ever the princely speculator may
turn up his keen-scented nose, I here record that, during the four
years of dark and bloody war--of pinching want and bitter trial, there
was no more generous, free-hearted and delicate aid given to the
suffering soldier-boy, than came from the hand of the Baltimore
faro-banker.

So in Richmond high and low gambled--some lightly for excitement's
sake--some dashingly and brilliantly--a few sullenly and doggedly going
in to gain. Few got badly hurt, getting more in equivalent of wines,
cigars and jolly dinners than they gave. They looked upon the "hell" as
a club--and as such used it freely, spending what they had and
whistling over their losses. When they had money to spare they played;
when they had no money to spare--or otherwise--they smoked their
cigars, drank their toddies and met their friends in chaff and gossip,
with no more idea that there was a moral or social wrong than if they
had been at the "Manhattan" or the "Pickwick" of to-day.

I do not pretend to defend the habit; but such it was, and such all the
men who remember the Capital will recognize it.

Of that other class, who "went in for blood"--some got badly hurt in
reputation and in pocket. But the dead cause has buried its dead; and
their errors--the result of an overstrained state of society and
indubitably of a false money-system--hurt no one but themselves.

And so, with the enemy thundering at the gates; with the echoed
_whoo!_ of the great shells almost sounding in the streets; and
with the ill-provided army staggering under the burthen of
defense--almost too heavy for it to bear--the finances of the
Confederacy went from bad to worse--to nothing!

The cotton that the alchemy of genius, or even of business tact--might
have transmuted into gold, rotted useless; or worse, as a bait for the
raider. The notes, that might have been a worthy pledge of governmental
faith, bore no meaning now upon their face; and the soldier in the
trench and the family at the desolate fireside--who might have been
comfortably fed and clad--were gnawed with very hunger! And when the
people murmured too loudly, a change was made in men, if not in policy.

Even if Mr. Trenholm had the ability, he had no opportunity to prove
it. The evil seed had been sown and the bitter fruit had grown apace.
Confederate credit was dead!

Even its own people had no more faith in the issues of their
government; and they hesitated not--even while they g