“A good cause!” almost shrieked the old man; and he burst forth with a stream of execrations against the Confederate government which made my blood chill.
But the daughter smilingly repeated, “It was a good cause, and I don’t regret it. You mustn’t mind what he says.”
I helped her get him inside the wicket, and made my escape, wondering, as I left them, which was the more insane of the two.
But she was not insane; she was a woman. A man may be reasoned and beaten out of a false opinion, but a woman never. She will not yield to logic, not even to the logic of events. Thus it happens that, while the male secessionists at the South have frankly given up their cause, the female secessionists still cling to it with provoking tenacity. To appeal to their intelligence is idle; but they are vulnerable on the side of the sentiments; and many a one has been authentically converted from the heresy of state rights by some handsome Federal officer, who judiciously mingled love with loyalty in his speech, and pleaded for the union of hands as well as the union of States.
DISTRIBUTING RATIONS.
CHAPTER XXI.
FEEDING THE DESTITUTE.
As I was passing Castle Thunder, I observed, besieging the doors of the United States Commissary, on the opposite side of the street, a hungry-looking, haggard crowd,—sickly-faced women, jaundiced old men, and children in rags; with here and there a seedy gentleman who had seen better days, or a stately female in faded apparel, which, like her refined manners, betrayed the aristocratic lady whom the war had reduced to want.
These were the destitute of the city, thronging to receive alms from the government. The regular rations, issued at a counter to which each was admitted in his or her turn, consisted of salt-fish and hard-tack; but I noticed that to some tea and sugar were dealt out. All were provided with tickets previously issued to them by the Relief Commission. One tall, sallow woman requested me to read her ticket, and tell her if it was a “No. 2.”
“They telled me it was, whar I got it, but I like to be shore.”