New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-11-03
Effect Of ! Panic.

RAKE EN- D0wS."-We expressed ous- sur,riise.
yesterday at the apparent success with Which !
mere handful of desperate rufans were ena&,lef T.
vloM W ", the town Of Harpers Ferry into panic
we uiu not mean, however, to express any par
lcuiar astonshment at this particular case. for
there have been hundreds of instances in vi,ick
large hae bodies Of men and very bold men, hsse
trivial accidents. It is the unknown IN nj .,,cL
cases that operates upon tile mind. Al soe, -
the cause comes to be Investigated conffiienet J, !,
| turns. we recoilect one incident, much to IL.
purpose, Of which the writer was . witness me,.r
years ago in the goodiy town Of yicksbnrg. WeIi
known to history as well as geography Il Va in
the very noontide heat Of the Flush Times sine,
,mmortalzed tall by MIR. J. Baldwin, in the nanah 81
July, 1886 The scene was the Vicksbmg Hotel. 81
that time owned by a Mr.. Folkes, from Nosth (ar-
olina, originally, and kept by gentleman nsmedl
Gl1deweli, from Petersburg va.
. There had been shooting match in the hotel
that evening" not unusual thing at that time. and
one man had been killed on the spot. and one se-
verely wounded. The man who had done The
shooting was thought to be still in the hotel above
sons attracted by the firing. AS was usual on such
occasions, the crowd soon became thirsty and M.
services of half dozen bar-tenilers were n enn-
stant requisition. It had been determined to keen
from escaping, as it was believed he would attemnt
to do, for he was known to be person Of resolute
even desperate temper. 1t happened that there
was confined in the hotel at the same time q poor
1aa'aia potu and had proved very hard to manage.
This man heard the firing and the uproar and be-
came perfectly frantic. The persons who attended
70 MN having been called away by the noise, he
contrived to break open the door and to make his
way to the kitchen in his attempts to reach the
bar-room. -
There were several cooks, all females. in the
room all Of whom, alarmed at his appearance, ut
tered yell Of terror and cleared the premises.
some through the windows and some through In.
doors. 10 these the maniac paid no attention, buf
sezing large kitchen knife that lay ON the table
he rushed in the direction Of the bar.room TheYs.
were three steps that led down into it from an ele
waited fiat like the poop of ships deck. There
were about forty persons drinking at the bar, and
at least one hundred more in their rear The forty
gentlemen had just touched glasses, and were
about to raise the beverage to their lips when the
maniac, clearing the steps at bound spranr
from the platform into the middle of the room.
and ftourlshlng his butcher-knife about his head
shouted with voice loud enough to turn the
Mississippi river backward, rake 'em down 4
The effect was tremendous. +" Sauue q,si fe,t,, At
waterloo was but circumstance compared to it.
The glasses fell from the hands Of the drinkers in
perfect shower of crystal. The glasses spanked
on the floor that time instead of the board. The
crush was about such as We may imagine would be
produced BY verifying the oft.repeated simie, and
enough " China shop. Probably no premises were
ever evacuated at q shortor warning not even the
French lines at Waterloo, when the occupants
left at sight without notice of intention to quit
1ne crown fhn OUT, fOueu out tumbed out,
got out in every way they could. Even the
bar-keepers deserted their posts, and the cause
of all this confusion actually went behind the
bar, took heavy pull" came out and chased
several of the fugitives up the street. He did
not mean to chase them, his whole object being
to get away but they ran because they saw him
coming at full speed behind them, and did not
know what his intentions were. It was at last dis
covered that he had gotten out and he was pur-
sued and overtaken. We relate this anecdote to
show how much may be done by single Individual
when he takes crowd unawares: of course under
the same circumstances a score Of men can work
an untold amount of mischief upon the largest
population. fRichmond Dispatch