 23 On a fine day in April 1862 a passenger train drew out of Marietta, Georgia bound north. Those were not days of abundant passenger travel in the south, except for those who wore the butternut uniform and carried muskets. But this train was well filled, and at Marietta a score of men in civilian dress had boarded the cars. Soldierly looking fellows these were too, not the kind that were likely to escape long the clutches of the Confederate conscription. Eight miles north of Marietta the train stopped at the station of Big Shanty with the welcome announcement of Ten Minutes for Breakfast. Out from the train, like bees from the hives swarmed the hungry passengers and made their way with all speed to the lunch counter, followed more deliberately by conductor, engineer, and breaksman. The demands of the lunch counter are of universal potency. Few have the hardy-hood to resist them. That particular train was emptied in the first of its ten minutes of grace. Yet breakfast did not seem to appeal to all upon the train. The Marietta group of civilians left the train with the others, but instead of seeking the refreshment room turned their steps toward the locomotive. No one noticed them, though there was a Confederate camp hard by the station, well filled with raw recruits and hardly a dozen steps from the engine, a sentinel steadily walked his beat, rifle on shoulder. One of the men climbed into the engine. The sentinel paid no heed to him. Another slipped in between two cars and pulled out a coupling pin. The sentinel failed to observe him. A group of others climbed quickly into an open boxcar. The sentinel looked at them and walked serenely on. The last man of the party now strode rapidly up the platform, nodded to the one in the locomotive, and swung himself lightly into the cab. The sentinel turned at the end of his beat and walked back, just beginning to wonder what all this meant. Meanwhile, famine was being rapidly appeased at the lunch counter within, and the not very luxurious display of food was vanishing like a field of wheat before an army of locusts. Suddenly the sharp report of a rifle rung with the warning sound in the air. The drowsy tenants of the camp sprang to their feet. The conductor hurried out to the platform. He had heard something besides the rifle shot, the grind of wheels on the track, and his eyes opened widely in alarm and astonishment as he saw that the train was broken in two, and half of it running away. The passenger cars stood where he had left them. The locomotive, with three boxcars, was flying rapidly up the track. The sentinel roused to a sense of the situation only when he saw the train in actual flight, had somewhat late, given the alarm. The conductor's eyes opened very wide. The engine, under a full head of steam, was driving up the road. The locomotive had been stolen. Out from the refreshment room poured passengers and trainmen, filled with surprise and chagrin. What did it mean? What was to be done? There was no other engine within miles. How should these daring thieves ever be overtaken? Their capture seemed a forlorn hope. The conductor, wild with alarm and dreading reprimand, started up the track on foot, running as fast as his legs could carry him. A railroad mechanic named Murphy kept him company. To one with a love of humor it would have been an amusing sight to see two men on foot chasing a locomotive, but just then conductor Fuller was not troubled about the opinion of men of humor. His one thought was to overtake his runaway locomotive, and he would have crawled after it if no better way appeared. Fortune comes to him who pursues her, not to him who waits her coming. The brace of locomotive chasers had not run down their strength before they were lucky enough to spy a handcar standing beside the track. Here was a gleam of hope. In a minute or two they had lifted it up on the rails. Springing within it they applied themselves to the levers, and away they went at a more promising rate of speed. For a mile or two all went on swimmingly. Then sudden disaster came. The car struck a broken rail and was hurled headlong from the track, sending its occupants flying into the muddy roadside ditch. This was enough to discourage anybody with less go in him than conductor Fuller. But in a moment he was on his feet trying his limbs. No bones were broken. A mud bath was the full measure of his misfortune. Murphy was equally sound. The car was none the worse. With scarce a minute's delay they sprang to it, righted it, and with some strong tugging lifted it upon the track. With very few minutes delay they were away again, somewhat more cautiously than before, and sharply on the lookout for further gifts of broken rails from the runaways ahead. Leaving the pair of pursuers to their seemingly hopeless task we must return to the score of locomotive pirates. These men who had done such strange work at Big Shanty were by no means what they seemed. They were clad in the butternut gray and the slouch hats of the Confederacy, but their ordinary attire was the blue uniform of the Union Army. They were in truth a party of daring scouts who had stealthily made their way south in disguise, their purpose being to steal a train, burn the bridges behind them as they fled, and thus make useless for a time the only railroad by which the Confederate authorities could send troops to Chattanooga, then threatened by the Union forces under General Mitchell. They had been remarkably successful as we have seen at the beginning of their enterprise. Making their way by devious routes to Marietta, they had gathered at that place, boarded a train, and started north. The rush of passengers and trainmen into the refreshment-room at Big Shanty had been calculated upon. The presence of a Confederate camp at that out-of-the-way station had not been. It might have proved fatal to their enterprise, but for the stolid stupidity of the sentinel. But that peril had been met and passed. They were safely away. Exhilaration filled their souls. All was safe behind. All seemed safe ahead. True, there was one peril close at hand. Beside the track ran that slender wire, a resting place it seemed for passing birds. In that outstretching wire their most imminent danger lurked. Fast as they might go, it could flash the news of their exploit a thousand fold faster. The flight of the lightning news-bearer must be stopped. The train was halted a mile or two from the town. The pole climbed, the wire cut. Danger from this source was at an end. Halting long enough to tear up the rail to whose absence conductor fuller owed his somersault, they sprang to their places again, and the runaway train sped blithely on. Several times they stopped for wood and water. When any questions were asked, they were answered by the companion of the engineer, James J. Andrews by name, a Union spy of right profession, and the originator of and leader in the staring enterprise. I am taking a train load of powder to General Buregard, was his stereotyped answer, as he pointed to the closed box-cars behind him, within one of which lay concealed the bulk of his confederates. For some time they went swimmingly on without delay or difficulty. Yet trouble was in the air, ill-fortune awaiting them in front, pursuing them from behind. They had, by the fatality of unlucky chance, chosen the wrong day for their work. Yesterday they would have found a clear track. Today the road ahead was blocked with trains hurrying swiftly southward. At Kingston, thirty miles from Big Shanty, this trouble came upon them in a rush. A local train was to pass at that point. Andrews was well aware of this and drew his train upon the siding to let it pass, expecting when it had gone to find the road clear to Chattanooga. The train came in on time, halted, and on its last car was seen waving the red danger flag, the railroad signaled that another train was following close behind. Andrews looked at this with no friendly eyes. How comes it, he asked the conductor somewhat sharply, that the road is blocked in this manner, when I have orders to take this powder to Bureau Guard without delay? Mitchell has taken Huntsville, answered the conductor. They say he is coming to Chattanooga. We are getting everything out of there as quickly as we can. This looked serious. How many trains might there be in the rear? A badly blocked road meant ruined their enterprise and possibly death to themselves. They waited with intense anxiety, each minute of delay seeming to stretch almost into an hour. The next train came. They watched it pass with hopeful eyes. Ah, upon its rear floated that fatal red flag, the crimson emblem of death as it seemed to them. The next train came, still the red flag, still hope deferred, danger coming near, an hour of frightful anxiety passed. It was torture to those upon the engine. It was agony to those in the boxcar who knew nothing of the cause of this frightful delay, and to whom life itself must have seemed to have stopped. Andrews had to cast off every appearance of anxiety and to feign easy indifference, for the station people were showing somewhat too much curiosity about this train, whose crew were strangers, and concerning which the telegraph had sent them no advises. The practice spy was full of resources, but their searching questions taxed him for satisfying answers. At length, after more than an hour's delay, the blockade was broken. A train passed, destitute of the red flag. The relief was great. They had waited at that station like men with the hangman's rope upon their necks. Now the track to Chattanooga was clear, and success seemed assured. The train began to move. It slowly gathered speed. Up went hope in the hearts of those upon the engine. New life flowed in the veins of those within the car, as they heard the grinding sound on the rails beneath them, and felt the motion of their prison upon the wheels. Yet perilous possibilities were in their rear. Their delay at Kingston had been threateningly long. They must guard against pursuit. Stopping the train and seizing their tools. They sprang out to tear up a rail. Suddenly, as they worked at this, a sound met their ears that almost caused them to drop their tools into smay. It was the far off bugle blast of a locomotive whistle sounding from the direction from which they had come. The Confederates then were on their track. They had failed to distance pursuit. The delay at Kingston had given their enemies the needed time. Nervous with alarm they worked like giants. The rail yielded slightly. It bent. A few minutes more and it would be torn from its fastenings. A few minutes. Not a minute could be spared for this vital work. For just then the whistle shrieked again, now close at hand. The rattle of wheels could be heard in the distance and round a curve behind them came a locomotive speeding up the road with what seemed frantic haste and filled with armed men who shouted in triumph at sight of the dismayed fugitives. It was too late to finish their work. Nothing remained to the raiders but to spring to their engine and cars and fly for life. We have seen the beginnings of this pursuit. We must now go back to trace the doings of the forlorn hope of pursuers. Fuller and his companion. After their adventure with the broken rail that brace of worthys pushed on in their hand car till the station of Edewo was reached. Here by good fortune for them an engine stood with steam up ready for the road. Fuller viewed it with eyes of hope. The game he felt was in his hands for he knew what the raiders had not known. That the road in advance would be blocked that day with special trains and on a one-tracked road special trains are an impassable obstacle. There were soldiers at Edewo. Fuller's story of the daring trick of the Yankees gave him plenty of volunteers. He filled the locomotive and its cab with eager allies