m the clutches of his
admirers, he could only cry, "Don't, boys; let me down; come now,
don't." But the "boys" persisted, and they tell to-day proudly of
their exploit and of the cordial hand-shake Lincoln, all embarrassed
as he was, gave each when at last he was free.

On arrival at the towns where the joint debates were held, Douglas was
always met by a brass band and a salute of thirty-two guns (the Union
was composed of thirty-two States in 1858), and was escorted to the
hotel in the finest equipage to be had. Lincoln's supporters took
delight in showing their contempt of Douglas's elegance by affecting a
Republican simplicity, often carrying their candidate through the
streets on a high and unadorned hay-rack drawn by farm horses. The
scenes in the towns on the occasion of the debates were perhaps never
equalled at any other of the hustings of this country. No distance
seemed too great for the people to go; no vehicle too slow or
fatiguing. At Charleston there was a great delegation of men, women
and children present which had come in a long procession from Indiana
by farm wagons, afoot, on horseback, and in carriages. The crowds at
three or four of the debates were for that day immense. There were
estimated to be from eight thousand to fourteen thousand people at
Quincy, some six thousand at Alton, from ten thousand to fifteen
thousand at Charleston, some twenty thousand at Ottawa. Many of those
at Ottawa came the night before. "It was a matter of but a short
time," says Mr. George Beatty of Ottawa, "until the few hotels, the
livery stables, and private houses were crowded, and there were no
accommodations left. Then the campaigners spread out about the town,
and camped in whatever spot was most convenient. They went along the
bluff and on the bottom-lands, and that night, the camp-fires, spread
up and down the valley for a mile, made it look as if an army was
gathered about us."

When the crowd was massed at the place of the debate, the scene was
one of the greatest hubbub and confusion. On the corners of the
squares, and scattered around the outskirts of the crowd, were fakirs
of every description, selling painkillers and ague cures, watermelons
and lemonade; jugglers and beggars plied their trades, and the brass
bands of all the four corners within twenty-five miles tooted and
pounded at "Hail Columbia, Happy Land," or "Columbia, the Gem of the
Ocean."

Conspicuous in the processions at all the points was w