vance--found ever-ready sale. The
runners became men of mark--many of them men of money; for, while this
branch never demoralized like its big rival on the coast, the service
of Government was cannily mixed with the service of Mammon.

Late in the war--when all ports were closed to its communication with
agents abroad, the Richmond Government perfected this spy system, in
connection with its signal corps. This service gave scope for tact,
fertility of resource and cool courage; it gave many a brave fellow,
familiar with both borders, relief from camp monotony, in the fresh
dangers through which he won a glimpse of home again; and it gave a
vast mass of crude, conflicting information, such as must come from
rumors collected by men in hiding. But its most singular and most
romantic aspect was the well-known fact, that many women essayed the
breaking of the border blockade. Almost all of them were successful;
more than one well nigh invaluable, for the information she brought,
sewed in her riding-habit, or coiled in her hair. Nor were these coarse
camp-women, or reckless adventurers. Belle Boyd's name became historic
as Moll Pitcher; but others are recalled--petted belles in the society
of Baltimore, Washington and Virginia summer resorts of yore--who rode
through night and peril alike, to carry tidings of cheer home and bring
back news that woman may best acquire. New York, Baltimore and
Washington to-day boast of three beautiful and gifted women, high in
their social ranks, who could--if they would--recite tales of lonely
race and perilous adventure, to raise the hair of the budding beaux
about them.

But it may be that the real benefits of "running the bloc." were
counterbalanced by inseparable evils. The enhancement of prices and
consequent depreciation of currency may not have felt this system
appreciably; but it tempted immigration of the adventurous and vicious
classes, while it presented the anomaly of a government trading on its
enemy's currency to depreciation of its own. For the trade demanded
greenbacks; and the Confederacy bought these--often the product of
illicit traffic--from the runners themselves, at from twenty to _one
thousand_ dollars C.S., for one U.S.!

Such is the brief, and necessarily imperfect, glance at the triple
blockade, which steadily aided the process of exhaustion and ruin at
the South. Such were its undeniable effects upon the Government and the
people. And that these, in part at least