able in May to ascend to Camp Pope, twenty-five miles
above Fort Ridgely, by the middle of June the river had fallen
so that all steamboat traffic above the rapids was suspended .
The imperative need of freight transportation in the valley
became yearly more insistent, and the inability of steamboats to
meet the demand, especially in periods of drouth, caused a great
increase this summer inthe use of barges, amounting to a new
departure in the river traffic. Hereafter, instead of carrying
freight in large steamers, it was found much more expedient to
carry it in strings of barges drawn by small tug-boats. Among
others, Messrs. Temple and Beaupre of St. Paul put four barges
into the Minnesota traffic to ship freight from Mankato and
points between it and the Little rapids to Prairie du Chien . The
total steamboat arrivals from the Minnesota this year at the St.
Paul wharf were 177.
During the winter of 1863-4 the Davidson Company built
a fine new packet, about 150 feet long, for the Minnesota river
trade, which, in honor of the thriving town of the mouth of the
Blue Earth, they christened "The Mankato." The citizens of
that municipality, in appreciation of the compliment, purchased
a fine silk


flag to present to the boat on her first arrival ; but un-
fortunately that opportunity did not come until a year later, for
during 1864 about the only boat which reached Mankato was the
Jeannette Roberts on April i6th.
The barge traffic flourished, however, in spite of the low
water, and steamboats were used on the lower Minnesota. The
total arrivals of steamboats at St. Paul from the Minnesota this
year were 166; and of barges, 82.
In January, 1865, the state legislature appropriated $3,000
to improve the Minnesota river; and Major E. P. Evans, of
Blue Earth county, and John Webber, of Ottawa, Le Sueur coun-
ty, were appointed commissioners to oversee the work. Accord-
ingly in February Major Evans with a force of fifty men cleared
the river of snags, and later they made other improvements,
which aided navigationconsiderably.
By the spring of 1865 the severe drouth of the last two years
was broken. The first boat to leave St. Paul for the Minnesota
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 153
was the Ariel on the second of April. She arrived at St. Peter
on the 3rd, and at Mankato on the 4th .
Among the new boats to enter the Minnesota this year were
the Mollie Mohler, Julia, G. H. Gray, Otter, Mankato, Lansing,
General Sheridan, and Hudson. The Mollie Mohler had been
built the winter before for the Minnesota river trade; she was
125 feet long, and had accommodations for fifty-six cabin pas-
sengers. Her captain was George Houghton. The Julia was
a stern-wheel boat, built the same winter by the Northwestern
Packet Company expressly for the Minnesota trade. Her length
was 141 feet, her beam 28 feet, and


her total capacity 300 tons,
although drawing only seventeen inches of water. Jack Reaney,
for years the popular clerk of the Jeannette Roberts, was her
captain. The G. H. Gray was built in the spring of 1863 on the
St. Croix. She was 139 feet long, 19 feet wide, and drew four-
teen inches of water.
The trade this year was quite brisk as long as the season
lasted. The boats were able to reach St. Peter and Mankato
for about two months in the spring, and by reshipping at the
Little rapids were able to get to the rapids just below St. Peter
for two or three weeks later.
During the season . the number of steamboat arrivals at St.
Paul from Carver and the Little rapids was 150; and from points
above the rapids as far as from Mankato,40. A few trips were
also made to the upper Minnesota. The total arrivals from this
river at St. Paul in 1865 was 195. This of course does not em-
brace trips made by the Albany and other boats between the
rapids and points above. Twenty barges, each loaded with 200
barrels of lime from Shakopee, and 97 barges loaded with wood,
averaging 40 cords each, from various points in the valley, also
arrived at the St. Paul wharf. No records of the wheat barges
were kept, as they generally carried their cargoes to La Crosse
or Prairie du Chien, but they were quite numerous.
In 1866 the first boat to arrive at St. Peter and Mankato
was the Chippewa Falls, on the I5th of April. The Minnesota,
a splendid packet built the winter before at Cincinnati, entered
for the first


time this season. The principal boats engaged this
year in the traffic were the Julia, Mankato, Mollie Mohler, Stella
154 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
Whipple, Albany, Otter, Pioneer, Tiber, and Pearl. By the
i6th of June there had been 38 arrivals at Mankato, which num-
ber during the season was swelled to 50, having a total capacity
of 3,750 tons.
The barge trade by this year had grown to immense propor-
tions, over 175 barges being used. The Tiber towed out of the
Minnesota and down the Mississippi at one load a string of
barges carrying 30,000 bushels of wheat. Some of the barges
were of great size. Among the largest was one owned by Cap-
tain Davidson, called "Little Mac," which was 142 feet long by
25 feet in width, of 114 tons burden.
The wheat shipments from the principal pointsin the Min-
nesota valley during 1866 amounted to 688,641 bushels, as fol-
lows : From Belle Plaine, 45,000 bushels; Faxon, 12,600; Hend-
erson, 29,400; Le Sueur, 22,000; Ottawa, 5,000; St. Peter,
68,850; Mankato, 190,000; South Bend, 25,000; Shakopee, 106,-
791; Carver, 80,000; and Chaska, 104,000.
The navigation this year, however, was quite poor, owing
to low water through most of the season. A United States sur-
vey of the river was made during the summer with a view to im-
proving it.
The arrivals at the St. Paul wharf from the Minnesota in
1866 were only about 100. The decrease was probably due to
two causes, first the construction to Belle Plaine of the St. Paul
and Sioux City railroad, which cut off most of the boat traffic on
the lower and most navigable portion of the river; and, second,
that most


of the freight was now being carried in barges, w r hich,
having no occasion to stop in St. Paul, passed down the Missis-
sippi without being registered in the St. Paul wharfmaster's
books.
The year 1867 was exceptionally good for boating, as a fine
stage of water continued during the entire season. The first
boat to land at Mankato was the Chippewa Falls on the i8th of
April .
During the summer and until the first of September, the
Mollie Mohler, Captain H. W. Holmes, made daily trips be-
tween Mankato and Belle Plaine, a distance of 175 miles, making
close connections at the latter place with the St. Paul trains.
She would leave Mankato every morning at 8 o'clock and arrive
at Belle Plaine about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and then leave
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 155
Belle Plaineon her return journey at 6 o'clock p. m. and
reach Mankato by sunrise . As indicative of her speed, she would
at times make the trip from Mankato to St. Peter, a distance of
30 miles, in one hour and twenty minutes ; and as evidence of the
abundant water in the rivers this season, the Mollie on the Qth of
June ascended the Blue Earth and Le Sueur rivers to the Red
Jacket mills, situated about where now the Milwaukee railway
crosses the latter stream, and carried hence 425 barrels of flour.
Up to September, when the Mollie Mohler retired, there had been
1 66 steamboat arrivals at Mankato, of which the Mollie had
made 87.
After this the Otter ran quite regularly until the 3Oth of
October, making two or three trips a week, and the Ellen


Hardy
and Mankato made a few trips, while the Ariel made regular
trips between Mankato and St. Peter and the railroad terminus,
until the river closed about the loth of November.
Congress had made an appropriation of $7,000 this year to-
wards the improvement of the river, and in July bids were re-
ceived by Gen . G . K . Warren, government engineer, on two
proposed contracts for such improvement, one covering the first
section, reaching from the Redwood to Mankato, and the other
for the second section, extending from Mankato to the Little
rapids. Not much came of this river improvement project, and
it was soon abandoned, as the advent of railroads into the valley
rendered it unnecessary.
The principal river casualty of 1867 was the sinking of the
Julia two miles below Mankato on the morning of the lothof
May. She struck a snag as she was coming up the river, under
a full head of steam, well loaded with passengers and freight, and
sank in twelve feet of water. None of the passengers were in-
jured, and nearly all the freight was recovered, but the boat itself
was a wreck. Her machinery and upper deck were eventually
removed, but the hull lies in the sands of the Minnesota to this
day.
In 1868, the Chippewa Falls was again the first boat at St.
Peter and Mankato, arriving at the latter place on the 3ist of
March. Navigation was not nearly as good this year as the
year before, yet by the first of May there had been over 50 steam-
boat arrivals at Mankato. No new boat, as far as known, en-
tered the river this year ;


and quite a few of the boats prominent
156 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
in the trade the prior season had disappeared, among them the
well known Mollie Mohler and Jeannette Roberts. Most of the
trade was confined to points above the terminus of the railroad,
which by October had reached Mankato, the first passenger coach
on the St. Paul and Sioux City road arriving there on the 6th of
that month .
The first boat to reach Mankato in 1869 was the Ellen Hardy
on the 1 8th of April. The Otter, St. Anthony Falls, Pioneer,
Tiger, and our old friend, the Jeannette Roberts, were engaged in
the Minnesota trade this season, besides the Ellen Hardy. The
business men of New Ulm this spring, seeing no immediate pros-
pect of a railroad for their town, bought the little steamer Otter
for $3,000,and put her into the trade between New Ulm and
Mankato, where she made regular trips twice to three times a
week. Her average load of freight used to be 3,000 bushels of
wheat. A number of trips were made to Redwood. The naviga-
tion continued until rather late. On November 3rd, there were
three boats unloading at once at the Mankato levee: the Pioneer,
Otter, and Tiger.
The first boat to reach Mankato in 1870 was the Otter from
New Ulm, on April 5th ; and the Mankato on April I3th was the
first boat to arrive from St. Paul. During the early spring
there was quite a brisk trade ; and the smaller boats, like the
Tiger and Otter, continued to run even through July and August .
The arrivals at Mankato in April and May alone numbered


