The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-08-28

nocket pistols, in addition 70 tnelr S.a'S1' =
bikes. The uniform consisted OF a piacA
glazed cap. a large cape, covering tne ouJ
ders to the waist, black pantaloons' anu
belts. The officers generally wore or reu sasn .,
and in some cases sworus, nc AZ IT,
Prown niles' except that at the tip OF the
no;nt was a small tin bowl, or cup tor hold
~ ~, and cotton. which were burned as =
Aamheaux during the nightly parades.,
What was done in their secret conclaves'
am unable to say, but the frequent drills
and PROFESSIONS, all wore a war-Ike aspect.
Undoubtedly these companies, thus organ
I'D and known to consist entirely OF zeal
nns abolitiopists, did a great deal to str a
military spirit among the masses. Not a
town or village but had one or more COM
nanies- amounting in several States 70
twenty or thirty thousand enrolled men,
Hose members thus acquired a partial
knowledge of military evolutlons, such as
marching-in-step, wheeling by platoon, oe-
nloving, counter marching, etc; a training
which became of much service twelve months
later. For it is the fact, tho, L have never
seen it referred to IN our oouthern htS st9rigss
hat numbers of these semi-soldler Wide,
Awste" hands resolved themselves into real
comnanies after the fall of Fort Sumpter,
and hurried on to Washington to put into
practical demonstration the threats and
hatred thew had SO often INDUCED IN during
the preliminary campaign.
About a month before the election, IN
coming from Tuscarora Academy to Phlla7
delnhia. I found the cars filled with "Wide-
AWakes' going down to a big political meet,
ing at Lancaster. They were apparently all
''roughs," staggering. curslng, howllng,
smiling the oil from their lamp-torches over
the cushions, and the clothes OF the passen-
GERS. bursting into a chorus OF yelis at inter-
walls, accompanied by the crash OF n1teen OF
twenty drums, and conducting themselves
Ike drunken rowdies from Five Points.
At Harrisburg, and other points, there
were local battalions of Wlde-Awakers,
drawn up at the depot to greet their travel
ling brethren, and the common jest was,:-
80 you are going down to whip out the
Chiyalry, eh?" It was plain the members
preferred the idea of a semi-mllltary organl-
zation rather than that of a mere political
A Southerner coming to claim his
constitutional rights, or re claim his stolen
slave, would have scarcely escaped with his
life from such a crew.
It was about this period that Col. Mex,
of Fayetteville, received a practical %lllustra-
tration of the prevalent feeling, during a bus
mess visit to New Haven, Connecticut. Ar
rlVlDg III Cuc ulSuC IC uuO AOA~ AAO IAIAS O.
large crowd in front of the hotel, assembled
by a report that he was a Southerner, in
search of a fugitive slave. Going into the
basement to be shaved, he was urged by the
old barber to hurry out the back way, as the
mob were openly threatening, consequently
he retired to the house of his business &C
uuaintance. The latter protested to be a
GOOD friend to the South, but was forced to
contribute $40 to a wide-a-wake committee
for the torchlight professions which were
being held almost nightly. Such incidents
were common.
MY REMOVAL EASTWARD.
Pending the Presidential election [ chang
ed my p~upilage from Tuscarora to DIR. Gay
ley's Classical Institute at Media, a pleasant
little town a few miles south of Philadelphia.
It would be absurd to say that a youth still
short of his fifteenth birthday could foresee
a political eruption which many of the sagest
of the country failed to realize
for some months later; but [ may truly say
a premonitory ~disquiet, and expecta-
ton, made me very glad to exchange the ru-
raj retirement of the Tuscarora Valley, in
the Highlands, for the proximity of a great
city, on the direct railway route southwark
and homeward; where also, | could have
hourly intelligence Of the march of
S'OhCs 4 hIIouClpLId udu SuJOycO a
proportion Of southern patron
age, particularly in hats. shoes, furniture,
ETC., than any other Northern city, conse.
quently her people, Notwithstanding their
Quakerish antecedents, professed excessive
cordlallty towards SOutherners, up to the
last moment, or until they fully realized that
the Southern trade was estopped by the war;
they burst forth with an intensi-
ty OF South-cursing rage exceeding any 9TH
city in the whole North. But Of this
more anon.
At the period of which [ write, the city
press, except Forney's Chronicle, was almost
unanimous for Bell-and Everett, that ticket
being considered in the light Of a compro-
mise between the extremes of Northern and
Southern sentiment. Having some excellent
trends and also some family connections,
(the families OF Ex-Governor James Pollock
Gen: Robt. Patterson, DIR. Agnew, ct al.
IN Philadelphia, l could run down almost
any day there were hourly trains to attend