Secret Band of Brothers | Page 2

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.
CHAPTER I.
In perusing the following pages, the reader will learn the history of a class of men, who, for talent, cannot be excelled. He may startle at the horrid features which naked truth will depict--at deeds of darkness which, though presented to an enlightened people, may require a stretch of credulity to believe were ever perpetrated in the glorious nineteenth century.
It will, no doubt, elicit many a curious thought, especially with honest men, and the "whys and wherefores" will pass from mouth to mouth in every hamlet, village, and town, where the following recital may find a reader or hearer. All will declare it mysterious. It is a mystery to myself in some particulars, but in others it is not. It is strange, passing strange, to think that such a black-hearted, treacherous band of men, as I am about to describe, could have existed so long in a civilized and Christian country.
With a trembling hand do I attempt to bring to light their ruling principles, to develop a system of organized and accomplished villany. My reasons for assuming so daring a position may seem to require an explanation. It may be asked why I did not make this revelation before, as far as I had knowledge, or what is the occasion of the present exposition?