43 ;
and the total arrivals for the season were about 80. The Mankato
brought down from New Ulm on the 2d of May 17,000 bushels
of wheat on one load, and two days later the Dexter brought
down in two barges 21,000 bushels. The Otter and Tiger plied
mostly between Mankato and New Ulm; while the Mankato,
Dexter, and St . Anthony Falls, made frequent trips to St . Paul .
As an instance of the speed of the Tiger, it is stated that on
May I4th she made the run from Redwood Falls to Mankato in
thirteen and a half hours. In the spring of this year the Jean-
nette Roberts, one of the best known and longest in service of all
the Minnesota steamboats, was sold to go to the Wisconsin river
trade .
lu 1871 the Otterwas the first boat again at Mankato, ar-
riving on April 4th from New Ulm. On April I5th came the
Pioneer, the first boat from St. Paul. On April i8th, as the
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 157
Mankato was approaching 1 St. Peter on her first trip of the
season, she struck a snag a few rods below the present wagon
bridge in that city and sank. Her passengers and crew received
no harm. After lying in the river channel for over a year, she
was finally raised and taken below, never to enter the Minnesota
again. The Otter, Pioneer, and Hudson, were busily employed
during April and May (which was as long as navigation this year
lasted) in carrying wheat and other freight from New Ulm and
Redwood to South Bend, where it was transferred to the rail-
road.


It is said of the Otter, that on May nth of this year she
made the run from West Newton to South Bend, a distance of no
miles, in less than seven hours running time, being the quickest
time the journey was ever made by any boat. She brought with
her two barges loaded with 2,000 bushels of wheat.
With this season ends practically the navigation of the Min-
nesota river, for the Northwestern railway reached New Ulm
this year.
THE LAST STEAMBOATS, 1872 TO 1897.
The Osceola, Captain Haycock, a small boat, ascended the
river as far as Redwood once in the spring of 1872, twice in the
spring of 1873, and once in the spring of 1874. The water,
however, was quite low each season and navigation difficult. In
1876, on the high water of the spring, the IdaFulton and Wyman
X. came up this river; and ten years later, in 1886, one trip was
made by the Alvira. Again for ten years no steamboat was
seen on the Minnesota, until, taking advantage of a freshet in
April, 1897, Captain E. W. Durant of Still water ran his boat,
the Henrietta, a stern-wheel vessel 170 feet long, with forty state
rooms, on an excursion to Henderson, St. Peter, and Mankato.
With the advent of civilization, the surface of the country
has been exposed by cultivation so that much of the moisture
which in the olden days drained into the creeks and -rivers now
evaporates, causing all of our streams to shrink to half their
former size. Thus it has come to pass that he who sees the Min-
nesota of today wonders that it was ever a navigable


on this river for each year, and the dates of
fhe"ir departure from the St. Paul wharf (or, for a considerable
number, as indicated, of their arrivals at St. Peter and Mankato),
are noted in the following table.
Anthony Wayne. June 28, 1850.
Excelsior, June 29, 1851.
STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 163
Tiger, April 21, 1852.
Greek Slave, April 4, 1853.
Greek Slave, March 21, 1854.
Globe, April 8, 1855.
Reveille, April 10, 1856.
Equator, April 12, 1857.
Jeannette Roberts, March 20, 1858.
Freighter, March 25, 1859.
Time and Tide, March 19, 1860.
Albany, March 30, 1861.
Albany (arrival at St. Peter), April 3, 1862.
Jeannette Roberts (arrival at Mankato), April 3, 1863.
Jeannette Roberts (arrival at Mankato), April 16, 1864. ,
Ariel, April 2, 1865 (arriving April 4 at Mankato).
Chippewa Falls (arrival at Mankato), April 15, 1866.
Chippewa Falls (arrival at Mankato), April 18, 1867.
Chippewa Falls Marchempty hand and held the unbroken blades tightly between his fingers. "As soon as I'd swallowed I could tell there was something wrong with it."

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that he shouldn't have taken a bite without knowing exactly what was in there, but he obviously felt awkward enough. "So peanuts are your kryptonite."

"I'm still trying to discover the superpower side of this," he said, a smile materializing on his lips for the first time. He released his clasp on the grass and leaned back on his elbows.

"People's Achilles' heels are usually easier to spot than their superpowers," I told him. "It's hard to hide the delicate stuff."

"This sucks," he said, smile still in place. "Now I'm _delicate_. Thanks. You know, you're crushing


or we can go out. Come pick me up, okay? We'll go anywhere you want. We can plant flowers in front of vandalized bus shelters or loiter inside Burger King trying to convince customers to go home and cook themselves something nutritionally balanced. Let's get crazy, girl. Come on." Yesterday I would've laughed and driven straight over to her house. Now I wondered how long the two people I'd trusted most had been lying to me.

"I know!" Betina announced. "We'll drive over to the Fire Hall and key Jeremy's car. He deserves it, right? We can carve a big ol' peace symbol on his hood."

I cringed as she said his name. If I hadn't known better I'd have been utterly convinced by her performance. She must've been countingher Little Miss Nosy Parker."

Natalie ignored her father and persisted. "Who are you going to your prom with?"

"It's not until next year," I told her.

"But still, you must have some ideas," she said, watching Ella launch herself into a cartwheel. "How many girls can you like? You can't like _all_ of them."

"Girls, get your toys and play, okay?" Bruno directed, pointing to their backpacks. "Give your cousin some breathing room."

I sank into a chair under the umbrella with my dad and Bruno while Natalie sat cross-legged by my dad's rosebush and brushed her doll's hair. Ella preferred action figures, especially superhero stuff that Natalie liked to roll her eyes at. She pulled a handful of Marvel figures out of her backpack and had them battle each other in


murmured, beginning to explain.

They had so much to talk about; I was in the way. "I guess I should go find out what happened to Lucan," I said tentatively, ready to hang around if that's what McKenna wanted.

"Yeah, it's okay," she confirmed, looking stronger with every second. "Thanks for waiting with me. Thank Lucan for me, too."

"I will." I texted Lucan as I trudged out to the car. He called back immediately to tell me he'd left Des's and had begun to walk to McKenna's house. "I just left there," I said. "Give me directions to where you are and I'll come get you."

Soon I was cruising along a nearby block, Lucan waving me down. We eyed each other wearily as he got into the car. "So whatRegister now for InvestSK Business Breakfast

InvestSK, South Kesteven District Council's economic growth and regeneration company, will host its next networking business breakfast event in Stamford later this month.

Taking place on Wednesday 30 January from 8am to 9.30am, the event is a great chance to network with local businesses, find out the latest news and opportunities from across the district and get an update on the work InvestSK is doing to boost economic growth across South Kesteven.

The quarterly networking event will be held in the brand new Digital Skills Centre at New College Stamford with college Principal, Janet Meenaghan, attending as InvestSK's guest speaker. Janet will talk about the College's new digital services and training programmes that have been designed with and for local businesses, as well as showcasing


the College's wider range of employer programmes including apprenticeships and specialist commercial training.

Councillor Matthew Lee, the Leader of South Kesteven District Council and Chairman of InvestSK, will provide a welcome address followed by a business briefing outlining the district's latest economic intelligence from InvestSK's CEO, Steve Bowyer.

Steve Bowyer, chief executive of InvestSK, said: "Since we launched our series of Business Breakfasts last May, they've been growing in popularity and now regularly attract around 80 delegates. These are great, free networking events which we rotate around the district so we can meet a wide range of companies and I'm looking forward to welcoming lots of local business people to our next one in Stamford."

