Shoulder-straps : a novel of New York and the Army, 1862

Front matter

DONATIO B Y

MARTHA-JANE RUSSELL RISSELL

JOHN R. RUSSELL

Preface

Several months have necessarily elapsed since the commencement of this narration. Within that time many and rapid changes have occurred, both in national situation and in private character. As a consequence, there may be several words, in earlier portions of the story, that would not have been written a few months later. The writer has preferred not to make any changes in original expression, but to set down, instead, in references, the dates at which certain portions of the work were written. In one instance important assistance has been derived from a writer of ability and much military experience; and that assistance is thankfully acknowledged in a foot-note to one of the appropriate chapters. Some readers may be disappointed not to find a work more extensively military, under such a title and at this time; but the aim of the writer, while giving glances at one or two of our most important battles, has been chiefly to present a faithful picture of certain relations in life and society which have grown out, as side-issues, from the great struggle. At another time and under different circumstances, the writer might feel disposed to apologize

1G PREFACE.

for the great liberty of episode and digression, taken with the story; but in the days of Victor Hugo and Charles Keade, and at a time when the text of the preacher in his pulpit, and the title of a bill in a legislative body, are alike made the threads upon which to string the whole knowledge of the speaker upon every subject, — such an apology can scarcely be necessary. It should be said, in deference to a few retentive memories, that two chapters of this story, now embraced in the body of the work, were originally written for and published in the Continental Monthly, last fall, the publication of the whole work through that medium, at first designed, being prevented by a change of management and a contract mutually broken.

New Yobk City, July, 1863.

Chapter I. Paob

Two Friends — Walter Lane Harding and Tom Leslie — Merchant and Journalist — A Torn Dress and a Stalwart Champion — Tom Leslie's Story of Dexter Ralston — Three Meetings — An Incident on tho Potomac — The Inauguration of Lincoln — A Warning of the Virginia Secession — Governmental Blindness — Friend or Foe to tho Union? 23

Chapter II

Richard Crawford and Josephine Harris — The Invalid and tho Wild Madonna — An Odd Female Character and a Temptation — Discouragement and Consolation — Miss Joe Harris on tho Character of Colonel Egbert Crawford — A Suggestion of Hatred and Murder — A New Agony for the Invalid — A Lady with an Attachment to Cerise Ribbon 41

Chapter III

A Scene at Judge Owen's — Mother and Daughter — Pretty Emily with One Lover Too Many — Emily's Determination, and Judge Owen's Ultimatum — A Pompous Judge playing Grand Signeur in his own Family — Aunt Martha to the Rescue — Her Story of Marriago without Love, Wedded Misery and Outrage — How Old is Colonel John Boadley Bancker, and what is the Character of Frank Wallace? 60

Chapter IV

Harding and Leslie make Discoveries on Prince Street — Secesh Flags and Emblems of the Golden Circle — What do they mean? — Tom Leslie takes a Climb and a Tumble — Tho Red Woman — A Carriage Chase Up-town — A Mysterious House — Amateur Detectives under a Door-step, and what they saw and heard 63

Chapter V

Who was the Red Woman ? — Tom Leslie's Strange Story of Parisian Life and Fortune-telling — The 20th of December, 1860 — An Hour in tho Rue la Reynie Ogniard— The Vision of tho White Mist — The Se-

18 CONTEXTS.

PAnE cession of South Carolina seen across the Atlantic — Was tlio •Sorceress in America? 73

Chapter VI

Colonel Egbert Crawford and Miss Bell Crawford — Miss Harris entering upon the Spy-System — Some Dissertations thereon, as pimetta ■■! in the Army and Elsewhere — What McDowell knew bef'uro Bull Run — Colonel Crawford's Affectionate Care of his Sick Cousin — Josephine Harris behind a Glass Door — What she overheard about Cousin Mary and the Rich Uncle at West Falls — Colonel Crawford trying his Hand at Doctoring — A Suspicious Bandage, and what the Watcher thought of it 83

Chapter VII

Introduction of the Contraband — What Ho Was and What ne Is — Thrco Months Earlier— Colonel Egbert Crawford in Thomas Street — Aunt Synchy, the Obi Woman — How a Man who is only half evil can be tempted to murder — The Black Paste of the Oli Poison 99

