An Original Belle

by Edward Payson Roe

  HAVING again reached police headquarters, Merwyn rested but a shorttime and then joined a force of two hundred men under InspectorDilkes, and returned to the same avenue in which he had alreadyincurred such peril. The mob, having discovered that it must copewith the military as well as the police, became eager to obtainarms. It so happened that several thousand carbines were stored ina wire factory in Second Avenue, and the rioters had learned thefact. Therefore they swarmed thither, forced an entrance, and beganto arm themselves and their comrades. A despatch to headquartersannounced the attack at its commencement, and the force we havenamed was sent off in hot haste to wrest from the mob the meansof more effective resistance. Emerging into the avenue from 21stStreet, Dilkes found the thoroughfare solid with rioters, who, insteadof giving way, greeted the police with bitter curses. Hesitatingnot a moment on account of vast inequality of numbers, the leaderformed his men and charged. The mob had grown reckless with everyhour, and it now closed on the police with the ferocity of a wildbeast. A terrible hand-to-hand conflict ensued, and Merwyn foundhimself warding off and giving blows with the enemy so near thathe could almost feel their hot, tainted breath on his cheek, whilehorrid visages inflamed with hate and fury made impressions on hismind that could not easily pass away. It was a close, desperateencounter, and the scorching July sun appeared to kindle passionon either side into tenfold intensity. While the police weredisciplined men, obeying every order and doing nothing at random,they WERE men, and they would not have been human if anger andthoughts of vengeance had not nerved their arms as they struck downruffians who would show no more mercy to the wounded or capturedthan would a man-eating tiger.

  Since the mob would not give way, the police cut a bloody paththrough the throng, and forced their way like a wedge to the factory.Their orders were to capture all arms; and when a rioter was seenwith a carbine or a gun of any kind, one or more of the police wouldrush out of the ranks and seize it, then fight their way back.

  By the time they reached the factory so many of the mob hadbeen killed or wounded, and so many of their leaders were dead ordisabled, that it again yielded to panic and fled. One desperateleader, although already bruised and bleeding, had for a timeinspired the mob with much of his own reckless fury, and was leftalmost alone by his fleeing companions. His courage, which should havebeen displayed in a better cause, cost him dear, for a tremendousblow sent him reeling against a fence, the sharp point of one ofthe iron pickets caught under his chin, and he hung there unheeded,impaled and dying. He was afterwards taken down, and beneathhis soiled overalls and filthy shirt was a fair, white skin, cladin cassimere trousers, a rich waistcoat, and the finest of linen.His delicate, patrician features emphasized the mystery of hispersonality and action.

  When all resistance in the street was overcome, there still remainedthe factory, thronged with armed and defiant rioters. Dilkesordered the building to be cleared, and Merwyn took his place inthe storming party. We shall not describe the scenes that followed.It was a strife that differed widely from Lane's cavalry chargeon the lawn of a Southern plantation, with the eyes of fair womenwatching his deeds. Merwyn was not taking part with thousands in abattle that would be historic as Strahan and Blauvelt had done atGettysburg. Every element of romance and martial inspiration waswanting. It was merely a life-and-death encounter between a handfulof policemen and a grimy, desperate band of ruffians, cornered likerats, and resolved to sell their lives dearly.

  The building was cleared, and at last Merwyn, exhausted and panting,came back with his comrades and took his place in the ranks. Hisclub was bloody, and his revolver empty. The force marched away intriumph escorting wagons loaded with all the arms they could find,and were cheered by the better-disposed spectators that remainedon the scene of action.

  The desperate tenacity of the mob is shown by the fact that itreturned to the wire factory, found some boxes of arms that had beenoverlooked, filled the great five-story building and the streetabout it, and became so defiant that the same battle had to befought again in the afternoon with the aid of the military.

  For the sake of making a definite impression we have touched uponthe conflicts taking place in one locality. But throughout this awfulday there were mobs all over the city, with fighting, plundering,burning, the chasing and murdering of negroes occurring at the sametime in many and widely separated sections. Telegrams for aid werepouring into headquarters from all parts of the city, large tractsof which were utterly unprotected. The police and military could beemployed only in bodies sufficiently large to cope with gatheringsof hundreds or thousands. Individual outrages and isolated instancesof violence and plunder could not be prevented.

  But law-abiding citizens were realizing their danger and awakeningto a sense of their duty. Over four hundred special policemen weresworn in. Merchants and bankers in Wall Street met and resolved toclose business. Millionnaires vied with their clerks and portersin patriotic readiness to face danger. Volunteer companies wereformed, and men like Hon. William E. Dodge, always foremost in everygood effort in behalf of the city, left their offices for militaryduty. While thousands of citizens escaped from the city, with theirfamilies, not knowing where they would find a refuge, and obeyingonly the impulse to get away from a place apparently doomed, otherthousands remained, determined to protect their hearths and homesand to preserve their fair metropolis from destruction. Terribleas was the mob, and tenfold more terrible as it would have been ifit had used its strength in an organized effort and with definitepurpose, forces were now awakening and concentrating against itwhich would eventually destroy every vestige of lawlessness. Withthe fight on Broadway, during Monday evening, the supreme crisishad passed. After that the mob fought desperate but losing battles.Acton, with Napoleonic nerve and skill, had time to plan andorganize. General Brown with his brave troops reached him on Mondaynight, and thereafter the two men, providentially brought and kepttogether, met and overcame, in cordial co-operation, every dangeras it arose. Their names should never be forgotten by the citizensof New York. Acton, as chief of police, was soon feared more thanany other man in the city, and he began to receive anonymous lettersassuring him that he had "but one more day to live." He tossedthem contemptuously aside, and turned to the telegrams imploringassistance. In every blow struck his iron will and heavy hand werefelt. For a hundred hours, through the storm, he kept his hand onthe helm and never closed his eyes. He inspired confidence in themen who obeyed him, and the humblest of them became heroes.

