Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-04-05
CHAPTER ~.
NEW YORK IN IT'S.

New York at this period was a scene Of
confusion.
The fear of the French, which had occa-
stoned the evacuation of Philadelphia. had
brought horde of 1900 soldiers to be set
down among 5000 others, where but scant
Preparations had been made to receive
them. What with the smart of the lashing
administered by Washington at Monmouth
on their march across New jersey, the
weakness of Howe's fleet. the fear Of a sud-
den movement on the city by the Americans,
end the intense heat of the weather, the
army was in state bordering on panic
1t was an army, toe, that through rank
and Ale had been demoralized by inactivity
and debauch, and nothing could have been
more apt or prophetic than the remark made
by Franklin when it became known to him
that the Delaware had been opened by
Howe: philadelphia has succumbed to the
British, but they in turn will succumb to
Philadelphia
It had been even so, but the effect had be-
come apparent in New York. The civil law
had long been PROSTATE; the military au-
thority Lax. Now the British were waking
in the condition Of man after night dis
dpation, battling with muddled brain, and
feeling the internal economy fairly out Of
gear. Fraud, fear and Incompetence reigned
in every branch of the service, and betwixt
ire, vandalism and thej necessities of war,
New York, which had never known and was
never to know the dignity of battle, suffered
~ no besiegsd city could suffer more.
All this suited my purpose, as well as di-
rectly favored my interest. The influx of Q
, host OF newcomers saved me from being
prominent a. stranger, and the extra prep.
arations for the defense of the town, to-
gether with the knowledge that the French
were at last upon the sea, diverted atten-
ton from small naval ventures.
l had feared the Phantom would be i'm
msdiately reftted and armed for sound
or river cruising, and was nightly pleased
to have the days go by and see her, as the
saying goes, taking root to the bottom
Never did the sun set without my having
look at her swinging at her anchor. She
lay off the half-deserted shipyard, which be-
came favorite haunt of mine when |. tired
Of the mask I wore and wished to ease into
my true self
And there I would walk up and down,
and each day watch the growth of the muck
that had fouled her cable on the ebh and
flow of the tide. She had not even been
dismantled, and, for aught could see, was
without guard save at night; but to have
gone out to her and worked upon the cabin
bulkhead would have been impossible. The
boat from her larboard davits had been
taken away, but the dingey still hung over
the stern, as tantalizing as cup of water
just beyond the reach of thirsting man.
A sweet sight (but melancholy one) the
schooner made to me as she swung on the
broad river well from land, the fair light Of
an evening over her, mellowing her lines and
diminishing the rustiness of her sides. Be-
yond her was the bald work of Fort Sterling
tbuilt and deserted unframed by the pa
triots two years before), standing clear and
yellow above the height of Brookland NOV
Brooklyn.
Off Wall street lay many of Howe's fleet,
though the largest number was posted south
of Nuttens island Governors island), in
readiness to oppose the French, who were
daily expected.
and water there was one discordant note.
The horrible hulk of the Jersey, within easy
scope of the eye, was directly opposite, and
more than once did / see her unload her
dead, and could almost hear the cry Of
Down, We rebels, down." az the patriot
prisoners were driven below at sunset.
| Excepting In the shipyard and through
the sparsely built district lying bstwixt the
line of Notifications and the city proper on
the westward side of the island, there was
scarcely rood of land to which could fes
and not come in contact with the evidence
of war. The quiet desolation OF barrenness
of the former and the broad, green mead.
ows, the song of birds, the harmonious hush
of nature and calmness of the evening skies
| at the latter point were in marked contrast
with the hell lying close at hand. Had the
devil come on earth in his proper person, as
some poet has made him out to have done,
and landed in New York, he would have
| rubbed his hands and switched his barbed
tail in glee at the work of his emissaries who
were serving him as but few so-called Chris
tians serve the Almighty.
Barefaced inhumanity stalked before so.
ciety and caused laugh. Cruelty had be-
come a pastime. Domesticity was dead.
Robbery seemed set to the music of pop
ular song, SO universal it became, nor was
it confined to the confscation of property
belonging to patriots An uninitiated stran-
ger would have found some difficulty in de-
termining whether this brilliant assem-
blage was exerting itself as much toward
suppressing rebellious people as it was
in making war on the kings treasury.
There may have been honest men in New
York during the summer of l77s, but Is yet
had failed to strike them. Every one with
| whom had to do was gambler, thisf, OF
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