covered by the guns of isolated
forts and the physical activities of their small garrisons. True, there
were the immemorial laws of self-preservation and retaliation, both of
which were liberally interpreted. The latter was faithfully administered,
mostly against straggling Federal soldiers and too zealous government
officials. When my chief had been ordered to Selma he had arrived just in
time to act as sole mourner at the funeral of his predecessor--who had had
the bad luck to interpret his instructions in a sense that was
disagreeable to a gentleman whose interests were affected by the
interpretation. Early one pleasant morning shortly afterward two United
States marshals were observed by the roadside in a suburb of the town.
They looked comfortable enough there in the sunshine, but each

had that across his throat
Which you had hardly cared to see.

When dispatched on business of a delicate nature men in the service of the
agency had a significant trick of disappearing--they were of "the
unreturning brave." Really the mortality among the unacclimated in the
Selma district at that time was excessive. When my chief and I parted at
dinner time (our palates were not in harmony) we commonly shook hands and
tried to say something memorable that was worthy to serve as "last words."
We had been in the army together and had many a time gone into battle
without having taken that precaution in the interest of history.

Of course the better class of the people were not accountable for this
state of affairs, and I do not remember that I greatly blamed the others.
The country was full of the "elements of combustion." The people were
impoverished and smarting with a sense of defeat. Organized resistance was
no longer possible, but many men trained to the use of arms did not
consider themselves included in the surrender and conscientiously believed
it both right and expedient to prolong the struggle by private enterprise.
Many, no doubt, made the easy and natural transition from soldiering to
assassination by insensible degrees, unconscious of the moral difference,
such as it is. Selma was little better than a ruin; in the concluding
period of the war General Wilson's cavalry had raided it and nearly
destroyed it, and the work begun by the battery had been completed by the
torch. The conflagration was generally attributed to the negroes, who
certainly augmented it, for a number of those suspected of the crime were
flung i