and drove on at the greatest speed of which his engine was capable, hoping to overtake the fugitives at Kingston. He reached that place they were not there. Horried questions taught him that they were barely gone with very few minutes to start. Away he went again sending his alarm whistle far down the road in his front. The race was now one for life or death. Andrews and his men well knew what would be their fate if they were caught. They dared not stop and fight. Their only arms were revolvers and they were outnumbered by their armed foes. Their only hope lay in flight. Away they went. On came their shouting pursuers. Over the track thundered both locomotives at frightening speed. The partly raised rail proved no obstacle to the pursuers. They were overt with a jolt and a jump and away on the smooth track ahead. If the fugitives could have halted long enough to tear up a rail or burn a bridge all might have been well but that would have taken more minutes than they had to spare. A shrewd idea came into Andrews' fertile mind. The three boxcars behind him were a useless load. One of them might be usefully spared. The rear car of the train was uncoupled and left behind with the hope that the pursuers might unwittingly dash into it and be wrecked. On they went leaving a car standing on the track. Fortunately for the Confederates they saw the obstruction in time to prepare for it. Their engine was slowed up and the car caught and pushed before it. Andrews tried the device a second time. Another car being dropped. It was picked up by Fuller in the same manner as before. On reaching a siding at Resica Station the Confederate engineer switched off these supernumerary cars and pushed ahead again relieved of his load. Not far beyond was a bridge which the raiders had intended to destroy. It could not be done. The pursuit was too sharp. They dashed on over its creaking planks having time for nothing but headlong flight. The race was a remarkably even one. The engines proving to be closely matched in speed. Fuller despite all his efforts failed to overtake the fugitives but he was resolved to push them so sharply that they would have no time to damage track our bridges or take on wood or water. In the latter necessity Andrews got the better of him. His men knocked out the end of the one boxcar they had left and dropped the ties with which it was loaded one by one upon the track delaying the pursuers sufficiently to enable them to take on some fresh fuel. Onward again went the chase mile after mile over a rough track at a frightful speed the people along the route looking on with wondering eyes. It seemed marvellous that the engines could cling to those unevenly laid rails. The escape of the pursuers was indeed almost miraculous for Andrews found time to stop just beyond a curve and lay a loose rail on the track and Fuller's engine ran upon this at full speed. There came a terrific jolt. The engine seemed to leap into the air but by a marvellous chance it lighted again on the rails and ran on unharmed. Had it missed the track not a man on it would have lived to tell the tale. The position of the fugitives was now desperate. Some of them wished to leave the engine, reverse its valves and send it back at full speed to meet the foe. Others suggested that they should face the enemy and fight with their lives. Andrews was not ready to accept either of these plans. He decided to go on and do the work for which they had set out if possible. He knew the road. There was a covered bridge a few miles ahead. If they could burn this all would be well. He determined to try. There was one boxcar left that might serve his purpose. He had his men pile wood on its floor, light this with coals from the engine. In a minute it was burning. The draft made by the rushing train soon blew the fire into a roaring flame. By the time the bridge was reached the whole car was in a fierce blaze. Andrews slowed up and uncoupled this blazing car on the bridge. He stopped the engine just beyond and he and his companions watched it hopefully. The flames curled fiercely upward. Dense smoke poured out at each end of the covered bridge. Success seemed to be at length in their hands, but the flames failed to do their work. The roof of the bridge had been soaked by recent rains and resisted the blazing heat. The roaring flames were uselessly licking the wet timbers when the pursuing engine came dashing up. Fuller did not hesitate for a minute. He had the heart of a soldier in the frame of a conductor. Into the blinding smoke his engine was daringly driven and in a minute it had caught the blazing car and it was pushing it forward. A minute more and it rolled into the open air and the bridge was saved. Its timbers had stubbornly refused to burn. This ended the hopes of the fugitives. They had exhausted their means of checking pursuit. Their woods had been all consumed in the fruitless effort. Their steam was rapidly going down. They had played their last card and lost the game. The men sprang from the slowed-up engine. The engineer reversed its valves and followed them. Into the fields they rushed and ran in all directions, their only help being now in their own powers of flight. As they sped away the engines met but without damage. The steam in the stolen engine had so fallen that it was incapable of doing harm. The other engine had been stopped and the pursuers were springing agilely to the ground and hurrying into the fields in hot chase. Pursuit through field and forest was as keen and unrelenting as it had been over iron rails. The union lines were not far distant, yet not a man of the fugitives succeeded in reaching them. The alarm had spread with great rapidity. The whole surrounding country was up in pursuit, and before that day ended several of the daring raiders were prisoners in confederate hands. The others buried themselves in woods and swamps, lived on roots and berries, and ventured from their hiding-places only at night. Yet they were hunted with unwarying persistence, and by the end of a week all but two had been captured. These two had so successfully eluded pursuit that they fancied themselves out of danger, and became somewhat careless in consequence. As a result, in a few days more they too fell into the hands of their foes. A court-martial was convened. The attempt had been so daring and so nearly successful, the injury intended so great, and the whole affair so threatening, that the confederate military authorities could not think of leniency. Andrews and seven of his companions were condemned to death and hung. Their graves may be seen today in the Soldiers' Cemetery at Chattanooga, monuments to one of the most daring and reckless enterprises in the history of the Civil War. The others were imprisoned. After of 1864, certain highly interesting operations were going on in the underground region of the noted Libby Prison at Richmond, Virginia. At that time, the by no means luxurious or agreeable home of some eleven hundred officers of the United States Army. These operations, by means of which numerous captives were to make their way to fresh air and freedom, are abundantly worthy of being told. As an evidence of the ingenuity of man and the amount of labor and hardship he is willing to give in exchange for liberty, Libby Prison was certainly not of palatial dimensions or accommodations. Before the war, it had been a tobacco warehouse situated close by the Lynchburg Canal and a short distance from James River, whose waters ran by in full view of the longing eyes which gazed upon them from the clothes-barred prison windows. For the story which we have to tell, some description of the makeup of this place of detention is a necessary preliminary. The building was three stories high in front and four in the rear, its dimensions being one hundred and sixty five by one hundred and five feet. It was strongly built of brick and stone, while very thick partition walls of brick divided it internally into three sections. Each section had its cellar, one of them with which we are particularly concerned being unoccupied. The others were occasionally used. The first floor had three apartments, one used by the prison authorities, one as a hospital, while the middle one served the prisoners as a cooking and dining room. The second and third stories were the quarters of the prisoners, where in seven rooms more than eleven hundred United States officers ate, slept, and did all the duties of life for many months. It may even be said that they enjoyed some of the pleasures of life. For though the discipline was harsh and the food scanty and poor, man's love of enjoyment is not easily to be repressed, and what with occasional minstrel and theatrical entertainments among themselves, fencing exercises with wooden swords, games of cards, checkers and chess, study of languages, military tactics, et cetera, and other entertainments and pastimes, they managed somewhat to overcome the monotony of prison life and the hardship of prison discipline. As regards chances of escape, they were poor. A strong guard constantly surrounded the prison, and such attempts at escape as were made were rarely successful. The only one that had measurable success is that which we have to describe, in which a body of prisoners played the role of rats or beavers and got out of Libby by an underground route. The tunnel enterprise was the project of a few choice spirits only. It was too perilous to confide to many. The disused cellar was chosen as the avenue of escape. It was never visited and might be used with safety. But how to get there was a difficult question to solve, and how to hide the fact that men were absent from roll call was another. The latter difficulty was got over by several expedients. If Lieutenant Jones, for instance, was at work in the tunnel, Captain Smith would answer for him. Then, when Smith was pronounced absent, he would step forward and declare that he had answered to his own name. His presence served as sure proof that he had not been absent. Other and still more ingenious methods were at times adopted, and the authorities were completely hoodwinked in this particular. And now as regards the difficulty of entering the cellar. The cooking room on the first floor contained, in its thick brick and stone partition, a fireplace, in front of which, partly masking it, three stoves were placed for the cooking operations of the prisoners. The floor of this fireplace was chosen as the initial point of excavation, from which a sloping passage might be made under the floor of the next room into the disused cellar. Captain Hamilton, a stone mason by trade, began the excavation, removing the first brick and stone from the fireplace. It needs scarcely be said that this work was done only at night, and with as little noise as possible. By day the opening was carefully closed, the bricks and stones being so ingeniously replaced that no signs of disturbance appeared. Thick as the wall was, a passage was quickly made through it, presenting an easy route to the cellar below. As for this cellar, it was dark, rarely or never opened, and contained only some old boxes, boards, straw, and the like debris, and an abundance of rats. The cellar reached, and the route to it carefully concealed by day a like from the prison authorities and the prisoners not in the secret. The question of the tunnel followed. There were two possible routes. One of these led southward towards the canal, the other eastward under a narrow street, on the opposite side of which was a yard and a stable, with a high bored fence on the street side. The opposite side of the yard faced a warehouse. A tunnel was commenced towards the canal, but it quickly struck a sewer whose odor was more than the workers could endure. It was abandoned and the tunnel begun eastward, the most difficult part of it being to make an