XVI.

Who is Uncle Sam?-Syracuse-Camillus-Junction-Auburn-A New York Lawyer obtains a Case (a hard one).

"THE old sinner, Jim, has burnt up his den, and removed all traces. There's wagon tracks goin' towards the woods. P'raps he ain't fur off."

"What's best to be done, Bill?"

Wal, I dunno, Ike, We might sarch the woods fur the trail, Injun fashion; but ef we don't find him, the laugh'll be agin us."

"Ef we do, Bill, the prase won't amount to straws. Let's kind ar look, then go home. Ef we find any track, let's see where it'll come to, and then, when the reward is offered, we'll stand a pooty fair chance ov makin' a strike."

The above dishonest determination seemed to suit two worthies who carried the warrants of arrest against the bodies of John Halter, and his wife Sally Halter, the tavern-keeping friends of Melville and Griswold, Bob Shank, alias William Tibbles, and James Strigham, the two wounded men, who at this moment were groaning in the cave. After searching the woods a short time, the constables came upon the wagon track, where it had entered the wood. Carefully following it, they traced the route of the robbers, for such we may as well call them, to the cave. After

being fully satisfied that Halter would not move very soon, they left the wood without making an arrest.

"We've treed the coons, Ike, and they'll stay treed for awhile. Now, let's wait 'till a reward's of fered," said the constable called Bill.

Such a specimen of dishonesty on the part of consta bles in the United States we say, with pride, is rare. The instance above recorded has had, however, its foundation in fact. We believe the remark will be within bounds, that honesty, efficiency, and promptitude characterize the American police. When it is remembered that the people rule in America, that the institutions of the country admit no landed monopolies, that the agriculturist who owns ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred acres, and their name is legion, holds equal power with him who can count his millions, the necessity for a police diminishes. Every land-holder is in one sense a policeman. He is a law-abiding citizen. He knows that his individual sovereignty is contravened whenever a villain escapes punishment. The great world abroad do not comprehend America. They cannot yet see the basis upon which her stability rests. Uncle Sam is a myth—a sprite—a wraith. He has placed his sons and daughters in a mighty caldron, into which a steady stream from the fountain of knowledge continually is running. True, fiery ambition, the scorching heat of contending passion, the seething throes of jarring principle, whenever the quadrennial fires arouse the mass to a boiling temperature, rise upon the surface, simmering, snapping, spiteful; but when the crisis seems to be fearful, "Uncle Sam" calls up "Mose," who, mounting his "machine," orders the suction to be set in the reservoir of common sense, and seizing his trumpet,

shouts, "Play away, No. 1!" By the time the last departing steamer has borne the news of fearful commotion to luxurious halls, graced by prince, king, and emperor, "Mose" has put the fire out, and stands, with hat awry, half-drawn over his eyes, rea shirt, pants rolled up, hands in his pockets, telling 66 as how No. 4 never wet her hose."

"Where abouts, doctor, is the place you say them nabs was ?"

"I met them in the woods, about half a mile from the road. They were making a mark on a tree as if to help remember some route, or I should have been As they passed, I heard them say that they had 'treed the coons."

seen.

"That means me, doctor. The cave must be 'vacuated. Thy've followed the wagon track."

Halter left the doctor to examine his patients in the cave, and went out himself to look for footmarks. He soon traced out the trail of the two constables.

"Here 'tis; and now, ef they catches this chicken they's welcome to give him a fancy neck-tie," said the tavern-keeper in soliloquy.

"Good bye, doctor. You'll git a signal at your house where to find me. It's hard to move them coves; but right's right, and they's got ter stand it. Doctor, here's that tother hundred, for you've saved my whole family from capitulatin' to the inemy on dishonorable terms this day; and the money's your'n by right, on the ground ov extra work extra pay."

The doctor, first taking the offered money, answered

"I cannot accept this, Halter. You have already paid me more than my bill yet amounts to. Here; take it back."

"No, siree! Every dollar would rise up in judg ment agin me, and say, Why didn't you gin us to the doctor? that money's all extra! The tother hundred's ready whin the pashunts is konvaleesunt."

After the doctor's departure, Halter set about making arrangements for leaving the cave.

a work surrounded with difficulty; but at present we have other and more important threads to weave into the web of this history.

Auburn never should have received the title of "City." It is a misnomer. The word city carries with it an idea of great business resource, activity, and influence. Auburn possesses but one of these attributes. There are few cities in the United States, of equal size, which possess greater business influence; but it is the influence derived from capital. Auburn is rather the lovely garden, equally adorned by nature and art. As a country home for the man of wealth, it is not surpassed in advantages. This allusion to a city, which is never visited by the stranger without similar comment, the reader will doubtless excuse, even though it is not pertinent to our tale.

New York has three State institutions for the incarceration of criminals. One located at Clinton, one at Sing Sing, and one at Auburn. The Auburn State Prison is justly called a model. No expense has been spared by the State government either upon judgment or experiment, to bring it into a state of perfection. Not that all judgment has been wise, or all experiment successful; but that the

policy of the State government has been guided to meet the wishes of popular sentiment. The people of New York have so often expressed their will in favor of conducting the punishment of criminals upon an enlarged policy, that their public servants have not been deaf to their commands. This needs no better or more convincing proof than the record afforded by her session laws. But this history has only to do with the Auburn State Prison.

"Those vats yonder, aunt, are part of the great Syracuse salt works. It is said that all that is necessary to obtain salt water, for miles around, in Salina and Syracuse, is to bore a hole into the earth some hundred feet, or more or less, and the briny water comes out, clear and sparkling.'

"That is remarkable. But how far are we from the city of Auburn, James?"

"About twenty-five miles. Soon passed."

"An hour more of this railroad monotony will use me up for a week," replied Mrs. Tryon; "but what can't be cured must be endured." "

"My dearest aunt, you are a philosopher, ipso facto, this time."

"It's necessary to see facts sometimes; and the 'very deed itself' is now crowning me with hyperfatigue. That fact I see clearly."

"Camillus!" shouted the brakeman.

"A pretty name for a village,” added Mrs. Tryon; but, just now, if it were a paradise, I don't want to hear the fact. I should be for stopping the train, considering my mental and physical inquietude." "Half-way House!" shouted the brakeman.

"Why, how we fly! At this rate, we shall see