Page:John Brown (W. E. B. Du Bois).djvu/169

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THE SWAMP OF THE SWAN
161

A score of by-laws were added, providing for electing officers, trial by jury, disposal of captured property, etc. Then follow these articles:

"Art. XIV. All uncivil, ungentlemanly, profane, vulgar talk or conversation shall be discountenanced.

"Art. XV. All acts of petty theft, needless waste of property of the members or of citizens are hereby declared disorderly; together with all uncivil, or unkind treatment of citizens or of prisoners.

"Art. XX. No person after having first surrendered himself a prisoner shall be put to death, or subjected to corporeal punishment, without first having had the benefit of an impartial trial.

"Art. XXI. The ordinary use or introduction into the camp of any intoxicating liquor, as a beverage, is hereby declared disorderly."[1]

Nor was this ideal of discipline merely on paper. The reporter of the New York Tribune stumbled on the camp which the authorities did not dare to find:

"I shall not soon forget the scene that here opened to my view. Near the edge of the creek a dozen horses were tied, all ready saddled for a ride for life, or a hunt after Southern invaders. A dozen rifles and sabres were stacked against the trees. In an open space, amid the shady and lofty woods, there was a great blazing fire with a pot on it; a woman, bareheaded, with an honest sunburnt face, was picking blackberries from the bushes; three or four armed men were lying on red and blue blankets on

  1. Sanborn, pp. 288–290.