Part 7 (1/2)
”The condition of woe their fathers or their husbands They take them as the Lord provides and are thankful”
”If they should not go to heaven after all; think what lives atory, no - the other thing? Never I believe in future rewards and punishments”
”How about the wives of drunkards? I heard a woman say once to a friend of her husband, tell it as a cruel matter of fact, without bitterness, without coed He has not gone to bed sober in thirty years' She has had her purgatory, if not 'the other thing,' here in this world We all knohat a drunken man is To think, for no crime, a person
116 may be condemned to live with one thirty years” ”You wander from the question I asked Are Southern men worse because of the slave system and the facile black women? Not a bit They see too much of them The barroom people don't drink, the confectionery people loathe candy They are sick of the black sight of them”
”You think a nicein the world? I know it Put him by any other man and see!”
Have seen Yankee letters taken at Manassas The spelling is often atrocious, and we thought they had all gone through a course of blue-covered Noah Webster spelling-books Our soldiers do spell astonishi+ngly There is Horace Greeley: they say he can't read his own handwriting But, he is candid enough and disregards all ti He says in his paper that in our army the North has a hard nut to crack, and that the rank and file of our arence to theirs
My wildest iination will not picture Mr Mason1 as a diplomat He will say chaw for chew, and he will call himself Jeems, and he ear a dress coat to breakfast Over here, whatever a Mason does is right in his own eyes He is above law Somebody asked him how he pronounced his wife's maiden name: she was a Miss Chew frorandson of George Mason, and had been elected United States Senator froitive Slave Law His land in 1861 was shared by John Slidell On November 8, 1861, while on board the British steamer Trent, in the Bahamas, they were captured by an American named Wilkes, and imprisoned in Boston until January 2, 1862 A faland over this affair John Slidell was a native of New York, who had settled in Louisiana and becaress from that State in 1843 In 1853 he was elected to the United States Senate
117 They say the English will like Mr Mason; he is so htforward, so truthful and bold ”A fine old English gentleman,” so said Russell to me, ”but for tobacco” ”I like Mr Mason and Mr Hunter better than anybody else” ”And yet they are wonderfully unlike” ”Now you just listen to- no? Well, this sending Mr Mason to London is theyet Worse in some points of view than Yancey, and that was a catastrophe”
August 29th - No hty Russell, of the Tie: 500 yards apart were the co when sohtened the ”Yanks,” and they lish, they fled ahtened to follow the foe
In spite of all this, there are glimpses of the truth sometimes, and the story leads to our credit with all the sneers and jeers When he speaks of the Yankees' cowardice, falsehood, dishonesty, and braggadocio, the best words are in his mouth He repeats the thrice-told tale, so often refuted and denied, that ere harsh to wounded prisoners Dr Gibson told eons: Yankee officers write very differently from Russell I know that in that hospital with the Sisters of Charity they were better off than our men were at the other hospitals: that I saith ht and day It is a hideous tale - what they tell of their sufferings
Women who come before the public are in a bad box now False hair is taken off and searched for papers Bustles are ”suspect” All e hoops noorn; so they are ruthlessly torn off Not legs but arms are looked
118 for under hoops, and, sad to say, found Then women are used as detectives and searchers, to see that nothis way are hulory, honor, praise, and power, if they are patriots To wohters of Eve, punishment comes still in some shape, do what they will
Mary Ha froe and handsome South Carolinian talked rapidly ”What is it?” asked I after he had gone ”Oh, what a year can bring forth - one year! Last summer you remember how he swore he was in love with me? He told you, he told me, he told everybody, and if I did refuse to marry him I believed him Now he says he has seen, fallen in love with, courted, and hter's beauty And they say tih of wonder at his wonderful cure
”Tieneral ”What conclusion did you corand po, you know?” ”They are nicer than the nicest - the gentlemen, you know There are not too enerous, truthful, brave, and - and - devoted to us, you know A Southern husband is not a bad thing to have about the house”
