"Yes, sir."
"Thatsallrightth'n. But what d'you elect that ---- ---- Abolitionist, Murphy, t'th' Leg'slature for?"
"I'm Murphy," replied the patriot, who had been standing in the group, but now sprang forward belligerently. "Who calls me an Abolitionist?"
"Beg y'r padon sr. Reck'n you ain't the man. But who is that Abolitionist you 'lected here? 's name's Brown, 'sn't it? Yes, that's it. ---- ---- Brown; y'ought t'hang him!"
Just then the whistle shrieked and the train moved on, amid shouts of laughter.
At six o'clock next morning, we reached Richmond. Here, also, I had hoped to stop, but the caldron was seething too hotly. Rebel flags were everywhere flying, the newspapers all exulted over the passage of the Secession ordinance, and some of them warned northerners and Union men to leave the country forthwith. The tone of conversation, too, was very bitter. The farther I went, the intenser the frenzy; and, beginning to wonder whether there was any safe haven south of Philadelphia or New York, I continued northward without a moment's unnecessary delay.
The railway accommodations grew better in exact ratio to our approach to Mason and Dixon's line, and northern physiognomies were numerous on the train. At Ashland, a few miles north of Richmond, the first palatable meal since leaving the Alabama River was set before us. All the intervening distance, to the epicurean eye, stretched out in a dreary perspective of bacon and corn bread.
The Old Dominion in a Frenzy.
Half the passengers were soldiers. Every village bristled with bayonets. At Fredericksburgh, one of the polished F. F. V.'s on the platform presented his face at our window, and asked what the unmentionable-to-ears-polite all these people were going north for? As the passengers maintained an "heroic reticence," he exploded a fresh oath, and went to the next car to pursue his investigations.
A citizen of Richmond, who occupied the seat with me, satisfied that I was sound on the Secession question, assured me that it had been very difficult to get the ordinance through the Convention; that trouble was anticipated from Union men in Western Virginia; that business in Richmond was utterly suspended, New York exchange commanding a premium of fifteen per cent.