opening in the thick foundation wall. The hope of liberty, however, will bear man up through the most exhausting labors, and this fatiguing task was at length successfully performed. The remainder of the excavation was through earth and was easier, though much the reverse of easy. A few words will tell what was to be done and how it was accomplished. The tunnel began near the floor of the cellar, eight or nine feet underground. Its length would need to be seventy or eighty feet. Only one man could work in it at a time, and this he had to do while crawling forward with his face downward, and with such tools as pocket knives, small hatchets, sharp pieces of wood, and a broken fire shovel. After the opening had made some progress, two men could work in it, one digging, the other carrying back the earth, for which work frying pans were brought into use. Another point of some little importance was the disposal of the dirt. This was carelessly scattered over the cellar floor, with straw thrown over it, and some of it placed in boxes and barrels. The whole amount was not great, and not likely to be noticed if the official should happen to enter the cellar, which had not been cleaned for years. The work here described was begun in the latter part of January, 1864. So diligently was it prosecuted that the tunnel was pronounced finished on the night of February the 8th. During this period only two or three men could work at once. It was indeed frightfully exhausting labour, the confinement of the narrow passage, and the difficulty of breathing in its foul air, being not the least of the hardships to be endured. Work was prosecuted during part of the period night and day, and the absence of a man from Rollcall being concealed in various ways, as already mentioned. The secret had been kept well, but not too well. Some workers had divulged it to their friends. Others of the prisoners had discovered that something was going on, and had been led into the affair on a pledge of secrecy. By the time the tunnel was completed its existence was known to something more than one hundred out of the 1100 prisoners. These were all placed on their word of honour to give no hint of the enterprise. The night of February 8th was signalised by the opening of the outward end of the tunnel. A passage was dug upwards, and an opening made sufficiently large to permit the worker to take a look outward into the midnight air. What he saw gave him a frightful shock. The distance had been miscalculated. The opening was on the wrong side of the fence. There, in full sight, was one of the sentinels, pacing his beat with loaded musket. Here was a situation that needed nerve and alertness. The protruded head was quickly withdrawn, and the earth which had been removed rapidly replaced. It being packed as tightly as possible from below to prevent its falling in. Word of the perilous error was sent back, and as the whisper passed from ear to ear every heart throbbed with a nervous shock. They had barely escaped losing the benefit of their weeks of exhausting labour. The opening had been made at the outward edge of the fence. The tunnel was now run two feet farther, and an opening again made. It was now on the inside of the fence, and in a safe place, for the stable adjoining the yard was disused. The evening of the ninth was that fixed upon for flight. At a little after nine o'clock the Exodus began. Those in the secret made their way to the cooking-room. The fireplace passage was opened, and such was the haste to avail themselves of it that the men almost struggled for precedence. Rules had been made, but no order could be kept. Silence reigned, however. No voice was raised above a whisper. Every footstep was made as light as possible. It had been decided that fifty men should leave that night, and fifty the next. The prison clerk being deceived at roll-call by an artifice which had been practiced more than once before. That of men leaving one end of the line and regaining the other unseen, to answer to the names of the others. But the risk of discovery was too great. Every man wanted to be among the first. It proved impossible to restrain the anxious prisoners. Down into the cellar passed a long line of descending men, dropping to its floor in rapid succession. Around the mouth of the tunnel a dense crowd gathered. But here only one man was allowed to pass at a time, on account of the bad air. The noise made in passing through told those behind how long the tunnel was occupied. The instant the noise ceased, another plunged in. The passage was no easy one. The tunnel was a little more than wide enough to contain a man's body, and progress had to be made by kicking and scrambling forward. Two or three minutes, however, sufficed for the journey, the one who had last emerged, helping his companions to the upper air. Here was a carriageway fronting southward and leading into Canal Street, which ran along the Lynchburg Canal. Four guards paced along the south side of the prison within plain view. The risk was great. On emerging from the carriageway the fugitives would be in full sight of these guards, but the risk must be taken. Watching the street for a moment in which it was comparatively clear, one by one they passed out and walked deliberately along the canal in the direction away from the prison, like ordinary passers. This dangerous space was crossed with remarkable good fortune. If the guards noticed them at all, they must have taken them for ordinary citizens. The unusual number of passers on that retired street, nearly the whole night long, does not seem to have attracted the attention of any of the guards. 109 escaped in all. Yet not a man of them was challenged. Canal Street once left. The first breath of relief was drawn. Those who early escaped soon found themselves in well-lighted streets. Many of the shops still open, and numerous citizens and soldiers promenading. No one took notice of the fugitives who strolled along the streets in small groups, laughing and talking on indifferent subjects, and with no sign of haste, directing their steps towards the outskirts of the city. As to what followed, there were almost as many adventures to relate as there were persons who escaped. We shall confine ourselves to the narrative of one of them, Captain Earl, from whose story the particulars above, given, have been condensed. With him was one companion, Captain Charles E. Rowan. They had provided themselves with a small quantity of food, but had no definite plans. It quickly occurred to them, however, that they had better make their way down the peninsula toward Fortress Monroe, as the nearest locality where union troops could probably be found. With the polar star for guide they set out, having left the perilous precincts of the city in their rear. To travel by night, to hide by day, was their chosen plan. The end of their first night's journey found them in the vicinity of a swamp, some five miles from Richmond. Here, hid behind a screen of brushwood and evergreen bushes, they spent the long and anxious day, within hearing of the noises of the camps around the city, but without discovery. A day had made a gratifying change in their situation. The day before they had been prisoners, with no apparent prospect of freedom for months. This day they were free, even if in a far from agreeable situation. Liberty solaced them for the weariness of that day's anxious vigil. How long they would remain free was the burning question of the hour. They were surrounded with perils. Could they hope to pass through them in safety? This, only the event could tell. The wintry cold was one of their difficulties. Their meager stock of food was another. They divided this up into very small rations, with the hopes that they could make it last for six days. The second night they moved in an easterly direction, and near morning ventured to approach a small cabin, which proved to be, as they had hoped, occupied by a Negro. He gave them directions as to their course, and all the food he had, a small piece of pwn-bread. That day they suffered much in their hiding place from the cold. That night, avoiding roads, they made their way through swamp and thicket, finding themselves in the morning chilled with wet clothing and torn by briars. Near morning of the third night they reached what seemed to be a swamp. They concluded to rest on its borders till dawn, and then pass through it. Sleep came to them here. When they wakened it was full day, and an agreeable surprise greeted their eyes. What they supposed to be a swamp proved to be the Chickahominy River. The prospect of meeting this stream had given them much mental anxiety. Captain Rowan couldn't swim. Captain Earl had no desire to do so in February. How it was to be crossed had troubled them greatly. As they opened their eyes now, the problem was solved. There lay a fallen tree, neatly bridging the narrow stream. In less than five minutes they were safely on the other side of this dreaded obstacle and with far better prospects than they had dreamed of a few hours before. By the end of the fourth night they found that their six days stock of food was exhausted and their strength almost gone. Their only hope of food now lay in confiscating a chicken from the vicinity of some farmhouse and eating it raw. For this purpose they cautiously approached the outbuildings of a farmhouse. Here, while secretly scouting for the desired chicken, they were discovered by a Negro. They had no need to fear him. There is no case on record of a Negro betraying an escaped prisoner into the hands of the enemy. The sympathy of these dusky captives to slavery could be safely countered upon, and many a fugitive owed to them his safety from recapture. Glad to see you, gentlemen. He cried courteously. Use Yankee officers, escape from prison. It's all right with me, gentlemen. Come this way. You've got to be looked after. The kindly sympathy of this dusky friend was so evident that they followed him without a thought of treachery. He led them to his cabin, where a blazing fire in an old-fashioned fireplace quickly restored that sense of the comfort of warmth which they had for days lost. Several colored people were present, who surrounded and questioned them with the warmest sympathy. A guard was posted to prevent surprise, and the old mammy of the family hastened to prepare what seemed to be the most delicious meal they had ever tasted. The cornbread pones vanished down their throats as fast as she could take them from the hot ashes in which they were baked. The cabbage fried in a skillet tasted like ambrosia. The meat no game could surpass in flavor, and an additional zest was added to it by their fancy that it had been furnished by the slaveholder's pantry. They had partaken of many sumptuous meals, but nothing to equal that set before them on the hospitable table of their dusky hosts. They were new men with new courage, when they at length set out again, fully informed as to their route. On they went through the cold, following the difficult paths which they chose in preference so traveled roads, while the dogs, for the peninsula seemed to them to be principally peopled by dogs, by their unceasing chorus of barks, right, left, and in front, kept them in a state of nervous exasperation. Many times did they turn from their course through fear of detection from these vociferous guardians of the night. On the fifth day they were visited in their place of concealment by a snowstorm. Their suffering from cold now became so intolerable that they could not remain at rest, and they resumed their route about four o'clock. Two hours they went, and then to their complete discouragement found themselves back again at their starting point, and cold, wet, tired, and hungry into the bargain. As they stood there expressing in very plain language their opinion of dame