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| CHAPTER XXIV. ASKING FOR SUPPORT. MEMBERS OF THE REGIMEXT SUBJECTED TO LOSS OE EMPLOYMENT.—CAMP AT ATLANTIC CITY IN 1888. The lack of interest in the militia among the leading business men of the city was a wet blanket upon all enthusiasm. That such a condition should or could have existed after the Fifth Regiment had saved the city from a mob and had preserved property from destruction in which so many of the business men of the city were interested, seems incredible. And yet the condition was such that a committee of officers felt impelled to go before the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association and protest and beg for support. The delegation was composed of Colonel Gaither, Captain Markoe and Captain Supplee. Colonel Gaither told the association that they asked for the moral and not the pecuniary support of the business men, and that such a moral support would greatly promote the efficiency of the citizen-soldiers. Captain Supplee told what the regiment had done for the public good, and Captain Markoe told how the work of the regiment had been impeded by the employers of the men. "Of his company of 36 men," he said : "Sixteen had been threatened by their employers with dismissal if they obeyed the order of the Governor to go to Philadelphia to the Constitutional Celebration. A few days before a merchant had ordered one of his clerks to leave the regiment or leave his employment." Captain Supplee added that "some of the men had been docked by their employers for the time they were engaged in quelling the riots of 1877." These representatives made a profound impression upon the association, and a resolution tendering the moral support of the association to the militia, and expressing a willingness to have their |