ARMED SENTINELS
being placed at the foot of the stairs and about the house.
Friday, in this brave, plucky, generous little town of Madelia, was a day which will long be remembered, not only by the staunch hearts and true of the town, but also by hundreds upon hundreds of visitors, who then for the first time trod its streets, attracted there by the [pg 58] widespread news which suddenly raised the obscure name to a high position upon the roll of fame.
The self-sacrificing heroism of six men made the fame of Colais in the olden time, and the plucky
COURAGE OF SEVEN MEN
has wrung from grudging fortune the renown of Madelia to-day; for throughout the length and breadth of the land, and wherever the pulsations of the electric message-bearer—the nervous system of civilization—was felt, the bosom of generous sentiment swelled with approbation, gratitude, and pride, when the tale of the cool dash and unselfish bravery of those seven Madelians was told. The united voices and hearts of the whole nation swell with gratitude and laudations for Madelia's sturdy heroism.
All day Friday and all the night previous, there was a constant and ever-changing stream of visitors passing through the rooms occupied by Madelia's fated captives. One could but speculate with wonder upon the source of such an inexhuastible human stream.
Not an inconsiderable moiety of the great total of visitors was of the gentler sex, and to one watching with interest the great bandits' matinee and evening receptions, the changing expressions upon the eager, expectant and occasionally indignant countenances of visitors, was of singular interest. A strong, energetic man would enter with knitted brow, and stern, unrelenting features, who would be followed by a timid, half-fearful, half-loathing woman's face. Then there were angry faces, curious faces, bold, proud faces—faces exhibiting every phase of human passion and human temperament—but they had scarcely passed the threshhold of either prison chamber wherein lay the objects of all-absorbing curiosity, when lo! presto! a metamorphose as sudden as it was complete, and as radical as it was rapid, had taken place. Doubt, wonder, and astonishment would grow into
SYMPATHY,
and often admiration. It is safe to say that out of every hundred visitors who looked only for a few seconds upon those daring and notorious men, ninety-nine came away with very different, almost opposite opinions concerning the lawless Younger brothers.