Chapter VIII

Colonel John Boadley Bancker and Frank Wallace at Judge Owen's — A Pouting Lover and a Satisfied Rival — The Philosophy of Male and Female Jealousy — Frank Wallace doing the Insulting — A Bit of a Row — A Smash-up in the Streets, and a True Test of Relative Courage 115

Chapter IX

The First Week of July — News of the Reverses before Richmond — Painful Feeling of the Whole Country — How a Nation, weops Tears of Blood— The Estimation of McClellan— The Curse of Absenteeism— Public Abhorrence of the Shoulder-strapped Heroes on Broadway — A Scene at the World Corner, and a Hero in Disguise 129

Chapter X

Leslie and Harding following up the Prince-Street Mystery — A Call upon Superintendent Kennedy — How Tom Leslie wished to play Detective— A Bit of a Rebuff — A Massachusetts Regiment going to the War — Miss Joe Harris and Bell Crawford in a Street Difficulty — A Rescue and a Recognition — A Trip into Taylor's Saloon 142

Chapter XI

The True Characters of Men and of Houses — Fifth Avenue and the Swamp — Gilded Vice, and Vice without Ornament — The Progress of Temptation — The Legends of the Lurline and the Frozen Hand — Dangers of Fashionable Restaurants — Scenes at Taylor's Saloon

CONTENTS. 19

PAGE

— Tom Leslie, Joe Harris and Bell Crawford at Lunch — The Fortune-teller selected by Miss Harris for a Visit — Wanted, a Knight for Two Distressed Damsels — Tom Leslie enlists, and goes after his Armor ICO

Chapter XII

A Glance at Fortune-telling and other Delusions — Our Domestic and Personal Superstitions — Omens and their Origin — The Witch of Endor, Hamlet and Macbeth — One Strange Illustration of Prophecy in Dreams — The Fortuno-tellers of New York, Boston and Washington 172

Chapter XIII

Ten Minutes at a Costumer's — Among tho Robes of Queens and the Rags of Beggars — How Tom Leslie suddenly grow to Sixty, and » changed Clothes accordingly — Josephino Harris and Bell Crawford still at Lunch, with a Dissertation upon One Pair of Eyos — An Unwarrantable Intrusion, and a Decided Sensation at Taylor's 187

Chapter XIV

Necromancy in a Thunder-storm — How Tom Leslie and his Female Companions called upon Madame Eliso Boutell, from Paris, in Prince Street — A New Way of Gambling for Precedence — Bell Crawford takes her Turn — A very improper Joining of Hands in the Outer Apartment — About Chances, Accidents and Little Things — The Change in Bell Crawford's Eyes — Eyes that have looked within — Two Pictures in the Old Dusscldorf Gallery — Joe Harris Undergoing the Ordeal — A Thunder-clap and a Shriek of Terror — What Tom Leslio saw in the Apartment of the Red Woman — A Mask removed, and one more Temptation 198

Chapter XV

Camp Lyon, and Colonel Egbert Crawford's Two Hundredth Regiment — Recruiting Discipline in the Summer of 1862 — What Smith and Brown saw — Lagcr-bcer, Cards and the Dice-box — An Adjutant who obeys Orders — A Dress Parado a la mode — How Seven Hundred Men may be squeezed into Three 218

Chapter XVI

A Few Words on the Two Modern Modes of writing Romances — How to tell what is not known and can never be known — The Bound of a Loyal Pen — More of the Up-town Mystery — How the Reliable Detectives postod a Watch, and how they kept it — Cold Water dampening Enthusiasm — An Escape, and the Post mortem held on a Vacant House — Trails left by the Secession Serpent 232

20 CONTENTS.

PA(1B

Chapter XVII

Pictures at the Seat of War — Looking for John Crawford the Zouave — Hopeful and Discouraged Letters Home — Events which had preceded Malvern Hill — An Army winning Victorios in Retreat — The Morning after White-Oak Swamp — How the Sun shines on Fields of Carnage — Appearance of the Retreating Army — The Camp of Fitz-John Porter's Division — The Soldiers of Home, and the Soldiers of the Field — The First Rebel Attack at the Cross Roads — Why tho Potomac Army was not demoralized — The Repulse, and the Pause before the Heavier Storm 239

