Secret Band of Brothers - A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States.

Jonathan Harrington Green

Informations

• Publié par: noshor
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 64
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg eBook,
Secret Band of Brothers, by
Jonathan Harrington Green
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Secret Band of Brothers
A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds
of This Powerful Organization in the United States.
Author: Jonathan Harrington Green
Release Date: March 4, 2006 [eBook #17917]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET BAND OF
BROTHERS***

E-text prepared by Dave Maddock, Susan Skinner,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/)
from page images generously made available by the
University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service
(http://www.hti.umich.edu/)

Note: Images of the original pages are available through the Making of
America collection of the University of Michigan Digital Library
Production Service. See http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?
c=moa;idno=AHK6233.0001.001


Frontispiece
[Pg 1]
SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
A FULL AND
TRUE EXPOSITION
OF ALL THE VARIOUS
Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds
OF THIS POWERFUL
ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY THE
"REFORMED GAMBLER,"
JONATHAN H. GREEN.
AUTHOR OF "THE GAMBLER'S LIFE," "GAMBLING EXPOSED," "THE REFORMED
GAMBLER; OR, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF J. H. GREEN," ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE ENGRAVINGS.
"This is a most fearful and startling exposition of crime, and givesthe true and secret history of a daring and powerful secret
association, the members of which, residing in all parts of the
country, have for a long period of years been known to one another
by signs and tokens known only to their order. This association has
been guilty of an almost incredible amount of crime. Beautifully
embellished with Illustrative Engravings, from original designs by
Darley and Croome."—Courier.
Philadelphia:
T. B. PETERSON AND BROTHERS,
306 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by [Pg 2]
T. B. PETERSON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
[Pg 3]
PREFACE.
The vice of gambling is peculiarly destructive. It spares neither age nor sex. It
visits the domestic hearth with a pestilence more quiet and stealthy, but not less
deadly, than intemperance. It is at once the vice of the gentleman, and the
passion of the blackguard. With deep shame we are forced to admit that the
halls of legislation have not been free from its influence, nor the judicial bench
unstained by its pollution.
It is against this vice, which is now spreading like a subtle poison through all
grades of society, that the present work is directed. The author is not a mere
theorist. He speaks from experience—dark and bitter experience. The things he
has seen he tells; the words he has heard he speaks again. Some of these
scenes curdle the blood in the veins, even when remembered; some of these
words, whenever whispered, recall incidents of singular atrocity, and thrill the
bosom with horror.
The author professes to speak nothing but the plain truth. He does not aspire to
an elegant style of writing, adorned with the ornaments of the orator and the
scholar; but to one quality may lay claim, without being thought a vain or
immodest man. He speaks with an earnest sincerity. Whatever he says comes
from his heart, and is spoken with all the sympathy of his soul.
This work differs from all the previous works of the author. Indeed, it is unlike
[Pg 4]any thing ever published in this country. It is not a mere exposure of gambling,
nor yet an attack on the character of particular gamblers. It is a revelation of a
wide-spread organization—pledged to gambling, theft, and villany of all kinds.
There are at the present time existing, in our Union, certain organizations,
pledged to the performance of good works, which merit the hearty approbation
of every honest man. These are called secret societies, although their
proceedings, and the names of the officers, with minute particulars, are
published in a thousand shapes. Prominent among these beneficial orders
stand the Odd Fellows and the Sons of Temperance. But the order, whose
history is related in the following pages, differs from all these. Its proceedings,
the names of its members or its officers, and even its very existence as a body,have hitherto been secret, and sealed from the whole world. Besides, it is
pledged to accomplish all kinds of robbery, aye, and even worse deeds. It has,
in more than one deplorable instance, concealed its dark deeds with murder.
This order is not confined in its operations to the dark places of life. It numbers
among its members the professional man, the "respectable citizen," the
prominent and wealthy of various towns throughout the Union; nay, it has
sometimes invaded the house of God, and secured the services of those who
are ostensibly his ministers.
There is not a line of fiction in these pages. The solemn truth is told, in all its
strange and horrible interest. To the public, to the candid of all classes, to the
friends of reform, to the honest citizen, and to the sincere Christian, the author
makes his appeal.
Let not his voice of warning be unheeded. Let all be up and doing, so that the
monster may be exterminated from the face of the earth, and the youth of the
present age be saved from destruction.
[Pg 5]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Why this exposure is made at the present time—Who oppose reform—
My lectures—The New-Light minister—How some get rich—My
opponents 9
CHAPTER II.
A DARK CONSPIRACY.
Goodrich, the gambler—His malicious conduct—Cause of it—The
Browns—Their plan to escape punishment 16
CHAPTER III.
THE CONSPIRACY IN PROGRESS.
The colonel takes medicine to bring on sickness—Ruse will not take—
Character of the administrators of justice in New Orleans—Colonel
Brown deserted by the Brotherhood—Dearborn county, Indiana,
delegation 22
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONSPIRACY FURTHER DEVELOPED.
The secret correspondence brought from Canada—The Brotherhood
desert Brown—How I obtained the secret writings—Not suspected—
Mrs. Brown and the landlady—-Cunningham suspected of purloining
them 27
[Pg 6][Pg 6]CHAPTER V.
BRIBERY AND COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
Brown's lawyer attempts to bribe me to testify falsely against Taylor—
Acquaint the deputy-marshal with the fact—Brown's ineffectual attempts
to find bail—Suspected of having removed the hid money—The
colonel's visitors 34
CHAPTER VI.
MYSTERIOUS DISCLOSURES.
His Lawrenceburgh friends—A hypocritical lecture—Further disclosures
—A searching examination—First intimation of the existence of The
Secret Band of Brothers—Colonel Brown's narrative of the conspiracy
against Taylor 42
CHAPTER VII.
DISCLOSURES CONTINUED.
The colonel resumes his narrative—The missing papers.—Fare advic5e7
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH OF COLONEL BROWN.
Conspiracy against my life—Conversation with Cunningham regarding
the mysterious papers—Death of Colonel Brown 62
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Explanatory remarks—The Grand Master of The Secret Band of Brothers
—Vice-grand Masters—Ordinary members—Objects of the Order—
Colonel Brown sacrificed lest he should betray them—Taylorites and
Brownites 66
[Pg 7]CHAPTER X.
THE MYSTERIOUS BOX.
Anxiety about the missing papers—Cause of the hostility of the Band to
me—The papers supposed to be deposited in the United States Court—
Clerk's office broken into, and the box containing Taylor's indictment and
the spurious money stolen—Suspected—Placed in prison for safety—
The robber discovered—My release—The mysterious box—The
stranger—Conversation with Wyatt—The box opened 75
CHAPTER XI.
THE PORK TRADE, OR DRIVING THE HOGS TO A WRONG MARKET.
The trading operations of the Band—Lectures at Lawrenceburgh—TheBrowns and the hog-drover 84
CHAPTER XII.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Initiation—Penalties—The Grand Masters—The secret writing—The six
qualities, Huska, Caugh, Naugh, Maugh, Haugh, Gaugh—Vocabulary of
flash words—The post-routes.—The horse-trade explained—
Allowances— Specimens of correspondence—The biter bit—A letter of
introduction with an important note—Subsequent inquiry into the cas9e0
CHAPTER XIII.
A CHAPTER OF AFFINITIES.
Thieves and thief-catchers—A family of five—Penitence and
Penitentiaries—The chain-driver and his gang—Lawyers' fees and
Lawyers' privileges—Our representatives 139
[Pg 8]CHAPTER XIV.