man's eyes as she answered, "You mean kindness, major; but I
have never asked charity yet. My husband is at the front; and I only
ask a right--to be allowed to work for my children!"

Such were the sufferings, such the spirit of southern women!

When it was too late--when the headlong road to ruin had been more than
half-way run--some feeble attempts were made to stay the downward rush.
Of course, they were useless--worse than useless, in that they made
widespread a feeling of distrust, already deep-seated with reflecting
men. The volume of currency had reached such expansion that its value
was merely nominal for purposes of subsistence, when the devices of Mr.
Memminger to lessen it began to be pressed in earnest.

The people had now begun to see that the whole theory of the Treasury
was false; that the moment for utilizing the cotton supply had indeed
been lost; and they murmured loud and deep against the Secretary and
the President; whom they believed not only retained him in office, but
endorsed his destructive policy. Mr. Davis, the people said, was
autocratic with his Cabinet, and would have displaced Mr. Memminger
summarily, had he not favored that peculiar financial system. Mr.
Davis, too, was known to have been hostile to the absorption and
exportation by the Government of all the cotton. He had, moreover,
recommended against any legislation by Congress to contract the
currency and stop the issues. Now, therefore, the inflation and utter
inadequacy of the paper money was laid at his door, as well as Mr.
Memminger's; and the people, feeling there was no safety for them,
began to distrust the good faith of such reckless issue. A system of
barter was inaugurated among the country people; and they traded off
things only needful for others absolutely essential. They began to feel
a dread of taking the notes of the Government, and in many instances
refused them utterly. And yet these very people yielded cheerfully to
the constantly insolent, and not infrequently illegal, demands of the
impressment officers.

In the cities, too, a point had been reached where the promise of the
Government to pay was looked upon as a bitter joke. Bonds were
constantly refused in business transactions, and only Treasury
notes--as a medium of temporary exchange--were accepted.

Then, as a necessary measure, came the imperative order for funding the
currency. All the millions of old issues were to be turned into the
treasury, by a ce