Secret Band of Brothers

Secret Band of Brothers

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Secret Band of Brothers, by Jonathan
Harrington Green
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Secret Band of Brothers A Full and True Exposition of All the
Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds of This Powerful
Organization in the United States.
Author: Jonathan Harrington Green

Release Date: March 4, 2006 [eBook #17917]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET
BAND OF BROTHERS***
E-text prepared by Dave Maddock, Susan Skinner, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/) from page images generously made available
by the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service
(http://www.hti.umich.edu/)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which
includes the original illustrations. See 17917-h.htm or 17917-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/9/1/17917/17917-h/17917-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/9/1/17917/17917-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through the Making of
America collection of the University of Michigan Digital Library
Production Service. See
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AHK6233.00
01.001

SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and
Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States.
By the "Reformed Gambler,"
JONATHAN H. GREEN.
Author of "The Gambler's Life," "Gambling Exposed," "The Reformed
Gambler; Or, Autobiography of J. H. Green," Etc.
With Illustrative Engravings.
* * * * *
"This is a most fearful and startling exposition of crime, and gives the
true and secret history of a daring and powerful secret association, the
members of which, residing in all parts of the country, have for a long
period of years been known to one another by signs and tokens known
only to their order. This association has been guilty of an almost
incredible amount of crime. Beautifully embellished with Illustrative
Engravings, from original designs by Darley and Croome."--Courier.
* * * * *

[Illustration]

Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson and Brothers, 306 Chestnut Street. Entered
according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by T. B. PETERSON,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.
The vice of gambling is peculiarly destructive. It spares neither age nor
sex. It visits the domestic hearth with a pestilence more quiet and
stealthy, but not less deadly, than intemperance. It is at once the vice of
the gentleman, and the passion of the blackguard. With deep shame we
are forced to admit that the halls of legislation have not been free from
its influence, nor the judicial bench unstained by its pollution.
It is against this vice, which is now spreading like a subtle poison
through all grades of society, that the present work is directed. The
author is not a mere theorist. He speaks from experience--dark and
bitter experience. The things he has seen he tells; the words he has
heard he speaks again. Some of these scenes curdle the blood in the
veins, even when remembered; some of these words, whenever
whispered, recall incidents of singular atrocity, and thrill the bosom
with horror.
The author professes to speak nothing but the plain truth. He does not
aspire to an elegant style of writing, adorned with the ornaments of the
orator and the scholar; but to one quality may lay claim, without being
thought a vain or immodest man. He speaks with an earnest sincerity.
Whatever he says comes from his heart, and is spoken with all the
sympathy of his soul.
This work differs from all the previous works of the author. Indeed, it
is unlike any thing ever published in this country. It is not a mere

exposure of gambling, nor yet an attack on the character of particular
gamblers. It is a revelation of a wide-spread organization--pledged to
gambling, theft, and villany of all kinds. There are at the present time
existing, in our Union, certain organizations, pledged to the
performance of good works, which merit the hearty approbation of
every honest man. These are called secret societies, although their
proceedings, and the names of the officers, with minute particulars, are
published in a thousand shapes. Prominent among these beneficial
orders stand the Odd Fellows and the Sons of Temperance. But the
order, whose history is related in the following pages, differs from all
these. Its proceedings, the names of its members or its officers, and
even its very existence as a body, have hitherto been secret, and sealed
from the whole world. Besides, it is pledged to accomplish all kinds of
robbery, aye, and even worse deeds. It has, in more than one deplorable
instance, concealed its dark deeds with murder.