A Local Dream of Justice and Hell

I had passed a sleepless night listening to the examination of a party of men charged with the offense of gambling, wherein I considered a great injustice had been done. All had been punished by paying a fine of $10 each except the one who made the complaint against the others, and of whom it appeared beyond a doubt that he was the worst offender of them all. But he had lost some money and had 'squealed,' and the Marshal and the Justice of the Peace were determined to let him go unpunished, although he was a horse thief and a desperate character generally.

I was sitting in my hotel the night following, and I soon was wrapped in the arms of Morpheus. I thought I had died, and Satan came to me with cloven foot, saying, 'Follow me.' He led me through a dark valley and then to a city called Hades—once a city of morals, but now his headquarters. We arrived at a place with cells for criminals, arranged according to their degree of crime. I saw a beast resembling a wolf, placarded 'D.B.P.' (Dead Beat Professionally), and another resembling an ass, marked 'A.T.' (A Traitor). Satan turned to me and said the wolf was once a politician, and the other an official who was too willing to do his bidding. Finally, I was led to a room marked 'Gambler's Anteroom' and then to a 'Private' door, but as I stepped onto the mat, I fell through a trapdoor, plummeting into darkness until I woke up, finding my friend Louis Wimlish had tipped my chair from under me. Though it was only a dream, it teaches us that whatever position in life we fill, we must fill it with honor.