  The city was smitten with an awful paralysis. Stages and streetcars had very generally ceased running; shops were closed; Broadwayand other thoroughfares and centres usually so crowded were at timesalmost deserted; now and then a hack would whirl by with occupantsthat could not be classified. They might be leaders of the mob,detectives, or citizens in disguise bent on public or privatebusiness. On one occasion a millionnaire whose name is known andhonored throughout the land, dressed in the mean habiliments of alaborer, drove a wagon up Broadway in which was concealed a loadof arms and ammunition. In hundreds of homes fathers and sons keptwatch with rifles and revolvers, while city and State authoritiesissued proclamations.

  It was a time of strange and infinite vicissitude, yet apparentlythe mob steadily attained vaster and more terrible proportions,and everywhere lawlessness was on the increase, especially in theupper portions of the city.

  Mr. Vosburgh, with stern and clouded brow, obtained information fromall available sources, and flashed the vital points to Washington.He did not leave Marian alone very long, and as the day advancedkept one of his agents in the house during his absences. He failedto meet Merwyn at headquarters, but learned of the young man'sbrave action from one of his wounded comrades.

  When Mr. Vosburgh told Marian of the risks which her new friend wasincurring, and the nature of the fighting in which he was engaged,she grew so pale and agitated that he saw that she was becomingconscious of herself, of the new and controlling element enteringinto her life.

  This self-knowledge was made tenfo
ld clearer by a brief visit fromMrs. Ghegan.

  "Oh! how dared you come?" cried Marian.

  "The strates are safe enough for the loikes o' me, so oi kape outo' the crowds," was the reply, "but they're no place fer ye, MissMarian. Me brogue is a password iverywhere, an' even the crowds iscivil and dacent enough onless something wakes the divil in 'em;"and then followed a vivid account of her experiences and of thetimely help Merwyn had given her.

  "The docthers think me Barney'll live, but oi thank Misther Merwynthat took him out o' the very claws uv the bloody divils, and nottheir bat's eyes. Faix, but he tops all yez frin's, Miss Marian, tho'ye're so could to 'im. All the spalpanes in the strates couldn'tmake 'im wink, yet while I was a-wailin' over Barney he was astender-feelin' as a baby."

  The girl's heart fluttered strangely at the words of her formermaid, but she tried to disguise her emotion. When again left aloneshe strained her ears for every sound from the city, and was untiringin her watch. From noon till evening she kept a dainty lunch readyfor Merwyn, but he did not come.

  After the young man's return from his second fight he was given somerest. In the afternoon, he, with others, was sent on duty to thewest side, the force being carried thither in stages which Actonhad impressed into the service. One driver refused to stir, saying,insolently, that he had "not been hired to carry policemen."

  "Lock that man in cell No. 4," was Acton's answer, while, in thesame breath, he ordered a policeman to drive.

  That was the superintendent's style of arguing and despatchingbusiness.

  Merwyn again saw plenty of service, for the spirit of pandemoniumwas present in the west side. Towards evening, however, the riotersceased their aimless and capricious violence, and adopted in theirmadness the dangerous method of Parisian mobs. They began throwingup a series of barricades in Eighth Avenue. Vehicles of allkinds within reach, telegraph poles, boxes,--anything that wouldobstruct,--were wired together. Barricades were also erected oncross-streets, to prevent flank movements. Captain Walling, of thepolice, who was on duty in the precinct, appreciated the importanceof abolishing this feature from street fighting as speedilyas possible, and telegraphed to headquarters for a co-operatingmilitary force. He also sent to General Sanford, at the arsenal,for troops. They were promised, but never sent. General Brown,fortunately, was a man of a very different stamp from Sanford, andhe promptly sent a body of regulars.

  Captain Slott took command of the police detailed to co-operatewith the soldiers, and, with their officers, waited impatientlyand vainly for the company promised by Sanford. Meanwhile the mobwas strengthening its defences with breathless energy, and the sunwas sinking in the west. As the difficult and dangerous work to bedone required daylight it was at last resolved to wait no longer.

  As the assailants drew near the barricade, they received a volley,accompanied by stones and other missiles. The police fell back alittle to the left, and the troops, advancing, returned the fire.But the rioters did not yield, and for a time the crash of musketryresounded through the avenue, giving the impression of a regularpitched battle. The accurate aim of the soldiers, however, at lastdecided the contest, and the rioters fled to the second barricade,followed by the troops, while the police tore away the capturedobstruction.

  Obtaining a musket and cartridges from a wounded soldier, Merwyn,by explaining that he was a good marksman, obtained the privilegeof fighting on the left flank of the military.

  The mob could not endure the steady, well-directed fire of theregulars, and one barricade after another was carried, until therioters were left uncovered when they fled, shrieking, yelling,cursing in their impotent rage,--the police with their clubs andthe soldiers with their rifles following and punishing them untilthe streets were clear.

  Merwyn, having been on duty all day, obtained a leave of absence tillthe following morning, and, availing himself of his old device tosave time and strength, went to a livery stable near the station-houseand obtained a hack by payment of double the usual fare. Mountingthe box with the driver, and avoiding crowds, he was borne rapidlytowards Mr. Vosburgh's residence. He was not only terribly exhausted,but also consumed with anxiety as to the safety of the girl whohad never been absent long from his thoughts, even in moments ofthe fiercest conflict.

  CHAPTER XLIX.

  ONE FACING HUNDREDS.