he other; a few policemen went
ahead and a few behind; and we started from the back door
of the City Hall. The mob soon found what we were after and
thronged around us. It has been estimated that a crowd of
two thousand people at least surrounded Butman and his convoy.
I suppose he had no friend or defender among the number. Most
of them wanted to frighten him; some of them to injure him,
though not to kill him. There were a few angry negroes, I
suppose, excited and maddened by their not unnatural or unjustifiable
resentment against the fellow who had been the ready and notorious
tool of the slave-catchers, who would have killed him if
they could. He was kicked several times by persons who succeeded
in the swaying and surging of the crowd, in getting through
his guard, and once knocked onto his knees by a heavy blow
in the back of the neck which came from a powerful negro,
who had a stone in his hand which increased the force of the
blow. I believe he was hit also by some missiles. He reached
the depot almost lifeless with terror. The train was standing
there, and started just after we arrived. It was impossible
to get him into it. It was then endeavored to put him into
a buggy which was standing outside of the depot, but the owner,
a young business man of Worcester, seized the bridle of his
horse and stoutly refused to allow the horse to start. Butman
was then thrust into a hack, into which one or two other persons
also got, and the hack was driven rapidly through the crowd
with no damage but the breaking of the windows. Mr. Higginson
thought Butman was left at Westboro'; but my recollection,
which is very distinct, and with which I think he now agrees,
is that Lovell Baker, the City Marshal, followed with his
own horse and buggy, and took Butman from the hack after he
got a short distance out of Worcester. Butman implored him
not to leave him at the way-station, fearing that the crowd
would come down in an accommodation train, which went also
about that time, and waylay him there. So Baker drove him
the whole distance to Boston, forty miles. When Butman got
to the city, he was afraid that the news of the Worcester
riot might have reached Boston, and have excited the people
there; and, by his earnest solicitation, Baker took Butman
by unfrequented streets across the city to a place where he
thought he could be concealed until the excitement abated.
Baker, who died a short time ago in Worcester, aged o