Chapter XVIII

More of the First Battle of Malvern — A Word about Skulkers — An Attempt to flank the Union Forces — A Storm of Lead and Iron rivalling the War of the Elements — The Rebels Repulsed — Tho Attack on the Main Position, and the Second Battle of Malvern — The most Terrible Artillery Duel of tho Century — Patriotism against Gunpowdered Whiskey — Shells from the Gun-boats, and their Effect — The Dead upon Carter's Field — The Last Repulse of the Rebels, and tho General Advance of the Union Forces — Strange Incidents of the Close of the Battle — Odd Bravery in Meagher's Brigade — The Apparition in White, and its Effect — Close of the Great Battle 256

Chapter XIX

John Crawford the Zouave, and Bob Webster — Incidents of the Chargo of Duryea's Zouaves — Bush-fighting and its Result — A Wound not bargained for — The Burning House and its Two Watchers — A Strange Death-scene — Marion Hobart and her Dying Grandfather — Death under the Old Flag — An Oath of Protection — A Furlough — John Crawford brings his Newly-acquired Family to New York 277

Chapter XX

Judge Owon's Condemnation of the Rioters at his House — How Frank Wallace was exiled, and what came of it — The Burl}* Judge making a Household Arrest at Wallack's — Emily Ovvon and Joe Harris — A Recognition which may cause Further Trouble 297

Chapter XXI

Another Scene at Richard Crawford's — Josephine Harris playing tho Detective, with Musical Accompaniments — A Sudden Demand for Dark Paste, with Difficulty in supplying it — A Young Girl who wished to be believed a Coward — Ever of Thee, with some Feelings thereunto attached — Josephine Harris pays a Visit to Doctor la Turque — Her Discoveries with reference to the Obi Poison 312

CONTENTS. 21

PAGE

Chapter XXII

A Little Arrangement between Tom Leslie and Joe Harris — Going to West Falls and Niagara — A Detention and a Night Scene on the Hudson-River Road — Why Joe Harris hid her Saucy Face — Oneida Scenery — Aunt Betsey, Little Susy, and a Peep at the Halstead Homestead, with Pigs, Chickens and Cherries 332

Chapter XXIII

Josephine Harris in quest of Information — The Big House on the Hill — Extracting the Secrets of the Crawford Family — How a Big Fib may sometimes be told for a Good Purpose — Aunt Betsey made an Accomplice — Mary Crawford, the Country Girl, and a Terrible Revelation — A Bold Letter to a Bold Man 350

Chapter XXIV

The Piazza of the Big House on the Hill — John Crawford the Human Wreck, and Egbert Crawford on the Eve of Marriage — Chanticleer on the Garden Fence, with Remembrances of Peter and Judas Iscariot — John Crawford instructs his Expectant Son-in-law — Arrival of the Domestic Post, with a Letter of Import — A Hit or a Miss? — Strida la Vampa 372

Chapter XXV

Affairs in the Crawford Family in New York — The Two Brothers together — Marion Hobart the Enigma — How Richard Crawford thought that he was not able to ride to the Central Park, and found that he could ride to Niagara 391

Chapter XXVI

Tom Leslie at Niagara — A Dash at Scenery there — What he saw with his Natural Eyes, and what with his Inner Consciousness — The Wreck and the Rainbow — Another Rencontre with Dexter Ralston — The Eclipse on the Falls — Leslie under the impression that he can be discounted, and that he knows little or nothing on any subject 404

Chapter XXVII

Socioty and Shoulder-Straps at the Falls— The Delights and Duties of a Journalist — Leslie and Harding Exploring Canada — How one Fine Morning War was declared between England and the United States, and Canada annexed to New York — A Meeting at the Cataract— Another Rencontre with the Strange Virginian — An Abduction and a Pursuit 420

CHAPTER XXVILf.

The Sequel at West Falls — How Colonel Egbert Crawford was supposed to have been telegraphed for from Albany — Mary Crawford once

22 CONTENTS.

PAGE

more at the Halstead's — The Final Instructions and Promises of the Chief Conspirator — Joe Harris returns to the Great City, and her Disappointment therein — Another Conspiracy hatched, threatening to blow Judge Owen's Domestic Tranquillity to Atoms 433

Chapter XXIX

Some Speculations on Moonlight and Insanity — Captain Robert Slivers, of the Sickles Brigade, makes his Appearance at Judge Owen's — He draws Graphic Pictures of the War, for the Edification of Colonel Bancker — A Controversy, with further inquiries as to the Age of the Colonel — The Market brisk for Hirsute Excrescences on the Cranium, and no Supply — Judge Owen laughs ponderously 446

Chapter XXX

Gathering the Ravelled Threads of a Long Story — What bofel Several Persons heretofore named — Marriages in Demand, and only a few furnished — A Raid into Canada — What befell Colonel Egbert Crawford and the Two Hundredth Regiment — A Cavalry Charge at Antietam, and a Farewell 460

SHOULDER-STRAPS.

