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enough controversy to hold the interest of the reading public, while not being so contentious that he lost readers.
    When one of his articles had angered the Dawson brothers, they came into his newspaper office, beat him up, scattered his type, and turned over his press.
    A battered Cyrus Green put his newspaper back together again, just in time to praise the formation of the Salcedo Regulators Brigade.
    Almost one hundred years ago our forefathers took action to throw off the yoke of British oppression, and a new nation was born.
    Less than a decade ago, brave men of our own generation took up arms to redress grievous assaults by the North upon our southernway of life, and though we lost the war, we preserved our dignity.
    Now, with the formation of the Salcedo Regulators Brigade, the citizens of Salcedo have the opportunity to emulate our forefathers and brave southern compatriots by ridding our town of the villainous presence of Frank and Earl Dawson.
    He knew that if the Dawsons were to take offense, there was nothing they could do about it. They were too busy trying to escape the Salcedo Regulators Brigade.
    In addition to publishing the newspaper, Cyrus did job printing, which was what brought Titus Culpepper to the newspaper office directly from his visit with Mason Hawke.
    Cyrus had seen Culpepper walking up the street, so he met him at the front counter with a printers’ proof of the job he was doing for him.
    “Hello, Mayor,” Culpepper said. “I was just wondering if you have—”
    “Right here,” Cyrus answered, interrupting. “How does this look to you, Colonel?” Cyrus held out a poster for Culpepper’s examination.
     
    VOTE FOR
    TITUS CULPEPPER
    FOR CONGRESS
    A FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE
     
    The text, in black, was set inside two concentric boxes, one red and one blue. The effect was a patriotic red, white, and blue.
    “It looks very good to me,” Culpepper said. “You’ve done a fine job, Mayor.”
    “Thanks. Oh, and if you would like, I could take a photograph of you and send it to Austin, where they’ve got a good woodcut artist. Then we could print the posters with your picture.”
    “No, this’ll do fine, just fine,” Culpepper said. He laughed. “Besides, if you put my picture on them, people might think they are wanted posters.”
    Cyrus laughed with him. “How many do you want, Colonel?”
    “Print up enough to plaster the whole district with them,” he said. He put a penny on the counter and picked up a newspaper. “Is this your latest issue?”
    “Yes, sir, just took it off the press an hour ago,” he said.
    Culpepper nodded, put the paper under his arm, then left.
    Cyrus watched Culpepper through the front window of his office. Culpepper stopped to talk to a sign painter who was working in front of what had been the marshal’s office. And though the painter wasn’t completely finished with the sign, there was enough of it to be read.
     
    SALCEDO REGULATORS BRIGADE
    HEADQUARTERS
    COLONEL TITUS CULPEPPER, CMNDG
     
    Cyrus Green had been a big supporter of the Regulators. He’d drummed up public support through his newspaper articles, and as mayor he introduced the ordinance to the town council that authorized the recognition and funding of the Regulators.
    Like many others from the town, Cyrus Green knew war. But his personal war experiences had a unique perspective, and though he saw more action than anyone else in town, he had not been a soldier. During the war, he was a correspondent for the Richmond Dispatch , and in that capacity was present at several of the most important battles. He sharedthe dangers and the hardships of the common soldier while writing the stories that brought the war home to thousands of readers.
    “I would like to commend your journalist, Cyrus Green,” one reader wrote in a letter to the Dispatch . “His command of the language and use of words puts the reader on the battlefield with such intimacy that one can smell the powder and hear the roar of