is door-way, attended by his
wife, and bravely faced the infuriated crowd. He denied that he
had any agency in a recent attempt to secure the escape of a party
of slaves to the North, and then called the attention of his hearers
to the fact that at a public meeting of the citizens of Washington,
not very long before that night, resolutions had been passed
denouncing the French Government for having fettered the press,
yet they were proposing to do in his case what their fellow-citizens
had condemned when done by others. His remarks produced an effect,
but the leaders of the mob raised the cry, "Burn the _Era_ office!"
and a movement was made toward that building, when Dan Radcliffe,
a well-known Washington lawyer with Southern sympathies, sprang
upon Dr. Bailey's doorstep and made a eloquent appeal in behalf of
a free press, concluding with a proposition that the assemblage go
to the house of the Mayor of Washington and give him three cheers.
This was done, Radcliffe's good nature prevailing, and the mob
dispersed peacefully.

Dr. Bailey was, however, no novice in dealing with mobs. Ten years
before he came to Washington he resided in Cincinnati, where, in
conjunction with James G. Birney, he published _The Philanthropist_,
a red-hot anti-slavery sheet. During his first year in this
enterprize his office was twice attacked by a mob, and in one of
their raids the office was gutted and the press thrown into the
river. These lively scenes induced a change of base and settled
the good Doctor in the national metropolis.

The ablest newspaper correspondent at Washington during the Fillmore
Administration was Mr. Erastus S. Brooks, one of the editors and
proprietors of the New York _Express_. He was then in the prime
of life, rather under the average height, with a large, well-balanced
head, bright black eyes, and a swarthy complexion. What he did
not know about what was going on in political circles, before and
behind the scenes, was not worth knowing. His industry was
proverbial, and he was one of the first metropolitan correspondents
to discard the didactic and pompous style which had been copied
from the British essayists, and to write with a vigorous, graphic,
and forcible pen. Washington correspondents in those days were
neither eaves-droppers nor interviewers, but gentlemen, who had a
recognized position in society, which they never abused.

[Facsimile]
R. J. Walker
ROBERT J. WALKER was born at Northumb