The Labor enquirer. [volume], December 16, 1882, Page 6, Image 6

About The Labor enquirer. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1882-1888

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6
[Continued from third page.]
So I released him, and then demanded
to know the object of the conspiracy.
“To take the fort to-night,” said he
doggedly, and sobbing.
“Have I got all the chiefs of the con
spiracy?” £
“No. You’ve got all except those that
are to meet at 166.” * f
“What does ‘Remember XXXX’
mean?”
No reply.
“What is the password to'Nqj. 166?”
No reply.
“What do those bunches of letters
mean? Answer, or von will catch it
again.”
“I never will answer. I will die first,
Now t , do what you please.”
“Think what you are saying, Wicklow.
Is it final?”
He answered- steadily, and without a
quiver in his voice :
“It is final. As sure 'as 1 love ray
wronged country and hate everything
this northern sun shines on, I will die
before I will reveal those things.”
I triced him up by the thumbs again.
When the agony was full upon him, it
was heart-breaking to hear the poor
thing’s shrieks —but we got nothing else
out of him. To every question he
screamed the same reply : “I can die,
and I will die, but I will never tell.”
Weir, we had to give it up. W e were
convinced that he certainly would die
rather than confess. So we took" him
down and imprisoned him under strict
guard.
Then for some hours we busied our
selves with sending telegrams to the war
department, and with making prepara
tions.for a dggcent upon No. 166.
It was stirring times, that black and bit
ter night. Tilings-.had leaked out, and
the whole garrison was on the alert. The j
sentinels were trebled, and nobody could :
move, outside or in,without being brought
to a stand with a musket leveled at his
head.
I determined to be at No. I*>6 in good
season, capture and gag B, 8., and be on
hand for the rest when they arrived. At
abolit a quarter past 1 in the morning 1
crept out of the fortress with half a
dozen dwart and gamy l'. S. regulars
at my eels, and the boy Wicklow, with
his ha ds tied behind him. I told him
We were going to No. 166, and that if I
found that he had lied again and was
misleading us, he would have to show us
the right place or sutler the conse
. . quences.
We approached the tavern stealthily
and reconnoitered. A light was burning
in the small bar room, the rest of the
house was dark. I tried the front door :
it yielded, and we softly entered, closing
the door behind us. Then we removed
our choes, and 1 lead the way to the bar
room. The German landlord sat there,
as ;p in his chair. I woke him gently,
k , tbld him to take off his boots and
I twede us,= warning him at the same
time to utter no sound. lie obeyed with
out a murmur, but evidently be was
badly frightened. I ordered him to lead
the way to 166. We ascended two or
three fiightsof stairs as softly as a file of
cats ; and then, having arrived near the
farther end of a long hall, we came to a
door, through the glazed transom oi
which we could discern the glow of a dim
light from within. The landlord felt for
me in and whispered me that
that was 166. I tried the door—it was
locked on the inside. 1 whispered an
order to one of my biggest soldiers; we
set our ample shoulders to the door, and
with one we burst it from its
hinges. I caught a half glimpse of a
figure in a bed —saw its head dart toward
the candle: out went the light, and we
were in pitch darkness. With one big
bound 1 lit on that bed and pinned its
occupant,down with my knees. My pris
oner struggled fiercely, but I got a grip
on his throat with my left; hand, and that
was a good assistance : to my knees in
holding him down. Then straightway I
snatched out my revolver, cocked it, and
laid the cold barrel warningly against his
cheek.
“Now somebody strike a light.” said I.
“I’ve got him safe.”
It was done. The flame of the match
burst up. looked at my captive, and.
by George, it was a young woman.
I let go and got off the bed feeling
pretty sheepish. Everybody stared stu
pidly at his neighbor. Nobody had any
wit or sense left, so sudden and over
whelming bad been the surprise. The
young woman began to cry, and covered
her'face with the sheet. The landlord
said, meekly :
JfMy daughter, she has been doing
something that is not right, nicht wahr?”
R"Yo\\r daughter? Is she your daugh-
JR -‘Oh, yes, she is my daughter. She is
«ust to-night come home from Cincinnati
Wn little bit sick.”
“Confound it, that boy has lied again,
l Thfe is not the right 166; this is not B.
f B. Now, Wicklow, you will find the cor-
| 1 /-•■’■ : ia\
rect 166 for us, or—hello ! where is that
boy?” - i
Gone, as sure as guns. And, what is
more, we failed to find a trace of him.
