dying, desires his followers to offer a cock to AEsculapius. The other,
a Christian, ceases not to converse concerning the wrongs of an
oppressed race, and of his deep anxiety for the slaves; and his last
written words were: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the
crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I
had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much
bloodshed it might be done." [December 2nd. 1859.]

Our retrospect would be incomplete did we not recall the events
happening in this very City of Worcester, twenty-five years ago
to-day. Never were the pulsations of the "Heart of the Commonwealth"
more in accord with the heart beats of humanity than on that second of
December, 1859. Whatever the thoughts and words of truckling people in
other places, here the tolling bell spoke unmistakably to all who
heard, the sorrow of those mourned the death of the Great liberator.
The _Spy_ of December 3d devotes two columns to an account of the
observances in this city. From this description I learn that from ten
o'clock, A.M. till noon, and again, from seven to seven and one-half
o'clock, P.M., the bells of the Old South, the Central, the Union, and
the Third Baptist churches were tolled. During the tolling of the
bells in the forenoon, the engines at Merrifield's buildings, and at
the card manufactory of T.K. Earle & Co., were stopped, while their
places of business were closed, bearing appropriate symbols of regret
and mourning. The colored people generally closed their places of
employment, and engaged in appropriate religious exercises in Zion's
Church in the afternoon. Earlier than had been advertised Mechanics
Hall was thronged to its utmost capacity, in the vast audience there
being as many women as men. Three sides of the walls bore placards on
which were the words:

"Whether on the scaffold high,
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest place where man can die,
Is where he dies for man."

At half-past seven o'clock Hon. W.W. Rice called the meeting to order,
saying: "There is no true man that does not feel his bosom swell with
indignation and grief, and pray that God will watch over this land
with his especial care. For Virginia has, to-day, executed a man, who,
by the judgment of this community, is guilty of no moral crime; but
for his fidelity to the principles which his own soul told him were
truths and duty. And we are met to hear the words of