Places for the InvestSK Business Breakfast are free but limited, so delegates are advised to bookAt the moment, it is clear that some 2016 Presidential candidates are riding on anti-immigration sentiments to gain popularity. All running candidates have expressed their political positions regarding undocumented immigrants but something important is lacking in their views.

IO GRANDE CITY, TX – DECEMBER 07: A one-year-old from El Salvador clings to his mother after she turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents on December 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. They had just illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. The mother said she brought her son on the 24-day journey from El Salvador to escape violence in the Central American country. The number of migrant families and unaccompanied minors has again surged in recent months, even as the total number of illegal crossings nationwide has gone


Image copyright Vogue

British Vogue's November issue will use academics and businesswomen instead of models on its fashion pages and in editorial features for the first time.

But actress Emily Blunt is on the cover and models will appear in adverts.

Editor Alexandra Shulman said the difficulties she had in securing sample designer clothes for non-models for shoots made her want to explore what women wear through a "real" filter.

One campaigner welcomed the move as a "positive example of good work".

Tetraplegic journalist Melanie Reid, who writes a weekly column for the Times Magazine, Unruly Media video marketing company co-founder Sarah Wood, architectural historian Shumi Bose and ice cream entrepreneur Kitty Travers all appear in the issue.

The magazine, on sale from Thursday, explores topics including what "real" beauty is, and how successfulcommentator Natasha Devon applauded the trend for using images of "real" women in fashion and beauty.

But she warned that if magazines still digitally altered their images, it could still put pressure on women and girls to adhere to unrealistic standards of shape and beauty, without recourse to the idea that the subjects were "professional models".

There has been long-standing criticism of the fashion industry, its designers, shops, magazines and advertising, for using models who convey an unrealistic image of the size of women.

The average UK size is a 12, with many designer sample sizes a UK 8 or below.

As part of its #NoSizeFitsAll campaign, the Women's Equality Party has called on designers to use a range of sample sizes, and the party urged Vogue's editor to back its efforts


to persuade the British Fashion Council to compel designers attending London Fashion Week 2017 to do so.

Body confidence

The YMCA is one group involved in the Be Real Campaign for body confidence which aims to help people put health above appearance. YMCA England's CEO Denise Hatton welcomed Vogue using images that more accurately reflected how women look as a "positive example of good work".

But she said it was only a small step towards a culture that "actively and consistently" promotes diversity.

She said the campaign group of schools, people, charities, businesses and public bodies is due to launch an "image code" asking industries to reflect the UK's diversity by showing people of "all shapes and sizes, skin tones, genders, ages, ethnicities, disfigurements, abilities and disabilities".

"Only when the images we seeNewsletter

Pope Francis deeply influenced by saintly popes John Paul II and John XXIII

VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio almost became pope in 2005, he told a confidant that — had he been elected — he would have named himself after the pope he so admired: John XXIII.

When he did become pope in 2013, his first public words echoed what John Paul II had said upon his election — that cardinals had searched far, to the “ends of the Earth,” to find a new leader.

John XXIII and John Paul II, two of the 20th century’s great spiritual leaders, changed the face of the Catholic Church and the papacy itself with their remarkable, and remarkably different, papacies. They also had a profound influence on Pope Francis, who


will declare them both saints Sunday in history’s first canonization of two popes.

John, embraced by progressives, reigned from 1958-1963 and is credited primarily with having convened the Second Vatican Council, which brought the 2,000-year-old institution into modern times. During his 26 years as pope, John Paul ensured a more conservative implementation and interpretation of the council, while helping to bring down communism and energizing a new generation of Catholics.

Just weeks after he was elected, Francis prayed at the tombs of both men — an indication that he feels a great personal and spiritual continuity with them.

“To canonize them both together will be, I believe, a message for the church,” Francis said last summer. “These two were wonderful, both of them.”

___

FRANCIS’ ROOTS

Francis owes his papacy — and his career— to John Paul, who was elected in 1978 as the first non-Italian in 455 years.

It was John Paul who plucked Bergoglio from relative obscurity and from internal Jesuit exile to make him an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992. Six years later, John Paul promoted Bergoglio to archbishop of the Argentine capital and in 2001 made him a cardinal, putting him in the running to possibly succeed him as pope.

In Bergoglio, John Paul probably saw a kindred spirit, a conservative who like John Paul opposed the Marxist excesses of liberation theology in Latin America.

Bergoglio later testified before the church tribunal for John Paul’s saint-making process that his pope had been “heroic” in his suffering as he battled Parkinson’s disease in his later years. He said his


own devotion to the Virgin Mary was due in part to John Paul’s great devotion to the Madonna.

But in many ways, Francis is much more a pontiff in the style of John XXIII.

Francis’ emphasis on a “poor church,” on internal church reform and spreading the faith to the peripheries of society echoes the concerns of John XXIII.

The young Angelo Roncalli joined the Franciscan order’s lay branch before being ordained, drawn to the emphasis of its founder St. Francis of Assisi on caring for the poor and his message of peace. The current pope eventually decided to name himself after St. Francis, signaling a deep spiritual connection.

In a sentimental sign of his admiration for John XXIII, Francis included John’s longtime private secretary, Loris Capovilla, in his first batch ofdealing with young people, though he lacks the booming voice John Paul cultivated in his days as an actor.

George Weigel, John Paul’s biographer, said it’s “frankly ridiculous” to see Francis only as a rupture from the doctrine-minded papacies of John Paul and later Benedict XVI, as many people view him.

“Pope Francis is obviously a man who is inspired by John Paul II, deeply admired John Paul II,” Weigel said. “He inherited a church shaped by John Paul II and Benedict XVI in what I try to think of as a 35-year long arc of interpretation of the Second Vatican Council.”

But there are clear differences. John Paul, born Karol Wojtyla, willingly put himself front and center in the church’s cultural wars, using the papal pulpit to enter into the


the practicing life of a Christian “was again essential to being pope.”

___

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Like Francis, John grew up in a large, devout family where the women taught the young the simple piety of poor Catholics of the era. For John it was his mother, Marianna. For Francis his grandmother, Rosa. They both hailed from hearty northern Italian stock: Francis’ grandparents moved to Argentina from Piedmont; Roncalli’s family still hails from Bergamo.

John Paul’s background was totally different, though he too came from a devout Catholic family. In Wadowice, Poland, he lost his mother when he was a child, his older brother when he was 14. By the time he was in his 20s, he was alone in the world after his father died.

Despite their different upbringings, all three arrived atthe papacy with a visceral need to be around people.

John defined his life at the Vatican as that of a “bird in a gilded cage” and took every opportunity to escape. Francis opted to live at the Vatican hotel rather than the Apostolic Palace, saying his psychiatric health was in the balance.

John Paul rarely ate alone, often using the dinner table as both a place to talk over serious business or share good times with old friends from Poland.

Oder also acknowledged a darker side to John Paul. He had a temper, and wasn’t afraid of showing it. He was “hot blooded and emotional,” Oder said, recalling how John Paul once berated a priest in his diocese for a misdeed and ordered him to hand over his driver’s license.

John


was lengthy, the record is voluminous and the contentions are numerous. For reasons which will appear, we shall affirm the judgment as to defendant Remiro and reverse as to defendant Little.
A brief summary of facts will provide overall context for the discussion. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary in conjunction with the separate treatment of the several contentions.
In the early evening of November 6, 1973, Superintendent Marcus Foster was shot and killed from ambush as he walked from his office to his automobile after a school board meeting. Deputy superintendent Robert Blackburn, who was with Foster at the time, was seriously wounded by a shotgun blast. Bullets removed from Foster's body had been hollowed out in the tip and filled with cyanide. The authorities made nopublic mention of the use of cyanide bullets.
On November 8, 1973, several bay area newspapers and a radio station received identical documents purporting to originate with the so-called Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The document bore a drawing of a seven-headed cobra below which were the letters SLA; entitled "Communique *816 No. 1," the document purported to order the execution of Foster and Blackburn by cyanide bullets and inveighed at length against, among others, the Oakland School Board, the "fascist ruling class" and the fascist government of Amerika [sic]."
In the early morning of January 10, 1974, a Chevrolet van driven by defendant Little in which defendant Remiro was a passenger was stopped for investigation by a police officer in Concord. In the ensuing confrontation, Remiro fired several shots at


the officer from a .380 automatic pistol. Remiro escaped immediate apprehension but Little was arrested and the van seized. Inside the van were SLA documents. Later that morning Remiro was arrested. He was armed with a Walther .380 automatic pistol. This pistol was established at trial as the gun which fired five of the bullets removed from Foster's body and eight expended .380 shells found at the murder scene. One of the bullets removed from Foster's body and another bullet and empty shell found at the murder scene were possibly fired from a .38 caliber Rossi revolver owned by Little.
In the early evening of January 10, 1974, firemen extinguished a fire of incendiary origin at a house near Concord close to the site where Little and Remiro hadbeen stopped earlier that morning in the Chevrolet van. Among the items discovered in the Concord house were firearms, ammunition, empty shells which had been fired from the .380 Walther and the .38 caliber Rossi, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails, several SLA "communiques" (including the original of Communique No. 1 from which the copies received by the news media had been duplicated), a typewritten list containing the names and addresses of the five news organizations to which Communique No. 1 had been sent, a hand-drawn map of the Foster ambush-murder scene, Oakland School District publications from which Foster's photograph had been torn out, a document containing the time and date of the school board meeting following which Foster had been killed, cyanide bullets similar to those which killed


