 | Letters of Mrs. Adams, |  |
I have nothing new to entertain you with, unless
it is an account of a new set of mobility, which has
lately taken the lead in Boston. You must know
that there is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee,
articles which the female part of the state is very
loth to give up, especially whilst they consider the
scarcity occasioned by the merchants having secreted
a large quantity. There had been much rout
and noise in the town for several weeks. Some
stores had been opened by a number of people, and
the coffee and sugar carried into the market, and
dealt out by pounds. It was rumored that an eminent,
wealthy, stingy merchant[2]
(who is a bachelor)
had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused
to sell to the committee under six shillings per
pound. A number of females, some say a hundred,
some say more, assembled with a cart and trucks,
marched down to the warehouse, and demanded the
of them seized him by his neck, and tossed him into
the cart. Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered
the keys, when they tipped up the cart and discharged
him; then opened the warehouse, hoisted out the
coffee themselves, put it into the truck, and drove off.
It was reported, that he had personal chastisement
among them; but this, I believe, was not true. A
large concourse of men stood amazed, silent spectators
of the whole transaction.
Adieu. Your good mother is just come; she
desires to be remembered to you; so do my father
and sister, who have just left me, and so does she,
whose greatest happiness consists in being tenderly
beloved by her absent friend, and who subscribes
herself ever his
| Letters of Mrs. Adams, | |