Nor were the persons even of the unpopular
class always spared. In the daytime it was tolerably safe for one of
them to go abroad, but after dark, let him beware of unripe apples and
overripe eggs. For the most part the silk stockings kept their houses
in the evening, as much for their own protection as for that of their
families, and the more prudent of them sat in the dark until bedtime,
owing to the fact that lighted windows were a favorite mark with the
boys.
The mob had dubbed itself "The Regulators," a title well enough
deserved, indeed, by the extent to which they undertook to reorganize
the property interests of the community. For the theory of the
reclamation of property carried out in the case of the goods of David
Joy, by no means stopped there. It was presently given an ex-post
facto application, and made to cover articles of property which had
changed hands at Sheriff's sales not only since but also previous to
the stoppage of the courts. Wherever, in fact, a horse or a cart, a
harness, a yoke of oxen or a piece of furniture had passed from the
ownership of a poor man to the possession of a rich man and one of the
court party, the original owner now reclaimed it, if so disposed, and
so effectual was the mob terrorism in the village that such a claim
was, generally, with better or worse grace yielded to.
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