Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-08-29

|
fedcracy. The Northern Union. repre-
scented by Athens. Vas a naval power
Tho Southern Confederacy. under the
leadership OF Sparta, was a land power
| The Athenians represented the progress
sive element, the Spartans the conser-
| vative. The Athenians believed in a
strong centralized government. The
Iacedaemonians professed greater re-
gard for autonomy. A title ingenuity. a
good deal of hardihood, might multiply
such utilities indefinitely. In fact, IL
would be possible to write the story OF
our Peloponnesian war in phrases OF
Thucydldes, and I should be surprised
| IL such a task were a regular school
exercise at Elton or at Rugby. Why. it
was but the other day that Professor
Tyrren, Of Dublin. translated a passage
from Lowell's Bigiow papers into choice
Aristophanese.
unfortunately. such feats, as I have
already said, imperil ones intellectual
honesty, and one would not like to imi-
tate the Byzantine historians who were
/ given to similar tricks. One Of these
| gentlemen, Glorious by name. had a
| seaport to describe. How the actual
seaport lay mattered little to Choricius.
so long as the Epidamnos Of Thucydldes
was at hand; and If the task OF mar
rating our Peloponnesian war were as
| signed to the ghost of Glorious, l have
no doubt that he would open II with
description OF Charleston in terms Of
| Epidamnos. Little matters of topogra-
| ply would not trouble such a one. To
the sophist an island is an island,
river a river, a height a height, every
where Sphacteria would furnish the
model for Morris Island; the Achelous
would serve indifferently for Potomac
or Mississippi; the Epipolae for MIS-
sionary Ridge. Plataea for Vicksburg,
! the harbor of Syracuse for Hampton
I Roads, and Thucydides' description Of
the naval engagement. and the watch
| ing crowds would be made available for
the fight between Merrimac and Moni-
! tor"
And again:
when historical characters get far
| enough off it may be possible to initiate
| Plutarch. but only then. Victor Hugo
wrote a passionate protest against the
execution of John Brown, i'm which he
compared Virginia hanging John Brown
with Washington putting Spartacus 10
! death. What Washington would have
| done with Spartacus can readily be d.
vined. Those who have stood nearest to
Grant and Sherman. TO Lee and Jackson,
the men, fail 10 see any strong resem-
| blance to leaders in other wars. Nicias,
I'm the Peloponnesian war. whose name
means Winfield. has nothing in common
with General Scott whose plan Of put
ting down the rebellion, the Anaconda
plan" as It was called. bears some re-
semblance 10 the scheme of Demosthenes,
the Athenian general, for quelling the
Peloponnese. I3rasidas was in some re-
spects like Stonewall Jackson, but Bra
sidas was not n Presbyterian elder, nor
Stonewau Jackson a cajoling diplo-
matist"
Here IS another:
'0The war was not an era Of sweetness
and light. Perhaps sugar was the article
most missed. Maple sugar was or TOO
limited production to meet the popular
need. Sorghum was horror then; Is
horror to remember now. 1t set our
teeth on edge and clawed off the coats OF
our stOmachs In the army sugar was
doled out by pinches, and from the tables
Of most citizens IL was banished alto
gether. There were those who solaced
themselves with rye coffee and sorghum
molasses regardless of ergot and acid
but nobler souls would not be untrue TO
their gastronomic ideal. Necessity a. one
thing. mock luxury another. III there him
been honey enough we should have been
on the antique basis, for honey was lhe
sugar of antiquity, and all our cry Ior
sugar was but an echo Of the cry LOT
honey I'm the PelopOnnesian war. Honey
was then. as IT Is now, one Of the chlel
nroducts of Attica. 1t is not likely that
the Peloponnesians took the trouble 10
burn over the beds of thyme that gave
Attic honey its peculiar flavor, but the
Peloponneslans would not have been SOL
diers If they had not robbed every pee
hive on the march, and. sad TO relate
the Athenans must have been forced To
import honey. When Dicacopoiis makes
the separate peace mentioned above. ne
gets up a feast of good things, and there
is a certain JUNCTION in the tone with
which he orders the basiing OF sausage
meat with honey, as one should say
mutton and currant jelly In the Peace
when War appears ana proceeuS 10 h'''Ne
a salad, he says:
"Tll pour some Attic roney in"
"Whereupon Trygaeus cries out:
"sHo therei warn you use some other
honey. Be sparing Of the Attic. That
costs sixpence.'
attic honey has the ring Of New Or
leans rnolasses-'those molasses.' as the
article was often called, with an adj
miring plural Of majesty
The articles concludes:
Now. tallow dips, lard, WALLPAPERS
terebene plne-knots, were all represented
in the Peloponnesian war by oil. OIL
one of the great staples OF Attica, became
scarcer as the war went on. "A Dubious
wick was a sinner against domestic
aconor,v. TO trim a lamp and hasten
combustion was little short OF a crime
Nanagement in the use OF oil-otherWlse
considered the height Of nlggardliness-
was the rule. and could be all the more
readily understood by the Confederate
student when he reflected that oil was
the great lubricant as well; that IL was
the Attic butter. and to a considerdole
extent the Attic soap. 'Under the Soh-
federacy butter mounted 10 the hhahcidi
MILKY way. not 10 be scaled Of ordinary
men. and soap was also proDleih'
Modern chemists have denied the eXis-
tence of true soap in antiquity. The soap
suds that got into the eyes OF
the Athenian boy on the occasion OF his
saturday night scrubbing were not real
soap-suds. but a kind Of I've used for
desnerate cases. The oil flask was the
ATTENDANTS soap-box. No wonder then,
that oil was exceedingly precious in the
Peloponnesian war, and no wonder that
ALI these little details OF daily hardship
come back even now 10 the old student
when he reopens his Arisiophanes. NO
wonder that the ever-present Peloponhe-
sian war Will not suieT Nun ~ i"i So
those four years in which the sea OF
trouble rose higher and higher
AMERICAN COLONIAL TRACTS
MONTHLY. No. 8. September, 1897.
An account showing the progress OF
the Colony Of Georgia, In America, from
it's first establishment. published per
order of the Honorable the Trustees.
Tondon: Printed in the year MDCCXlI.
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THE KIONDIKE GOLD-FIELDS-
Their Discovery, Development. and
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