Foster and the materials with which they were made, and a shotgun shell which had been fired from or at least worked through the same shotgun which wounded Blackburn. Fingerprints of both defendants and of avowed SLA members Donald DeFreeze, Patricia "Mismoon" Soltysik, and Nancy Ling Perry were found on various documents seized in the house. A wallet containing personal identification papers of Little and other papers bearing his name were found in a bedroom of the Concord house.
*817 The Chevrolet van was registered to N.G. Ling, the maiden name of Nancy Ling Perry. Both defendants had been observed working on the van in the driveway of the Concord house. The house had been rented to Nancy Ling Perry and Little using the aliases Nancy and George DeVoto.Both defendants had been seen around the property during the past several months. Each of them carried keys to the house.
Both defendants were shown to have been associated with other avowed SLA members during the past two years, including DeFreeze, Soltysik, Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall and Willie Wolfe. The latter six individuals perished in May 1974 when the house from which they were engaging Los Angeles police in a gun battle caught fire and was completely incinerated. Found in the ashes of the Los Angeles house, next to the outstretched hand of the dead Nancy Ling Perry, was Little's .38 caliber Rossi revolver; also found were a number of sawed-off rifles, the separated barrels of which had earlier been recovered from the Concord house, a shotgun which


Remiro had purchased in Oakland in 1973 and various other guns and ammunition. Several of the weapons found in the Los Angeles ruins had fired some of the expended shells which had been found in the Concord house.
The prosecutor sought to prove that even though defendants may not have been the trigger men, they were members of a criminal combination which planned and executed the shootings of Foster and Blackburn as part of a larger conspiracy to wage war, in the words of the SLA manifesto, on the "Fascist United States Government, The Facist [sic] Capitalist Class" and their supporters by means of terroristic acts including murder and kidnapping of officials and prominent members of the community, thereby fomenting violent upheaval and promoting revolutionary change.
Neither defendant testified. Followingcontinue slowly at about 10 to 15 miles per hour in a 25-mile per hour zone. Duge followed at a distance as the van traveled slowly in a circle throughout the neighborhood. Duge had worked the area for the past eight months and was familiar with local traffic patterns. He knew that on weeknights people on the street at this hour were usually purposefully headed home from a swing shift at work. Duge also knew that a large number of residential and automobile burglaries and thefts had been reported in the neighborhood. He knew vans were often used in burglaries. Duge was familiar with vehicles which frequented the area and this van was unfamiliar to him; its slow speed and circular route were suggestive of a "casing" operation


in preparation for a burglary or theft. Accordingly, when the van had traveled full circle and reached the point at which he had first noticed it, Duge pulled the vehicle over.
Duge, in uniform, approached the driver and asked for his operator's license. The driver, Little, tendered a California driver's license bearing the name "Robert James Scalise" and an Oakland address; he asked why he was being stopped. Duge replied he wanted to talk to Little about his suspicious driving; Little gave no reply. The officer then asked the passenger, Remiro, for some identification; Remiro produced a driver's license bearing his own name and an Oakland address. Little told Sgt. Duge that he and Remiro were looking for a friend in the area. When asked for the friend's identity,of a DeVoto on Sutherland Court, and the other information known to him, Duge decided to talk to the passenger. He approached the passenger side of the vehicle, tapped on the window and asked Remiro to step out so he could talk to him. Remiro stepped out.
Duge feared for his safety because his cover unit had not yet arrived and he was outnumbered by at least one person with the possibility that more were concealed from his view in the van. Consequently, Duge asked Remiro if he had any weapons and advised him that he was going to frisk him. Remiro stepped back and pulled open his jacket, revealing on his right hip a bulge Duge recognized as the handle of an automatic pistol. As Duge ran for


cover, Remiro fired two shots at him. Duge returned the fire and was shot at two more times. As Remiro fled on foot he fired one more shot at Duge. The van speeded away and disappeared from view. Duge transmitted an emergency radio call for help.
As Officer Lee arrived shortly thereafter, the van reappeared a block or so away. The two officers stopped the van and arrested defendant Little at gunpoint. Little pointed out and Lee observed in plain view a handgun inside the van on the engine cover. Lee opened the cargo door on the passenger side, looked inside for passengers, and discovered none.
Concord Police Officer Breuker next arrived on the scene. He looked into the van from the driver's side and saw the pistol. Unaware thatOfficer Lee had already checked the van for occupants, he looked into the open cargo doors, and took a number of pictures showing the position of the pistol which he then seized as evidence. Breuker checked the van for additional evidence of the shooting. On the step of the driver's door he found a wallet which contained a social security card of "Scalise." In the rear of the engine compartment, he found a brown paper bag, crimped at the top. Inside the bag, Breuker observed a large stack of papers; the top sheet bore an unusual drawing and the legend, "Symbionese Liberation *826 Army." In a brown paper bag behind the driver's seat was a fully loaded, break-apart rifle. Aware that a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation


Army had claimed credit for the assassination of an Oakland school official, Breuker reported his observations to his superior officer. The van was sealed and searched later that morning pursuant to a search warrant obtained on the strength of the foregoing information. Among the items seized under the warrant was a large amount of SLA literature.
Little was taken to the police station and booked. Included in his property was a set of eight keys on a chain. Remiro was found hiding behind a parked vehicle on Sutherland Court and was apprehended by Concord police officers at about 5:30 a.m. on January 10, 1974. On his person was a .380 Walther automatic pistol. He was transported to the police station, booked, and a set of keys was removed fromhis person.
At 6:26 p.m. on January 10, 1974, Contra Costa County firemen arrived at the house located at 1560 Sutherland Court to combat a structural fire. The fire was controlled at 6:29 p.m.
Fire Captain Spomer arrived at 6:31 p.m. Spomer was informed that a five-gallon gasoline can had been found inside the house and that there had been a flash fire. He entered the house to look for victims and identification of occupants as well as to open up the house for ventilation due to the heavy concentration of smoke. Inside Spomer noted a strong odor of gasoline and observed that all the doors to the hallway had been removed, thus facilitating a draft and permitting the fire to spread more quickly. Spomer suspected arson. He observed Molotov


cocktails, assorted ammunition and weapons, stacks of papers on the floors, in the bathtub and elsewhere, and revolutionary literature on the bedroom walls. Searching for identification, Spomer saw an open desk drawer; inside he observed a document entitled "Communique No. 3, Symbionese Liberation Army." The communique concerned the execution of correctional officers, their wives, and others. Aware of the shootout involving Officer Duge and the discovery of SLA materials in the van, Spomer notified the Concord Police Department of his findings.
Captain Tamborski of the Concord Police Department arrived at 1560 Sutherland Court around 7:30 p.m. after being advised of the suspected arson and the discovery of the SLA material. Tamborski entered the house to investigate the suspected arson. In one of the bedrooms, Tamborski seized a wallet andan envelope bearing the name of Russell *827 Jack Little. Tamborski noticed a heavy aroma of gasoline in the house. Fearing for his safety, he exited a minute or two after entering.
At that point Tamborski was informed the house was outside the Concord city limits. He therefore informed the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department of the suspected arson. Between 7:30 and 8 p.m., Tamborski reentered the house accompanying a bomb squad and sheriff's personnel. Tamborski's stated purpose for reentering was to look for evidence that might relate to the Duge shootout because at that point the arson investigation had been taken over by the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department. While inside the house, Tamborski observed a cardboard box containing two galvanized pipe bombs. He pointed them out to the bomb


