From this day, in fact, it might be said that anarchy was
organized in the village.
There were two main elements in the mob. One, the most dangerous, and
the real element of strength in it, was composed of a score or two of
men whom the stoppage of the courts had come too late to help. Their
property all gone, they had been reduced to the condition of loafers,
without stake in the community. Having no farms of their own to work
on, and the demand for laborers being limited, they had nothing to do
all day but to lounge around the tavern, drinking when they could get
drinks, sneering at the silk stockings, and debating how further to
discomfit them. The other element of the mob, the most mischievous,
although not so seriously formidable, was composed of boys and
half-grown youths, who less out of malice against the court party, than
out of mere love of frolic, availed themselves to the utmost of the
opportunity to play off pranks on the richer class of citizens. Bands
of them ranged the streets from twilight till midnight, robbing
orchards, building bonfires out of fences, opening barns and letting
the cows into the gardens, stealing the horses for midnight races,
afterwards leaving them to find their way home as they could, tying
strings across the streets to trip wayfarers up, stoning windows, and
generally making life a burden for their victims by an ingenious
variety of petty outrages.
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