Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/619

Rh Well do I remember the many dichoso (happy) hours I passed in and around that school-house; well do I remember how in the streets we used to play soldiers (with Henry Dietrich our captain), Indians, clowns, horses playing in large rings, some playing hide-and-seek and listening to the many witch stories—how old women would pick up and carry off naughty little children, etc.

 "There's something within my heart I cannot forget, Where children's sweet memories stay; And no music to me has a charm that thrills Like the voices of children at their play."

Also went around to see the old stone house in Water street, near Chesnut street, where we used to live; but I was surprised to see that it was torn down, and a brick house put in its stead. Well do I remember the great horse races they used to have here; the numerous crowds and excitements; the long string of Conestoga wagons, loaded with freight going east and west; the number of droves of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., going east. There was also a public execution, which took place on a large common near the race course. The doomed man's name was, I think, Schaffer. Being young and small in stature, I crawled in through or between the men's legs, and in this way I succeeded in working myself right in front of the line, where I had a full view of the manœuvring of the soldiers and the executioners, and I can yet see the doomed man Schaffer coming in on a wagon, seated on his own coffin; getting up and off the wagon; walking up with a firm step to the platform of the scaffold; seeing the executioner putting the rope around his neck and placing the cap over his head and face; seeing him drop, and heard the shrieks from the multitude of spectators. After hanging for nearly half-an-hour, he was taken down and buried. This was the first and last public execution I have ever seen in the United States.

Parents soon afterwards moved into the country, into a small stone house situated near the banks of the Conestoga river or creek, near Earlville or Zimmerman Store, so called.