This laughing propensity of the sable crowd is a great cause of disorder.

They laugh as hens cackle--one begins and all follow.
"But underneath all this shocking burlesque upon legislative proceedings, we must not forget that there is something very real to this uncouth and untutored multitude.

It is not all sham, nor all burlesque.

They have a genuine interest and a genuine earnestness in the business of the assembly which we are bound to recognize and respect....
They have an earnest purpose, born of conviction that their position and condition are not fully assured, which lends a sort of dignity to their proceedings.

The barbarous, animated jargon in which they so often indulge is on occasion seen to be so transparently sincere and weighty in their own minds that sympathy supplants disgust.