242 The University of California Magazine. 



a mile and a half. Not a house remaining, only the tall chim- 

 neys standing gaunt and spectral. The fire had swept five or 

 six blocks wide right through the heart of the city. We met 

 not a living soul. Alas, how the beautiful city, the pride of 

 the State, sat desolate and in ashes! — but I had no time to 

 moralize. Onward still, with increasing speed. Yonder stood 

 the brick walls of the college campus and the buildings that 

 had been saved from the fire to use as a hospital for both 

 Northern and Southern soldiers. My own ivy-covered home 

 was seen at last. I resigned the carpet-bag to my companion, 

 who was to take rooms in the hospital, ran up the stone steps 

 three at a leap. The door was locked. Rap, rap, rap. Deep 

 silence a moment, then the quick pattering of little feet along 

 the hall. Then in an instant open flew the door, and they all 

 hung upon my neck with mingled laughter and tears. 'Oh, 

 father, you are soaking wet!' 'You are in rags!' 'Your 

 pants are hanging in strings about your feet, and look what a 

 rent in your knees!' " 



All of Professor Le Conte's clothing had been burned, but 

 the physician at the hospital secured a blue uniform for him, 

 which, according to the necessity of the time, was worn by 

 other Confederates. 



Though dealing with the last days of the war, when defeat, 

 disaster, loss of friends and property made many Southerners 

 very bitter, the journal is utterly free from anything like 

 strong sectional feeling. The gentleness, sweetness, and hu- 

 mor of his character is more to be seen in this work than any 

 other book of Le Conte's. It is filled with illustrations that 

 are exceedingly comic in their nature, and that indicate the 

 power for hitting ofi" a humorous situation by pencil sketches 

 that show how genially the scientist lingered over the laugh- 

 able memory of awkward hardships, adventures, and the 

 tricks of accident. Captain Green, in his cloak improvised 

 from a blanket, makes an especially good subject for a comic 

 illustration. 



During the reconstruction period, the South became almost 