Mrs Frank Ha, you could not flirt with these South Carolinians They would not stay at the tepid degree of flirtation They grow so horridly in earnest before you knohere you are” ”Do you think twoeach other out? I ood or how shabby, hoeak or how strong, above all, how selfish each was?” ”Yes; unless they are dolts, they know to a tittle; but you see if they have coet on, so so” Like the Marchioness's orange-peel wine in Old Curiosity Shop
119 A violent attack upon the North to-day in the Albion They ate us The Albion says they use lettres de cachet, passports, and all the despotic apparatus of regal govern and kaiser tyrant that is to rule them Is it McClellan? - ”Little Mac”? We may tremble when he co,” ar the spirit He does not resent Russell's slurs upon Yankees, but with good policy has Russell with hiuest
The Adonis of an aide avers, as one who knows, that ”Suht the South After all is said and done that sounds like nonsense ”Suhter of Governor Clinch, of Georgia Does that explain it? He also toldof Garnett (as killed at Rich Mountain)1 He had been an unlucky h In the army before the war, the aide had found him proud, reserved, and morose, cold as an icicle to all But for his wife and child he was a different creature He adored the else
One day he went off on an expedition and was gone six weeks He was out in the Northwest, and the Indians were troublesoround He said not one word, but they found him more frozen, stern, and isolated than ever; that was all The night before he left RichivenThey have sent ed 1 The battle of Rich Mountain, in Western Virginia, was fought July 11, 1861, and General Garnett, Commander of the Confederate forces, pursued by General McClellan, was killed at Carrick's Ford, July 13th, while trying to rally his rear-guard
120 that he threay his life - ”a dreary-hearted man,” said the aide, ”and the unluckiest”
On the front steps every evening we take our seats and discourse at our pleasure A nicer or reeable set of people were never asseht it was Yancey1 who occupied our tongues Send a land who had killed his father-in-law in a street brawl! That was not knowing England or Englishmen, surely Who wants eloquence? We want soreat talkers, ue, as they would avoid fire, faue No stump speeches will be possible, superb as are his of their kind, but little quiet conversation is best with slow, solid, coin to suspect as soon as any flourish of trumpets meets their ear If Yancey should use his fine words, ould care for them over there?
Coustus Stockton to claim his bride He, the said Stockton, had secretly wedded a fair heiress (Sally Cantey) She was istrate and returned to Mrs Grillaud's boarding-school until it was tio home - that is, to Caner) was the handsomest man in the navy, and irresistible The bride was barely sixteen When he was to go down South a those fire-eaters and claim her, Commodore Barron, then his intimate friend, went as his backer They were to announce the uardians Coinia, who settled in Alabaress, where he beca the supporters of slavery and an advocate of secession He was famous in his day as an effective public speaker
121 Barron said he anticipated a rough job of it all, but they were prepared for all risks ”You expected to find us a horde of savages, no doubt,” said I ”We did not expect to get off under a half-dozen duels” They looked for insults from every quarter and they found a polished and refined people who lived en prince, to say the least of it They were received with a cold, stately, and faultless politeness, which
The young lady had confessed to her guardians and they were forher naossip or publicity Colonel John Boykin, one of the Lochinvar to stay with hiuest Colonel Deas sent for a parson, and ain Their as to keep things quiet and not tolady
Then came balls, parties, and festivities without end He was enchanted with the easy-going life of these people, with dinners the finest in the world, deer-hunting, and fox-hunting, dancing, and pretty girls, in fact everything that heart could wish But then, said Commodore Barron, ”the better it was, and the kinder the treatrew ofan heiress, you know”
I told him how the same fate still haunted that estate in Caentleman, who later sold it to an old hty, and who left it to the daughter born of that e was left an orphan quite young At the age of fifteen, she ran away andcouple lived to grow up, and it proved after all a happy e This last heiress left six children; so the estate will now be divided, and no longer tempt the fortune-hunters
The Costers
122 in our blue uniforms went down there to bully those people” He wasa Philadelphian, he was sohly appointed establishment he had then ever visited
Went with our leviathan of loveliness to a ladies' , all har occupation helped our perturbed spirits to be calm Mrs C - - is lovely, a perfect beauty Said Brewster: ”In Circassia, think what a price would be set upon her, for there beauty sells by the pound!”
