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That winter the Irons family and Solomon Binkus went often to themeetings of the Sons of Liberty. One purpose of this organization wasto induce people to manufacture their own necessities and thus avoidbuying the products of Great Britain. Factories were busy making loomsand spinning-wheels; skilled men and women taught the arts of spinning,weaving and tailoring. The slogan "Home Made or Nothing," traveled farand wide.
Late in February, Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus went east as delegatesto a large meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Springfield. Theytraveled on snowshoes and by stage, finding the bitterness of thepeople growing more intense as they proceeded. They found many womenusing thorns instead of pins and knitting one pair of stockings withthe ravelings of another. They were also flossing out their silk gownsand spinning the floss into gloves with cotton. All this was to avoidbuying goods sent over from Great Britain.
Jack tells in a letter to his mother of overtaking a young man with apack on his back and an ax in his hand on his way to Harvard College.He was planning to work in a mill to pay his board and tuition.
"We hear in every house we enter the stories and maxims of PoorRichard," the boy wrote in his letter. "A number of them were quotedin the meeting. Doctor Franklin is everywhere these days."
The meeting over, Jack and Solomon went on by stage to Boston for alook at the big city.
They arrived there on the fifth of March a little after dark. The moonwas shining. A snow flurry had whitened the streets. The air wasstill and cold. They had their suppers at The Ship and Anchor. Whilethey were eating they heard that a company of British soldiers who wereencamped near the Presbyterian Meeting-House had beaten their drums onSunday so that no worshiper could hear the preaching.
"And the worst of it is we are compelled to furnish them food andquarters while they insult and annoy us," said a minister who sat atthe table.
After supper Jack and Solomon went out for a walk. They heard violenttalk among people gathered at the street corners. They soon overtook anoisy crowd of boys and young men carrying clubs. In front of Murray'sBarracks where the Twenty-Ninth Regiment was quartered, there was achattering crowd of men and boys. Some of them were hooting andcursing at two sentinels. The streets were lighted by oil lamps and bycandles in the windows of the houses.
In Cornhill they came upon a larger and more violent assemblage of thesame kind. They made their way through it and saw beyond, a captain, acorporal and six private soldiers standing, face to face, with thecrowd. Men were jeering at them; boys hurling abusive epithets. Theboys, as they are apt to do, reflected, with some exaggeration, thepassions of their elders. It was a crowd of rough fellows--mostlywharfmen and sailors. Solomon sensed the danger in the situation. Heand Jack moved out of the jeering mob. Then suddenly a thing happenedwhich may have saved one or both of their lives. The Captain drew hissword and flashed a dark light upon Solomon and called, out:
"Hello, Binkus! What the hell do you want?"
"Who be ye?" Solomon asked.
"Preston."
"Preston! Cat's blood an' gunpowder! What's the matter?"
Preston, an old comrade of Solomon, said to him:
"Go around to headquarters and tell them we are cut off by a mob and ina bad mess. I'm a little scared. I don't want to get hurt or do anyhurting."
Jack and Solomon passed through the guard and hurried on. Then therewere hisses and cries of "Tories! Rotten Tories!" As the two went onthey heard missiles falling behind them and among the soldiers.
"They's goin' to be bad trouble thar," said Solomon.
"Them lads ain't to blame. They're only doin' as they're commanded.It's the dam' King that orto be hetchelled."
They were hurrying on, as he spoke, and the words were scarcely out ofhis mouth when they heard the command to fire and a rifle volley--thenloud cries of pain and shrill curses and running feet. They turned andstarted back. People were rushing out of their houses, some with gunsin their hands. In a moment the street was full.
"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted. "Men of Boston, wemust arm ourselves and fight."
"The soldiers are slaying people," a man shouted.]
It was a scene of wild confusion. They could get no farther onCornhill. The crowd began to pour into side-streets. Rumors wereflying about that many had been killed and wounded. An hour or solater Jack and Solomon were seized by a group of ruffians.
"Here are the damn Tories!" one of them shouted.
"Friends o' murderers!" was the cry of another.
"Le's hang 'em!"
Solomon immediately knocked the man down who had called them Tories andseized another and tossed him so far in the crowd as to give it pause.
"I don't mind bein' hung," he shouted, "not if it's done proper, but noman kin call me a Tory lessen my hands are tied, without gittin' hurt.An' if my hands was tied I'd do some hollerin', now you hear to me."
