tion amid these surroundings), was able to
state something as to its numbers in keeping with the above. According to
this witness, the weird force was composed of two battalions and a
squadron, or about two thousand men and horses, exclusive of a section of
artillery, and an indefinite number of pack-mules. The horses composing
the procession were deep black in color, emitted columns of smoke and
flame from their nostrils (_vide_ pictorial papers), and varied in height
from a lamppost to a telegraph pole. Of the raiders themselves he would
say nothing (under the impression, doubtless, that the theme had been
exhausted); but as to the "rig" they wore, he was morally certain that an
inverted churn constituted the head-dress, a wagon sheet of mammoth
pattern the shoulder-garb, and army canteens (probably bisected and thus
made to do double duty) the button ornaments.

Observing something at this point in the countenances of his auditors
which he did not quite like, he availed himself of their knowledge of
dictionary superlatives in an exhortation of some length, and concluded by
submitting as his wish that he be "hung, drawn, and quartered," and such
further disposition made of his remains as the skeptics of the crowd might
propose.

It is really a subject of regret with the writer to be compelled to state
that, notwithstanding the remarkable strength of emphasis employed by this
young man, the beautiful consistency of his narrative (its parts we mean),
and his apparent desire to anticipate and provide against attacks of this
character, that his evidence was discredited in some leading points, if
not altogether overthrown, by the testimony of the witness who followed.
This was Jerry Stubbs, a mill-boy oracle, and a youth whose antecedents
were otherwise good. His first onset was directed against the figures of
his predecessor, which were given a very crooked appearance indeed, when
placed against the fact that the entire raid--artillery, baggage-wagons,
horse, foot, and buttons--had been self-immured in the paternal horse-lot
(80 x 100 feet) of the said Stubbs, for the space of from one to twenty
minutes, or considerably more, or a great deal less--could not be exact as
to time. He had likewise made a critical examination into the equestrian
belongings of the raid, and the horses were not black, but white; and
finally, he felt morally assured, despite the confident utterances of
those who had preceded him, that the raiders