would have been made short work of, while a mob, with the intention of
disposing of them unlawfully, would have been met with a determined
opposition, for the entire male population of Faribault were determined to
support the Sheriff, and bring the murderers to trial.
Notice of the arrangements about the prison were published, and all people
were warned from approaching the jail in the night time, but one man,
belonging to the police force of the city, thought he was so well known to
the guards that he could safely visit them, and one evening he walked
toward the prison. One of the guards challenged him, but instead of
replying, he raised his hand to his coat, to make his silver star visible,
and at the same moment, the guard mistaking the movement and supposing
that the man was reaching to his breast pocket for a pistol, fired,
inflicting a wound that proved fatal soon afterwards. Thus was another
tragedy added to the list, and the horror of the affair was intensified.
Thus for a month everything moved quietly along about Governor Barton’s
hotel, and he remained unmoved by the hundreds of threats and propositions
he received. He is a brave man made of stern stuff, and when a proposition
was made to him to remain neutral while a posse that was being organized,
opened the jail and took the bandits out to