destroyed, together with a thousand bushels of wheat in sacks, a heavy
force of police came marching along the street. These were soon after
followed by detachments of the National Guards from Colonel Smith's and
Hele's regiments. The flashing of the moonbeams on the burnished barrels
and bayonets of their muskets, struck terror into the hearts of the
rioters. The cry of "The soldiers are coming!" flew from lip to lip,
causing a sudden cessation of the work of destruction, and each one
thought only of self-preservation. Many, however, were arrested, and sent
off to Bridewell under the charge of Officer Bowyer, with a squad of
police. The latter were assailed, however, on the way, by a portion of the
mob that pursued them, and a fierce fight followed. In the struggle,
Bowyer and his assistants had their clothes torn from their backs, and
some of the prisoners were rescued.

In the meantime, the military paraded the street, clearing it of the mob,
and preventing their return. In front of the store, and far beyond it, the
flour lay half-knee deep--a sad spectacle, in view of the daily increasing
scarcity of grain.

Just before the military and police reached the ground, some one in the
crowd shouted "Meeches." This was another flour store at Coenties Slip, on
the other side of the city, nearly opposite. A portion of the mob on the
outside, that could not get to the store, and aid in the work of
destruction, at once hurried away to this new field of operations. On the
way over, they passed Herrick & Co.'s flour store, and stopped to demolish
it. They were loaded down with brick-bats, which they hurled at the
windows, smashing them in. The doors followed, and the crowd, rushing
through, began to roll out the barrels of flour. But when some twenty or
thirty were tumbled into the street, and about half of them staved in,
they, for some cause or other, stopped. Some said that they ceased because