flight; it is trodden under foot. Then the
remaining loaves are pelted about and destroyed,
and the beef bones and lumps of meat are used as
missiles. At this crisis, a great mind in the mob
discovers the value of the crackers (biscuits),
and, in a moment, two hundred of them are
skimming the air—flying strong and swift, breaking
painfully on noses and cheek-bones, hats and
eyes. Lastly, a ruder nature suggests that the
biscuit barrels are not altogether useless, and
away they go into the air, falling with a crash
like shells, and eliciting fights wherever they
fall; one poor wretch is bonneted by a barrel,
and when he draws it off, the nails, in the inside
staves, have cut his face terribly; in a moment
out go his fists, striking whoever is near him.
Then the police, dreading the appearance of
knives, break in and disperse the turbulent
mob, and slowly the great assembly breaks and
falls away.

That night we had another procession: not
merely the seedy thirty thousand who that
morning assembled to eat the Douglas calf in
the woods of Jones, but all the seething millions
of New York audits suburb cities, Brooklyn, New
Jersey, and Hoboken: all to shout for Lincoln.

When I left my hotel a little before midnight,
and looked down the street, there were
moving forests of torches advancing towards
me from every point of the compass. Gradually
they grew, these undulating lines of twin stars,
from mere pins' heads of light to radiating suns,
with rays and halos of their own. They advanced
under starry arcs of discharged fireworks,
under blue irradiations of Roman candles, projectiles
that burst in the air like luminous rifle-bullets.
Champ! went the New Jersey band,
defiling down one strand. Champ! champ! went
the Brooklyn band, debouching into Broadway.
Clash! Champ! champ! went the Hoboken
band, meeting them full butt, and greeting them
with " tiger" shouts, hei-hei-ing, and brazen
welcome, and booms of tightened parchment.
Now came on marching serried batallions of
"Wideawakes," the flower of the New York
youth. They marched two abreast, the officers
wearing badges, and ribbons, and crimson scarfs,
and each regiment with its fiery crimson colours.
Each Wideawake wore a cape of oilskin, painted
a vermilion colour, in addition to a shako,
covered also with red oilskin. Each bore in his
right hand a pole about five feet long, having a
swinging tin oil lamp fastened in a frame at one
end. There were whole companies with blue
lamps, and others with red, so that, as they
marched in perfect military array, wheeling and
changing front with the mechanism of the soldier,
they had the appearance of a Chinese Feast of
Lanterns.

These Wideawakes are the terror of the
South, and of the democrats generally, through-
out America. It is supposed they are really
Abolitionist volunteers in disguise, and the violent
opposition papers say that their rods and
lanterns point to future murders and incendiarism.
They have recently had, even in New York, very
bloody conflicts with democratic mobs.

Now, the cannon round the statue of Washington,
up towards the Fifth Avenue, bellowed
to the welkin, and made the very stars wink, as
if they were sneezing at the sulphurous smell.
Now, all the clubs drew up in square under
the balcony of the St. Nicholas Hotel. Roman
candles were fired and broke into blue stare,
while the rockets blossomed high up in the sky,
and cast down showers of fiery primroses.
Bang—champ! went the bands, and " Hei!—
hei!!—HEI!!!" shouted the men in the red
capes. The great Lincoln banner, that waved
heavily across Broadway, grew transparent and
golden with the torchlight.

"Three cheers for Lincoln!"

"Three groans for Douglas!"

"Three cheers and a tiger for Seward, and
three hisses for Tammany Hall and the Soft
Shells!"

Now a hush, partly broken by the approach
of a band newly landed from Albany a hush as
a little knot of men appeared on the balcony, and
waved their hands to deprecate shouts.

"Mr. Elias Pidgeonbarley, from Missouri!"

Shouts enough to awaken Washington in his
rude tomb on the banks of the Potomac. Fresh
thunders of cannon, fresh rains of blue stars
from the Roman candles, fresh tigers, fresh
marching, fresh shouts of "Let her rip!" and
"That's good!" and "Sail on!" as some five
thousand voices roared out an election song, of
which I subjoin the first verse:

"I hearkened in the east, and I hearkened in the
west,

And I heard a fifing and a drumming;

And my heart bobbed up, in the middle of my
breast,
For I knew that the people were a-coming.
Then pull off your coat, and roll up your
sleeve,
Abe and the people are a-coming,
Oh, pull off your coat, and roll up your
sleeve,
For LINCOLN AND THE PEOPLE ARE
A-COMING, I BELIEVE!"

MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S READINGS.
On THURSDAY EVENING, April 11th, the
CHRISTMAS CAROL AND MRS. CAMP;
And on THUESDAT EVENING, April 18th,
LITTLE DOMBEY AND THE TRIAL
FROM PICKWICK,
At ST. JAMES'S HALL, Piccadilly.

Now ready, price 5s. 6d., bound in cloth,
THE FOURTH VOLUME
OF
ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
Containing from Nos. 77 to 100, both inclusive, and
the Extra Double Number for Christmas.
The preceding Volumes are always to be had.