Where the officers appeared they
were irretrievably beaten and overcome; their stand, were it ever so
short, but inflaming the passions of the mob to fresh deeds of violence.
Stores were closed; the business portion of the city deserted; the large
works and factories emptied of men, who had been sent home by their
employers, or were swept into the ranks of the marauding bands. The city
cars, omnibuses, hacks, were unable to run, and remained under shelter.
Every telegraph wire was cut, the posts torn up, the operators driven
from their offices. The mayor, seeing that civil power was helpless to
stem this tide, desired to call the military to his aid, and place the
city under martial law, but was opposed by the Governor,--a governor,
who, but a few days before, had pronounced the war a failure; and not
only predicted, but encouraged this mob rule, which was now crushing
everything beneath its heavy and ensanguined feet. This man, through
almost two days of these awful scenes, remained at a quiet seaside
retreat but a few miles from the city. Coming to it on the afternoon of
the second day,--instead of ordering cannon planted in the streets,
giving these creatures opportunity to retire to their homes, and, in the
event of refusal, blowing them there by powder and ball,--he first went
to the point where was collected the chiefest mob, and proceeded to
address them.
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