fortune, a covered cart approached. Taking it for granted that the driver was a negro, they hailed him. But to their dismay found that they had halted a white man. There was but one thing to do. They told him that they were confederate scouts and asked him for information about the Yankee outposts. A short conference ensued which ended in their discovering that they were talking to a man of strong union sympathies and as likely to befriend them as the negroes. This was a hopeful discovery. They now freely told him who they really were, and in return received valuable information as to Rose, being told in addition where they could find a negro family who would give them food. If you can keep out of the way of rebel scouts for 24 hours more, he continued, you will very likely come across some of your own troops. But you are on very dangerous ground. Here is the scouting place of both armies and gorillas and bushwhackers are everywhere. Thanking him and with hearts filled with new hope, the wanderers started forward. At midnight they reached the negro cabin to which they had been directed, where to their great relief they obtained a substantial meal of cornbread, pork, and rye coffee, and what was quite as acceptable, a warming from a bright fire The friendly black warned them as their late informant had done of the danger of the ground they had yet to traverse. These warnings caused them to proceed very cautiously after leaving the hospitable cabin of their sable entertainer. But they had not gone far before they met an unexpected and vexatious obstacle, a river or creek, the diasquan as the negroes named it. They crossed it at length but not without great trouble and serious loss of time. It was now the sixth night since their escape. Hither, too, Captain Rowan had been a model of strength, perseverance, and judgment. Now these qualities seem suddenly to leave him. The terrible strain, mental and physical, to which they had been exposed, and their sufferings from cold, fatigue, and hunger produced their effect at last, and he became physically prostrate and mentally indifferent. Captain Earl, who retained his energies, had great difficulty in persuading him to proceed, and before daybreak was obliged to let him stop and rest. Captain Earl, who retained his energies, continued. When dawn appeared, they found themselves in an open country, affording poor opportunities for concealment. They felt sure, however, that they must be near the union outposts. With these considerations, they concluded to make their journey now by day and in a road. In truth, Rowan had lost all care as to how they went and what became of them, and his companions' energy and decision were on the decline. Onward they trudged mile by mile, with keen enjoyment of the highway after their bitter experience of byways, and somewhat heedless of consequences, though glad to perceive that no human form was in sight. Nine o'clock came. Before them the road curved sharply. They walked steadily onward. But as they neared the curve, there came to their ears a most disquieting sound, the noise of hooves on the hard roadbed, the rattle of cavalry equipments. A force of horsemen was evidently approaching. Were they union or confederate? Was freedom or renewed captivity before them? They looked quickly to right and left. No opportunity for concealment appeared. Nor was there a moment's time for flight, for the sound of hoof beats was immediately followed by the appearance of mounted and uniformed men, a cavalry squad, still some hundreds of yards away, but riding towards them at full gallop. The eyes of the fugitives looked wistfully and anxiously towards them. Thank heaven they wore the union blue. Those geedens which rose high in the air bore the union colors. They were the United States cavalry. Safety was assured. In a minute more, the rattling hooves were close at hand. The band of rescuers were around them. Eager questions, glad answers, heartfelt congratulations filled the air. In a very few minutes, the fugitives were mounted and riding gladly back in the midst of their new friends, to be banqueted, feasted, and fetted, until every vestige of their hardships had been worn away by human kindness. As to their feelings, at this happy termination of their heroic struggle for freedom, words cannot express them. The weary, the weary days, the bitter disappointments, the harsh treatment of prison life, the days and nights of cold, hunger and peril, wanderings through swamps and thorny thickets, hopes and despairs of flight, all were at an end, and now only friends surrounded them, only congratulating and commiserating voices met their ears. It was a feast of joy, never to be forgotten. A few words will finish. One hundred and nine and men had escaped. Of these, fifty-five reached the union lines. Fifty-four were captured and taken back to prison. Some of the escaped officers, more swift in motion or fortunate in route than the others, reached the union lines on their third day from Richmond. Their report that others were on the road bore good fruit. General Butler, then in command at Fortress Monroe, sent out on alternate days the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry and the First New York Rifles to patrol the country in search of the escaping prisoners, with tall guidance to attract their attention if they should be in concealment. Many of the fugitives were thus rescued. The adventures of two, as given above, must serve for example of them all. End of Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five of Historical Tales, Volume One, American This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Historical Tales, Volume One, American by Charles Morris Chapter Twenty-Five The Sinking of the Albemarle Neval operations in the American Civil War were particularly distinguished by the active building of ironclads. The North built and employed them with marked success. The South with marked failure. With praiseworthy energy and at great cost, the Confederates produced ironclad vessels of war in Norfolk Harbor, on Roanoke River, in the Mississippi and elsewhere. Yet, with the exception of the one-days raid of ruin of the Merrimack in Hampton Roads, their labor was almost in vain. Their expensive war vessels went down in the engulfing waters or went up in flame and smoke. Their efforts in this direction were simply conspicuous examples of non-success. We propose here to tell the tale of the disaster of the Albemarle, one of these ironclads, and the great deed of heroism which brought her career to an untimely end. The Albemarle was built on the Roanoke River in 1863. She was of light draft but of considerable length and width. Her hull above the waterline being covered with four inches of iron bars. Such an armor would be like paper against the great guns of today. Then it served its purpose well. The competition for effectiveness between rifled cannon and armor plates had not yet begun. April 1864 had arrived before this formidable opponent of the Union blockading fleet was ready for service. Then one misty morning down the river she went, on her mission of death and destruction. The opening of her career was promising. She attacked the Union gunboats and fought at Plymouth near the mouth of the river, captured one of the boats, sunk another, and aided in forcing the fort to surrender, its garrison being taken prisoners. It had been assailed at the same time by a strong land force, and the next day Plymouth itself was taken by the Confederate troops with a heavy Union loss in men and material. So far, favoring fortune had attended the Albemarle. Enlivened with success on a morning in May, she steamed out into the deeper waters of Albemarle Bay, confident on playing the same role with the wooden vessels there that the Merrimack had played in Hampton Roads. She failed in this laudable enterprise. The Albemarle was not so formidable as the Merrimack. The steamers of war which she was to meet there were more formidable than the Congress and the Cumberland. She first encountered the Sassacus, a vessel of powerful armament. More agile than the iron clad, the Sassacus played round her, exchanging shots and seeking a vulnerable point. At length, under a full head of steam, she dashed on the monster, striking a blow which drove it bodily half under the water. Recovering from the blow, the two vessels almost side by side hurled 100 pound balls upon each other. Most of those of the Sassacus bounded from the mailed sides of her antagonists, like hail from stone walls, but three of them entered a port. And did sad work within. In reply, the Albemarle sent one of her great bolts through the boiler of the Sassacus, filling her with steam. So far the iron clad had the best of the game, but others of the fleet were now near at hand. The balls which had entered her port had done serious injury. She was no longer in fighting trim. She turned and made the best of her way back to Plymouth, firing as she fled. This entered her career for that summer. But repairs were made and she was put in fighting trim again. Another gunboat was building as a consort. Unless something were quickly done, she would soon be an Albemarle sound again, with possibly a different tale to tell from that of her first assault. At this critical juncture, Lieutenant William B. Cushing, a very young but a very bold officer, proposed a daring plan. No less a one than to attack the Albemarle at her wharf, explode a torpedo under her hull, and send her, if possible, to the bottom of the Roanoke. He proposed to use a swift steam launch, run up the stream at night, and assail the ironclad where she lay in fancied security. From the bow of the launch protruded a long spar, loaded at its end with a one hundred pound dynamite cartridge. The spar could be lowered by pulling one rope, the cartridge detached by pulling another, and the dynamite exploded by pulling a third. The proposed exploit was a highly perilous one. The Albemarle eight miles of the river. Plymouth was garrisoned by several thousand soldiers, and the banks of the stream were patrolled by sentinels all the way down to the bay. It was more than likely that none of the adventurers would live to return. Yet Cushing and the crew of seven daring men whom he selected were willing to take the risk, and the naval commanders, to whom success in such an enterprise promised the most valuable results, agreed to let them go. It was a dark night in which the expedition set out, that of October 27th, 1864. Up the stream headed the little launch with her crew of seven, and towing two boats, each containing ten men armed with cutlasses, grenades, and revolvers. Silently they proceeded, keeping to midstream so as to avoid alarming the sentinels on the banks. In this success was attained, the eight miles were passed, and the front of the town reached without the Confederates having an inkling of the disaster in store for them. Reaching Plymouth, Lieutenant Cushing came to a quick decision as to what had best be done. He knew the town well. No alarm had been given. He might land a party and take the album out by surprise. He could land his men on the lower wharf, lead them stealthily through the dark streets, leap with them upon the iron clad, surprise the officers and crew and capture the vessel at her moorings. It was an enterprise of frightful risk, yet Cushing was just the man for it, and his men would follow wherever he would lead. A low order was given. The launch turned and glided almost noiselessly towards the wharf. But she was now only a short distance from the album aisle on whose deck the lookout was wide awake. What boat is that? came a loud hail. No reply. The launch glided on. What boat is that? came the hail again, sharper than before. Cast off, said Cushing in a low tone. The two boats were lucent and drifted away. The