A few hot-bloods not far off, overheard the conversation. One of them told his companions he knew the stranger by his peculiar speech to be a Yankee, whom the party at once talked of subjecting to the indignity of “a ride on a rail.” He caught enough of their words to learn the hostile meaning, and obeying the instinct of his courage, to which his strength looked unequal, he calmly walked up to the company and stood, waiting their pleasure. They kept silence, being discomfited by his composed bearing and shortly went their way. This boastful estimate of the greatly superior fighting capacity of Southern men, compared with Northern, was widely entertained and expressed in terms not much less exaggerated. It had its root in the idea that Northern people were not “chivalric,” and were so devoted to money-making that they would not go to war for the sake of any principles involved in the attempt to dissolve the Union. The two notions helped no little to embolden the secessionists in their purpose of disintegration. The experience of the young stranger with the effervescence of warlike feelings on the street, did not end with the above incident. Not many days afterwards, the town postmaster was seen emerging from his office with an unnatural paleness of face, that indicated intense mental excitement. The cause was soon explained by his mounting a goods’-box on the principal business street, for want of a better rostrum, and reading aloud to the crowd which immediately gathered. President Lincoln’s Proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand men. A copy of it had just arrived by mail. The reading was followed by enthusiastic and martial oratory that stimulated to greater heat the temper of hearers whom the Proclamation offended. At that moment the New Yorker appeared on the scene and desired to see the document. Having no opportunity, he passed along the street with a friend to a distant point where the postmaster was about to read it from a door-step to another audience, which they joined. Profound attention was given by all listeners, until the words “loyal citizens” were read, when a strong voice cried out: “If there is a loyal citizen present, let him now speak!” No one made reply. The call came from one of a company of young men who were exceedingly zealous, and had it moved the inoffensive Yankee to speak indiscreetly in the surroundings, it may easily be inferred that he would have been handled with severity. When the reading was concluded, he and his friend joined in a subdued laugh over escaped mischief and joyfully departed.[18]