United States or Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Representatives of the Vigilance Committee of 1851 followed in wagons with a banner; then four regiments of infantry, more cavalry, citizen guards, pistol men, Vigilante police. Over six thousand men were that day in line, all disciplined, all devoted, all actuated by the highest motives, and conscious of a job well done. The public reception at Fort Gunnybags was also well attended.
Two days after the Governor's proclamation half a dozen of the prisoners in "Fort Gunnybags" were exiled by the Vigilance Committee. Each, after a regular and impartial trial, was found guilty of offenses against the law. The sentence was banishment, with death as the penalty for return.
When dry, the sand filling tended to run out! Therefore, those bags had to be kept constantly wet, and somebody had to do it. Enemies sneeringly remarked that Fort Gunnybags consumed much more water without than within; but this joke lost its point when it became known that the committee, decades in advance of its period, had prohibited alcohol absolutely!
In conclusion, I alluded to two groups of ``Eliminated Ideas, the first of these being the ``Ideas of the Pedants, and the second the ``Ideas of the Philistines. As to the former, I took pains to guard the institution from those who, in the higher education, substitute dates for history, gerund-grinding for literature, and formulas for science; as to the latter, I sought to guard it from the men to whom ``Gain is God, and Gunnybags his Prophet.
He had but to raise his voice to bring them to his assistance. Once inside Fort Gunnybags he knew that the committee would stand behind him to the last man. But John Durkee had imagination as well as bulldog persistency. His mind flashed ahead into the future, envisaging the remoter consequences.
"Yes, somewhat," returned the miner, "but it might have had a little more respect and spared the Tehama House and the What Cheer House. I hated to see them go." "And the Niantic Hotel and Fort Gunnybags," I added. "Here! Here! I rise for a point of information," cried the alien. "Did the cheer inebriate and what is the technical difference between gunny-sacks and carpet bags?"
But they set to work with a will, filled the gunny sacks with sand, piled them on the wagons; and so by morning Fort Gunnybags, as headquarters was thenceforth called, came into existence. Cannon were mounted, breastworks piled, embrasures planned. The five hundred fire-eaters were no myth.
Several announcements of "Feed," whatever that may be, not restaurant dinners, anyhow, also of "Shorts," terms mysterious to city ears as jute and cudbear and gunnybags to such as drive oxen in the remote interior districts. Then the marriage column above alluded to, by the fortunate recipients of the cake.
Six of these were hanged by the Sheriff, and forty-six by the mobs, and the balance were killed by various means by the lawless element. "Fort Gunnybags" 1903.
Then marched four companies of artillery with fifteen mounted cannon. In their rear was a float representing Fort Gunnybags with imitation cannon. Next came the Executive Committee mounted, riding three abreast; then cavalry companies and the medical staff, which consisted of some fifty physicians of the town.
Word Of The Day