plan of surprise was at an end. The vigilance of the lookout had made it impossible. That of the destruction remained. The launch was turned again and moved once more towards the album aisle. They were quickly so close that the hull of the iron clad loomed darkly above them. Upon that vessel all was commotion. The unanswered hail was followed by a the springing of rattles, ringing of bells, running of men, and shouting of orders. Muskets were fired at random at the dimly seen black object. Bullets whizzed past the devoted crew. Lights began to flash here and there, a minute before all had been rest in silence. Now all was noise, alarm, and commotion. All this did not disconcert the intrepid commander of the launch. His main concern at the moment was an unexpected obstacle he had discovered, and which threatened to defeat his enterprise. A raft of logs had been placed around the iron clad to protect her from any such attack. There she lay, not fifty feet away, but this seemingly insuperable obstacle intervened. What was to be done? In emergencies like that men think quickly and to the point. The raft must be passed or all was at an end. The logs had been long in the water and doubtless were slippery with river slime. The launch might be run upon and over them. Once inside the raft it could never return. No matter for that he was there to sink the Albemarle. The smaller contingency of losing his own life was a matter to be left for an afterthought. This decision was reached in a moment's thought. The noise above them increased. Men were running and shouting, light splashing, landsmen startled by the noise hurrying to the river bank. Without an instant's delay the launch was wheeled round, steamed rapidly into the stream until a good offing was gained, turned again, and now drove straight forward for the Albemarle with all the power of her engines. As she came near bullets poured like hail across her decks. One tore off the sole of Cushing's shoe. Another went through the back of his coat. It was perilously close and hot work. The hail came again. What boat is that? This time Lieutenant Cushing replied. His reply was not in words, however, but in a howitzer load of canister which drove across the Albemarle's deck. The next minute the bow of the launch struck the logs. As had been expected the light crafts slid up on their slippery surfaces forcing them down into the water. The end of the spar almost touched the iron hull of the destined victim. The first rope was loosened. The spar with its load dropped underwater. The launch was still gliding onward and carrying the spar forward. The second cord was pulled. The torpedo dropped from the spar. At this moment a bullet cut across the left palm of the gallant Cushing. As it did so he pulled the third cord. The next instant a surging column of water was raised lifting the Albemarle as though the great ironclad were of feather weight. At the same instant a cannon, its muzzle not 15 feet away sent its charge rending through the timbers of the launch. The Albemarle lifted for a moment on the boiling surge settled down into the mud of her shallow anchorage never more to swim with a great hole torn in her bottom. The torpedo had done its work. Cushing had earned his fame. Surrender came a loud shout from Confederate Longs. Never shouted Cushing in reply save yourselves he said to his men. In an instant he had thrown off coat, shoes, sword, and pistols and plunged into the waters that rolled darkly at his feet and in which he had just dug a grave for the Albemarle. His men sprung beside him and struck out boldly for the farther shore. All this had passed in far less time than it takes to tell it. Little more than five minutes had passed since the first hail and already the Albemarle was a wreck, the launch destroyed, her crew swimming for their lives and bullets from deck and shore pouring thickly across the stream. The incense Confederates hastily manned boats and pushed out into the stream. In a few minutes they had captured most of the swimming crew. One sank and was drowned. One reached the shore. The gallant commander of the launch they failed to find. They called his name. They had learned it from their prisoners. But no answer came and the darkness veiled him from view. Had he gone to the bottom? Such most of the searchers deemed to be his fate. In a few minutes the light of a blazing fire flashed across the river from Plymouth Wharf. It failed to reveal any swimming forms. The impression became general that the daring commander was drowned. After some further search most of the boats returned, deeming their work at an end. They had not sought far or fast enough. Cushing had reached shore on the Plymouth side before the fire was kindled. He was chilled and exhausted but he dared not stop to rest. Boats were still patrolling the stream. Parties of search might soon be scouring the river banks. The moments were precious. He must hasten on. He found himself near the walls of a fort. On its parapet towering gloomily above him a sentinel could be seen pacing steadily to and fro. The fugitive lay almost under his eyes. A bushy swamp lay not far behind but to reach its shelter he must cross an open space forty feet wide in full view of this man. The sentinel walks away. Cushing makes a dash for his life but not half the space is traversed when his backward glancing eye sees the sentinel about to turn. Down he goes on his back in the rushes trusting to their friendly shelter and the gloom of the night to keep him from sight. As he lies there slowly gaining breath after his excited effort four men two of them officers pass so closely that they almost tread on his extended form seeking him but failing to see what lies nearly under their feet. They pass on talking of the night's startling event. Cushing dares not rise again yet the swamp must be gained and speedily. Still flat on his back he digs his heels into the soft earth and pushes himself inch by inch through the rushes until with a warm heartthrob of hope he feels the welcome dampness of the swamp. It proves to be no pleasant refuge. The mire is too deep to walk in while above it grow tangled briars and thorny shrubs through which he is able to pass only as before by lying on his back and pushing and pulling himself onward. The hours of the night passed day dawned. He had made some progress and was now at a safe distance from the fort but found himself still in the midst of peril. Near where he lay a party of soldiers were at work engaged in planting obstructions in the river lest the union fleet should follow its daring pioneers to Plymouth now that the album was sunk and the chief naval defended the place gone. Just back from the river bank and not far from where he lay a cornfield lifted its yellowed plumes into the air pushing men to reach its friendly shelter unobserved and now almost for the first time since his escape stood upright and behind the wrestling rows made his way past the soldiers. To his alarm as he came near the opposite side of the field he found himself face to face with a man who glared at him in surprise. While he might for the late trimly dressed lieutenant was now a story site covered from head to foot with swamp mud his clothes rent and blood oozing from a hundred scratches in his skin. He had no reason for alarm. The man was a negro. The dusky face showed sympathy under its surprise. I am a union soldier said cushing feeling in his heart that no slave would betray him. One of them as was in the town last night asked the negro. Yes, have you been there? Can you tell me anything? No, Massa. Only I has been told that there's powerful bad work there and the soldiers is violent mad. Further words passed. In the end the negro agreeing to go to the town see for himself what harm had been done and bring back word. Cushing would wait for him under shelter of the corn. The old negro set out on his errand glad of the opportunity to help one of Massa Lincoln's soldiers. The lieutenant secreted himself as well as he could and waited. An hour passed. Then steps and the rustling of the dry leaves of the corn stalks were heard. The fugitive peep from his ambush to his joy he saw before him the smiling face of his dusky messenger. What news he demanded stepping joyfully forward. Mighty good news Massa said the negro with a laugh that big iron ships got a hole in her bottom big enough to drive a wagon in. She's deep into mud alongside the wolf and folks say she'll never get up again. Good. She's done for then. My work is accomplished. Now old man tell me how I must go to get back to the ships. The negro gave what directions he could and the fugitive took to the swamp again after a grateful goodbye to his dusky friend and a warm Godspeed from the latter. It was into a thicket of tangled shrubs that Lieutenant Cushing now plunged so dense that he could not see ten feet in advance. But the sun was visible overhead and served him as a guide. Hour by hour he dragged himself painfully onward. At two o'clock in the afternoon he found himself on the banks of a narrow creek, a small affluent of the Roanoke. He crouched in the bushes on the creek side peering warily before him. Voices reached his ears. Across the stream he saw men. A minute's observation apprised him of the situation. The men he saw to be a group of soldiers seven in number who had just landed from a boat in the stream. As he watched they tied their boat to the root of a tree and then turned into a path that led upward. Reaching a point at some distance from the river they stopped, sat down, and began to eat their dinner. Here was an opportunity. A desperate one. But Cushing had grown ready for desperate chances. He had had enough of wandering through mire and thorns. Without hesitation he lowered himself noiselessly into the water, swam across the stream, untied the boat, pushed it cautiously from the bank and swam with it down the stream until far enough away to be out of sight of its recent occupants. Then he climbed into the boat and paddled away as fast as possible. There was no sign of pursuit. The soldiers kept unsuspiciously at their midday meal. The swamp-lined creek side served well as a shelter from prying eyes. For hours Cushing pursued his slow course. The sun sank, darkness gathered, night came on. At the same time the water widened around him. He was on the surface of the Roanoke. Onward he paddled. The night crept on until midnight was reached. For ten hours he had been at that exhausting toil. But now before his eyes appeared a welcome sight, the dark hull of a Union gunboat. Ship Bahoy came a loud hail from the exhausted man. Who goes there? Answered the lookout on the gunboat. A friend. Take me up. The gunboat was quickly in motion. This might be a Confederate ruse. Possibly a torpedo might have been sent to blow them up. They were in dangerous waters. Boats were quickly lowered and rowed towards the small object on the stream. Who are you, came the cry as they drew nearer? Lieutenant Cushing or what is left of me? Cushing was the excited answer. And the Albemarle? Will never trouble a Union fleet again. She rests in her grave on the muddy bottom of the Roanoke. Loud cheers followed this stirring announcement. The sailors bent to their oars and quickly had the gallant lieutenant on board. Their cheers were heightened tenfold when the crew of the Valley City heard what had been done. In truth, the exploit of Lieutenant Cushing was one that for coolness, daring, and success in the face of seemingly insuperable obstacles has rarely been equaled in history, and the destruction of the Albemarle ranks with the most notable events in the history of the war. End of Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Of Historical Tales Volume 1 American This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Historical Tales Volume 1 