Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, February 17, 1880, by Various

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Title: Harper's Young People, February 17, 1880
An Illustrated Weekly

Author: Various

Release Date: March 18, 2009 [EBook #28353]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, FEB 17, 1880 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S

YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

* * * * *

VOL. I.--NO. 16. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, February 17, 1880. Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "DON'T YOU WISH YOU COULD GET IT?"]

GENERAL PRESCOTT AND THE YANKEE BOY.

BY BENSON J. LOSSING.

General Prescott, commanding the British forces on Rhode Island in 1777,
was a petty tyrant, imperious, irascible, and cruel. He would command
citizens of Newport who met him on the streets to take off their hats in
deference to him, and if not obeyed, he would knock them off with his
cane. If he saw a group of citizens talking together, he would shake his
cane at them, and shout, "Disperse, you rebels!" For slight offenses
citizens were imprisoned and otherwise ill-treated. This unworthy
conduct made the people despise and hate him. His tyranny became
unbearable.

Prescott's summer quarters were at Mr. Overing's house, on the borders
of Narragansett Bay, a few miles from Newport. On a warm but showery
night in July, 1777, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton, with a few resolute men,
went down the bay from Providence, in a whale-boat, landed near
Prescott's quarters at about midnight, secured the sentinels, entered
the house, and ascended to the door of his bedroom in the second story.
It was locked. A stout colored man who accompanied Barton, making a
battering-ram of his head, burst open the door. The General, in
affright, sprang from his bed, but was instantly seized, and without
being allowed to dress himself, was conveyed to the boat, and taken
quickly across the bay to Warwick. Thence he was sent, under guard, to
Washing