dy to split with the cold, or be pulverized by a tilt from their
next door neighbors. It is a misfortune for such fragile natures as
these to be in this common-place world at all, my boy, and they cannot
do the more useful portion of humanity a greater service than by
getting themselves out of it as soon as possible. I have known human
porcelain vases of this kind so fragile, that they were half-cracked
before anything touched them.

On Thursday, my boy, the report that a friend of the well-known
Southern Confederacy had been arrested and court-martialled, in Ohio,
for simply advising the intelligent masses to set fire to a few Union
hospitals and go hunting after American eagles by the light
thereof,--this report, I say, excited amongst the loyal but seditious
patriots of storied Accomac an indignation that was anything but
speechless. Shades of our Revolutionary sires! was it possible that a
citizen of the Republic could no longer speak pieces without being
arrested for speaking peace! Ashes of the great! could it be, indeed,
true that, even where there were no police, a man's personal liberty
was no longer safe! The people of Accomac, my boy, were alarmed for
their own liberties, and at once held a public meeting, at which I
happened to be present.

As all the citizens who were worth $300 each sent notes to say that
they had imperative engagements to prepare for the approaching
Conscription, and could not come, the meeting was composed entirely of
the other citizens, many of whom engaged in single combat on their way
thither, for the purpose of making the distance seem shorter.
Punctually at seven o'clock, P.M., a gentleman of much muscle touched
off a small field-piece with such admirable precision as to break all
the windows for two blocks around, and then dexterously discharged a
two-pound sky-rocket into the third-story bedroom of a venerable maiden
lady living across the road. The demonstration was received with joyous
acclamations by the populace, nearly twelve of whom had already
arrived; and a victim of Federal oppression, with a very large stomach,
mounted the platform erected for the speakers, and said that he would
commence proceedings on this occasion, by reading a short portion of
Washington's Farewell Address from the volume of Bancroft which he held
in his hand. (Great applause.) The honorable gentleman then proceeded
to read something; but was interrupted by a reporter, who remarked that
the speaker