The Old Bell of Independence; Or, Philadelphia in 1776Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
History
The Old Bell of Independence; Or, Philadelphia in 1776
Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
"Fagan was never buried; his body hung upon its gibbet till the winds
picked the flesh from off his bones, and they fell asunder by their own
weight. A friend of mine has seen his horrid countenance, as it
hung festering and blackening in the wind, and remembers, by way of
amusement, between schools, pelting the body with stones. The old trunk
has disappeared, but the spot is still haunted in the belief of the
people of the neighborhood, and he is a bold man who dare risk a
nocturnal encounter with the bloody Fagan, instead of avoiding the
direct road, at the expense of half a mile's additional walk. No
persuasion or force will induce a horse _raised in the neighborhood_ to
pass the fated spot at _night_, although he will express no uneasiness
by daylight. The inference is, that the animals, as we know animals
_do_, and Balaam's certainly _did_, see more than their masters. A
skeptical gentleman, near, thinks this only the force of habit, and that
the innocent creatures have been so taught by the cowards who drive
them, and would saddle the horses with their own folly.
"I am at the close of my story, and not a lover or a tender scene in the
whole tedious relation--alas! what a defect, but it is too late to mind
it now; it only remains to take leave of our friends. Nathan and
Hannah have mingled with dust, and their spirits with that society
whose only business is love, and where sighing and contention can never
intrude. Nathan was permitted, on his expressing his sorrow that he
had 'disobliged Friends,' to rejoin his society, and he died an elder.
Rachel departed at a great age, as she had lived, a spotless maiden. The
blooming, the warm-hearted, mischievous Amy lives, a still comely old
lady, the mother of ten sons, and the grandparent of three times as many
more. She adheres strictly to all the rules of her society, and bears
her testimony in the capacity of a public Friend. Still, she is
evidently not a little proud of her father's and brothers' share in the
perils and honors of the revolutionary contest, though she affects to
condemn their contumacy and unfriendly conformity to the world's ways,
and their violation of 'Friends' testimony concerning war.' Old Annie
died four years since, at an almost incredible age, though she was not
able to name the exact number of the days of her pilgrimage. From the
deep furrows on her cheeks, and the strong lines of her naturally
striking countenance, which, as she advanced in years, assumed more and
more the character of her Indian parentage, and the leather-like
appearance of her skin, she might have passed for an antediluvian.
While other less important matters lost their impression on her memory,
the Hessian inroads upon her sausages and buckwheat cakes were neither
forgotten nor _entirely_ forgiven to the last. She sent for a friend
when on her death-bed, to make arrangement of her little affairs. He
found her strength of body exhausted, but her powers of mind unimpaired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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