Evening star., 1911-06-11

h 4
But that game, too. was up. The
blockade had closed in like prison gate
The lighter towboats, draped with tar
pauins. were huddled together unuer
Slaughterhouse point. with their cold
boilers and motionless machinery yield
ing to rust. The more powerful ones had
been moored at the long wharf vacated
by Morgan's Texas steamships; there
had been a great hammering. and ma &
ing of chips and clatter of railroad iron
cotton gunboats, and these had crawled
away, some up and some down the
river. to be seen in that harbor no more
At length only the foundries. the dry
docks across the river, and the shtpyard
in suburb Jefferson, where the great ram
Mississippi was being too slowly built,
were active, and the queen of southern
commerce. the city that had once be-
lfeved 1t was to be the greatest in the
world. was absolutely out Of employment
There was, true. some movement OF
the sugar and rice crops into the hands
or merchants who had advanced the
money to grow them: and the cotton
presses and cotton yards were full Of
cotton, but there 1t all stuck; and when
one counts In q feeble exchange Of city
for country supplies. there was nothing
more. Except-yes-that the merchants
had turned upon each other and were
now engaged in a mere passing back and
forth among themselves in speculation
the daily dimishing supply OF goods and
in this. and dealt only with consumers /
remember one odd little old man, an
extensive wholesale grocer, who used to
get tipsy all by himself every day. and
go home SO, but who would not specu-
late in the food Of distressed city. -.e
had not got down to that.
Gold and silver had long ago disap-
peared Confederate money was the cur
rency; and not merely was the price of
food and raiment rising, but the value of
the money was going down. The state.
too. had paper issue, and the city had
another: Yet with all these there was
first famine OF small change, and then
deluge OF "shinplasters."
Pah. What a mess 1t was! The boss
butchers and the keepers OF drinking
houses actually took the lead in issuing
money The current joke was that you
could pass the label Of an olive bottle,
because it was greasy, smelt bad and
bore an autOgraph-Plagniol Freres, IL
remember rightly. did my first work as
cashier in those days. and l can re-
member the smell OF my cash drawer.
II
Instead Of Scent pieces we had car
tickets. How the grimy little things
used to stick together! They would pass
and pass until they were SO soft and
ling that you could tell only by some
faint show of their original color what
company had issued them Rogues did a
lively business in "spht tickets" literally
splitting them and making one ticket
serve for two.
Decay had come in. In that warm.
moist climate 1t is always hungry, and
wherever 1t is allowed to feed, eats with
greed that Is strange to see. With the
wharves. always expensive and difficult
to maintain, 1t made havoc. The occa-
sional idle. weather-stained ship moored
beside them. and resting on the water
almost as light and void as an empty pea
pod. could hardly find a place to fasten
to. The streets fell into sad neglect, but
and some of their roundstone pavements
after shower would have the melan-
ceholy cleanness OF weather-bleached
bones.
The big drydocks against the farther
shore were all empty. Now and then q
tug fused about, with the yellow river
all to itself; and one or two steam
boats came and went each day. but they
moved drowsily. and. across on the other
side OF the river. q whole feet Of their
dingy white sisters laid tied up to the
bank. sine die. My favorite Of all the
sea-steamers. the little Habana. that had
been wont to arrive twice a month from
Cuba. disgorge her 6panish-American
cargo and hustle away again, and that 1
had watched the shipwrights. at their
very elbows, raze and fit with three big,
raking masts In place of her two small
ones. had long ago slipped down the river
and through the blockaders, and was now
no longer the Habana, but the far-famed
and dreaded Sumter Zone Of the first Of
the Confederate privateers to win a name
for herself by her daring on the high
seas). &
Tie movements Of military and naval