The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-07-21
8 FALSTAFF REDIVHUS. D 1lEtji
THE TRIBUNE ON F1sK's BAPTISM OF
Z FIRE.
Mastery Retreat into the Baker shop
Daring and Successful Scaling of One
Fence-'His Escape III Disguise from
his Fears,
[From tie. New }! York TrI5gne.l

metempsychosIs brings him In the shape Of 8
man who, by bis craft and, sWagger, and by
help or other and ADLER cut purses, gains con.
troll Of actual millions Of money, and thou:
. sands Of realmen. AS .stne boss Of the ring
is still staggering at Long Branch, and re-
counting his valorous deeds of:war, and mag.
nifying the one fence he climbed to five
feuces,n "a high fence,n and .sseveral more
fences making at least ten, 1t is fitting that
the true history OF his Eight should be given.
A retail merchant, who does business on
Eighth avenue, within few doors of Twenty
fifth street, thus. deposes
satin my second story window all through
! the firing, being on the west; side, and seeing
at a glance that the shots were.moEtly direct
Fed toward the east side, did not shrink back;
| saw Colonel Fisk there in. his shirt sleeves;
several minutes before the heavy (usiade; ]
can testify that none of the crowd Of rioters
came near him; when the shots came thick
the crowd mainly rushed for the houses on
the east; when Wyatt and Paige fell, their
wmrades fired mostly toward the southwest
street;then they recolled In confusion toward
my side of the street, bringing Fisk with themi
some of them dropped down! moment, with
| the idea, apparently, of giving the Tth-wfo
were on this side-a chance to fire over their
heads; one; company, close by me, behaved
pretty well; but they neglected to reload; 1t
seemed to me that hundred resolute rioters,
coming from the other. side at that moment,
could have swept off the whole Of them; twas
so excited at their not loading, that L scarcely
knew what did, and jumped out on the cor
nicQRnd yelled at them; "Why don't you
load? why don't you load ~ Some Of them did
so; but tell yout the rioters disappeared quick;
lin a few moments the street was as quiet as
O church-yard; the'soldiers who did not march
into Parker's and saw Fisk lying on his back
on bed .in;the second story, with his arnns
stretched out, looking like great fat turtle;
20 my thinking he showed the white feather
all through; he seemed quite taken up
with the idea of his own safety, and was
all the while imagining there was a
great crowd after him: he said to me, " sup.
quicker the crowd will get away" told him
there was no crowd before the house-not o
dozen people; told him also that / would get
carriage TO take him away; he looked to-
ward the back yard and asked If he could not
get out that way; Parker said, "You will have
to get over the fences" Fisk said, " can do
thal;;n 80 he hobbed out; they put short
he Wabbled up on top; you should have seen
him sitting astrlde that fence while they passed
the steps over; he looked this way and that
way; then he got into the yard on the other
side; the house there Is occupied bya Hesslan
family, who disguised him, and kept him there
good while; alter about fifteen minutes he
came out on the back stoop to look around,
and that was the last saw of him; I know 1t
was.there he was disguised, because the little
boys of that family said tony little boys, tsYou
ought to see how father fixed up Colonel Fisk;
he blacked his mustacile, and put an old over
coat on him, and made him look like ON old
mans" my impression at the time was that he
had no confidence in hlmseltas a military
leader: think now that he was scared nearly
to DEATH"
This, then, was all the real foundation for
Fisk's newspaper stories about his fight with
the mob, and His interminable clamberinga
over the fences of back.yards. Did ever Fal-
staff, In bis drunkenest Dragging, pervert
facts more at wholesale than PrlneeErie has
In this last recital In q morning paper?
The reporter now visited ssthe Hessian;1ami.
ly' around In Twenty-ltth street.: Looking
into the basement window, he saw man SIT
ting there, and addressed him, at q venture,
with request for information as to the course
taken by Fisk when he leftthere. This man,
evidently person of much kindness Of dis.
position, was very retcent at first, and ig-
nored the whole matter; but he was fully i'm:
pressed with the idea that he had played an
important part In a very. important scene.
he soon tthayeed out, and Invited his visitor
to come in and be seated. Then, In quaint.
curious sentences, he gradually told his tale.
1t seems he is not Hessan at,ail by nationall-
ty, but that s.Hessian" is his name. He is, in
fact, Irish. His statement is as follows:
Z was out in the street when the firing be-
gan. Twas not frightened. at all. only just
made up my.mlnd thatI would save some poor
creatures lives. And did saved several.
know more than / can tell now, but 1t WILL all
come out. That man would have been all IN
inch bits If it.had not been for me. i would do
the same for any poor creature; but saved
his life, anyhow. L helped him down from the
fence and took him in at the price Of my life.
II the rioters had known at the time that /, an
Irishman, did this, they would have torn me
moustache, and got him apair of my panta-
looms: You ought to have seen him getting
into them. Pm a. small man, you know, and
1t was tight squeeze. wanted to rip them
some, but he would not let me. had no coat
big enough for him, 80 I.gaye him an old over
coat ana tu6 WOTSL QbI III Lu6i uOuSc. ne Who
the worst scared man you ever saw He's no.
business to be a colonel. He kept getting
scared about. the mob coming for him and for
me. was not frightened bit. Il went ont ip
the street and walked about, and told him,
'Look at me;; amt frightened and you
needn't be- One time he went on top of the
house, but made him come down. he must
have stayed here three hours, and there were
other soldiers here. It's all nonsense about
his going to TWenty-seventh street, and the
rest of those streets, across lots and over
fences. he walked away from here TO Nntn
avenue, where he took carriage that was
waiting for him.
This amiabe informant, who certainly de-.
serves heavy salvages from the Opera House
party, rather deprecated the mention of his
name; but his testimony concerning the cow
ardlce of such prominent leader of the
militia will fully exonerate him in the eyes of
all Hibernia, from the guilt incurred by har-
boring the fugitive. In taking leave of Frlsky
Fisk and bis various tergiVisatiens, fitting
conclusion seems to be found In the familiar
line, nRoom for The Le(a)per Room,p
EDUCATION IN ALABA1L4.