squad leader.
Marion Horner was the owner of 1560 Sutherland Court. In October 1973, he had rented the house to Nancy Ling Perry and Little posing as Nancy and George DeVoto. "George DeVoto" paid the rent on November 1, 1973. At the time of the fire the rent had been paid through February of 1974.
Horner arrived at the scene at approximately 7 p.m. He was informed that arson was suspected. From information provided by several neighbors at the scene, he determined that just prior to the fire a heavily laden automobile "bottomed out" on the driveway and sped from the premises after one of the passengers, a tenant, threw something into the garage; moments later an explosion blew out the dining room windows. "Nancy DeVoto" had not been seenor heard from since the automobile's departure. Presuming the house abandoned, Horner took possession of the premises. Later that evening he gave oral and written consent for the Contra Costa Sheriff's office and the Oakland Police Department to conduct a search of the premises.
Sergeant John Agler of the Oakland Police Department was in charge of the investigation of the Marcus Foster murder. In the early hours of January 10, 1974, Agler learned of the shooting incident in Concord involving Sergeant Duge. Agler was informed of the fire at 1560 Sutherland Court at about 10 p.m., January 10; he was told that SLA information had been discovered inside the house. At the scene he was informed that arson was suspected and that explosive substances and a communique threatening the


in the van and the van had been involved in the gun battle. It was therefore reasonable to believe, as Breuker did, that the van contained more evidence of the crime as well as evidence helpful in the apprehension of Remiro who was at large and known to be armed and dangerous (see People v. Laursen, supra, 8 Cal.3d at p. 201). The circumstances permitted a warrantless search of the vehicle. Moreover Little's gun and the wallet and identification of "Scalise" were not the product of a search, both having been in plain view of the seizing officer.

C. Search of the House at 1560 Sutherland Court.
Within an hour and a half after the arrival of the fire department at the Sutherland Court house, Fire Captain Spomer and PoliceAgler was also aware that SLA literature had been found in the Chevy van and in the Concord house; he had compared the literature found in the van with the Foster communique and observed the common use of identical seven-headed cobras.
Agler was informed that explosive devices had been found at the Concord house; that the fire was of incendiary origin; that a tenant of the house had exited, thrown objects into the house and departed just before it caught fire; and that no one had since returned to the house.
Agler also knew that at least three suspects were directly involved with the Foster killing but only two suspected of SLA involvement, Little and Remiro, were then in custody. Agler was aware that an SLA communique threatening the execution


battle with Los Angeles police on May 17, 1974, in which six SLA members died both tended to prove that the conspiracy of which these defendants were members continued in existence at least until the date of the Los Angeles gun battle.
The challenged evidence was relevant and admissible to show the nature and scope of the conspiracy which spawned the plans to murder Foster and Blackburn. Evidence of conspiratorial activities both before and after the commission of the charged offenses was necessary to show the commitment of defendants and their coconspirators to the common design and their active participation in the means intended to further its implementation, all of which was relevant to and highly probative of defendants' criminal culpability in the charged offenses which were themselves buttestimony was relevant in establishing a foundation for the notebook's admissibility. The notebook itself was relevant to proof of the general SLA conspiracy and the specific plan to assassinate Foster and Blackburn.
Colton Westbrook testified about the Black Cultural Association, an outside group concerned with the rights of black prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. Westbrook testified that Little, Willie Wolfe and others attended association meetings in Vacaville in the spring and summer of 1972; Donald DeFreeze, then a prison inmate at Vacaville, was an active participant in the association during the time of Little's attendance. The trial court limited the jury's consideration of Westbrook's testimony to the case against Little. The testimony was relevant in showing an early association among Wolfe, Little, and DeFreeze who became


coconspirators within a few months thereafter.
(23) Wilbur Taylor, president of the Chabot Gun Club in Oakland, laid an evidentiary foundation for sign-in sheets at the club shooting range for several dates from April 6, 1973, through November 4, 1973. Appearing on these sheets in various combinations on identical days were the names of defendants and Willie Wolfe, M. Soltysik, N. Perry, Angela Atwood, William Harris and Emily Harris. Taylor was not personally present when any of these sheets were signed.
The records were admissible under Evidence Code section 1271 which authorizes the receipt under the business records exception to the hearsay rule of a writing made in the regular course of business at or near the time of the act, condition or event recorded, when the custodian of recordsrescue maneuver, but also because jeweler's saws were found in defendants' effects when they were transferred from Alameda to Sacramento County. Also leaflets were being distributed at the courthouse urging protests and demonstrations to free "prisoners of war" Little and Remiro. And known members of the Weather Underground, a group which had claimed responsibility for bombings and other acts of violence, attended defendants' trial. In fact, during cross-examination of prosecution witness Christopher Thompson, Little physically attacked him on the witness stand to the verbal encouragement of a trial spectator shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!"
In this atmosphere the security order was eminently reasonable as an aid in law enforcement's endeavor to guard against possible harm to defendants, the officers of the court, and trial spectators themselves. Even so, despite


a threat the police could not and the courts should not ignore.
[4]  Remiro purchased the .380 Walther pistol used to kill Foster in July 1973 at a San Leandro sporting goods store.

Little purchased the .38 caliber Rossi revolver in March 1973 from a private party. The bill of sale was made out to a fictitious purchaser.
Among the items of evidence seized in the Concord house was a document entitled "The Seven Principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army" (sometimes referred to herein as the "SLA manifesto"). It spelled out the credo and goals of the SLA and the means of implementing them. Little's fingerprints were found on several pages thereof. Little's fingerprints were also found on two unnumbered SLA communiques  one concerning a plan to kidnap anamed Kaiser Corporation executive for ransom and another concerning an attack on the General Tire and Rubber Company in Burlingame, on a list of Regents and officers of the University of California, on a piece of paper containing a name and address identified thereon as that of the "Treas. of Bd. of Regents," on a list of gun stores and a book entitled Markmanship and on many other documents admitted into evidence which were seized in the Concord house. Remiro's fingerprints were also found on the Markmanship book, and on a notebook containing handwritten notes which recited some of the seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army and which also contained a hand-drawn sketch of the area around the administrative offices of the Oakland Unified School District where


Superintendent Foster was shot. Remiro's fingerprints were found on several other pieces of documentary evidence seized in the Concord house. Fingerprints of Perry, Soltysik and DeFreeze were also found on numerous documents seized at that location.
There was a plethora of evidence showing close association among defendants and the six-named SLA members over a substantial period of time. This included evidence that Little had assisted DeFreeze to evade apprehension after his escape from Soledad Prison in March 1973 and evidence that various combinations of these individuals visited an East Bay firing range on several occasions in 1973 and practice-fired weapons. William and Emily Harris also participated in some of the latter activities.
As examples of fealty to SLA goals, defendants acquired false identification papers and were involved in the rentalThere are always legends to be found in the Yukon: epic poems about desperate miners burning themselves crisp rather than freeze in the unforgiving cold; crafty ladies waiting in whisky-soaked saloons to remove the fortunes from those who struck it rich.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, 40,000 people flocked to Dawson City, which grew into the largest town north of San Francisco and wealthy enough to be known as the Paris of the North. Fools rushed in, but along with the gold, they also rushed out. Dawson City's population numbers only around 1,200, as old barns crackle in winter temperatures that hit below -55 C. But it is here, and only here, where one can drink the legendary Sourtoe Cocktail - a glass of whisky with a real, severed,


substituted for whisky, but no sweet liquors, milk or soda pop.

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It didn't take long for the first toe to disappear, in this case down the throat of an overzealous patron. More toes made their way to Dawson City's Downtown Hotel, generously donated by frostbitten amputees or Yukon old-timers. Some were stolen, some disappeared. The eighth donated appendage - apparently the unfortunate victim of a lawn mower accident - found its way into my glass.

The temperature outside was so cold that it had frozen the runway, preventing Air North flights from landing. I had come to the Yukon with hopes of seeing the Northern Lights for the first time, but that natural spectacle was a no-show too. It was one more reason to drink myself warmSyrian President Bashar al-Assad pictured in Iran Oct. 2, 2010: The embattled president has reportedly taken refuge in his palace in the coastal city of Latakia after the July 18 bombing. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

July 20, 2012

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly left Damascus and is directing his military's response to the assassination of three of his top security chiefs from the safety of his Alawite minority's coastal stronghold. Syrian rebels have seized key border crossings and torched police headquarters in the capital as they continue an offensive in the heart of the regime's power. There have been unconfirmed reports, refuted by Moscow, that Assad's wife, Asma, has fled to Russia, the regime's main protector and ally. Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador to France claims Assad has accepted that he has


to leave power, a suggestion Syria denies, but the Obama administration says it's clear Assad is "losing control." Is the Syrian regime starting to unravel?