Chapter I

Two Friends — A Rencontre before Niblo's — Three Meetings with a Man of Mark — Mount Vernon and the Inauguration — Friend or Foe to the Union ?

Just before the close of the performances at Niblo's Garden, where the Jarrett combination was then playing, one evening in the latter part of June, 1862, two young men came out from the doorway of the theatre and took their course up Broadway toward the Houston Street corner. Any observer who might have caught a clear view of the faces of the two as they passed under one of the large lamps at the door, would have noted each as being worth a second glance, but would at the same time have observed that two persons more dissimilar in appearance and in indication of character, could scarcely have been selected out of all the varied thousands resident in the great city.

The one walking on the inside as they passed on, with the right hand of his companion laid on his left arm in that confidential manner so common with intimate friends who wish to walk together in the evening without being jostled apart by hurried chance passengers, was somewhat tall in figure, darkhaired, dark side-whiskered, and sober-faced, though decidedly fine-looking; and in spite of the heat of the weather he preserved the appearance of winter dress clothing by a full suit of dark gray summer stuff that might well have been mistaken for broadcloth. Not even in hat or boots did he make any apparent concession to the season, for his glossy round hat would have been quite as much in place in January as in June, and his well-fitting and glossy patent-leather boots would have been thought oppressively warm by a hotter-blooded and more plethoric man. Those who should have seen the baptismal register recording his birth some five-and-thirty years before, would have known his name to be Walter Lane Harding ; and those who met him in business or society would have become quite as well aware that he was a prosperous merchant, doing business in one of the leading mercantile streets running out of Broadway^ not far from the City Hospital. So far as the somewhat precise mercantile appearance of Harding was concerned, a true disciple of Lavater would have judged correctly of him, for there were few men in the city of New York who displayed more steadiness, or greater money-making capacity in all the details of business ; and yet even the close observer would have been likely to derive a false impression from this very preciseness, as to the social qualities of the man.

There were quite as few better or heartier laughers than Harding, when duly aroused to mirth ; and those persons were very rare, making the characters of mankind their professional study, who saw slight indications of disposition more quickly, or better enjoyed whatever gave food for quiet merriment. Once away from his counting-house, too, Walter Harding seemed to assume a second of his two natures that had before been lying dormant, and to enter into the permitted gaieties of city life with a zest that many a professed good fellow might have envied. He visited the theatre, as we have seen ; went to the opera when it pleased him, not for fashion's sake, but because he liked music and was a connoisseur of singing and acting ; liked a stroll in the streets with a congenial companion (male or female) ; could smoke a good cigar with evident enjoyment; and sometimes, though rarely, sipped a glass of fine old wine, and indulged in the freer pleasures of the table ; though he was scrupulously careful of his company, and no man had ever seen his foot cross the threshold of a house of improper character. It is sufficient, in addition, at the present moment, to say that he was still a bachelor, occupying rooms in an up-town street, and enjoying life in that pleasant and rational mode which seemed to promise long continuance.

Harding's companion, who has already been indicated as his opposite, was markedly so in personal appearance, at least. He was two or three inches shorter than Harding, and much stouter, displaying a well-rounded leg through the folds of his loose pants of light-gray Melton cloth, and being quite well aware of that advantage of person. He had a smoothly rounded face, with a complexion that had been fair until hard work, late hours, and some exposure to the elements, had browned and roughened it ; brown bair, with an evident tendency to curl, if he had not worn' it so short on account of the heat of the season, that a curl was rendered impossible ; a heavy dark brown moustache, worn without other beard ; a sunny hazel eye that seemed made for laughter, and a full, red, voluptuous lip that might have belonged to a sensualist ; while the eye could really do other things than laughing, and the lip was quite as often compressed or curled in the bitterness of disdain or the earnestness of close thought, as employed to express any warmer or more sympathetic feeling.

