You're not dead if you're still receiving mail

My remote blog-island has been finally discovered by the marauding boats of the Interwebs, in one of the truest and most official ways there is: I've been tagged. Streak was the one who finally did the honors, and instead of bringing poxy blankets he gifted me with this little ditty:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five other people.

Fuck. One, I don't know five other people to tag, and two, I was going to let this blog die, slowly, off in the dusty corner of the web, of starvation and neglect. A stealthy retreat of sorts, under radio silence, and while the Greater Internet looks the other way.

It seems, however, that while I may be done with the blog, the blog may not be done with me.

Here's the answer to my tag. The United States Secret Service in the Late War, by General LA Fayette C. Baker. The book is a gem, rescued from one of the forgotten shelves of my late Grandmother's library. My edition is from 1890. The sixth through eighth sentences read:

I now beg to say a few words in regard to the gentlemen who have been elected by the disunionists to serve in the Legislature. They have publicly said they owe no allegiance to the Government, and they further say they are not citizens of the United States, and also say they had rather see the Government sink to hell , than to see the Southern Confederacy lose the slightest victory.
These, sir, are the men elected as our guardians in the two branches of the Legislature.

The next paragraphs are more endless talk of the South and the North and the despicable disunionists. Within the next ten pages or so is an excellent color plate of Union men disinterring a pine box from a potter's field, an embarrased padre standing there, looking at the sky. The caption reads: "The Coffin Contained Fifty Six Sharp's Rifles." It's a great book, and almost exclusively because it's more than a century old.

Like I said, I don't know enough bloggers to make this truly worthwhile, but I poke Tallasi and You're Being Ridiculous just to prove I'm giving this a sporting try.