Seven #2.8

Cassius and Seven continued heading north away from Ransomville and away from where Tara and Nicholas were. "Where are we going?" Seven asked, panting.

"We're going to Smallwood," Cassius said. "While in jail, I got a vision. A friend needs our help there."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know."

"Okay. I've never heard of Smallwood," Seven said.

"That's because it doesn't exist," Cassius said.




Nicholas and Tara were given jobs in Indianola in exchange for living with the Vieux's. Nicholas was placed in the massive Robideaux General Store and a part-time toll collector on the bridge. Tara was placed in the hotel working part-time and also helping Samuel Vieux's wife, Mary.

Nicholas was working in Robideaux's Store when Vieux and another man, Ernest deBoissiere, entered the store. "George? Have you noticed a decline in consumers over the past couple of days? Ernest here has noticed a sharp decrease of bridge travelers," Samuel asked.

"I have," Robideaux said, "and it's because of Uniontown."

"Uniontown? Never heard of it," Samuel said.

"It's a new town ten miles to the south. The government started it so military personnel wouldn't have to pay to cross the river," Robideaux explained.

"That can't be. The government promised that Indianola would have the only crossing on the Legionnaire River," Vieux said. "It was part of the treaty."

"The government broke the treaty," deBoissiere said "and that means war!"




"A Town Called Smallwood"
Years ago, Smallwood was organized by three men: William Horner, A.J. Mowry and J.S. Cox. Horner and Mowry came up with a plan to swindle the state out of money. Mowry got 240 names out of an old Westport city directory, made sure they were all registered voters in their fake county and held an election where Mowry and his friends were easily elected to all the county offices. The county seat was located at a town called Smallwood.

To make everything look official, Mowry, Horner and Cox appointed a census taker, who was easily persuaded with a bribe. For two weeks, he walked and rode several hundred miles on the prairie gathering the names of 600 people which he sent to the governor's office. The governor then declared the county organized.

The county commissioners then issued over $126,000 in bonds to start building a courthouse, bridges, roads and schools. The government decided to investigate and found no people and only a wooden shack near a small pond. The organization of the county and of Smallwood was declared to be a fraud.

Several years later, after the war, Major Lorimar Beam was inexplicably drawn to where Smallwood was located and it was here Major Beam settled, building a huge stone house and using the old shack as a small barn.

Cassius and Seven approached the stone house, which stood out from the prairie. The house was miles from civilization and Seven was uneasy about being here.

An old man was out front of the house, chopping wood. Cassius raised his hand and shouted, "Major Beam!"

The old man looked up and smiled. "My Lord! Cassius? It's been years!" the man stopped chopping wood and began walking to meet them. "What are you doing up here?"

"I had a vision that called me up here," Cassius said. "This is Seven. I met up with him and a couple of his friends in Cassoday."

"Where are the friends?" Major Beam asked.

"They should be in Indianola, waiting for us. How is everything here?"

"Everything is fine, why?"

"My vision showed me a battle--or an attack. In this area," Cassius said and looked around.

"Everything's peaceful here. My closest neighbor is twenty miles on each side, except for Ransomville to the south. Maybe it has something to do with the Lady," Major Beam said.

"The Lady?" asked Seven.

"The Lady of the Lake. She's the one who told me to move here," Major Beam smiled.




A small crowd of business owners had now gathered in Robideaux's store. All were complaining of the government's usurping of business and travelers.

"What they did is an act of war!" shouted blacksmith shop owner Jebidiah Lundgren.

"I hear they're gonna receive money from bonds to build a stone bridge!" Rome Klaxton, a stonemason, said.

"We need to think this through calmly," Samuel said, raising his hands in silence. "They may not even realize what they are doing. The treaty was signed over thirty years ago. We should get a team down there and talk to them. I'm sure they will listen to reason."

"Well, who should go down there?" shouted one man.

"It has to be someone powerful!" shouted another.

"I will go down," Samuel reassured "and if they'll go with me I would like to have George Robideaux and Ernest deBoissiere accompany me."

"Yeah, we'll go," they said simultaneously.

"We should leave now. We'll still have most of the day when we get there," Samuel said. "Don't worry. We'll get this figured out."

Next:
The Lady of the Lake and a war begins.

POtW: John Baldwin Mill Site

Before we get onto this week's picture, I have some news. I love Kansas and I love sharing pictures of the place where I live and driving around to get those pictures. I have received numerous praise for this feature and am glad that so many people enjoy looking at the picture and maybe learning a little something. This will be the last Picture of the Week for a while. I enjoy doing it but I am starting to focus on my short story writing and continuing with my novel that I really don't have time to drive around, take pictures, choose a picture and write about it. I don't know when it will be back but I will be sure to let you know and I post pictures on this site all the time so it's not like this site will be pictureless until then.

Today's picture is from my pseudo-hometown of Baldwin City. This is the site of John Baldwin's mill. Baldwin came to Kansas from Ohio and settled in Palmyra, just north of present day Baldwin. Baldwin built a mill along the banks of the east fork of Tauy Creek where Fifth and Indiana are now. Baldwin donated the land for both Baker University and Baldwin City. In 1867, Baldwin moved to a plantation in Louisiana. He also donated money to establish a school for boys and a school for girls in India. Baldwin died at his home in Baldwin, Louisiana (another place named for him) in December of 1884.