American by Charles Morris Chapter 26 Alaska Gold Furs and Fishes In 1867 when the far-seeing Secretary Seward purchased Alaska from the Russian government for seven million two hundred thousand dollars, there was an outcry of disapproval equal to that made when Louisiana territory was purchased from France in 1803. Many of the people called the region Seward's Folly and said it would produce nothing but icebergs and polar bears. And General Benjamin F. Butler, representative from Massachusetts, said in the House if we are to pay this amount for Russia's friendship during the war then give her the seven million two hundred thousand dollars and tell her to keep Alaska. Representative Washburn of Wisconsin exclaimed, I defy any man on the face of the earth to produce any evidence that an ounce of gold has ever been found in Alaska. Today Alaska is yielding in gold ten million dollars per year. Its fisheries are among the richest in the world including more than half the salmon yield of the United States. Its forests are of enormous value. Its fur seal harvest is without arrival. Its territory is traversed by one of the greatest rivers of the world two thousand miles long and with more than a thousand miles of navigable waters and it promises to become important farming and stock raising region. As for extent it is large enough to cover more than twenty of our states. In revenue it has repaid the United States the original outlay and several millions more. While aside from its gold product its fisheries have netted one hundred million dollars and its furs eighty million dollars since its acquisition. Seward then was wise in looking upon this purchase as the greatest achievement of his life though he truly said that it would take the country a generation to find out Alaska's value. The most dramatic and interesting portion of the story of Alaska is its gold mining enterprise and it is of this therefore that we propose to speak. The discovery of place or gold deposits in British Columbia led naturally to this demise that this precious metal might be found farther northward and as early as 1880 wandering gold hunters had made their way over the passes from Cassier or inward from the coast and were trying the gravel bars of tributaries of the Yukon finding the yellow metal at several places. The first important find along the Yukon was made on Stewart River in 1885 about $100,000 being taken out in two summers. The next year a good find was made at Forty Mile Creek finds being made later on Sixty Mile Creek Birch Creek and other streams. On Birch Creek arose Circle City named for its proximity to the Arctic Circle and growing into a well built and well conducted little town. Meanwhile a valuable find had been made on Douglas Island one of the long chain of islands that bound the western coastline and this had since developed into one of the richest mines in the world. It is not a placer mine however but a quartz mine one needing capital for its development and with no charms for the ordinary gold seeker. The gold is found in a friable and easily worked rock enabling low grade ores to be handled at a profit and today 1500 stamps are busy and the mines are highly profitable. The placer miners however have no use for gold that rests in quartz veins and has to be obtained by the aid of costly stamping mills. The gold they seek is that on which nature has done the work of stamping by breaking up the original veins into sands and gravels with which the freed gold is mixed in condition to be obtained by a simple process of washing. The wandering miners thus prospected Alaska following the long course of the Yukon and trying its tributary streams many of them making a living a few of them acquiring wealth but none of their finds attracting the attention of the world which scarcely knew that gold seekers were at work in this remote and almost unknown region. Thus it went on until 1897 when on July 16th a party of miners arrived in San Francisco from the upper Yukon with a large quantity of gold in nuggets and dust and a story to tell that deeply stirred that old land of gold. On the 17th another steamer put into Seattle with more miners and $800,000 in gold dust nearly all of it the outcome of a winter's work on a small stream known as the Klondike entering the Yukon about 50 miles above 40 mile creek. The discovery of this rich placer region was made in the autumn of 1896 by an Illinois man named George McCormick who in the intervals of salmon fishing tried his hand at prospecting and on Bonanzo Creek a tributary of the Klondike was surprised and overjoyed to find gold in a profusion never before dreamed of in the Alaskan region. The news of the finds spread rapidly through Alaska and before winter in the old diggings were largely deserted. A swarm of eager miners poured into the Klondike region and the frozen earth was torn and rent in their eagerness to reach its yellow treasures. The news of the discovery spread as far and fast as the telegraph could carry it. The richness of the finds surpassed anything ever before found and the whole country was agog. The stories of wonderful fortunes made by miners were testified to by a display of nuggets and sacks of shining gold in stores and hotels. The find of one man being shown in a San Francisco shop window in the shape of $130,000 worth of gold. The old gold fever broke out again as an epidemic. Such a stampede as took place had never been seen before. The stream of picturesque humanity that poured through Seattle and onto the golden north surpassed the palmy days of 49 when California opened its caves of Aladdin. Every steamer that could be made use of was booked to its full capacity while many ardent gold seekers were turned away. Every passenger and every pound of cargo that could be taken on these steamers was loaded and the Hegora was almost instantly in full blast. As it proved the new find was in Canadian territory a few miles east of the Alaskan boundary but the flood of men that set in was mainly American. Many threw up good positions or mortgaged their homes for funds to join the mad migration oblivious in most cases of the fact that they were setting out to encounter hardships and arctic extremes of temperature for which their home life had utterly unfitted them. Warnings were published that those who joined the pioneer flood faced starvation or death by freezing or hardship but the tide was on and could not be turned. And before the autumn had far advanced thousands had landed at the mushroom settlements of Skagway and Dia laden with the effects that they had brought with them and proposing to fight their way against nature's obstacles over the difficult mountain passes and along the little less difficult lakes and streams to the promised land of gold. A village of log houses and tents known as Dawson had sprung up at the mouth of the Klondike and this was the mecca towards which the Great Pilgrimage set. The struggle inland of the first comers was a frightful one. No roads or packed trails existed over the rough and lofty passes of the coast range of mountains and it was killing work to transport the many tons of equipment and provisions over the nearly impassable Chilkut and White passes. For those who came too late in the season it was quite impassable. The trails and rivers were stopped by snow and ice and numbers had to endure a long and miserable winter in the primitive coast settlements or straggle back to civilization. The terrors of that first year's battle with the unbroken passes are indescribable. Thousands of dead pack horses marked the way and the mountains once crossed and the waters reached new troubles arose. Boats had to be built for the long reach of navigation down the chain of lakes and the Yukon many having brought the necessary boat timbers with them. Six hundred miles of waterways were to be traversed. On some of the short streams connecting the lakes there were dangerous rapids to be run in which many lost their goods and some their lives. The early winter added ice to the difficulties of the way and the Yukon section of the trip was made by the later comers through miles of drift ice grinding and plowing its way to the peril of the boats. Or water travel was checked by the final closing of the stream for the winter leaving no resource but a long sludging journey over the snow. Those who took the long voyage to the mouth of the Yukon and journeyed by steamer up that stream had their difficulties with ice and current and it was not uncommon for them to be frozen in leaving them the sole expedient of the dog sled if they elected to proceed to the diggings without their supplies. Dawson once reached the trouble and hardship were by no means at an end. Having penetrated a total wilderness in an arctic climate born on by dreams of sudden fortune the enthusiastic treasure-seekers found new difficulties awaiting them. There was no easy task of digging and panning as in more favorite climbs. Winter had locked the golden treasures with its strongest fetters. The ground was everywhere frozen into the firmness of rock. In mid-summer thawed no more than three feet down and eternal frost rained below. To reach the gold-bearing gravels the miners had to build fires on the frozen surface and keep these going for 24 hours. This would soften the soil to the depth of some six inches. This thrown out new fires had to be kindled and thus laboriously the miners burned their way down to the gold-bearing gravel usually at a depth of 15 feet. Then other fires were built at the bottom and tunnels made through the five feet or more of pay dirt which was dug out and piled up to await the coming of flowing water in the spring when the gold might be washed out in the rockers and slewises employed. As may be seen the buried treasures of these gravel beds were to be won in these pioneer years only by dint of exhausting labor and frightful hardship. They would never have been found at all had not the bars and shores of the streams yielded gold at the surface level. Yet the extraordinary richness of these gravels from which as much as $50,000 might be obtained as the result of a winter's work excited men's imagination to the utmost and the stream of gold seekers continued year after year until Dawson grew to be a well-built and populous city and the yearly output of the Klondike mines amounted to more than $16 million. The difficulty in reaching the mines grew less year by year. As early as 1898 a railway was begun across the White Pass. It now extends from Skagway more than 100 miles inland the lakes and streams being traversed by steamers so that the purgatory of the early prospectors has been converted into the broad and easy way of the later sinners. The old method of burning into the frozen soil has also been improved on steam being now used instead of fire and the pay dirt reached much more rapidly and cheaply by its aid. The Klondike region though largely prospected and worked by Americans is not in Alaska Dawson lying 60 miles east of the border. The streams of Alaska itself so far as they have yet been worked are far less promising and yet Alaska has a golden treasure house of its own that may yet prove as prolific as the Klondike itself. This is at Nome on the shores of Bering Sea about 25 degrees of longitude nearly due west from Dawson and 150 miles north of the mouth of the Yukon. Here the sands of the sea itself and of its bordering shores have proven splendid gold-bearers and have attracted a large population to that inhospitable region in latitude 65 degrees north. Here has grown up a city containing 25,000 inhabitants and here may be seen the most northerly railroad in the world. In 1898 a soldier in digging a well on the beach at Nome saw in the sands thrown up that alluring yellow glint which has led so many men to fortune and so many to death. The