Co conversation: ”So Mrs Blank thinks purgatory will hold its own - never be abolished while women and children have to live with drunken fathers and brothers” ”She knows” ”She is too bitter She says worse than that She says we have an institution worse than the Spanish Inquisition, worse than Torque” ”What does she mean?” ”You ask her Her words are sharp arrows I a what she says”
”It is your own family that she calls the familiars of the Inquisition She declares that they set upon you, fall foul of you, watch and harass you froht to your life, night and day, unto the fourth and fifth generation They drop in at breakfast and say, 'Are you not imprudent to eat that?' 'Take care now, don't overdo it' 'I think you eat too much so early in the day' And they help the you care for on the table They abuse your friends and tell you it is your duty to praise your enemies They tell you of all your faults candidly, because they love you so; that gives theht to speak What faht to do this; you ought to do that, and then the everlasting 'you ought to have done,' which co you a murderer, at least in heart 'Blood's thicker than water,' they say, and there is where the longing to spill it comes in No locks or bolts or bars can keep them out Are they not your nearest fa in after you are at soup They coone away, and thesternly at the door with the huge wooden bar in his hand, nearly scares thelad of it”
”Private life, indeed!” She says her husband entered public life and they went off to live in a far-away city Then for the first tiet how she jumped for joy as she told her servant not to admit a soul until after two o'clock in the day Afterward, she took a fixed day at home Then she was free indeed She could read and write, stay at ho for hours with her fingers between the leaves of a frantically interesting book, while her kin slowly driveled nonsense by the yard - waiting, waiting, yawning Would they never go? Then for hurting you, who is like a relative? They do it fro you to the quick, who like one of your own household? In point of fact, they alone can do it They know the sore, and how to hit it every time You are in their power She says, did you ever see a really respectable, responsible, revered and beloved head of a family who ever opened his mouth at home except to find fault? He really thinks that is his business in life and that all enjoyment is sinful He is there to prevent the wos as pleasure, etc, etc
I sat placidly rocking into hope all was for the best Mary Hammy rushed in
124 literally drowned in tears I never saw so drenched a face in my life My heart stopped still ”Commodore Barron is taken prisoner,” said she ”The Yankees have captured hien - and there isabout, the Lord knohere I only know he is in the advance guard The Barron's time has come Mine en, she fainted! Those poor girls; they are nearly dead with trouble and fright”
”Go straight back to those children,” I said ”nobody will touch a hair of their father's head Tell thees quite This is a civilized war, you know”
Mrs Lee said to Mrs Eustis (Mr Corcoran's daughter) yesterday: ”Have you seen those accounts of arrests in Washi+ngton?” Mrs Eustis answered calmly: ”Yes, I know all about it I suppose you allude to the fact that my father has been imprisoned” ”No, no,” interrupted the explainer, ”she ton belles suspected as spies” But Mrs Eustis continued, ”I have no fears for ress adjourns to-day Jeff Davis ill We go home on Monday if I am able to travel Already I feel the dread stillness and torpor of our Sahara of a Sand Hill creeping intoin the noise of city life I knohat is beforethan the cry of the lone whippoorill break the silence at Sandy Hill, except as night draws near, when the screech-oill add his mournful note
September 1st - North Carolina writes for arms for her soldiers Have we any to send? No Brewster, the plainspoken, says, ”The President is ill, and our affairs are in the hands of noodles All the generals aith the ar the third Psalm The devil is sick, the devil a