The =Sons of Liberty= adopted the name given by Colonel Barré to the enemies of passive obedience in America. They met in the counting-room of Chase and Speakman's distillery, near Liberty Tree.[3] Mackintosh, the man who led the mob in the Stamp Act riots, is doubtless the same person who assisted in throwing the tea overboard. We hear no more of him after this. The "Sons" were an eminently democratic organization, as few except mechanics were members. Among them were men like Avery, Crafts, and Edes the printer. All attained more or less prominence. Edes continued to print the _Boston Gazette_ long after the Revolution. During Bernard's administration he was offered the whole of the government printing, if he would stop his opposition to the measures of the crown. He refused the bribe, and his paper was the only one printed in America without a stamp, in direct violation of an Act of Parliament. The "Sons" pursued their measures with such vigor as to create much alarm among the loyalists, on whom the Stamp Act riots had made a lasting impression. Samuel Adams is thought to have influenced their proceedings more than any other of the leaders. It was by no means a league of ascetics, who had resolved to mortify the flesh, as punch and tobacco were liberally used to stimulate the deliberations. [Illustration: THE LIBERTY TREE] No important political association outlived the beginning of hostilities. All the leaders were engaged in the military or civil service on one or the other side. Of the circle that met at the _Merchants'_ three were members of the Philadelphia Congress of 1774, one was president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, the career of two was closed by death, and that of Otis by insanity. IV. SIGNBOARD HUMOR. Another tavern sign, though of later date, was that of the =Good Woman=, at the North End. This _Good Woman_ was painted without a head. [Illustration: THE GOOD WOMAN] Still another board had painted on it a bird, a tree, a ship, and a foaming can, with the legend,-- "This is the bird that never flew, This is the tree which never grew, This is the ship which never sails, This is the can which never fails." The =Dog and Pot=, =Turk's Head=, =Tun and Bacchus=, were also old and favorite emblems. Some of the houses which swung these signs were very quaint specimens of our early architecture. So, also, the signs themselves were not unfrequently the work of good artists. Smibert or Copley may have painted some of them. West once offered five hundred dollars for a red lion he had painted for a tavern sign. [Illustration: DOG AND POT.] Not a few boards displayed a good deal of ingenuity and mother-wit, which was not without its effect, especially upon thirsty Jack, who could hardly be expected to resist such an appeal as this one of the _Ship in Distress_: "With sorrows I am compass'd round; Pray lend a hand, my ship's aground."