What to see in America . ey the angle between the streams the town is built tier ontier along the abrupt and lofty slopes. Most of the struc-tures are of brick or stone, and they have immense chimneys,and quaint piazzas and porches. To this vicinity JohnBrown came in 1859 with several companions and rented afarm five miles distant on the Maryland side of the a Sunday night in October he and his band, twenty-threein all, five of whom were negroes, took possession of thebridges across the rivers and captured the United Statesarmory and arsenal located in the town. But the ne
What to see in America . ey the angle between the streams the town is built tier ontier along the abrupt and lofty slopes. Most of the struc-tures are of brick or stone, and they have immense chimneys,and quaint piazzas and porches. To this vicinity JohnBrown came in 1859 with several companions and rented afarm five miles distant on the Maryland side of the a Sunday night in October he and his band, twenty-threein all, five of whom were negroes, took possession of thebridges across the rivers and captured the United Statesarmory and arsenal located in the town. But the next morn-ing the townspeople got out their guns, and other armedmen flocked in from the country around. There was firingback and forth all day, and Browns situation became sodesperate that the invaders took refuge in a little fire enginehouse near the railway. That evening eighty marines com-manded by Col. Robert E. Lee reached Harpers Ferry,and at dawn on the morrow captured the stronghold. One 160 What to See in America. marine was killed, five of thetownspeople lost their lives,and ten of the raiders werekilled. Brown and such ofhis fellows as were capturedwere imprisoned and tried atCharlestown, ten miles to thesouthwest, and there he andsix others were hung. Thejail and adjacent courthousestill stand, and it is a curiousfact that when snow falls itquickly melts in a path whichleads diagonally across thestreet from one to the will be snow over allthe rest of the street, but noton the path John Brown trodin going to and from the courthouse. You might think thatthis was miraculous testimony that John Brown was a martyrsaint, but another explanation is that the courthouse isheated from the jail, and the hot pipes run under the streetpaving. The armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry weredestroyed during theCivil War and havenot been Browns Fort,as the brick enginehouse was called afterthe foray, has beenremoved to a smallpark on the Shenan-doah, about four
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919
