74 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



of the South. Even the memory of the pampered 

 slaves of Morocco, even the memory of that perfect 

 old gentleman in the verandah at Jacksonville will 

 not let me endorse the principle of slavery. It is 

 wrong ; all wrong from first to last — in principle, 

 that is. But men with blood in their veins some- 

 times, for a brief space, throw principle to the winds. 

 Doing so, I should prefer the wrongs of slavery to 

 the horrors of negroes outraging white women, 

 and being lynched by the crowd. Of the greater 

 picturesqueness of the Confederate cause and of 

 the more romantic personality of its leaders in 

 the field there can hardly be any question, yet 

 in the long run, perhaps, victory went to the right 

 side in the quarrel. What is unforgivable in the 

 north is the brutality with which, after the death of 

 Lincoln, it heaped indignities on the men who were 

 down, even setting the black in authority over the 

 white. This vindictive act of putting the negro in 

 power was a crime that will take the passing of 

 another generation to wipe out. My interesting 

 hotel acquaintance did not whine over the decree 

 of fate. The eternal hankering after the Consule 

 Planco order of things is a morbid symptom of 

 creeping age and mental decay, and of these, 

 though his hair was silver and his shoulders 

 stooped, this urbane and handsome relic of stirring 

 times showed no sign. 



From Jacksonville to Punta Gorda, by way of 

 Lakeland, was the last stage of my railroad journey 

 from the Hudson to the Gulf of Mexico, and at the 

 end of it there remained only a short crossing by 

 water to the island headquarters of the campaign 

 of which I had dreamed for half a year. 



