keeping," and was indignant when I entered a
protest. Outside of Newport and Saratoga, I think there are very few
hotel-keepers in the North who would make out and present a bill on so
small a basis as this.

This taverner's wife and daughter professed an utter contempt for all
white persons who degraded themselves to any kind of toil. Of
course, their hostility to the North was very great. Beyond a slight
supervision, they left every thing to the care of the negroes. A
gentleman who was with me sought to make himself acquainted with the
family, and succeeded admirably until, on one evening, he constructed
a small toy to amuse the children. This was too much. He was skillful
with his hands, and must therefore be a "mudsill." His acquaintance
with the ladies of that household came to an end. His manual dexterity
was his ruin.

There was another hotel in Lagrange, a rival establishment, that bore
the reputation of being much the worse in point of comfort. It was
owned by a widow, and this widow had a son--a lank, overgrown youth of
eighteen. His poverty, on one point, was the greatest I ever knew.
He could have been appropriately selected as the hero of a certain
popular novel by Wilkie Collins. No name had ever been given him by
his parents. In his infancy they spoke of him as "the boy." When he
grew large enough to appear on the street with other boys, some one
gave him the _sobriquet_ of "Rough and Ready." From that time forward,
his only praenomen was "Rough." I made several inquiries among his
neighbors, but could not ascertain that he bore any other Christian
appellative.

The first comprehensive order providing for the care of the negroes
in the Southwest, was issued by General Grant while his army lay at
Lagrange and Grand Junction. Previous to that time, the negroes had
been disposed of as each division and post commander thought best,
under his general instructions not to treat them unkindly. Four months
earlier, our authorities at Memphis had enrolled several hundred
able-bodied negroes into an organization for service in the
Quartermaster's Department, in accordance with the provisions of
an order from District Head-Quarters. They threw up fortifications,
loaded and unloaded steamboats, and performed such other labor as was
required. In General Grant's army there was a pioneer corps of three
hundred negroes, under the immediate charge of an overseer, controlled
by an officer of engineers. No steps were the