Assad has definitely lost his grip: Judging by the fighting and bombings in Damascus, says Bruce Riedel at The Daily Beast, Assad's regime "is finally coming to an end." Once he has lost control for good, chaos will reign, so the international community should prepare to restore order with a peacekeeping force. It's the only way to prevent violent reprisals by the Sunni majority for decades of Alawite repression, and to keep Assad's chemical weapons from falling into terrorists' hands."What comes after Assad in Syria?"

The regime might still regain its footing: Assad and his rivals are locked in "an intense psychological war," says RoulaKhalaf at Britain's Financial Times. Rebels argue that the government is disintegrating; Assad is trying to convince loyalists that he's still "in control" and "can overcome the massive shock of a brazen rebel penetration of the regime's security umbrella." If Assad "fails to impose his authority over Damascus," he might fall back to his Alawite haven, and fight for survival."Assad holds Alawites in reserve"

Assad can't survive much more bad news: The brazen bombing of Assad's security nerve center on Wednesday appears to have been "an inside job," says The Economist in an editorial, which suggests that "the loyalty of the army" is fraying. That's only the "latest blow" for Assad — huge swathes of the country "have become no-go areas for government forces," and the pace of defections


Man convicted over filming T2 Trainspotting at Glasgow cinema Published duration 25 May 2018

image copyright Google image caption Staff at the Vue cinema at Glasgow Fort spotted the man making the recording

A man caught trying to illegally record T2 Trainspotting at the Vue cinema at Glasgow Fort has been convicted of a copyright offence.

Ryan Finnigan, 41, pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to attempting to record the Danny Boyle film in February last year.

It is only the second time someone in Scotland has been convicted of such a crime, and the first since 2011.

Finnigan was caught after being spotted by staff at the cinema.

He was arrested and charged after a multi-agency operation involving Police Scotland and the Film Content Protection Agency.

'Damage to the film industry'

Det Insp, Ricky Huttonsaid: "This conviction shows that Police Scotland continually works with our partners to protect our creative industries from the threats from intellectual property crime.

"The copying of films in the cinemas and subsequent release of pirate copies online have significant financial implications for the UK Film industry and the ability to invest in jobs and future filming.

"Although people may think that this will have little impact on major film studios, make no mistake, the amount of money being lost is on a large scale. People working illegally are impacting on the creative industry as a whole and our international reputation as a leading location for creative arts.

"Copies of illegally recorded films are also acquired by organised crime networks - typically operating for profit across multiple illegal activities and therefore


it is vital that we are able to crack down on those recording the material."

Simon Brown, director of the Film Content Protection Agency said: "This has been a significant criminal case involving the illegal recording of a film in a Scottish cinema, which was successfully spotted and disrupted by the staff there.

"Over 90% of pirated films originate from a copy recorded during a public performance in cinemas worldwide, so it's vital that offenders like Mr Finnigan are disrupted promptly to prevent further damage to the film industry."Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as artist of painting in Boris Ioganson workshop, together with Ilya Glazunov, Elena Gorokhova, Vladimir Malevsky, Galina Rumiantseva, Ivan Varichev, Dmitry Oboznenko, and other young artists. Her graduation work was genre painting "The first days of the organization of the collective farm".

Since 1957 Zlata Bizova has participated in Art Exhibitions. She painted genre scenes, landscapes, portraits, still-life, etudes done from nature.

Zlata Bizova is a member of  the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists (before 1992 named as the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation) since 1960.

Paintings by Zlata Bizova reside in Art Museums and private collections in Russia, France, Germany, Belgium, in the U.S., Italy, Japan, Norway, Korea, and others.

Principal exhibitions

 1957 (Leningrad): 1917 - 1957. Leningrad Artist's works of Art


Effort-reward imbalance, sleep disturbances and fatigue.
The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model in relation to disturbed sleep and fatigue. The study population derived from a subset of the WOLF (WOrk, Lipids, Fibrinogen) cohort study of cardiovascular risk in a working population who replied to the ERI-questionnaire comprising 789 men and 214 women. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the prevalence ratio (PR) for sleep disorders and fatigue in relation to the components of ERI. As sleep disturbances and fatigue, based on literature, were defined to be represented by the uppermost quintile, 14% of the men and 23% of the women were affected by sleep disturbances while 14 and 26%, respectively, were affected by fatigue. Higher levels of exposureHow It Started

In January 2008 Bob Almond began an on-line discussion on the Inkwell Yahoo Group about the overall lack of recognition and problems with respect toward inkers. During these discussions, the idea of an award was mooted to raise awareness of the craft of inking in the public eye.

Bob wrote an article on the subject for his ‘Inkblots’ column in Sketch Magazine in 2007, edited by Bill Nichols.


A UN committee has called for an end to excessive electronic surveillance and expressed concern at the harm such scrutiny, including spying in foreign states and the mass collection of personal data, may have on human rights.

The UN General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, adopted a German and Brazilian-drafted resolution which seeks to protect the same offline rights enjoyed by citizens online.

The resolution is expected to be put to a vote in the 193-member General Assembly next month.

The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - known as the Five Eyes surveillance alliance - supported the draft resolution after language that had initially suggested foreign spying could be a human rights violation was weakened to appease them.

The draft text does not point theprivacy is pivotal to any democratic society," Brazil's UN ambassador, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, told the committee. "Full participation in democracy implies full protection of individual liberties, including the right to privacy in the digital age."

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and German chancellor Angela Merkel have both condemned the widespread spying by the US National Security Agency. The NSA is accused of accessing tens of thousands of French phone records and monitoring phone calls by Merkel and Rousseff.

A North Korean UN delegate said spying on heads of state was "a rampant violation of sovereignty and it is interference into the internal affairs, it is an insult, very unbearable."

North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive and repressive nations, was one of dozens of co-sponsors of the draft resolution.


which was about to acquire a US-based software company. Here was a pocket-sized Indian company acquiring an American company that was four times bigger. Frankly, it was quite exciting to be able to write about the deal.

Since, I had zero experience in writing a corporate story, the corporate bureau head suggested, I contact Aruna (name changed) a seasoned corporate reporter. Aruna had recently joined BW after quitting her job at the Delhi-based business daily I mentioned above and had written extensively about LMH Systems. She was very nice to me and said I should speak directly to the owner of LMH Systems, who in her opinion was an extremely friendly guy and would provide me any information that I wanted about the deal.

Curiously, she revealed that she ownedLMH stock and had made a profit of Rs 60,000, which in 1999 was a tidy amount. She made no effort to hide that it was inside information, which had allowed her to buy the shares, as the company was on the upswing.

But first, Aruna suggested, I read up older stories covered by the business daily’s Mumbai bureau. So I went to the newspaper office and after a couple of hours of manual search (not much on the internet those days) found a bunch of stories that had no bylines, but were datelined Mumbai.

I called the business daily’s Mumbai office and asked them, if they could identify the reporter, who had written those stories. After a few minutes, they came back and told me the stories were written


show after 30 years of journalism is a two-bedroom flat in a DDA enclave in Delhi. He refused to be part of his editor’s plan to blackmail political leaders by using his amazing investigative skills.

In 2002, while working at a leading Delhi-based daily, I turned down a Rs 50,000 bribe from a family friend, who is now a builder. He had said: “All you have to do is get a one column article published in your business pages.” I kept my phone off the hook for a week.

What I did was no big deal. Most of the Indian media is honest and upright. However, there is a tiny co-opted minority of journalists, who are in bed with politicians, foreign agents and corporates, and are a huge problem. InInternational and Strategic Relations, Paris; BBC Vietnam; Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk; Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi; Institute for Defense Analyses, Virginia; International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Washington DC; Stimson Centre, Washington DC; Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia; and Institute for Strategic, Political, Security and Economic Consultancy, Berlin.
His articles have been published by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi; Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies, Warsaw; and the Research Institute for European and American Studies, Greece, among others.


Pages

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Count Christian Frederick von Schalburg born in Ukraine on 15 April 1906. His father, August Theodor Schalburg, was a Danish landowner and director of several dairy plants in Siberia while his mother, Elena Vasiljevna, was a Ukrainian. He grew up to a large extent in a German-Danish-Ukrainian community and learned to speak fluent Russian. He later joined the Czarist cadet corps, but fled the country with his family after the Bolshevik takeover.