Baldwin-Wallace in Berea, Ohio was also named for him after he took up the cause to start the university in 1843. The mill no longer exists and the redwood sign marking the location of the site (the redwood sign was next to the street sign) has been taken down.

Tappa-Tappa-Tappa

I wanted to do a Born Loser posting yesterday but I just never sat down and actually did it. The main reason I wanted to post yesterday was because of the hideousness of the man Brutus is talking to. I mean, he is God-awful. None of the men look "normal" like Brutus or Veeblefester. Take a look at the old Flintstones cartoons of the 1960s and take a look at the men who are not Fred, Barney or Mr. Slate. They look like they are drawn more janky. Look at any of Wilma's old boyfriends like Boney Hurdle. They are supposed to be drawn to be more handsome than Fred but because they are drawn differently and possibly more realistic they end up looking uglier and badly drawn.

After looking at both the taxus and the hyacinth, is it really possible to cross-breed them? I'm assuming Master Gardener Chip Sansom knows they can't cross-breed and only did this as a joke, which isn't funny. But the guy is fun to look at.


And I'm going to assume Brutus is at work. Then why can't Veeblefester just walk down to Brutus's office to yell at him? Also, Brutus has worked for Veeblefester for the last 30 years, you'd think Veeblefester would learn not to give Brutus any responsibility.

Tomorrow we got the return of Seven and a Picture of the Week coupled with an announcement that you may or may not like. One-Night Stand will premiere on September 15th.

DC Is Dead...Long Live DC.

Since 2005, DC Comics has been trying to rebrand itself and become a leader in comic book properties. For years, DC has lost out to Marvel in both comic books and movies--although television is one thing DC tends to get right--and Warner Bros. is apparently sick of it.

It has been announced that the woman, Diane Nelson, who oversees the highly popular (and profitable) "Harry Potter" franchise is becoming President and Publisher of DC Comics and that DC Comics is now going to be called DC Entertainment Inc. (although I think they should've called it DC Media). So what all does this mean and where does DC go from here?

Paul Levitz, the now-former president and publisher will be retained as an executive consultant and Dan Didio will stay on as Vice President and Executive Editor. DC has constantly been criticized for being too slow to get new movies and other properties out unlike Marvel. DC tends to pick and choose which characters to use in their properties over-saturating the population with Batman and Superman stuff while generally ignoring properties like Green Lantern, Flash and Captain Marvel. Yes, people want to see the more popular characters but there are a lot of unused characters out there that could definitely hold a movie or television show (Resurrection Man).

I'm hoping what this means is that Warner Bros. will now use DC to it's full advantage and not treat it like the bastard child it's been in the past. Warner Bros. has a full slew of properties they could use for televisions and movies if they'd been willing to spend the money. Currently DC/Warner Bros. has Jonah Hex and Green Lantern green-lit and scheduled to come out. Next will be another Batman movie, Superman movie and possibly a Wonder Woman movie. DC needs to quit pickin' and pawin' at their franchises and begin writing these movies so in a five years or so there can be a massive JLA movie. They also need to start using some other characters to begin selling as pilots for TV networks.

Television is a place DC has done a better job than Marvel. From the very beginning you had The Adventures of Superman, then Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Isis, The Flash, Lois and Clark, Birds of Prey, Smallville and now two incarnations of The Human Target. Not to mention all of the animated series DC has had over the years. DC needs to use that medium to bring different characters into the foreground and introduce them to a new generation, unlike in the comics where you now have to know decades of history to know where they come from and why they haven't been seen since 1997.

One thing I notice in the comments about this story is what will really happen to the comic book production side of DC, will it remain independent or will Warner Bros. begin sticking their fingers into the pie? I honestly hope they begin going through the comics and forcing them to make major changes. Who honestly thinks having 5,000 different Earths is a good thing? "Crisis on Infinite Earths" changed everything to make it simpler. And it was simple: Everything before 1985, except for the Justice Society of America, never happened. I'm going through the comics now and wondering why are there four different Batmans? That is just stupid and it turns me off from reading. At least with Marvel, the 1960s Spider-Man is the same Spider-Man. DC, unfortunately, needs to have another "Crisis" to fix everything that they have broken--which may be what they are leading to--and I would actually read that and maybe get back into reading DC comics.

Another aspect is that Warner Bros. got tired of the PR that Disney/Marvel had been receiving as of late and basically did this to get their name out there. Back in 2005, when DC changed it's logo, it was to brand all of the DC properties under the same logo which is essentially the same thing as renaming DC Comics to DC Entertainment (note that Marvel is called Marvel Entertainment). DC has the potential to make Warner Bros. a lot of money and Warner Bros. has finally realized that. People should look at this like Warner Bros. is finally starting to give a damn about DC and that is never a bad thing.

Kewpie and Marmaduke Just Gang-Raped Snoopy

Brutus, you really shouldn't give your dog alcohol. No matter how much he begs. Now when Kewpie comes to he's gonna poop and vomit all over the place and you can be damn sure that Gladys won't clean it up.

