Diary of Malvina S. Waring, April 10, 1865

The wires being up again, I have been sending telegrams home to allay anxiety. Have been sitting up a little, and the doctor finally consents for me to be removed home. He—and every one here—treats me as a dear friend, not as a stranger. When I asked him for my bill, he said, "I have none," and when I insisted, he made out one for ten dollars. Ten dollars in Confederate money! It wouldn't buy enough salt to season his egg for breakfast! I could not keep back the tears while handing him the money, and not long ago, when I was well, I never used to cry for anything. But kindness touches where nothing else does. I do like doctors, and men in general, men of high nature, and true. Perhaps I have spoken flippantly of them sometimes, but, bless you, not a word of it was seriously intended. Whatever their foibles, men as a class are more generous than women; they don't laugh so much in their sleeve at other people; they are not so full of paradoxical conceits and petty animosities; they are not so apt to be distanced in the first heat of goodness; and are altogether more tolerant in mind and catholic in spirit. I say again, I like men. This world would be a very stupid place without them. The other girls have gone, but Lise and Ernestine have waited for me, and we will be off as soon as may be.

SOURCE: South Carolina State Committee United Daughters of the Confederacy, South Carolina Women in the Confederacy, Vol. 1, “A Confederate Girl's Diary,” p. 284-5