nd a better.'

On this, the opposite party delivered himself of a lengthy harangue, in
which arguments were quoted from Adam Smith, De Tocqueville, and others,
with considerable fluency; all intended, apparently, to convict me of
flagrant error, and prognosticate 'consequences.' I had not at that time
read the works of these writers, and had only very youthful experience
to oppose to such a weight of authority; and being, besides, one of
those unfortunate individuals who cannot think of the right thing to say
until twenty-four hours after the occasion has passed, I remained
silent. My opponents mistook silence for assent, and left me, expressing
a hope that they should see me at their committee-room next day.

The passage, at the entrance of which this scene had taken place, was
separated from a turner's shop adjoining by a thin wooden partition, and
the turner, who was a New Yorker, stopped his lathe to listen to our
parley. When he heard me turn to go up stairs, he shouted: 'Hillo!
Johnny Bull, they were rather too many for you. You must get up a little
sooner in the mornin', if you want to circumvent Yankees! Look out for
squalls, old fellow!'

'Words is only wind,' I replied, quoting one-half of a 'down-east'
adage, as I ran up the stairs; he, however, before I got out of hearing,
added the second half: 'but blows hurts.'

Three or four days passed away; trade was remarkably brisk, and a few of
the bosses gave in--a fact announced with great exultation by the
turn-outs, who now felt confident of victory, and urged their demands
more strenuously than ever. But compliance was no part of the bosses'
intentions, for no sooner were the arrears of unfinished work cleared
off, than the hands found themselves again at liberty. This proceeding
naturally irritated the struggle somewhat; and subscriptions for the
support of those who, habituated to live from hand to mouth, had saved
nothing, were called for with renewed importunity. The strike was
beginning to feel the pressure of the laws of nature.

Now and then, one of my shopmates would drop in, and intimate that it
would be dangerous for me to persist in having my own way; but I felt no
whit inclined to yield, for, although I had seen the houses of
intermarried blacks and whites devastated, and a bonfire made in the
street with their furniture, I had but little apprehension of personal
violence, and the boss protested that he would 'see me righted,' should
any mischi