New-York daily tribune., 1861-08-10
THAT DINNER.

Among the highly colored fctions which the
rebels have woven around their reports of the
Bull Run Battle, the most extraordinary is that
of sumptuous and majestic dinner which they
profess to have found at Centrevie, all superbly
laid out, with French bills Of fare, and other
luxuries better adapted to their understanding.
In every account this gorgeous feast figures with
more or less prominence. The correspondent OF
The Memphis Argus betrays particular fond
ness for the stimulating details. He tells of
/" rich food, ga costly cuiSine," ' delicious
" drinkables," including baskets of champagne
and claret, and so many other "good things
that we are afraid to begin to quote them we
suspect that all these festive spreads are but the
visions of empty and yearning stOmachs. Inc
annals of starvation are full of similar examples.
Long abstinence from proper nourishment seldom
fails to conjure up just such dainty aud delight
full images in the minds of the sufferers. From
their exaggerated rccitals, Ae rebels at Manassas
must have been in far worse way than we
had ever supposed Their conception Of q 'plen-
did feast is nothing but a mirage. They might
have come upon an overturned suffers cart, near
tue Dittlc utlu Win pituty vi Coi" pro anu "h''-
Ky but AZ for champagne, rich food, and French
bills of fare, they are all brilliant myths. The
Memphis corresponded goes so far as to give
a minute account of the way in which Rap
pahanock company disposed Of this wonderful
dinner, after having driven away the original
guests in a state of Barmecidal blueness, how it
/" havocked sadly" with the eatsbles aud got un-
steady on the drinkables, and how "sprighty
" officer" (fclic.tously named Hopper sprang
upon the table in the midst of the spree, and
proposed the following impromPtu toast: " Our
SINCERE thanks to the gouty old Scott; may bis
captured batteries soon send q shower
"of grape from which he can fill bis
wine bottles" To all Of which we are
reluctantly compelled to say that neither the
sprigbtly Hopper, nor the RapPahanock company
nor any number of rebels whatsoever, came
within sight of Centreyille until late Tuesday
morning, long after it had been abandoned by
our people. The dinner, and the drinking, and
the toast of Hopper were all rapturous dream,
without any sort of foundation except possibly,
that of the broken down suffers cart before
hinted at But although dream, the rebels
cannot give up cherishing it. IL plays in their
fancy increasingly. 1t seems to sPnng from an
allmentary delusion which has injected every rebel
grade. JEFF. Davis himself does not escape 1t,
although with him it takes more practical form.
"The provisions captured at this grand reposl-
tory" the President asserts, 6 are sufficient to
" feed $4,000 men for whole campaign" II
is plain that JEFF. is only at the beginning of
semi-starvation. Before long he will be seeing
rich food, champagne, and French bills Of fare
just like the rest Of them, and we may chance,
some day, to hear of him as emnlating the
sprightly Hopper, and dancing visionary reel
upon a phantom table, amid the debris OF FEAST
Of shadows and the famished cries of bis fellow
victims in hallucnaton.