The Story of Manhattan by Charles Hemstreet
page 73 of 149 (48%)
page 73 of 149 (48%)
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Golden and dragged out his coach of state. In it they put a figure made
of sticks and rags to represent the owner. They marched the streets, shouting as they went, and finally surrounded the fort. The soldiers were drawn up on the ramparts with cannon and gun directed toward the Bowling Green. But no shots were fired. The rioters being denied admission to the fort, into which they were anxious to get because the stamps were stored there, tore down the wooden railing around the Bowling Green, and, kindling a huge fire, burned the coach and the figure in it. As the flames blazed high, the fury of the mob increased. They rushed away toward Vauxhall on the outskirts of the town (where Greenwich and Warren Streets now cross). Vauxhall at this time was occupied by a major of the British army named James. He had said that the stamps ought to be crammed down the throats of the people with the point of a sword. In revenge for this his house was broken into, his handsome furniture, his pictures and treasures of every sort dragged out, and kindled into a bonfire around which the mob danced and howled. The people were quite determined to take the law into their own hands and destroy every trace of the hated stamps. You shall know presently what prevented them. CHAPTER XXI THE BEGINNING of REVOLUTION |
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