Taking refuge in Denmark, von Schalburg enlisted in Den Kongelige Livgarde (Royal Life Guard) and worked his way up to the rank of Captain. He married with Helle von Schalburg and has a son, Alex. In fact, his marriage with a member of German nobility gave him an opportunity to add the ‘von’ titleto his name. In the late 1930s von Schalburg was attracted to the Danish National Socialist Workers Party (DNSAP) and served as the leader of its youth branch—a move that cost him his position in the Den Kongelige Livgarde because his superior described him as “unstable and for the army possibly a dangerous man.” Frustrated and thought himself as a victim of Jewish slander, when the Russo-Finnish War broke, he organized a Danish volunteer battalion to fight on the side of the Finns. It had barely entered the country in March 1940, when Finland forced to capitulate. In deep frustration, he and other volunteers returned to Denmark.

After the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940, von Schalburg became one of the first volunteers for the new SS-Standarte ‘Nordland’.


He was later aattended training at an SS Officers Academy in Germany from November 17, 1940 to December 10, 1940. He subsequently serves as ‘Wiking’ divisional O1 (a position for prospective General Staff trainees).

During the first nine months in Russia, he came under fire many times and led kampfgruppen in several engagements. Since von Schalburg spoke fluent Russian, he actually served more like the Ic, or Intelligence Officer. While his post was O1, he in practice made himself useful on the staff by carrying out various other tasks such as interrogating prisoners and serving as the unofficial spokesman for the Scandinavian volunteers in the division. As a result he was quickly awarded both classes of the Iron Cross as well as a high Danish medal for bravery. The‘Wiking’ commander, SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner, considered him one of the most capable, intelligent and totally courageous men in the division.

When the Russo-German war broke, the Danish Government formed a volunteer formation as theirs military contribution to the war with Russia. Named as ‘Frikorps Danmark’, the Danish War Ministry selected a senior artillery officer, Lieutenant Colonel Christian Peter Kryssing to command the unit. A fierce anti-communist, however, Kryssing was also a known Danish nationalist and patriot. Soon he clashed with his German commanding-officer and removed from the command as a result. The SS-FHA later named von Schalburg as his successor to lead the ‘Frikorps Danmark’.

The SS gave von Schalburg this command mostly because of his political reliability and willingness to provide his corps with the required ideological training. Starting


immediately, von Schalburg, now an SS-Sturmbannführer, initiated a rigorous of combat readiness training, complete with integrated heavy weapons utilization and defensive improvisation techniques. Evenings were given over to discussing military problems and Kriegspiel (war game) outings in the sand tables. As part of his responsibility for the unit's training, he introduced lessons in German and Russian for his men. Von Schalburg selected the 2nd Company commander, a fanatical Nazi SS-Hauptsturmführer Knud Borge Martinsen as his protégé and second-in-command.

On 8 May 1942 von Schalburg and his men were flown by Luftwaffe into the Demyansk Pocket to reinforce the surrounded German troops in the area. On 2 June 1942, von Schalburg initiated the first offensive operation of Frikorps Danmark. In an attempt to monitor the progress of the battle, againstthe advice of a company commander, von Schalburg advanced towards the front line. But he stepped on a mine and was moments later killed by shrapnel from a Russian shell.

His poor judgment, which paid dearly by his own life, could indicate that he may not have been a competent commander. It must, however, be noted that in the SS this behavior was not uncommon and that the losses of commanders in the SS were exceptionally high, including von Schalburg's successor who fell just two days after arriving at the corps.

A day after his death, Schalburg's body was transported in a coffin draped in Dannebrog to the cemetery of the corps located in the small village Biakovo in the Demyansk area. Regimental commander Becker from SS Division ‘Totenkopf’ spoke


at the funeral. On the same day (but effective June 1) Reichsführer SS Himmler posthumously promoted von Schalburg to SS-Obersturmbannführer. A Danish medal, the Schalburg Cross was named after von Schalburg. His widow founded Schalburgs mindefond (memorial fund), which sent packages to Danish volunteers on the Eastern Front.

Aside from gloriously memorials, there were also some darkest pages to memorized von Schalburg death. Von Schalburg was a popular commander among his subordinates. Thus, his death apparently enraged his men. A Danish officer wrote home “no prisoners were taken” on the day of von Schalburg death. Later, his protégé and successor as Frikorps Danmark commander, Knud Borge Martinsen, formed an infamous Schalburg Korpset which mainly served against Danish guerillas. The unit brutality against their compatriots created a new term withThe 12 Days of Site 87's Christmas

The 12 Days of Site-87's Christmas, by Wolf Expert.

On the First day of Christmas, 87 Gave to me…

Tristan Bailey started putting up the Christmas tree. He had drawn the short straw, and was tasked with putting up the tree this year, which had been bought from a new tree farm in town.

"Eya Bailey!" Agent Ewell walked in, stepping aside from the mistletoe cautiously. "Merry X-Mas!"

"Same to you, Ewell." Tristan awkwardly stood the tree up and frowned; despite the fact that it was fifteen feet tall, it neatly fit into the commons he had set it up in, which had only a ten-foot ceiling. "…remind me to get Sinclair or someone in botany to look at this."

"Noted," Ewell said, sipping on some eggnog.


to work in the dark; it helped her concentrate.

She rubbed her face and sighed. Monty- Montgomery- was gone for the holidays; he was visiting family back home. So, she was in her lab, alone, with Christmas only 9 days away. The second day of Christmas, as her mother called it; she counted Christmas as the 12th.

Either way, she was alone, in her lab. She didn't much care for Christmas, anyway, at least, not the American version; now, the Germanic version with the Krampus, That was an amazing celebration.

She reached into her wallet, and looked at a picture she had taken with her mother in Austria, during a Krampusnacht celebration she had been a part of when she was… what, 10? She was in on the act, of course,you, kiss his lips for me…"

Dr. Sinclair expected the smell of burning plastic to meet her lips as she lit the fake mistletoe, but instead, all she smelled was crisp pine needles and Yule Logs. She gave a satisfied sigh, and produced a pumpkin, carved into a Jack-O-Lantern. "Herbst abgeschlossen ist, die Flüsse fließen nicht, Krampus, Krampus, Krampus, Kommen Sie…" She threw the pumpkin into the fire; it conflagrated instantly, and from it, emerged a being with the face of a man, the horns of some bizarre deer, and white, stark hair all over. It growled at Katherine.

"Wer ruft mich? Es ist meine Zeit vorbei." The Krampus had a cold voice, like freezing to death on Christmas Eve.

Katherine swallowed at the sound of his voice. "Ich heiße K.


you need?"

Without another word, Christopher fled the room.

On the fifth day of Christmas, 87 gave to me…

Five mugs of eggnog later, Christopher Hastings woke up in a daze in the common room where E-2512 ("The Christmas Tree") was, with Dr. Partridge having just come in. Not noticing the scattered mugs lying about, he nodded at Hastings and looked up at the angel on top. "Have we heard back from Theology about that?"

"Not yet, sir," Chris said, rubbing his face. "I tried to talk to Dr. Sinclair last night, but-" They were trying to summon a demon to take over the site "-she was in the middle of an experiment, so I said I'd be back later." No, you idiot!

"Very well," Dr. Partridge sighed. "Have we tried destruction testinghe wasn't in his quarters at Site 87; instead, he was in a middling-quality inn in Sloth's Pit, known as The Elk's Horn. For another, someone was next to him in bed. The head of the Department of Multi-Universal Affairs, Dr. Claire Hennessy. The somewhat pudgy, red-headed woman smiled at him as he woke up, dazzling green eyes meeting his plain brown ones.

"Hello there, gorgeous." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "How are ya?"

"Don't call me that, Claire…" Tristan smiled at his girlfriend as he sat up in bed. "And I couldn't be better."

Claire sat up with him. "So," she said. "Apparently, that tree you brought in is causing a real stir back at the site."

"Which is exactly why I wanted to get away from there.


drove back up to the site in separate cars, half an hour apart from one another. Tristan paid for the room with a civilian credit card, as opposed to the Foundation one he was issued; he had lost it anyway. When he got to the site, he used an entrance different from the one Claire had used, and met her down in Multi-Universal affairs.

"Dr. Bailey," she said. "You're late."

"Overslept, madam," Tristan said, adjusting his tie. "What's going on?"

"Well, for one thing…" Claire smirked at him. "You have visitors."

"Boo!" said a voice from behind. Tristan turned around and there were two copies of him standing by, one well-tanned and wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat, the other having a rather well-groomed goatee.

Tristan grinned and laughed. "Tom! Trev! What the heckis to be re-opened to the rest of the site."

"Right," Chris stood up. "I'm going to talk with Dr. Sinclair and Hendricks again. See if they've made any progress."

Dr. Partridge replied with a noncommittal "mmm", and Chris headed out of the greenhouse, into the abnormally warm December day. He made his way to basement level five, where he knocked on the door to Occult Studies.