story of his find came to the ears of an old prospector from Idaho who too ill to go inland was stranded in the military station of Nome. Spade and panwork once put to work and in 20 days the fortunate invalid found himself worth $3,000 in gold. At Nome the gold was first found in the beach sands and even in the sands of the sea joining the beach. Old Neptune being forced to yield part of the treasures he had taken to himself. Later the bench of higher land stretching back from the beach and the sides of the down flowing creeks were found to be gold bearing. The bench gravels being from 40 to 80 feet thick with gold throughout. A heavy growth of moss covers this coastal plain under which lie the frozen gravels which are softened by the use of steam and thus forced to give up their previous freight. That is all we need to say about the gold product of Alaska further than to sum up that the territory yields about $10 million per year or with the Klondike about $25 million. These equaling nearly one-third the total production of the United States. Here is a fine showing for a region one steamed worthless. Gold is an alluring subject but Alaska has other sources of wealth which enormously exceed its golden sands in value. We have already spoken of the rich products of its fisheries and furs. The former includes several species of salmon which the Yukon yields in vast numbers. The latter embrace in addition to the usual fur-bearing animals the valuable fur seal of the Aleutian Islands a species found nowhere else. To these sources of wealth may be added the vast forests of valuable timber especially of spruce, hemlock, red and yellow cedar which are likely to become of great value in the growing extermination of the home forests of the United States. Alaska also presents excellent opportunities in its coast districts for agriculture. Most of the hardy vegetables and cereals here yielding good crops. But a more valuable outlook for the farmer appears to lie in the grazing opportunities of the land. In some localities along the south coast the grasses grow in splendid luxuriance much of the grass being six feet high. On the higher elevations and in exposed places the grass is often too low for hay making but is admirable for grazing the cattle that eat it growing very fat. Of these grasslands there are about 10,000 square miles of which more than half can be utilized. Stock raising then is likely to become a leading industry and especially dairying. They're being more meat than is needed by the sparse population. There are admirable dairy sites on the islands and mainland. The reindeer recently introduced are likely to prove invaluable to the natives supplanting in great measure the dog for transportation purposes and supplying also food and clothing. Reindeer milk makes excellent cheese and in a few years there may be deer meat for sale outside. Such is the story of Alaska. It occupies much the same position on the west coast of America as Norway does on that of Europe but has four times as wide a habitable area as Norway and a milder climate on its south coastlands. Therefore as Norway sustains a population of 2,240,000 there is no special reason why Alaska may not yet possess a population of three million or four million and take rank as one of the important states of the American Union. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 of Historical Tales Volume 1 American This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Historical Tales Volume 1 American by Charles Morris Chapter 27 How Hawaii lost its queen and entered the United States Up to the year 1898 the United States was confined to the continent of North America. In that year it made a great stride outward over the oceans adding to its dominion the island of Puerto Rico in the west India waters and the archipelagos of the Philippine and Hawaiian islands in the far Pacific. Puerto Rico and the Philippines were added as a result of the war with Spain. As to how Hawaii was acquired it is our purpose here to tell. Midway in the North Pacific lies this interesting group of islands first made known to the world by Captain Cook the famous English discoverer in 1778 and annexed the United States 120 years later. Before telling the story of their acquisition a few words as to their prior history will be in place. Called by Captain Cook the Sandwich Islands after the English Earl of Sandwich they afterwards became known as the Hawaiian Islands from the native name of the largest island of the group and are now collectively known as Hawaii in their new position as a territory of the United States. When Captain Cook visited this locality he found the islands inhabited by a friendly kind-hearted people disposed to receive their visitors in a hospitable spirit. But in the usual way of sailors and discoverers dealing with the primitive races coral soon developed some of the natives were shot one of them by Cook himself and in the fight that followed the great sailor and discoverer lost his life. At that time each of the islands was governed by a chief or king if we may call him so who had absolute authority or his people. Greatest among them was Kamehameha heir to the throne of Hawaii who was present when Captain Cook was killed. Bold and ambitious and invested by nature with political genius this chief conceived the idea of making himself master of all the islands and subjecting their chiefs to his rule. A shrewd and able man he was quick to perceive that the strangers who soon began to visit the islands were far superior to the natives in arms and ability and he decided to use them for his ends. In a fight with some American fur traders a schooner the fair American was taken by the islanders and two Americans Isaac Davis and John Young were made prisoners. With them the new chief obtained the cannon muskets and ammunition of the fair American thus equipped the Napoleon of Hawaii set out on his career of conquest. Kindly treatment made the two Americans Davis and Young his faithful friends and subjects and they proved his main stay in the work of conquest. It was no easy matter even with his cannon and muskets. The chiefs of the other island resisted him fiercely and it took him many years with all the stern will and unyielding perseverance of Kamehameha and the ability and courage of his two able lieutenants to subdue them all. Davis and Young were amply rewarded with honors and lands for their services and some of their descendants still dwell upon the island. While this work of conquest was going on many vessels visited the islands missionaries made their way further. Christianity was introduced and idolatry abolished and many of the arts of civilization found their way inward. Then settlers other than missionaries came many of them from America and a white population was added to the Aboriginal. Sugarcane grew in abundance on the islands and sugar mills were introduced. Other industries were established the great fertility of the islands attracted speculators the lands rose in value and great fortunes were made. Such is briefly the industrial history of these islands. The political history is not without its interest. Five kings of the name of Kamehameha reigned in succession. Of these Kamehameha the third under American advice gave up his absolute rule founded a constitutional government and distributed the lands among the people. After the Kamehamehas came King Lunalia who ruled but one year and Kalakaua who ruled from 1874 to 1891 and showed such disposition to return to absolutism that the people were in constant dread for their liberties and lands. It was only by a revolt of the people that they regained their rights forcing him to grant them a new constitution and their former liberties and privileges. The next and last monarch of Hawaii was a woman Liliu Kalani the sister of Kalakaua She was the wife of an Englishman Mr. J. O. Dominus and on a visit to London had been entertained by Queen Victoria. Her rearing in education had been under the influence of American missionaries and the whites of the islands who had been in constant fear of the late King hailed her accession to the throne with joy with the expectation that they would have in her a good friend they soon found themselves disappointed. The extravagance and ill rule of Kalakaua had left the country in a wretched state it was deeply in debt and the much needed public improvements were at a standstill The country had long been divided between two parties the missionary and the anti-missionary the former seeking to save the natives from vice and degradation the latter encouraging such vicious practices as lotteries and opium sales for their personal benefit Under Kalakaua these ill weeds had gained full growth and the new queen soon showed a disposition to encourage them her whole nature seemed to change her former friends were cast aside and new favorites adopted and though she had a personal income of about $70,000 it was far from sufficing for her needs To add to her income the agents of the Louisiana Lottery were encouraged and the opium smugglers found little interference with their nefarious traffic while the frequent changes of the queen's ministers kept the people in a state of doubt and uneasiness At what was called the long term of the legislature laws were passed favoring the lottery and the opium dealers The session was protracted until the grinding season for the sugar cane when a number of the best members were obliged to return to their plantations and in their absence the lottery and opium bills were rushed through Many of the Christian ladies of Honolulu now called on the queen and implored her to veto this pernicious legislation which would turn their country into a den of gambling and infamy She wept with them over the situation and the good ladies knelt and prayed that God would help their queen in the terrible ordeal before her They left the palace feeling sure that the country was safe from the dread affliction An hour later the queen signed both bills and they became laws The passage of these bills created intense indignation All felt that it was a piece of treachery and fraud Those who gave the queen any credit for good intentions looking upon her as weak and vacillating and utterly under the influence of bad advisors As yet, however, no thought of revolution had arisen It was imagined that the worst stage had been reached But when the announcement was made the next day that the queen was about to declare a new constitution the most vivid dread and alarm were aroused Feeling now secure of revenue from the proceeds of the lottery and the opium trade Queen Liliu Kalani no longer hesitated to show her hand The proposed new constitution was a scheme for a return to absolute monarchy One under which every white man on the islands unless married to a Hawaiian woman would be deprived of the right to vote The act was a fatal one to her reign It precipitated a revolution which quickly brought her queenship to an end The steps which led to this result are well worth relating The ceremony of pro-roging the legislature ended The queen returned to the palace with the purpose of immediately proclaiming the new constitution In the procession to the palace the native society called the Puikaliayina marched in a double line its president carrying a large package containing the constitution A throng of Hawaiians surrounded the palace gates and filled the grounds near the front entrance to the building The queen's guard being drawn up under arms In the throne room the native society which had escorted the queen ranged themselves in regular lines their president Arapai having in his hand an address which he proposed to deliver Most of the native members of the legislature were also present some members of the diplomatic corps being with them While they waited the cabinet was