I finally put my men in a vacant room
across the hall from 166, and told them
to capture anybody that approached the
girl’s room, and to keep the landlord with
them and under strict watch until further
orders. Then I hurried back to the for
to see if all was right there yet.
About noon next day came tidings of
my missing boy. He had been seen on
the road tramping westward, some eight
miles out at 6in the morning. I started
a cavalry lieutenant and a private on his
track at once. They came in sight of him
twenty miles out. He had climbed a fence
and was wearily dragging himself toward
a large old-fashioned mansion in the edge
of a village. They rode through a bit of
woods, made a detour, and closed up on
the house from the opposite side , then
dismounted and went into the kitchen.
Nobody there. They slipped into the
next room, which was also unoccupied ,
the door from that room into the front
or sitting room was open, lhev were
about to step through it when they heard
a low voice; it was somebody praying.
So they halted reverently, and the lieu
tenant put his head in and saw an old
man and an old woman kneeling in a cor
ner of that sitting room. It was the old
man that was praying, and just as he was
finishing his player the Wicklow hoy
opened the door ah-d stepped in. Both
of those old people sprung at him and
smothered him with embraces, shout-,
in" :
“Our hoy! our darling! God be praised.'
The lost is found !”
Well, sir, what do you think? That
young imp was born and reared on that
homestead, and had never been five miles
away from it in all his life, till the fort
night before, when lie loafed into my
quarters and gulled me with thatmaudlin
yarn of his. It's true as gospel. That
old man was his father —a learned old
retired clergyman : and that old lady was
liis mother.
Let me throw in a word or two of ex
planation concerning that boy and his
performances. It turned out that he was
a ravenous devourer of dime novels and
sensational story papers ; therefore, dark
mysterious and gaudy heroisms were just
in his line. Then lie had read news
paper reports of the stealthy goings and
comings of rebel spies in our midst, and
of their lurid purposes and their two or
three startling achievements, till his im
agination was all aflame on that subject.
His constant comrade for. some months
had been a Yankee youth of much
tongue and lively fancy, who had served
for a couple of years as “mud clerk on
certain packet boats on the Mississippi
hence his easy facility in handling the
names and other details pertaining to
the region.
But he made trouble enough for us—
and just no end of humiliation. You
see on account of him we had fifteen or
twenty people under arrest and confine- j
ment in the fort, with sentinels before j
their doors. A lot of the captives were j
soldiers and such, and to them T didn t ;
have to apologize : but the rest were first-!
class citizens from all over the country,
and no amount of apologies was sufficient
to satisfy them. And those two ladies,
one was an Ohio congressman s wife, and j
the other a western bishop’s sister, well,
the scorn ajkl angry tears they poured
out on me made up a keepsake that was
likely te make me remember them for a
considerable time. That old lame gen
tleman w r asa college president from Phil
adelphia, and Wicklow had stood there
in my quarters and described him as a
counterfeiter, nigger trader, horse thief
and fire bug from the most notorious ras
cal nest in Galveston.
And the war department! But, omy
soul, let’s draw the curtain over that part.
L.nck.
The Utica Observer says that since Weed
became entangled in a poker game and lost
$120,000, down the Hudson river recently, all
of the old players have been showing their
hands and making open confessions of their
sins. An Ogdensburg sport remarked the
other day: “Speaking of that big game of
poker remiuds me of a little job, which did
not work, some of us fellows put up on a
man from Canton. He used to come out
here every little while and get drunk. He
had money, and was ready to play at such
times. One of the boys fixed the cards so as
to give him three queens and a pair of nines.
He gave one of the other boys four jacks.
The old man was so drunk that he did not
notice the pair, and drew two more cards,
and, as fuck would have it, got the other
queen. The boys thought they knew how
matters stood, and began to bet. The old
man had the most money, and raised the bet
of the man who held the four jacks
time. The latter, sure of the game, borrowed
all the money the other fellows had and put
it up. Finally the old man called him and
showed up the tour queens. You just bet
there was a demoralized crowd. The old man
scooped in the cash, and that game was neaer
tried on again ”
THE LABOR ENQUIRER.
STRAY CLIPPINGS.
A non union printer committed suicide in
Chicago the other day by taking a dose of
“Rough on Rats,” and the compound did not
belie its name.
I have no objeckshun to a man parting his
hair in the middle, but I shall alwuzz insist
upon his finishing up the job by wearing a
gown and pettikoat.—Tosh Billings.