Dr. Hendricks peeked out of the door, timidly. "Oh, Hastings. Come in…" He opened the door, and revealed that the entire lab was decorated with candles just like the ones Chris had brought in the other day.

Hastings stared. "What the hell…"

"I don't know!" Sinclair said, taking down a candle. "Every time I try to remove them, new ones just pop up! I was kidding


skyscraper, so big that the entire place was in the shade of it. Sinclair gaped at it.

"…Bailey…"

"Yes, Sinclair?"

"You bought a Christmas tree from a magic tree farm, and you didn't notice?"

"…I may have been slightly drunk at the time."

"Ah, welcome!" a voice from nearby greeted them; turning, Chris saw that it was a tall, white-haired being with pointed ears. He looked at Tristan. The being spoke in a soft, sweet-sounding voice. "Ah, hello. You left your credit card here, you know."

Sinclair and Chris stared at Tristan, who looked ashamed. "All right, I was plastered. Went out drinking with some people from Multi-U and had too much booze in the eggnog.

Chris rubbed his face. "That's beside the point." He looked over towards the elf, resisting the urge to askfrom being destroyed by a psychotic Christmas tree." Tom started to hang the mistletoe from the door to the entomology wing.

"Again?"

"Hush," Tom frowned as he hung the mistletoe from a strand of red string."The Christmas of 2008 never happened. We all agreed on it."

"There was Christmas in 2008?" Snarked Tristan as he passed by, putting up sacrificial gingerbread men along the hallway. Tom pointed at Tristan, Tristan pointed at Tom, and they both went "aaaaay!"

"I will never understand how Tyler Bailey could produce sons like you…" Dr. Partridge shook his head, and started walking off.

As he went, Tom shouted after, "Y'know, our mom might have had something to do with that!"

Tristan laughed, and continued pinning the cookies to the walls. Tom looked over at him. "So, Weiss is


figured out how to move the tree yet, by the way?"

"He's working on it." Tom paused meaningfully as he heard a chainsaw rev up from the direction of Common Area 3, followed by the scream of a D-Class as the kickback of said saw made him lose an arm.

"Well, at least this Christmas won't be green." Tristan pinned another Gingerbread man to the wall.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, 87 gave to me…

At 11:00 in the morning, all hell broke loose at Site 87.

The majority of the site had evacuated the night before, but a few had stayed behind, all by choice, in order to study the events. From botany, Dr. Partridge and Christopher Hastings were there to observe the tree's behavior; from Occult Studies, Dr. Sinclair andto this point. He would have questioned it more, had a blast of energy not come from the tree topper and hit Dr. Partridge in the chest, sending him sprawling.

At that point, Chris started running away. The Krampus stayed behind to fight, peppermint-scented blood dripping from the wounds as he was pushed back to the first mistletoe barrier. The tree let out a screech and attempted to muscle through the wall created by the sprigs of berries, and fired a ball of green energy through it, obliterating the barrier.

The Krampus dove out of the way in time, and the ball hit the ceiling, causing it to sprout pine needles, which then started to rain down on the Krampus, impaling the creature and pinning it to the ground.

He would


about a dozen flights of stairs. Arcs of red and green light went over his head, impacting on the walls and turning into pine needles, holly, myrrh, frankincense, and it occurred to Chris that he should stop identifying the various Christmas-related plants and run for his life.

As he ran down the corridor, panting loudly, he drew a sprig of mistletoe from his pocket and held it in front of him like Van Helsing would hold a cross to Dracula. Unfortunately, at the moment, the tree was acting more like Alucard. It simply kept lumbering towards him, and the entrance to the MUTA was over fifty yards away. He could run for it…

But it was too late. Christopher was knocked to the ground by a blast of green lighthitting the hand with mistletoe in it. He yelped in pain as he felt pine needles grow through his hand. The mistletoe sprig was thrown to the ceiling above the tree, where it clung.

An entire bush of mistletoe burst from the modular ceiling, toppling the tree to the ground where it flailed about, unable to regain its footing. Christopher Hastings was somewhat aware of this as he blacked out.

"Hastings? Hastings!"

Christopher was awoken by a slap to the face. Dr. Sinclair stood in front of him, smiling. "Oh thank God! We thought you were dead!"

Christopher blinked awake, looking around. The Christmas Tree was flailing about on the ground, and as being loaded up onto a small cart by six Bailey triplets, with Dr. Hendricks assisting, lining the cart with


mistletoe just to make sure. Chris winced as he looked at his arm; it was bloody, covered with pine needles which had burst outwards from under the skin. "Son of a bitch!"

"We're getting you to surgery." Katherine looked up at the mistletoe bush sprouting from the ceiling. "Fascinating… The blasts appear to have transfigured parts of the site into holiday-related plants, including mistletoe. It hoisted itself by its own petard."

Christopher blanched as he realized something, standing up slowly. "Dr. Partridge got hit…"

"Hell."

They ran (or, in Chris's case, hobbled) off to where Dr. Partridge had fallen, only to find an odd, small shrub where his body was. Christopher stepped over to inspect the plant. "It's a small tree of the genus pyrus."

"English, please?"

"Dr. Partridge is a pear tree."

Katherine wantedto laugh, but all she could do was scream impotently.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, 87 gave to me…

Twelve piles of paperwork stood before members of various departments. One for incident reports, one for casualties sustained, one for property damage, and so on. There was only two casualties for the whole thing, thank god, and even then, Dr. Partridge had already regained sapience and the ability to talk, but was excused from doing paperwork for the time being.

"Because of course he is," muttered Chris, doing two piles worth of paperwork at the same time.

"What do you expect, Hastings?" Tom sighed, filling out Containment Form 281-C while Tristan next to him filled out Multi-Universal Negotiation Form 88-B. "He got turned into a fucking tree. He has an excuse."

"My subdermis


exited the room, limping slightly as he headed down to the occult studies laboratory, just to check on something related to Christmas. When he arrived there, he found the Krampus, as he expected, but also someone else.

Standing with the Krampus, talking to it, was a young woman with bright red hair and green eyes, wearing the ugliest Christmas sweater that Chris had ever seen, along with a hat that had a fake set of elf ears on it. She grinned manically as she talked. "…good thing we had Emma to fill in for you; we nearly made a botch of the whole thing!"

"My apologies, mein chef," the Krampus said, bowing to her. "I was indisposed."

"Did you really fight a Christmas tr-" she blinked as she noticed Christopher standingwon), and the whole site drank several mugs of eggnog.

As he was drinking his seventh (or was it eighth?) mug of eggnog, Christopher Hastings passed by a new Christmas tree which had hastily been erected in Common Area 3, and noticed something. Under the Christmas tree was a present, which had a tag that read as such:

To: Christopher Hastings

From: Dr. W. and Herr K.

Raising an eyebrow, he took the present out from under the tree, noticing that there was a present like this for Sinclair, the three Baileys, and Dr. Hennessy, oddly enough. He shrugged, and unwrapped his gift.

Inside was a framed picture that he swore was never taken, of himself, the three Baileys, Dr. Sinclair, and several other Site-87 staff members, all in Christmas attire. He saw


                 40

   7. Death of AEthelberht. 616                                 41

   8. The Three Kingdoms opposed to the Welsh                  41

   9. AEthelfrith and the Kymry                                 41

  10.         219

  13. The Resistance of Archbishop Winchelsey.
      1296--1297                                              220

  14. The 'Confirmatio Cartarum.' 1297                        220

  15. Wallace's Rising. 1297--1304


        303

  20. The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the
      Treaty of Troyes. 1419-1420                             304

  21. The Close of the Reign of Henry V. 1420-1422            306

CHAPTER XX.

HENRY VI. AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE. 1422-1451.

   1. Bedford and Gloucester. 1422                            307

   2. Bedford's     (_From an original impression_)

   60. Monument of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, died 1139      127
       (_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')

   61. Porchester church, Hampshire, built about 1135         128
       (_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition,
        by J. H. Parker)

   62. Part of the nave of Durham cathedral, built about
       1130


           196
       (_From_ Cott. MS. Nero D. i. ff. 21 and 22 _b_)

   94. Barn of thirteenth-century date at Raunds,
       Northamptonshire                                       197
       (_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')

   95. A fight between armed and mounted knights of the time
       of Henry III.                             AETHELWULF
                                   839-858
                                      |
             +---------------+--------+--------+-----------------+
             |


             |
                 +-------------+----------------+
                 |                              |
                 |                              |
            Margaret             DAVID II.      Margaret = Walter
                    (the Maid of            1329-1370               | Stewart
                       Norway)