Late in the afternoon a crowd which could have numbered not less than
ten thousand, the majority of whom were ragged, frowzy, drunken women,
gathered about the Orphan Asylum for Colored Children,--a large and
beautiful building, and one of the most admirable and noble charities of
the city. When it became evident, from the menacing cries and groans of
the multitude, that danger, if not destruction, was meditated to the
harmless and inoffensive inmates, a flag of truce appeared, and an
appeal was made in their behalf, by the principal, to every sentiment of
humanity which these beings might possess,--a vain appeal! Whatever
human feeling had ever, if ever, filled these souls was utterly drowned
and washed away in the tide of rapine and blood in which they had been
steeping themselves. The few officers who stood guard over the doors,
and manfully faced these demoniac legions, were beaten down and flung
to one side, helpless and stunned whilst the vast crowd rushed in. All
the articles upon which they could seize--beds, bedding, carpets,
furniture,--the very garments of the fleeing inmates, some of these torn
from their persons as they sped by--were carried into the streets, and
hurried off by the women and children who stood ready to receive the
goods which their husbands, sons, and fathers flung to their care. The
little ones, many of them, assailed and beaten; all,--orphans and
caretakers,--exposed to every indignity and every danger, driven on to
the street,--the building was fired.
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