They at most only criticise the tactics. Though we wear
no crape, the thought of that man's position and probable fate is
spoiling many a man's day here at the North for other thinking.
If any one who has seen him here can pursue successfully any other
train of thought, I do not know what he is made of. If there is
any such who gets his usual allowance of sleep, I will warrant him
to fatten easily under any circumstances which do not touch his
body or purse. I put a piece of paper and a pencil under my pillow,
and when I could not sleep, I wrote in the dark.
On the whole, my respect for my fellow-men, except as one may outweigh
a million, is not being increased these days. I have noticed the
cold-blooded way in which newspaper writers and men generally speak
of this event, as if an ordinary malefactor, though one of unusual
"pluck,"--as the Governor of Virginia is reported to have said, using
the language of the cock-pit, "the gamest man he ever saw,"--had
been caught, and were about to be hung. He was not dreaming of his
foes when the governor thought he looked so brave. It turns what
sweetness I have to gall, to hear, or hear of, the remarks of some
of my neighbors. When we heard at first that he was dead, one of my
townsmen observed that "he died as the fool dieth"; which, pardon
me, for an instant suggested a likeness in him dying to my neighbor
living.
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