Tom Leslie, who might have been called by the more respectful and dignified name of " Thomas," but that no one had ever expended the additional amount of breath necessary to extend the name into two syllables, was a cadet of a leading family in a neighboring state, who at home had been reckoned the black sheep of the flock, because he would not settle quietly down like the rest to money-getting and the enjoyment of legislative offices ; a man who at thirty had passed through much experience, seen a little dissipation, traveled over most States of the Union in the search for new scenery, or the fulfilment of his avocation as a newspaper correspondent and man of letters ; been twice in Europe, alternately flying about like a madman, and sitting down to study life and manners in Paris, Vienna, and Home, and gathering up all kinds of useful and useless information ; taken a short turn at war in the Crimea, in 1853, as a private in the ranks of the French army ; seen service for a few months in the Brazilian navy, from which he had brought a severe wound as a flattering testimonial. He was at that time located in New

2(3 SHOU I D E B-a T KAl'S.

York as an editorial contributor and occasional "special currespondent" of a leading newspaper, lie had seen much of life — tasted much of its pains and pleasure! — perhaps thought more than either ; and though with a little too much of a propensity for late hours and those long stories which would grow out of current events seen in the light of past experience, he was held to be a very pleasant companion by other men than Walter Harding.

Perhaps even the long stories were more a misfortune than a fault. The Ancient Mariner found it one of the saddest penalties of his crime, that he was obliged to button-hole all his friends and be written down an incorrigible bore ; and who doubts that the Wandering Jew, with the weight of twenty centuries of experience and observation upon his head, finds a deeper pang than the tropic heat or the Arctic snow could give, in the want of an occasional quiet and patient listener to the story of his wanderings ?

On the present occasion it may be noted, at once to complete the picture and give additional insight of a character which did very independent and outre things, that Tom Leslie had gone to Kiblo's with his carefully-dressed and precise friend Harding, and sat conspicuously in an orchestra chair, in a gray business sack, no vest and no pretence at a collar. In other men, Harding would have noticed the dress with disapprobation : in Leslie it seemed to be legitimately a part of the man to dress as he liked ; and neither Harding, or any one else who knew him, paid any more attention to his outward appearance than they would have bestowed upon a harmless lunatic under the same circumstances. Wherever Leslie boarded, (and his places of boarding were very numerous, taking the whole year together,) it was always noted that he filled up the hat-rack with a collection of hats of all odd and rapid styles, with a few of the more sedate and respectable ; and on this evening's visit to Niblo's, when there was not a shadow of occasion for a hat with any brim whatever, he had completed his personal appearance by a fine gray beaver California soft hat, of not less than eighteen or twenty inches in the whole circumference, which gave him somewhat the appearance of being under a collapsed urnbrolla, and yet became him as well as any thing else could havo done, and left him unmistakably a handsome fellow.

An oddly mixed compound, certainly — even odder than Harding ; and yet what a dull, dead world this would prove to be, if there were no odd and outre characters to startle the grave people from their propriety, and throw an occasional pebble splashing into the pool of quiet and irreproachable mediocrity 1 ™

The two companions, whose description has occupied a much longer time than it needed to walk from the door of ^Niblo's to the Houston Street corner, were just passing the corner of that street on their way up to Bleecker, when they were momentarily stopped by a very ordinary incident. A girl, evidently of the demi-monde from her bold eyes, lavish display of charms and general demeanor, was turning the corner from Broadway into Houston Street immediately in front of Harding and Leslie; and as she swept around, her long dress trailing on the pavement, a careless fellow, lounging along, cigar in mouth, and eyes everywhere else than at his feet, stepped full upon her skirt, and before she could check the impetus of her sudden turn, literally tore the garment from her, the dark folds of the dress falling on the pavement and leaving the under-clothing painfully exposed. The girl turned suddenly, one of those harsh oaths upon her lips which even more than any action betray the fallen woman, and hissed out a malediction on his brutal carelessness. The man, probably one who literally knew no better, instead of remembering the provocation, apologizing for the injury he Jiad done and offering to make any reparation in his power, replied by an oath still more shocking than that of the lost girl, hurled at her the most opprobrious epithet which man bestows upon woman in the English language, and one by far too obscene to be repeated in these pages,— and was passing on, leaving the poor girl to gather her torn drapery as she best co'old, when his course was suddenly arrested.