All the honesty in the world ain’t lawful
tender on the streets for a loaf ov bread, but
let the man go out and pla a smart game ov
three kard monte, and he can make an inkum
at it. —Josh Billings.
The landlady said, “I have changed my cook
There was no surprise in the boarder’s look.
“I know, for her hair was black,” he said,
“And the hairs in the butter to-night are
red.”
“No man shall ever kiss me except my
future husband,” she said as she was about
leaving the gate. “Suppose I agree to be
your future ” “Why, then, I’ll kiss
you,” she replied eagerly, and she did. Her
mother was informed that he had proposed,
and the old lady called around next day to
settle matters, and before he knew it he was
eternally hooked. It was a mean advantage,
but a bird ip the hand is worth two on the
front gate.
A Maine lumberman, who sat in the gal
lery at a hall, and saw the ladies in short
sleeves, turned to his daughter and said,
“Kalie, I don’t see any good muscle in the
whole room.”
An exchange says that man is very much
like an egg. Yes, poor man, he carries his
yolk around with him, and has to shell out
every time his housekeeper gives him a rap
on the head.
He appeared to be almost, gone. Rolling
his eyes towards the partner of bis bosom, he
gasped: “Bury me‘neath the weeping wil
low, and plant a single white rose above my
head.” “Oh, it’s no use,” she snapped out.
“Your note would scorch the roots.” He &ot
well.
J
A pretty and stylish young lady called in a
store the other day and asked to be shown
some lavender kids. She was shown a va
riety of shades; but, uaable to choose fiom
so many different color, she asked : “ Wl|ich
of these pairs are the lavenderest ?”
“Mamma,” said a precious youngster qt a
tea table the other evening, after a long and
yearning gaze toward a pi te of d- ughnuts,
“do you think i could stand another of those
fried holes ?”
An Irishman who stood near the third base
watching a game of base ball, was knocked
down by a foul ball, as he heard the umpire
call it. “A fowl, was it ? Faith, I thought it j
was a muie.”
When a young raaD attains the age of 26
years and still calls his father and mother
“pa” and “ma.” it’s about time some good,
honest, manly man married him and took
him away from his parents.
The reason that an urchin gave for being
late at school was tnat a boy in the next
house was going to have a dressing gown
with a bed cord, and he waited to hear him
howl.
An old lady on a train not far from Lafay
ette, hearing the brakemau sing oat, “Eu
bank’s Cat,” sallied to the door and asked,
"Is he hurt much '?"
Mrs. Smith says her husband is like a tal
low candle, because he always will smoke
when he is going out.
An Audacious Attempt.
An attemps at assassination occurred at the |
Hotel des Estrangers, No. 9 Rue Vivienne, I
in Paris, recently, which for cool audacity is
so far ahead of anytniag we have heard ot
in that particular fine, that we print the par
ticulars as they were cabled to this country :
One Delalin, apparently a Belgian or Hol
lander, age about 25 years, took a room in the
hotel in the latter part of March. Nothing
particular was noticeable in his conduct, ex
cept that he left the hotel at an early hour
every morning and did not return until after
midnight. One morning a letter carrier,
named Dartaud, 'called with a registered
letter for Delalin, and on being shown to his
room delivered it, receiving therefor his sig
nature, as is castomary. Turning then to go
out, as Delalin was apparently reading his
let.er, he was stopped by the latter suddenly
crying out:
“Not that door!”
There were two doors to the room, and the
letter carrier naturally halted for a moment,
supposing he had chosen the wrong means of
exit. At once the assassin sprung upon him,
and rapidly dealt him five blows with a
poinard on the head and neck, under which
Dartaud was almost beaten to the floor. He
managed, however, to escape from the room
down the stairs, and rushed, covered with
blood, into the office of the hotel and gave
the alarm.
Delalin in the meantime made his escape,
but was followed into the street, where a
crowd soon joined the pursuit, crying—“ Stop
the assassin !” and thus attracting the atten
tion of the passersby. Hunted to the death,
Delalin ran until out of breath, when he
turned on his pursuers and discharged one
barrel of a revolver at the nearest—for
tunately without effect. This could only de
lay his capture for a few moments, and pres
ently perceiving this he placed the revolver
to his own temple and fired, giving himself a
mortal wound.
The injured letter carrier recovered. The
object of the attack was to objain possession
of the registered letters which he was con
veying to their destination —the one addressed
to Delalin being alterward proven to have
been written by himself.
THE TRADES ASSEMBLY
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laboring classes especially to give us a trial.
Goods ordered will be delivered te any part of the city.
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