The town is taken by its rats.

To me personally one of the most terrifying real dangers in the world is the angry mob. Hoards of angry human beings massing together and enacting their own brand of 'justice.' Lynch mobs breaking into jails to hang the person inside. The insane mob mentality. For several days in the hot summer of July 1863 the mob did just that. The New York draft riots the largest civil insurrection in the history of the United States. The Mobs were incensed by the Conscription act which required the enrollment of all male citizens as well as immigrants who had recently filed for citizenship. They were also incensed by a policy whereby anyone who had 300 dollars could hire a substitute to get out of the draft, which was more then most of them made in a year. On July 13 they attacked the draft office and spread out across the city. At first their targets were the rich those who could buy their way out of the war, but also it was towards the black population whom they blamed for the war. This is for me when it starts to get ugly. The mob begins attacking any black people they can find and even sets a black orphanage on fire. The complete abandonment of rational thought and to the mob mentality. The Mob went from house to house searching for blacks. The Irish feared the blacks because they competed for the same low paying jobs. For three days the mob had taken over the city overwhelming the police force. Herman Melville watching the scene one night wrote: 'The town is taken by its rats-ship rats- and rats of the wharves. All civil charms and priestly spells which late held hears in awe--Fear bound, subjected to a better sway than sway of self; these like a dream dissolve, and man rebounds back eons in nature.' Finally Federal troops had to be brought in to restore order. It makes me ponder weather we are so truly removed from the animals as we so like to believe.