Boston Corbett

On April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Fords Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Booth then leaped onto the stage below and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" then escaped despite having a broken leg. Booth escaped on horse back toward southern Maryland and across the Potomac River into Virginia. Pursuers of John Wilkes Booth tracked him to Richard Garrett's farm in northern Virginia. The soldiers found Booth in the Garrett's tobacco barn. The soldiers set the barn on fire and Boston Corbett, saying he saw Booth raise and aim his gun, shot Booth through the neck piercing three vertabrae and partially severing his spinal cord. John Wilkes Booth died three hours later.

Corbett was born in London, England in 1832 and migrated to New York in 1839. Following his wife's death in childbirth, Corbett moved to Boston where he became a born-again evangelical Christian and changed his name from Thomas to Boston. In 1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitution, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors. Corbett joined the Union army at the start of the Civil War and re-enlisted three times eventually being promoted to sergeant. In 1864, Corbett was captured by the Confederate army but was exchanged and send back to his unit. In 1865, after shooting and killing John Wilkes Booth, Corbett was arrested for not obeying orders but the charges were dropped.

Shortly after being discharged from the Army, Corbett went back to his original trade of being a hatter in Boston, then Connecticut then New Jersey. In 1878, he moved to Concordia, Kansas where he lived in a hole dug in a gully. In 1887, he was appointed assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka. Overhearing a conversation where the opening prayer was mocked, Corbett rushed in brandishing a gun. Corbett was arrested, declared insane and sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. In 1888, Corbett escaped the asylum and went to Neodesha, Kansas and said he was going to go to Mexico.

It is said that Corbett instead took up residence in the woods near Hinckley, Minnesota. In 1894, the Great Hinckley Fire broke out due to a dry summer . The fire burned 420 square miles and it is known that Corbett was last seen in the area although it hasn't been proven that he died in the fire. "Thomas Corbett" is listed among the dead and missing. In Concordia, a local boy scout troop constructed a roadside monument to Boston Corbett and erected a sign marking the location of the hole Corbett once occupied.

Thomas "Boston" Corbett, circa 1860-1865. Picture from the Library of Congress.

Suum Cuique

Is it just me or does "One for all, all for one" not sound like a good business motto? I understand the phrase is used for solidarity but it doesn't make for a good business motto. Maybe something like, Labor omnia vincit or Non pro nobis laboramus.

However, Brutus' personal motto would be Ad astra per alia porci.

POtW: Fallen Trees at Colyer Cemetery

Today's picture is a bit weird. I went out to one of my favorite cemeteries a couple weeks ago and saw that a huge evergreen tree that stood in the middle of the cemetery (as seen here)...

...had fallen down. I immediately looked to make sure there were no stones or anything underneath that mess and it didn't look like it but as you can see from the POtW, it came close.

Colyer Cemetery was established in 1868 and is located atop a scenic hill just southeast of Lone Star Lake. It became one of my favorite cemeteries do to its location and privacy.

Drood: A Review

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 which left his novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished and a mystery itself. What Dan Simmons does in Drood is take real life accounts of what happened during the last five years of Dickens life and place a mystical and surreal character named Drood in the middle of it.

Dickens is nearing the end of writing his novel Our Mutual Friend when on June 9, 1865 he, along with his companion Ellen Ternan and her mother, were involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. It is there Dickens meets the strange character known as Drood--who Dickens becomes somewhat obsessive about. The novel mainly focuses on Wilkie Collins, a contemporary of Dickens and fellow author, and him slowing being driven insane by Dickens and Drood.

Collins is thrust into Drood's lifestyle because Dickens wants to research Drood for possibly a book. Soon, Charles Frederick Field, a former police chief, begins harassing Collins to follow Dickens into Drood's lair deep beneath an old cemetery and to show him how to get to Drood's lair. Collins begins by taking all this with a grain of salt and a slight sense of humor about it until he comes face to face with Drood himself. Collins is then infected with a scarab that begins moving around his brain and both Collins and Field determine that Drood wants Dickens to write a kind of biography about Drood and his teachings.

Dickens continues to live his life his way, uninterrupted by Drood or Inspector Field's persistent harassment. Dickens begins meeting Drood on every anniversary of Staplehurst and touring England and America giving readings of his novels. While Collins seems to be near death throughout the novel, Dickens seems to be getting younger.

Drood finally takes it's toll on Dickens and Collins decides to rid himself of Drood by killing Dickens. Collins plans the whole thing but on the day he decides to do it, Drood's minions stop him and tell him that they will take care of Dickens.

We never see Drood and we are given several explanations as to Drood's exsistance--ramblings of an insane Inspector Field, a story idea for Dickens, the effects of Collins constant laudanum usage, a real yet mysterious figure--but none are ever firmly established as the true Drood. The mystery of Drood is forever buried in Westminster Abbey, known only to Dickens himself, just like his unfinished novel.

HI, BILLY MAYS HERE!

I don't really have anything to say about today's strip but I feel it's a good way to introduce this video which is a real commercial and it's slightly disturbing.