Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/238

 distressing privations and self-denials. There were bread riots in Richmond. Salt became so scarce that the earthen floors of the smoke-houses were scraped to secure the remnants of the brine drippings of former periods. Flour was at all times painfully scarce. Coffee and tea were almost unattainable. Of the various little comforts and luxuries which by long common use had almost become necessaries, many were no longer to be had. Mothers had to ransack old ragbags to find material for clothing their children. Ladies accustomed to a life of abundance and fashion had not only to work their old gowns over and to wear their bonnets of long ago, but also to flit with their children from one plantation to another in order to find something palatable to eat in the houses of more fortunate friends, who had in time provided themselves. And when at last the war was over, the blockade was raised and the necessaries and comforts so long and so painfully missed came within sight again, the South was made only more sensible of her poverty, for only a few persons in exceptionally favorable circumstances could obtain them, as the South generally was almost absolutely stripped of current money and stood face to face with the wreck of her fortunes, which, to save herself from greater misery, she had to rebuild quickly, with her male population decimated by the war, her resources in a great measure wasted or unavailable, and her traditional labor system utterly disorganized. It was, indeed, an appalling situation, looking in many respects almost hopeless. And for all this, her heart full of the mournful memories of the near past and heavy with the anxieties of the present, the Southern woman held the “cruel Yankee” responsible as the wanton originator of all her woes.

It was not to be wondered at that her emotional nature, while the wounds were still fresh, refused to listen to any plea in justification of the war on our part, and that she should give