A man back in the crowd let out a laugh as loud as the braying of anass. Others followed his example. The danger was passed. Solomonshouted:
"I used to know Preston when I were a scout in Amherst's army fightin'Injuns an' Frenchmen, which they's more'n twenty notches on the stocko' my rifle an' fourteen on my pelt, an' my name is Solomon Binkus fromAlbany, New York, an' if you'll excuse us, we'll put fer hum as soon aswe kin git erway convenient."
They started for The Ship and Anchor with a number of men and boysfollowing and trying to talk with them.
"I'll tell ye, Jack, they's trouble ahead," said Solomon as they madetheir way through the crowded streets.
Many were saying that there could be no more peace with England.
In the morning they learned that three men had been killed and fiveothers wounded by the soldiers. Squads of men and boys with loadedmuskets were marching into town from the country.
Jack and Solomon attended the town meeting that day in the old SouthMeeting-House. It was a quiet and orderly crowd that listened to thespeeches of Josiah Quincy, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, demandingcalmly but firmly that the soldiers be forthwith removed from the city.The famous John Hancock cut a great figure in Boston those days. It isnot surprising that Jack was impressed by his grandeur for he hadentered the meeting-house in a scarlet velvet cap and a blue damaskgown lined with velvet and strode to the platform with a dignity evenabove his garments. As he faced about the boy did not fail to noticeand admire the white satin waistcoat and white silk stockings and redmorocco slippers. Mr. Quincy made a statement which stuck like a burin Jack Irons' memory of that day and perhaps all the faster because hedid not quite understand it. The speaker said: "The dragon's teethhave been sown."
The chairman asked if there was any citizen present who had been on thescene at or about the time of the shooting. Solomon Binkus arose andheld up his hand and was asked to go to the minister's room and conferwith the committee.
Mr. John Adams called at the inn that evening and announced that he wasto defend Captain Preston and would require the help of Jack andSolomon as witnesses. For that reason they were detained some days inBoston and released finally on the promise to return when theirservices were required.
They left Boston by stage and one evening in early April, travelingafoot, they saw the familiar boneheads around the pasture lands aboveAlbany where the farmers had crowned their fence stakes with theskeleton heads of deer, moose, sheep and cattle in which birds had thehabit of building their nests. It had been thawing for days, but thenight had fallen clear and cold. They had stopped at the house of asettler some miles northeast of Albany to get a sled load of Solomon'spelts which had been stretched and hung there. Weary of the brittlesnow, they took to the river a mile or so above the little city,Solomon hauling his sled. Jack had put on the new skates which he hadbought in Bennington where they had gone for a visit with old friends.They were out on the clear ice, far from either shore, when they heardan alarming peal of "river thunder"--a name which Binkus applied to acurious phenomenon
often accompanied by great danger to those on therotted roof of the Hudson. The hidden water had been swelling.
Suddenly it had made a rip in the great ice vault a mile long with anoise like the explosion of a barrel of powder. The rip ran north andsouth about mid-stream. They were on the west sheet and felt it waverand subside till it had found a bearing on the river surface.
"We must git off o' here quick," said Binkus. "She's goin' to breakup."
"Let me have the sled and as soon as I get going, you hop on," saidJack.
The boy began skating straight toward the shore, drawing the sled andits load, Solomon kicking out behind with his spiked boots until theywere well under way. They heard the east sheet breaking up before theyhad made half the distance to safe footing. Then their own began tocrack into sections as big "as a ten-acre lot," Mr. Binkus said, "an'the noise was like a battle, but Jack kept a-goin' an' me settin' lightan' my mind a-pushin' like a scairt deer." Water was flooding over theice which had broken near shore, but the skater jumped the crack beforeit was wider than a man's hand and took the sled with him. Theyreached the river's edge before the ice began heaving and there thesloped snow had been wet and frozen to rocks and bushes, so they wereable to make their way through it.
"Now, we're even," said Solomon when they had hauled the sled up theriver bank while he looked back at the ice now breaking and beginningto pile up, "I done you a favor an' you've done me one. It's my turnnext."
This was the third in the remarkable series of adventures which came tothese men.
They had a hearty welcome at the little house near The King's Arms,where they sat until midnight telling of their adventures. In themidst of it, Jack said to his father:
"I heard a speaker say in Boston that the dragon's teeth had been sown.What does that mean?"
"It means that war is coming," said John Irons. "We might as well getready for it."
These words, coming from his father, gave him a shock of surprise. Hebegan to think of the effect of war on his own fortunes.