Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-02-06
CHAPTER XVIII.

TT was morning of the warmest
week Of mid-July, and Canaan lay
inert and helpless beneath broil-
\ ing sun. The few people who
moved about the streets went languid-
~. keeping close to the wall on the
shady side; the women in thin white
fabrics; the men, often coatless. carry
Ing palm leaf fans and replacing col
lars with handkerchiefs. In the court
house yard the maple leaves. gray with
blown dust and grown to great breadth.
dropped heavily, depressing the long.
motionless branches with their weight,
so low that the four or five shabby
idlers upon the benches beneath now
and then fiicked them sleepily with
whitfield sprigs.
The doors and windows Of the stores
stood open. displaying limp wares Of
trade. but few tokens Of life. the clerks
hanging over dim counters as far as
possible from the glare in front. Cos
siping fragmentarily, usually about the
Cory murder and anon upon a subject
suggested by the sight of an occasional
pedestrian passing perspiring by with
scrooged eyelids and purpling skin
From street and sidewalk transparent
hot waves swan up and danced them
selves into nothing, while from the riv-
er bank a half mile away came a
sound hotter than even the locust'S
midsummer rasp, the drone of a plan
ing mill.
Greater heat than that Of these blaz-
ing days could not have kept one Of
the sages from attending the eonciave
now, for the battle was on In Canaan.
and here upon the National House cor
ner. under the shadow of the west
wall, it waxed even keener. Perhaps
we may find full justification for cali
ing what was happening battle in so
far as we restrict the figure to apply
to this one spot Elsewhere in the
Canaan of the Tocsin the conflict was
too one sided. The Tocsin had indeed
tried the case of Happy Fear in adj
vance, had convicted and condemned
and every day grew more bitter. Nor
was the urgent vigor Of its attack with
out effect.
Sleepy as Main street seemed in the
heat. the town was ineensed and rous-
ed to a tensity of feeling it had not
known since the civil war, when. on
occasion. it had Get out to hang half
dozen ''Knights of the Golden Circle"
Joe had been Kissed on the street
many times since the inimical clerk
had whistled at him. Probably DEM
constructions Of that sort would have
continued had he remained In Canaan,
but for almost month he had been
absent and his Office closed. Its thresh-
old gray with dust. There were peo-
pie who believed that he had run
away again, this time never to return.
among those who held to this opinion
being Mrs. Louden and her sister, Joe's
step-aunt. Upon only one point was
everybody agreed-that twelve men
could not be found in the county who
could be so far persuaded and befud-
died by Louden that they would dare
allow Happy Fear to escape. The
women of Canaan, incensed by the ter
IlDfS CIRCUMSTANCES VI t&4G case as k@&S
Tocsin colored it-a man shot down In
the act OF begging his enemy's for
giveness- clamored as loudly as the
men. There was only the difference
that the latter vociferated for the
hanging Of Happy: their good ladies
used the word punishment"
And yet, while the place rang with
condemnation of the little man in the
jail and his attorney. there were voices
here and there uplifted on the other
side. People exist |. it astonishingiy
appeared. who liked Happy Fear.
These were for the greater part OBJ
scure and even darkling in their lives.
yet quite demonstrably human beings.
able to smile. suffer, leap, run and to
entertain fancies; even to have. &C
cording to their degree. certain ruti-
mentary sense of right and wrong. in
spite Of which they strongly favored
the prisoners aequittal. Precisely ea
that account. it was argued. an ae-
quittai would outrage Canaan and lay
it open to untold danger. Such people
needed lesson.