The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-10

For coffee thero vera various substitutes;
sweet potatoes, chipp ed and dried, parched
meal, parched rye, parchsd okrs seeds and
aaasafras tea. joss beverage Was water
sweetsned with sorghum syrup, and he
fosnd it a very refreshing and wholesome
drink. Some OF the dishes that were pop
ular in the old colonial days vera revived.
There was persimmon brend-what could
BIO more toothsoms than that? Yet a little
Of il went a long way. an Mr.. Wall ussd to
say. And there was potato pons-sweet po-
tatoes boiled, kneaded, cat into PONIES and
baked again. And then there was callabou
- mixture OF collards, poke salad and
turnip green's boiled for dinner and fried
over for supper. This was the invention Of
Jimsy, an old negro brought over from the
West Indies, whose real name was Zimzi,
and who always ran away when anybody
scolded him.
The old-fashioned loom and spinning
wheel were kept going, and the women
made their own dyes. The girls made their
hats Of rye and wheat straw, and some
very pretty bonnets were made of tho
fbrous substance that grows In the vegeta-
BILE known as the bonnet squash.
It wac agreed on all sides that tines we're
very hard, and yet they seemed very pleas
ant and comfortable to Joe Maxwell. He
had never seen money moro plentiful.
Everybody seemed to have some, md yet
nobody had enough. II was all in confed-
crate bills, and they were all new and fresh
and crisp. Joe had aome of ii himself, and
he thought he WAS growing rich. But the
more plentiful money became, the higher
went the price of everything.
After awhile Joe noticed that the older
men became more serious. There were
complaints in the newspapers Of specuia-
tors and ~axtortionerg-of men who imposed
on and mistreated the widows and wives
Of the soldiers. And then there was q law
passed preventing the farmers from plant
ing only SO many acres of land in cotton,
in order that mora food might be raised
for the army. After this came the i'm
pressment law. which gave the confederate
officials the right to seize private property,
horses, mules. and provisions. And then
samo the CONSUMPTION law.
There was no discomfort among the mon
who were at home. but they were not left
to make any serious complaints. One by
or the consoript officers seized all except
those who were exempt, and hurried them
of to the front. Those who thought IL a
disgracst to be conscribed, either volunteered,
or hired themselves as substitutes.
Ibis is tho summing up of the three first
years Of the war, 60 far as Ii affected Joe
Maxwell. Th impression made upon him
was Of slow and gradual growth. He only
knew that trouble and confusion were
abroad in the land. He could see afterward
what a lonely and desperate period it must
have been to those who had klns1nen in the
war, but, at that time, all theae things were
as remote from him as q dream TINT ia half
remembered. He set up tho EDITORS arti-
clos, criticizing Gov. Joe Brown for somc
attacks he had made OH the confederate
government, without undet standing them
fully, and be left MIR. Wall, the halter, who
was q violent secessionist, to discuss the
situation with Mr.. Bonner. the overseer.
who was a whig, and something of a union
man.
Late one afternoon, after listening to a
heated dispute between Mr.. Wall and Mr..
bonner, Joe concluded that he would take
. 'un in the fields with the barriers. So
ne called n whistled for them, but they
tailed to come. Hnrbert thought they had
"a this rarely happened, Joe was of tho
opinion that they had gone hunting on their
own account. They were very busy and
restless little dogs, and it was not I'M
common for them to go rabbit hunting on
their own account. Going toward Mr..
Snslson's, Joe thought ho could heur them
running a rabbit on the further side of the
plantation. He went in that direction. but
xOund, after a while that thAy were RIM.