Charlie
Called Himself A Mason, And Has A Book That He Made Himself Which He
Said Was A "Mason-Man Blook," But I Learned Yesterday That He Is A
"High-Binder," No Mason At All, And For That Reason The Chinamen In
The Garrison Would Not Permit Him To Remain Here.
They were afraid of
him, yet he seemed so very trustworthy in every way.
But a highbinder
in one's own house!
There has been another departure from the family - Bettie has been
sold! Lieutenant Warren wanted her to match a horse he had recently
bought. The two make a beautiful little team, and Bettie is already a
great pet, and I am glad of that, of course, but I do not see the
necessity of Lieutenant Warren's giving her sugar right in front of
our windows! His quarters are near ours. He says that Bettie made no
objections to the harness, but drove right off with her mate.
There was a distressing occurrence in the garrison yesterday that I
cannot forget. At all army posts the prisoners do the rough work, such
as bringing the wood and water, keeping the yards tidy, bringing the
ice, and so on. Yesterday morning one of the general prisoners here
escaped from the sentry guarding him. The long-roll was beaten, and as
this always means that something is wrong and calls out all the
troops, officers and men, I ran out on the porch to see what was the
matter, fearing there might be a fire some place. It seemed a long
time before the companies got in line, and then I noticed that instead
of fire buckets they were carrying rifles. Directly every company
started off on double time and disappeared in between two sets of
barracks at one corner of the parade ground. Then everything was
unusually quiet; not a human being to be seen except the sentry at the
guardhouse, who was walking post.
It was pleasant, so I sat down, still feeling curious about the
trouble that was serious enough to call out all the troops. It was not
so very long before Lieutenant Todd, who was officer of the day, came
from the direction the companies had gone, pistol in hand, and in
front of him was a man with ball and chain. That means that his feet
were fastened together by a large chain, just long enough to permit
him to take short steps, and to that short chain was riveted a long
one, at the end of which was a heavy iron ball hanging below his belt.
When we see a prisoner carrying a ball and chain we know that he is a
deserter, or that he has done something very bad, which will probably
send him to the penitentiary, for these balls are never put on a
prisoner who has only a short time in the guardhouse.
The prisoner yesterday - who seemed to be a young man - walked slowly to
the guardhouse, the officer of the day following closely.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 150 of 213
Words from 77530 to 78034
of 110651
