THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 151 



nents, if he vainly supposed that a formal possession 

 signified anything. The succeeding Friday found the 

 directors again fortified within, and himself a much 

 enjoined wanderer without. The vigilant guards were 

 now np longer to be beguiled. Within the building, 

 constant discussions and consultations were taking 

 place ; without, relays of detectives incessantly watched 

 the premises. No rumor was too wild for public cre- 

 dence. It was confidently stated that the directors 

 were about to fly the State and the country that the 

 treasury had already been conveyed to Canada. At 

 last, late on Sunday night, Mr. Fisk with certain of 

 his associates left the building, and made for the Jersey 

 Ferry ; but on the way he was stopped by a vigilant 

 lawyer, and many papers were served upon him. His 

 plans were then changed. He returned to the office of 

 the company, and presently the detectives saw a car- 

 riage leave the Erie portals, and heard a loud voice 

 order it to be driven to the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In- 

 stead of going there, hpwever, it drove to the ferry, and 

 presently an engine, with an empty directors' car at- 

 tached, dashed out of the Erie station in Jersey City, 

 and disappeared in the darkness. The detectives met 

 and consulted ; the carriage and the empty car were 

 put together, and the inference, announced in every 

 New York paper the succeeding day, was that Messrs. 

 Fisk and Gould had absconded with millions of money 



to Canada. 



i 



"That such a ridiculous story should have been 

 published, much less believed, simply shows how utterly 

 demoralized the public mind had become, and how pre- 

 pared for any act of high-handed fraud or outrage. 

 The libel did not long remain uncontradicted. The 



