urmuring
crowd, and then stood there in composed silence "at ease." Then the
little knot of staff-officers and newspaper men was presently joined by
Lieutenant-Colonel Kenyon, commanding the --th Infantry, one battalion
of which had just taken position as indicated; and to him came others,
officers of the battalion. Again did Elmendorf raise his voice in appeal
for the rights of his fellow-men.

"Colonel Kenyon," he declaimed, his shrill tones distinctly audible
above the hoarse murmur of voices in the rapidly augmenting throng, "you
have been so considerate as to listen to a humble outsider before this,
and to express appreciation of some, at least, of the views I have felt
constrained to express. You are, as I understand, the commanding officer
of the regiment that has just arrived in this city. You are an officer
sworn to maintain the Constitution of the United States; and is not your
very presence here--you and your men--in glaring violation of that
Constitution?"

Here the few officers who had joined their commander, all strangers to
Elmendorf, turned upon him in astonishment. The newspaper men chuckled
and nudged each other companionably. Some of the staff turned away,
plainly indicating that they had already had to listen to too much of
that sort of thing. Kenyon looked him curiously over.

"Mr. Elmendorf, do you ask that question in your sober senses, or only
as a jocular reminder? Those identical words were addressed to me by an
irate gentleman in Virginia in '62." So far from being irritated, old
Kenyon seemed to find amusement in drawing his interlocutor out.

"Ah, but, my dear sir, there the whole State--the whole South--was in
armed rebellion against the Federal government. Here is neither
insurrection nor rebellion. Here, honest, law-abiding, patriotic men, as
loyal to the Union of States as ever you could be, are exerting their
prerogative as men, their rights as citizens, to obtain justice for
themselves and their brethren at the hands of a defiant and oppressive
monopoly. They have done no wrong, violated no law, and yet here you
come with bayonets and ball cartridges to intimidate, if not to shoot
down in cold blood, husbands and fathers and peaceable citizens who are
only pleading for justice at the hands of their employers."

"Some mistake here, Mr. Elmendorf. Your leaders have already declared it
a rebellion. The husbands and fathers we are here to look after are the
amiable parties who stove i