For several months this satisfactory order of things continued, much to the advantage of the railroad as well as to the prospects of the co-operative establishment, when, suddenly, without any premonition, like a tremendous avalanche, a mobocratic raid, instituted by the grand jury and sustained by an unprincipled judge, a Methodist minister, Hollister by name, changed the scene, and an indescribable pell-mell and confusion ensued. In October, 1878, the grand jury, composed mostly of apostates from the Church of Latter-day Saints, sat in Malad City, and conniving against the interests of the co-operative efforts of the Saints, got up indictments against the laborers at the mills for _unlawfully cutting timber_. Fifty-three of the men were simultaneously arrested and driven, like a herd of cattle, fifteen miles to Malad City, and the mills were ordered to be shut down. Then, instead of peace and thriving industry, all was consternation and disorder among the workmen, and great excitement spread everywhere abroad. The men who were not arrested were every moment apprehensive of the marshal pouncing upon them; some concealed themselves in the woods, some under hay stacks, while others made steps for their homes as fast as possible. Thus the camp was broken up, the villagers scattered to the four winds, and the business prospects closed. Although these difficulties were settled, as will be shown hereafter, it was not till winter had set in, and the people gone to their homes, many having entered into other engagements, etc.; and thus the anticipated resources were gone, but not without heavy losses. In order to show the villainy of the instigators and conductors of that fiendish raid, we will take one specimen, for instance: Elder John Merrill, who had charge of one of the mills, and had not cut one tree, was arrested by indictment of the grand jury, for cutting seventeen thousand trees, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $13,800 and three months' confinement in jail. The construction superintendent of railroad said to Mr. Merrill: "_You shall not go to jail; I would bond the railroad rather than you should go_." But all to no purpose; the trial was a humbug--an immense crowd of witnesses were called, and no one had seen Mr. Merrill cut a tree. After the sentence was pronounced, he was placed in charge of the United States marshal, handcuffed, chained to another prisoner and lodged in Malad jail. The following telegrams speak for themselves: From Oneida County, October 13TH, 1878. _To Judge Smith, Brigham City_: Merrill's fine, thirteen thousand eight hundred dollars--three months imprisonment. Your son, eighteen hundred dollars and nine months imprisonment. The judge refuses parties as bail having less than five thousand dollars real estate. We cannot raise the bail here. [Signed] Washington Dunn. Oneida, Idaho, October 18, 1878. _Judge Smith, Brigham City_: Jay Gould says the U. S. President will remit fine and imprisonment.