shoes were of the brogan kind, now out of fashion. His hair was long and loose, with no evidence of ever having seen a comb.

"All in all, he was an odd looking fish. He had never before seen any of the brother members but Hastings. The speaker, learning that he was in the city, sent for him to be sworn in. I never saw a man that seemed to be worse scared than Roberts. Van Delashmutt would whisper to me loud enough to be heard by other members near, 'He'll run, he'll run!' but Roberts did not run. He took a seat at the single desk and was the subject of much amusement during the session.

THE FIRST BILL INTRODUCED BY HASTINGS.

The first bill was introduced by Hastings for the benefit of Robert G. Roberts, legalizing his acts as justice of the peace. He had been appointed justice. of the peace by the governor and had acted as such without being sworn in.

HASTINGS BEWILDERS A STUTTERING MEMBER.

"Sam Parker was from West Virginia and had at one time held the dignified office of constable. He was a fellow of quick wit and feared no one, was rough and uncouth in manner but naturally kind and clever. The first time that Sam was called to the chair, and the committee arose, Sam went to his seat but made no report to the house. The speaker looked dignified and the members were in a broad grin but Sam did not understand it. Colonel Patterson went to him and told him he must report the action of the committee to the house. Sam jumped up and in a noble voice said: 'Mr. Speaker, the house in committee on the whole have considered the bill, have amended it and have told me to ask you to concur.' The speaker without a smile put the question: 'Will the house authorize the speaker to concur in the amendment made?' and the house told him to concur. Sam was again in the chair during the fight for the capital location. The fight between Burlington as the temporary and Mt. Pleasant as the permanent location, and a central location by commissioners, was bitter in the extreme, lasting two days. Sam was for the Burlington and Mt. Pleasant combination and the vote stood thirteen for Mt. Pleasant and twelve for commissioners. Hastings was one of the most active members of the minority. and the whole of the two days had been spent mainly in voting down amendments, striking out Mt. Pleasant and inserting the name of some other town unheard of. Name after name had been proposed by Hastings and voted down. Sam's patience was exhausted, when Hastings proposed the name of Mississippiwonoc. Sam rose and said: 'The gentleman from Muscatine proposed to strike. out the name of Mt. Pleasant and insert the name of Mis-sis-sis,' and down sat Sam. Hastings got up and pronounced the name, when Sam made another attempt but got no further than 'Mis-sis-sis' and again sat down. Hastings again got up and repeated the name slowly and in a very sonorous voice, when Sam jumped up and with his shut fists and in a furious voice said: 'That may be the name Mr. Hastings, but if it is it is dd badly spelled.' Up to this speech the members had been fighting mad but all shouted with laughter at Sam's decision. Sam had restored good feeling and Laurel Summers, of Scott,

changed his vote from the majority to the minority and the commissioners were appointed who located the capital at Iowa City. Swan was chairman of the commission and had charge of the laying off of the town. He settled there, built and kept Swan's Hotel, and if all that was said and done in that hotel could be written, it would be a readable book. Tom Johnson always stopped at the Swan and said many witty things. It was in that hotel that Breckenridge met the defeat that sent him back to Kentucky. He wanted to be the 8th of January orator but that post of honor was given to Mills, who was killed in Mexico, and Breckenridge left the Yankee country. In that hotel a Lee county senator raised a row because they numbered his cowhide boots 13 (the number of his room). He said his boots were only tens and that if he was to be so insulted he would leave the house.

NO SPOILS FOR MUSCATINE.

"There were but two counties west of the Mississippi, while a part of the Territory of Wisconsin, (then spelled Oisconsin), Des Moines and Dubuque dividing at Pine river between Muscatine and Davenport, and at the session of the Wisconsin legislature in 1837-8, held at Burlington, the members of the old county lived in that part that remained after the new counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Slaughter (now Washington), Louisa and Muscatine had been taken off, and they gave all the offices in the legislature to citizens of the old county. When the members from the new counties met in the Iowa legislature they determined to retaliate on the old county. There were duplicate candidates from Des Moines for all the officers of the legislature but the members from the new counties apportioned out the officers, giving Des Moines county the fireman they would not have. The Legislature met in the Zion Methodist church, then just built and not finished. It was the finest church in the territory and had been built under many trials. I. C. Sleeth had charge of the church and would gladly have taken the place of fireman. It paid three dollars a day and Sleeth could have hired a man to do the work for one dollar and besides he was most anxious to guard the building from firè. If there was any insurance on buildings in Burlington at that time, I never heard of it. There was no insurance on the church. "The Des Moines delegation had candidates for all the offices down to fireman but were beaten by the combination for firemen. There was no nomination. The Des Moines delegation would not name a man and no other member would. Sleeth and others in Burlington wanted the place but Grimes and the other members refused to name them. Finally Hastings nominated an old Frenchman by the name of Dupont, who had been a sort of hanger-on among the Indians, and was a perfect specimen of an ill spent life but, as Hastings reported, he had a very handsome wife. The first ballot Dupont got one vote and Blank twentyfive. It was about the seventh ballot that Dupont got a majority and an election and not until all were satisfied that the Des Moines delegation would not name a man. It took Hastings and the consumption of a good deal of whisky and several days to get Dupont sober enough to be able to perform his duties as fireman but he sobered up and made a good one. Sleeth carefully looked after him and the building."

CHAPTER IX.

CIVIL WAR.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN CALLS FOR SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND MEN TO PUT DOWN REBELLION-MUSCATINE COUNTY INTENSELY PATRIOTIC-SENDS MORE MEN TO THE FRONT THAN ANY COUNTY IN THE STATE-THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT— SHELBY NORMAN POST GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC-COMPANY C, 54TH IOWA NATIONAL GUARDS.

John Brown, who declared and honestly believed himself chosen of the Lord to strike the shackles from the southern slave, was hanged on the gallows at Charlestown, near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, on the 2d day of December, 1859, as a penalty for his misguided attempt to cause an uprising of the blacks in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, where he and his small band of followers had forcibly taken possession of the United States arsenal. This event caused a furor of excitement in the south, and events that made for internecine strife and the bloodiest civil war on record were hastened at a furious speed toward Fort Sumter, where the shot was fired that echoed its baleful significance throughout the hills and vales of Christendom. The walls of Fort Sumter were battered by the rebel guns at Charleston, South Carolina, by the would-be assassins of the Union on the morning of April 12, 1861, and in twenty-four hours thereafter news of the world momentous action had reached every accessible corner of the United States. In the south the portentous message was generally received with boisterous demonstrations of joy and the belief on the part of the masses that the day would soon come for their deliverance from the "northern yoke" and that their "peculiar institution" was to be perpetuated under the constitution and laws of a new confederacy of states. In the north a different feeling possessed the people. The firing on Fort Sumter was looked upon with anger and sadness, and the determination was at once formed to uphold the integrity of the Union and the perpetuity of its institutions. It was then that Abraham Lincoln began his great work of preserving the Union.

THE CALL FOR TROOPS.

On the 16th of April, four days following the assault on Fort Sumter, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, received the following telegram from Simon Cameron, secretary of war:

"Call made on you by tonight's mail for one regiment of militia for immediate service."

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