In this connection, while speaking of those whose duties were uniform and running through the whole period of the riots, might be mentioned Seth C. Hawley, the chief clerk. Like Acton, he has a nervous, wiry temperament. This often makes a man rash and headlong, and hence not reliable; but when combined, as in him, with perfect self-possession and self-control, imparts enormous power. It matters not how nervous and excitable a man is, if danger and responsibility instead of confusing and unsettling him, only winds him up to a higher tension, till he becomes like a tightly-drawn steel spring. Excitement then not only steadies him, but it quickens his perceptions, clears his judgment, gives rapidity to his decisions, and terrible force to his blow. Mr. Hawley's duties were of a various and exhausting kind, so that during all the riots, he allowed himself only one hours' rest out of every twenty-four. Besides his ordinary supervisory duties over the clerks, etc., he had to see to the execution of the almost incessant orders of the commissioners, provide and issue arms, see to the refugees and prisoners, and act as commissary to over four thousand men on duty in and around head-quarters. Two men more perfectly fitted to work together in such a crisis as this, than he and Acton, could not well be found. CHAPTER XVI. SECOND DAY. Appearance of the City.--Assembling of the Mob.--Fight between Rioters and the Police and Soldiers.--Storming of Houses.--Rioters hurled from the Roofs.--Soldiers fire on the People.--Awful Death of Colonel O'Brien.--Fight in Pitt Street.--Deadly Conflict for a Wire Factory.--Horrible Impaling of a Mart on an Iron Picket.--Mystery attached to Him.--Second Attack on Mayor Opdyke's House.--Second Fight for the Wire Factory.--Telegraphic Dispatches.--Citizens Volunteering.--Raid on the Negroes.--They are hunted to Death.--Savage Spectacle.--Negroes seek Head-quarters of Police.--Appearance and State of the City.--Colonel Nugent's House sacked.--Fight with the Mob in Third Avenue.--Battle at Gibbon's House.--Policeman Shot.--Night Attack on Brooks and Brothers' Clothing Store.--Value of the Telegraph System.--Captain Petty.--Seymour's Speech to the Mob.--Cars and Stages seized.--Barricades.--Other Fights.--Acton and his Labors.