assembled in the blue room to which they had been summoned by the queen Here a striking scene took place Liliu Kalani placed before them a copy of the new constitution and bade them sign it saying that she proposed to promulgate it at once She met with an outspoken opposition Your majesty we have not read that constitution said Mr. Parker secretary of foreign affairs and before we read it we must advise you that this is a revolutionary act it cannot be done An angry reply came from the queen and an animated discussion followed in which the cabinet official said that a meeting had just been held with the foreign representatives and that if she persisted there was danger of an insurrection It is your doing she replied I would not have undertaken this step if you would not encourage me to do so you have led me to the brink of a precipice and are now leaving me to take the leap alone Why not give the people this constitution you need have no fear I will bear the brunt of all the blame afterwards The cabinet stood firm Mr. Peterson the attorney general repeating we have not read the constitution How dare you say that she exclaimed when you have had it in your possession for a month The dispute grew more violent as it went on The cabinet declined to resign when asked by her to do so Whereupon she threatened that if they would not accede to her wishes she would go to the palace door and tell the mob outside that she wished to give them a new constitution but that her ministers had prevented her from doing so At this threat three of the ministers left the room and escaped from the building They remembered the fate of certain representatives who fell into the hands of Hawaiian mob in 1874 Mr. Parker alone had the courage to remain He feared that if the queen were left alone she would sign the instrument herself and proclaim it to the people telling them that her cabinet refused to comply with her wishes and seeking to rouse against them the wrath of the unthinking mob whose only idea of the situation was that the white men were opposing their queen The cabinet stood between two fires that of the supporters of the queen on the one hand and that of the white people of Honolulu on the other The report of the fleeing members raised the excitement of the latter to the boiling pitch A committee of safety was at once organized and held its first meeting with closed doors Gentlemen, said a member of the committee We are brought face to face with this question What shall we do? The discussion ended in a motion by the Honorable A. L. Thurston to the effect that preliminary steps be taken at once to form a provisional government with a view to annexation to the United States of America Meanwhile, a subcommittee had waited on the United States minister Mr. John L. Stevens asking him to give them the support of the United States troops on board the Boston Gentlemen, he replied I have no authority to involve the United States government in your revolution I will request to have troops landed to protect American life and property but for no other purpose Left to their own resources the revolutionary party determined to go on with the enterprise even if their own lives should be lost in the effort to prevent the tyranny of the queen The Committee of Safety collected and stored arms in convenient places finally taking all these arms to the barracks of the committee This brought about the first collision It was shortly afternoon on January 17th, 1893 that three of the revolutionists John Good, Edwin Benner and Edward Parris with a man named Fritz were taking some arms in a wagon to the barracks A policeman who had been watching the store from which the arms were taken seized the bridle of the horse and cried Surrender What shall I do? asked Benner Go on, roared Good Benner made a cut at the policeman with his whip and tried to drive on The man let go of the bridle and blew his whistle bringing two other policemen quickly to his aid One tried to climb into the front of the wagon but was knocked senseless by Benner while the other who attacked in the rear was roughly handled by Parris and Fritz The wagon now drove on but got entangled in a block of two street cars on a truck Other policeman came running up and a fight ensued One of the officers putting his hand in his pocket as if to draw a weapon Look out, he is going to shoot cried a voice from one of the cars Good instantly drew his pistol and crying Benner it's life or death if we must we must he fired The policeman fell with a ball in his shoulder The wagon by this time had got loose from the block and was driven furiously away reaching the barracks without further trouble That wounded policeman constituted the sole list of dead and wounded in the revolution Men were rapidly gathering about the barracks Two companies of armed men soon marched up and a proclamation was read to the following effect The Hawaiian monarchical system of government is hereby abrogated A provisional government for the control and management of public affairs and the protection of the public is hereby established to exist until terms of union with the United States of America have been negotiated and agreed upon These were the essential clauses of the proclamation that overthrew the Hawaiian government The armed insurgents now marching to the palace where they found no one but a highly indignant woman the queen deserted by all and in a violent state of excitement Her soldiers who were in the police station made no effort to help her and the only thing needed to complete the work of the revolution was the capture of this station This was done without a blow being struck and the revolution was complete In this easy way a government more than a century old was overturned and a new one installed in its place but the end was not yet The United States had still to be heard from Ministers Stevens and Captain Wilta of the Boston had landed troops to protect the interests of American citizens and from this incident trouble arose The revolution in Hawaii took place January 17, 1893 when President Harrison then in office had little more than six weeks to serve Harrison favored annexation of the New Ocean Republic A treaty was prepared and sent to the Senate but before it could be acted upon the 4th of March arrived and a new man with new views came in to fill the presidential chair President Cleveland's views were startlingly new He believes that the success of the revolution was due to the act of Ministers Stevens and Captain Wilta in landing troops that the Queen had been illegally removed and sent the honorable Albert S. Willis to Honolulu to unseat President Dole of the New Republic and restore Queen Liliu Kalani to the throne This would undoubtedly have been done but for the dethroned Queen herself who showed a sanguinary spirit that put poor Mr. Willis a man of kindly nature and humane sympathies in an embarrassing situation The President expected the Queen, if restored, to show a spirit of forgiveness to the revolutionists and his agent was decidedly taken aback by her answers to his questions Should you be restored to the throne? he asked Would you grant full amnesty as to life and property to all those persons who have been or who are now in the provisional government? The Queen's answer, slowly and hesitatingly given was There are certain laws of my government by which I shall abide My decision would be, as the laws direct that such persons should be beheaded and their property confiscated Here was a medieval decision with a vengeance In spite of all that Willis could flee the savagely inclined Queen stuck to her ultimatum The utmost she would yield was that these persons must be exiled or otherwise punished and their property confiscated The tidings of this ultimatum put President Cleveland in an awkward dilemma The beheading idea was too much for him and the affair dragged on until the following December when the ex-Queen generously consented to let Dole and his friends keep their heads on condition of leaving the country and losing their property Finally, when told that she could not have the throne on any such conditions she experienced a change of heart and agreed to grant full amnesty When news of what was in view reached Honolulu there was intense excitement It was expected that Marines would be landed from the warship Philadelphia and Adams to restore the Queen and a determination to resist them arose The capital was entrenched with sandbag breastworks The batteries were manned and armed and men were stationed to fight As for President Dole and his cabinet they were in a quandary It was finally decided to make only a show of opposition to the landing of the Marines but after they had restored the Queen and retired to capture her again and resume business as a Republic Their alarm had no real foundation There had never been an intention to land the Marines The President knew well that he had no authority to land Marines for such a purpose and in his message referred the whole matter to Congress where it slept Yet the ex-Queen and her supporters did not sleep Finding that there was no hope of bringing the United States into the squabble they organized a counter-revolution of their own smuggled arms into the country and in January 1895 the new insurrection broke out Great secrecy was maintained The night of Sunday, January 5th was fixed for the outbreak In the evening President Dole and his cabinet and many other officials of the Republic would be at the service in the Central Union Church and it would be easy to blow up the whole government with a bomb Unluckily for the conspirators their first capture was that of some whiskey and inspired by this they began celebrating their victory in advance Yelling and shooting on Sunday afternoon alarmed the authorities and suspicion of something wrong was aroused An attempt to search a suspected house for arms led to a fight in which one man was killed and others wounded News of the insurrection were taken to the church and whispered to the members of the National Guard and the government who slipped quietly out The pastor, oblivious to this circumstance, went on with his sermon but uneasiness arose in the congregation and when it last the clatter of cavalry and the roll of artillery were heard passing the church all order was at an end The worshipers rushed into the street in a mass the preacher following Within ten minutes a state of peace had been changed into one of war The most intense excitement prevailed no one knew anything of the numbers or location of the enemy They were at length found in large force in the hollow basin or crater of Diamond Head so strongly posted that they could not be dislodged from the side of the land A tug was therefore sent with a howitzer to shell them from the sea where a fierce land attack was kept up and before night on Monday they were driven out of their stronghold and in full flight Another fight took place at Punchbowl Hill in the rear of Honolulu lasting an hour though with little loss Tuesday was spent in searching for the enemy and on Wednesday another sharp fight took place They being again defeated Before the end of the week the affair was at an end and the ex-queen arrested as one of the conspirators Her premises were found to be a regular magazine of arms and artillery Lilio Kalani now found Hawaii too hot to hold her and sought a new home in the United States and the Republic went on peaceably until 1898 when the war with Spain then being in progress and a new president in the chair a new and successful effort for its annexation was made The bill for its admission was signed by President McKinley on July 7th and the Hawaiian group became an outlying possession of the United States It was made in American territory in 1900 The End End of Chapter 27 End of Historical Tales Volume 1 American by Charles Morris