Chapter I: 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 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.

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

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 advice 57

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

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--The Browns 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 case 90

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

CHAPTER XIV.

GAMBLING EXPEDITION IN THE CHOCTAW NATION.

Character of the inhabitants on the Texas frontier in 1833--The murder of Dr ----. Operations at Fort Towson--Edmonds and Scoggins--Robbery-- Journey to Fort Smith--The dumb negro speaks--His character of Scoggins and Edmonds 147

CHAPTER XV.

CORRESPONDENCE CONNECTED WITH MY VISIT TO THE AUBURN PRISON, AND CONVERSATION WITH WYATT, THE MURDERER.

1. Chaplain Morrill's letter commendatory of my visit--2. My own account--3. My second visit--4. Mr. Gary's letter--5. Reply to the accusations of Mr. Morrill--6. Mr. Merrill's charges--7. Vindication from these charges--8. Further particulars relative to the life of Wyatt _alias_ Newell _alias_ North, and a horrid murder committed near Perrysburgh, Ohio--

Conclusion 184

Debate on Gambling 193

LOTTERIES.

Drawing of Lottery Tickets 267

Insuring Numbers, or Policy Dealing 288

Lottery Combinations, etc. 299

THE

SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.