Daniel, of The Examiner, was at the President's. Wilmot de
Saussure wondered if a fellow did not feel a little queer, paying his respects
in person at the house of a man whom he abused daily in his newspaper.
A fiasco: an aide engaged to two young ladies in the same
house. The ladies had been quarreling, but became friends unexpectedly when his
treachery, among many other secrets, was revealed under that august roof. Fancy
the row when it all came out.
Mr. Lowndes said we have already reaped one good result from
the war. The orators, the spouters, the furious patriots, that could hardly be
held down, and who were so wordily anxious to do or die for their country — they
had been the pest of our lives. Now they either have not tried the battle-field
at all, or have precipitately left it at their earliest convenience: for very
shame we are rid of them for a while. I doubt it. Bright's speech1
is dead against us. Reading this does not brighten one.
_______________
1 The reference is to John Bright, whose advocacy
of the cause of the Union in the British Parliament attracted a great deal of
attention at the time.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 109
