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The Crisis, Volume 6

The Crisis, Volume 6

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCING A CAPITALIST

Word Count: 4570    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

nts of the German citizen-soldiers were spread out like so many slices of white cake on the green beside the city's reservoir. Thence the eye stretched across the town, c

river was reached to the northward, far above the bend. Within

use, alas, was one of many in Glencoe written down in red ink in a book at headquarters as a place toward which the feet of the young men strayed. Good evidence was handed in time and time again that the young men had come and gone, and red-faced commanding officers cursed indignant subalterns, and implied that Beauty had had a hand in it. Councils of war were held over the advisability of seizing Mr. Carvel's house at Glencoe, but proof was lacking until one rainy night in June a captain and ten men spurred up the drive and swung into a big circle around the house. The Captain took off his cavalry gauntlet and knocked at the door, more gently than usual. Miss Virginia was home so Jackson said. The Captain was given an audience more formal than one with the queen of Prussia could have

rs had been wont to send their disorderly and insubordinate niggers. They were packed away, as the miserable slaves had been, to taste something of the bitterness of the negro's lot. So came Bert Russell to welter in a low room whose walls gave out the stench of years. How you cooked for them, and schemed for them, and cried for them, you devoted women of the South! You spent the long hot summer in town, and every day you went with your baskets to Gratiot Street, where the infected old house stands, until-until one morning a lady walked out past the guard, and down the street. She was civilly detained at the corner, because she wore army boots. After that permits were issued. If you were a young lady of the proper princ

on to fight. Camp Jackson taken, and the prisoners exchanged south, Captain Lyon; who moved like a whirlwind, who loved the Union beyond his own life, was thrust down again. A mutual agreement was entered into between the Governor and the old Indian fighter in command of the Wester

His Excellency came, and the General deigned to go with the Union leader to the Planters House. Conference, five hours; result, a safe-conduct for the Governor back. And this

rough, the state; rather than concede to the state of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my Government in any matter, however unimportant, I would" (rising and pointing in turn to every one in the room) "see you,

of the head, he turned upon his heel and strode out o

k, among the oaks on Bloody Hill. What he would have been to this Union, had God spared him, we shal

air Grounds. And then the regiments marched through the streets with bands playing that march to which the words of the Battle Hymn were set, and those bright ensigns snapping at the front; bright now, and new, and crimson. But soon to be stained a darker red, and rent into tatters, and finally brought back and talked over and cried over, and tenderly laid above an inscri

breaking suspense. Later-much later, black headlines, and grim lists three columns long,-three columns of a blanket sheet! "The City of Alt

ing the red cargoes of war. And they bore away to new battlefields thousands of fresh-faced boys from Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota, g

eside his old company, but his look avoided their faces. He wrung Richter's hand on the land

shrugged his shoulders), "now have we many with no cares to go. I have not even a fa

er decks already blue with troops, and as she backed out with her whistle screaming, the last objects h

he ground-glass door behind him, and Stephen sat until five o'clock over a book. No, it was not Whittlesey, but Hardee's "Tactics." He shut it with a slam, and went to Verandah Hall to dri

opper did not often take the trouble to rise from his chair, nor was he ever known to go to the door to bid them Godspeed. This was all very well, because they were Union regiments. But Mr. Hopper did

ness affairs for others which he deemed public, and which were so mysterious that even Mr. Hopper could not get wind of them. These matters had taken the Colonel out of town. But now the necessity of a pass made that awkward, and he went

r!" he sai

rvel's chair with a semi-confidential air,-one wholly new, had the Colonel given it a thought. He did not, but began to f

hese Eastern notes are du

s,

l glanced

d nature. "You have served me well. You have brought this business up to a modern footing, and made it as prosperous as any in the town. I am sorry, sir, that those contemptible Ya

thinking of a day, before the Mexican War, when his young wife had sat in the very chair filled

made the only sound. Outside the par

ith a remarkable ease, "I cal

t, and one of the notes fell to the floor.

't a bank in town that will lend me money. I-I haven'

d changed the man. He was no longer cringing. Now he had poise, such poise as we in these days

up those note

e Colonel, incr

drove of mules. No. But his day,-the day toward which he had striven unknown and unnoticed for so many years-the day when he would laugh at the pride of those who had ignored and insulted him, was dawning at last. When we are thoughtless of our words, we do not re

, sir?" demanded

notes, Colonel. Just a little friendly transaction." Her

?" he said at length

take my note f

s,

e career, from that first morning when he had carried bales to the shipping room, to his replacement of Mr. Hood, and there was nothing with which to accuse him. He remembered the warnings of Captain Lige and Virginia. He c

ern gentleman. He could not sell the business. His house would bring nothing in these times. He rose and began to pace the floor

"Where the devil did y

er did n

e worked for you," he said. "It don't cost me m

the Colonel's

five times more than I

ou have made this mon

had known it. He did not meet it now. But he went to his

ness. "I cal'late they'll stand inspection. I ain't forcing you to take th

pride received that day. To rescue a name which had stood untarnished since he had brought it into

must know that these notes will not legally hold. It is martial law. The

was abou

r no law, you shall have the money and interest, or your security, which is this business

. Hopper, with a feeble attempt at gen

He sat down, and continued more calmly: "It will not be long before a Southern Army marches into St. Louis, and the Y

ld smile at the Colonel

done so, his history

me, Colonel," h

to the, city where it was founded, I thank heaven that we are not concerned with the details of their tal

to leave. Outside, in the store; Ephum paced uneasily, wondering why his master did not come out. Presently h

" he cried, "

oked up. His f

e promise young MISS long time ag

, Ep

egro but dimly. Faintly h

give Ephum a pass down,

ge

from the Captain yesterday. He is at Cairo. His bo

yo' friend, Marse Comyn. He ain't never fo'get what yo

friend, Ephum," answer

from any man employed

other, who is in a Pe

is heart was lead as he c

of the sale stables there. Whips are cracking like pistol shots, Gentlemen with the yellow cavalry stripe of the United States Army are pushing to and fro among the drivers and the owners, and fingering the frightened a

corner, against the hot building, surveying the busy scene, unnoticed. Mule

tache and a shifty eye walks out of one

r. Hopper

nd returned. "Got them vouchers?" he asks

uniform, who wore an air of genteel importance. He could not have been more than two and twenty, and his face and

d," he said

ry, fo' sure. As clean a lot as ever I seed. Not a lump on 'em. Gov'm

sober face that the Captain smiled. And at the same time he g

from a Newfoundland dog

asserted Mr. Ford, wit

make you acquainted wit

Went

with fervor. "You interested in mule

d as being wholly without a sense of humor. He grinned as he looked upon this lamb in the uni

ar," added

. "It's d-d tiresome lookin'

s charity keeps him at the improvised hospital down town. Mr. Hopper has resigned the s

er's cigar and drinks his whiskey. And Eliphalet understands that the good Lord put some fools into the world in order to give the smart peo

e no time in presenting them vouchers at headquarters," says he. "Money is worth something now. And there's grum

ny of Bourbon, but his face is not a delight to loo

l'lat

cause I ain't got no capital

twenty a da

nd blanket contracts besides. I know you. What's to prevent my goin

, quietly. "Then your mother'll hav

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