The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-04-05
Scenes, Incidents and Anecdotes
of the Great Revolution, not
Found in History.
Tales of Adventure. Romance and
Heroism by the Men and
Women Who Fought
for Freedom.
BY BENSON J. LOSING. L. L d.
INDEPENDENCE IND THE
GREAT SELL.
copyrighted, 1885, by Funk & Wagnalls,

Nhen l was many, very many years
younger than | am now, | spent some tim,
with a kinsman in Philadelphia who livcu
near Independence Square. Near him dwell,
two octogenarians, lively relics of our ma
tional birth time, who spent several evenings
of each week at the house Of my cousin
They were always there together, and the
chief burden of their conversation was recor
~lections Of their young manhood, and es-
pecially Of the events of tue old war for i'll
dependence, "a part Of which they sawa anu
O part of which they WERE
One Of these venerable men was q stout,
baliheaded, rotuud, jolly old gentleman, anu
was known by everybody as "Cncie Billy
dant flowing locks, rather grave and precis>
in speech, and mugisterial in department.
He was generally known us "lhe Squire,
he having been u justice OF the peace sew
eral successive years III middle Lie. Both
were more than eighty years Of age.
Uncle Billy was the senior OF the two by
u lev IHOuluS. Ill AlS yonLii IN "bo u
with Robert Morris, the patriotic t%inancicI
Of the Continental Congress. Later i'll la.
he became & successful merchant, owned a
privateer during the second war for indie
| pendence, and for more than thirty years
had lived quietly upon an ample competence
in the enjoyment OF wife, children .uu
s:,.l, T,n ,Snrirn IN his Az I'll NJ ya.r
had been u sort Of miscellaneous man-a
wit, a scholar to q considerable degree, Il
journalist. and al great iavorite in the best
classes Of society, and holding some public
Office now and then. In person lie ""
handsome in form aud feature, and a littk
foppish. He had lived n bachelor, and had
saved sufficient money toward the sunset o
life to make him comfortable without labor
ing for it during life's twilight.
The Squire was a genius of many features,
and had a capacity TOR many excellent per-
formers. Before his majority he was II sort
of sub editor of radtord's Pennsylvania
Journal, and he took pride in pointing to
MS ATtlSllC achievement III "Ati
his p~enknite, the ugly, disjointed snake re-
presenting the Engli h-American colonies,
with the significant words below it, "Join or
Die" 1t appeared at the head OF the Jour
nal Tor many months, to the great annoy
ance of the kings Men," who called it "a
scandalous and saucy reflection The
,Se,;,, lnno,oo a ,nor-nf oil IA ork q sort nj
Caleb Quotem-on Atkins Pennsylvania
' Magazine when Thomas Paine was a fire.
quent contributor to its columns.
One evening the Squire and Uncle Billy
were corversing about journalism i'll ''t;evo-
lutlonary times" Wien the former gave a
most interesting account of "iom Paine" as
he called him, and his habits. On these oc-
%casions | sat like IL sponge, absorbing ut all
points and i,nbibing an enormous quantity
Of the spirit OF 49, which affected my lie
career. The S iuile said .aine had a re.
markablc head. His forehead receded very
much; his eyes were a sort Of steel gray and
rather piercing in their glances under ex
VllC ITO hoo q !" 81 ~" 1'S"'A -
rubicund, and his hair was very dark
brown, nearly black. He would CONE into
Atkins ilt.e back room at the Pore {
Head, above the London Coffee Housy OH
Market street, quite early in the morning,
chat q little while with any who might be
present, and after he had swallowed his
third glass of brandy would take up his Ell
and begin to write with amazing rapidity.
This was a signal for all to leave the room.
Paine's pen went on without ceasing, try
ing to keep up with the rapid pace of his
thoughts; and in less than two hours, some
times, he would finish one OF those bold, in
~cisive, logical and almost fierce essays on
the current political topics which appeared
from time to time and stirred the hearts oil
the patriots with holy zeal. Then he would
stretch himself out on q se.tee and sleep
soundly for an hour, when he would sally
out to meet some congenial friend on the
streets or 60 to some ~favorite social haunt
The Squire was a sort of Ariel in the
public bodies of the city at that time, and
his memory being Photographic III its AZ.
curacy in reporting sayings and dcings, he
was held in great repute and was Al ~favorit>
at social gatherings. A valued friend O
Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Con.
~tineutal Congress, he learned many u secrer
motive for acts of that body which were hid
den from public ken. The revelations O
these things, long years atterward, made til,
Squire one Of the most delightful am in
structive companions,
One evening l handed to Uncle Billy ,
document printed and written on parchment
and bearing the recu1nbent seal Of til,
United states, the date as early as 1857.
asked the oracles to explain the origin Of til,
seal, as it seemed 10 have cone down to u.
in similar form from the beginning OF tn,
nation. Uncle lilly handed the doculuen
to the Squire, saying: "You know more o
this than do; tell the boy all about it
The Squire looked at it u moment, ant
turning to Billy asked: .<.r, -
"Do you remember. the fearful thunder
storm that swept over lLiladelrhia on til,
evening Of july 3, !776, and the very cool
bracing wind from the northwest the nex
morning." w..
Uncle Billy answered in the affirmative
and then with much animation he relmet
| Soma nj hia 4xI ppiar, n IT H. at ap.r- l ~, f.