By his dress recognizing in him a government official, so far from
hearing or heeding his humane appeal, they set upon him with sticks and
clubs, and beat him till his eyes were blind with blood, and he--bruised
and mangled--succeeded in escaping to the handful of police who stood
helpless before this howling crew, now increased to thousands. With
difficulty and pain the inoffensive tenants escaped from the rapidly
spreading fire, which, having devoured the house originally lighted,
swept across the neighboring buildings till the whole block stood a mass
of burning flames. The firemen came up tardily and reluctantly, many of
them of the same class as the miscreants who surrounded them, and who
cheered at their approach, but either made no attempt to perform their
duty, or so feeble and farcical a one, as to bring disgrace upon a
service they so generally honor and ennoble.
At last, when there was here nothing more to accomplish, the mob,
swollen to a frightful size, including myriads of wretched, drunken
women, and the half-grown, vagabond boys of the pavements, rushed
through the intervening streets, stopping cars and insulting peaceable
citizens on their way, to an armory where were manufactured and stored
carbines and guns for the government. In anticipation of the attack,
this, earlier in the day, had been fortified by a police squad capable
of coping with an ordinary crowd of ruffians, but as chaff before fire
in the presence of these murderous thousands.
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