tel.
Meanwhile, an attack was made with iron bars, used battering-ram
fashion, upon the doors of many of the shops, the rioters "prodding"
them with all their might. Messrs. Bourne's shop, at the corner of
Moor Street, was the first to give way, and the men quickly gained
admittance. A large number of loaves of sugar were piled near the
windows, and these were passed rapidly into the street. There, being
dashed violently to the ground, and broken to pieces, they formed
dangerous missiles, with which the crowd soon demolished all the
windows within reach. As the crowd of rioters increased, their weapons
became too few, and the iron railings of St. Martin's Church were
pulled down. With these very dangerous instruments they wrenched from
Nelson's monument the massive bars of iron which surrounded it. These
being long, and of great strength, proved to be formidable levers,
with which to force doors and shutters. In a short time the entire
area of the Bull Ring was filled with a mob of yelling demons, whose
shouts and cries, mixed with the sounds of crashing timber, and the
sharp rattle of breaking glass, made a hideous din. It was getting
dark, and a cry was raised for a bonfire to give light. In a few
moments the shop of Mr. Leggatt, an upholsterer, was broken open, and
his stock of bedding, chairs, tables, and other valuable furniture was
brought into the roadway, broken up, and fired, amid the cheers of the
excited people. One man, more adventurous than the rest, deliberately
carried a flaming brand into the shop and set the premises on fire.
The sight of the flames seemed to rouse the mob to ungovernable fury.
Snatching burning wood from the fire, they hurled it through the
broken, windows in all directions. Rushing in to Bourne's shop,
they rolled out tea canisters by dozens, which they emptied into the
gutters, and then smashed to pieces. They then deliberately collected
the shop paper around a pile of tea chests, and fired it, the shop
soon filling with flames. The mob, now vastly increased in numbers,
broke up into separate parties, one of which, with great violence,
attacked the premises of Mr. Arnold, a pork butcher. He, however, with
prudent forethought, had collected his workmen in the shop and armed
them with heavy cleavers and other formidable implements of his trade,
and so defended he kept the mob at bay, and eventually repulsed them.
The shop of Mr. Martin, a jeweller, whose window was filled with
watches,