therefrom a pet fowling-piece of his, valued at seventyfive dollars, notwithstanding the entreaties and pleas of Mrs. C. to the contrary.

These misrepresentations of his motives and conduct, did not strike the party aimed at very pleasantly.

He was complaining of them once in the presence of a pious, but pleasantly sarcastic lady friend, who remarked that he deserved this treatment for flying directly in the face of a plain injunction of scripture. In vain did he search his memory for any text condemning kindness and charity; and, on calling triumphantly for one, he was silenced by the reply, "Did not our Saviour Himself say, 'cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot, and turn again and rend you?'

There were other fabrications of Joe's which are too absurd to be recorded. But to those of us who resided in Laurens, in those dark days, they loomed up in very threatening proportions, when we knew with what facility, any charge, however absurd and ridiculous could be substantiated by any number of sworn witnesses. In fact, the charge on which the writer was finally arrested and imprisoned for five long weeks, did not have even the semblance of foundation which might be claimed for these.

CHAPTER SIXTH.

LAURENS-AFTER THE RIOT.

The old adage, that after a storm comes a calm, was not verified very promptly in Laurens. For days and weeks, after the events recorded in a previous chapter, the public mind was kept at fever heat of excitement. Rumors of parties organized to burn the town at night, and other diabolical schemes of the scattered leaders, were well calculated to cause continued apprehension and anxiety. Patrols were detailed to watch every night, and in every part of the corporate limits, and every head of a family was expected to guard his own premises. Then came a rumor that Gov. Scott had decided to send a regiment of his colored militia to garrison the county. There was some truth in this, but the prompt and spirited veto of the whites in Columbia, soon made him abandon the scheme. Then there were other rumors of the immediate proclamation of martial law by the President, and of wholesale arrests by United States Marshals, which produced wide-spread consternation and alarm. No one on retiring to bed at night, had any assurance that he would be found there the next morning.

In fact, this state of uncertainty and uneasiness would have become intolerable, if long continued. But gradually these rumors subsided by their own

limitations. It was found that these leaders were more effectually demoralized than was at first supposed; and that they were more engaged in securing their own safety, than in plotting mischief against others.

Scott found that there was a spirit aroused over the whole State, from the unblushing abuse of the ballot-box in the recent election, with which it would be dangerous to tamper, and was disposed to remain quiet enough. As to the United States authorities, they had so often been deceived by the "cry of wolf" from these same parties, that they contented themselves with sending a small garrison, with officers competent to inquire into the matters for themselves.

There were still two fruitful sources of trouble and annoyance; and as long as these continued, there could be no hope of lasting peace and quiet. These were the "public arms," and the "State constabulary force." It is true that most of these arms were in the, custody of the sheriff; but very many more were in the hands of the colored militia, issued to them before the riot; and our friends in the country felt no little anxiety on this account.

As for the constabulary force, they began to appear, one after another, and to give every indication of resuming their former practices.

In view of these facts, the citizens of Laurens appointed a committee of three, to wait on the Governer, in Columbia, make a report of these public nuisances, and to urge upon him to remove or abate them if possible. The citizens selected the three they thought above all suspicion of complicity with

rowdyism, viz: Dr. J. W. Simpson, the patriarch of the town, S. R. Todd, Sr., the oldest and most substantial merchant of the place, and J. A. Leland, President of the Female College. Capt. Estes, of the United States garrison, kindly consented to accompany this committee to Columbia, mainly to testify to the readiness with which the whites had given up, and were still willing to deliver to the proper authority, all the public arms in their possession. He was also willing to assure the Governor that, while a United States Marshal alone, or accompanied by one or more United States soldiers, could ride through the length and breadth of the county with perfect impunity, whether by day or night, his constabulary were forced to prowl about like wolves, with about the same chance of safety if detected in indulging their instincts.

Through the kind offices of Captain Estes, an interview with the committee was accorded by Scott the very night of their arrival, and in his own parlor.

Dr. Simpson, the chairman, read to him a carefully prepared paper, tracing the recent disturbances to the unfortunate arming of the militia, and the mischievous intermeddling and reckless course of the State constabulary; and urging the withdrawal and removal of both these causes of irritation, in behalf of public peace and order.

The committee found Scott apparently ready to accede to any proposition that would insure quiet. He had just been re-elected by an overwhelming majority, and, as far as he was concerned, there was

no further need of all this political machinery. But it was necessary to try to conciliate the tax-payers of the State, whose sense of justice and fair dealing had been so grossly outraged by the means resorted to in the recent canvass. Whatever may have been the motives actuating him, he certainly did agree to both propositions, as promptly as his impediment of utterance would permit. He then and there authorized Capt. Estes to call in the State arms, and ship them to Columbia. He also promised the committee that his constabulary force would speedily be recalled— which promise he actually fulfilled a short time afterwards.

But Scott's conciliation could reach as low down as it ever aspired upwards; for, at the very time he was giving the committee a private audience, he had Joe Crews shut up in an adjoining chamber, with the door ajar, that he might hear every syllable uttered! The truth of this is founded on Joe's own statement, confirmed for all his statements required confirmationby the fact that Capt. Estes left him closeted with Scott when he returned to conduct the committee to the Governor's mansion. What use Joe made of this characteristic strategy will appear in the sequel. He certainly could testify to the time-honored adage, that eaves-droppers never hear any good of themselves.

These fruitful sources of annoyance and irritation being thus happily removed, the village and county of Laurens became as quiet and orderly as any other community in the State. The leaders were anxiously