A tall figure u?d come up from below during the altercation, unnoticed by^Uher ; and the instant after the man had disgraced his huma iity by that abuse of a fallen woman, he found himself seized by the collar with a hand that managed

28 SH a U L D B B-8 T K A F S.

him as if he had been a child, and himself full off the side-walk into the street, and among the wheels of the passing omnibuses, with the quick sharp words.ringing in his ear:

"The devil take you ! If you can't learn to walk along the pavement without tearing oil" women's dresses and afterwards abusing them, go out into the street with the brutes, where you belong"

The two friemW noticed, casually, that a policeman stood on the upper corner, and at this act of violence on the part of the new-comer, they naturally expected to see him interfere to preserve the peace, if not make an arrest ; but he was either too lazy to cross the street, (such things have been.) or too well satisfied that the coarse ruffian had met the treatment he deserved, to make any step forward. The fellow, thus suddenly sent to the company of worn-out omnibushorses and swearing stage-drivers on a slippery pavement, turned with an oath, when he recovered himself, made a movement as if to return to the sidewalk and seek satisfaction for the violence, but evidently did not like the looks of his antagonist, when he caught a fair irlance of his proportions, and solaced himself with a few more muttered oaths as lie dodged across to the other side of Broadway and disappeared in the crowd.

The second and prudential resolve of this person seemed fully justified by even a hasty survey of his assailant, who happened to be thrown under the light of the lamp at the corner, and in full view of our companions. lie was perhaps six feet and an inch in height, cast in a most powerful model, and evidently possessing herculean Strength — with a dark complexion, high cheek bones, showing almost as if he had a cross of the old Indian blood in his descent, fiery dark < set under brows of the pent-house or Webster mould, heavy massed black curly hair worn a little long, and a very heavy black moustache entirely concealing the mouth, while the beard shorn away from the lower portions of the face left the square, strong chin in full prominence. He was dressed in dark frock coat with white vest and pants, and wore a dark wide-brimmed slouched hat almost the counterpart of Leslie's, except in color, which harmonized well with his personal appearance in other regards, and while it left him looking the gentleman, made him the gentleman of some other locality than the city of New York.

The new-comer, the moment he had sent the other whirling into the street, approached the girl, who still remained standing on the corner, her ungathered dress sweeping the pavement, and said :

" Madame, your dress is badly torn. Allow me to offer you a few pins." He drew a large pin-cushion from his large vest pocket, (every thing seemed to be of a large pattern about this man,) and was handing it to the gh'l, who stretched out her left hand to receive it, when he suddenly seemed to recognize her.

" Why, Kate !" He spoke in tones of the most unfeigned surprise — "Kate, what the deuce ! I thought you were in — "

" Yes, Deck !" answered the girl, with a coarse familiarity, " but you see I am here ! And you ? I thought you were in—"

"Hush-h-h !" said the man, in a quick, sharp, decided tone, prolonged almost to be a hiss. " That will do ! Now use some of these pins — quick, fasten up your skirt, and then go with me!"

He spoke as if he was in the habit of being obeyed, or as if he had some peculiar claim that he should be obeyed in this instance. And the girl seemed fully to understand him, for only a moment served to supply so many pins to the torn gathers of the dress as enabled her to walk and hid her exposed under-clothing; and the instant that object was accomplished she thrust her arm into his, he making no attempt to repel the familiarity, but walking with hasty strides and almost dragging her after him, down into the partial gloom of Houston Street.

When they had disappeared, and not till then, the two friends removed from the spot where they had been standing entirely silent, and passed on up Broadway.

" A strange person — a very strange person, that !" said Harding, the moment after, to Leslie, who appeared to be thinking intently, and who had not uttered a word since the affair commenced.

Y — a — es !" said Leslie, in that slow, abstracted tone which indicates that the man who uses it is doing so mechanically and without knowing1 what he says.

" Poor devil ! how the new man whirled him out into the street I" Harding went on, kin attention on the incident, as Leslie's apparently was not. " Just the treatment he deserved for being brutal to a woman, no matter how lost or degraded she may be ! Tearing off her dress was all right enough, however, for all the woman deserve nothing better tli an to have their dresses torn into ribbons for thrusting them under our feet and sweeping the streets with them, as they do !"