eed, however, it may be
well to cast a glance at the conditions which gave to that movement its
rise and direction.

Not only had the South become deeply impoverished as a result of the
long struggle and of the loss of its slaves, but it was suffering from
many of the evils which the cooler heads among statesmen, North and
South, had foreseen as the result of the sudden emancipation of the
negroes. Moreover, there had been imported into the Southland a most
undesirable element in the persons and families of those who were
contemptuously termed "carpet-baggers," and these were, unhappily, in
the ascendant in matters political and wished to become so in matters
social. It was a time of the rule of the demos in its worst form--the
_demos_ which has broken loose from restraint and has turned upon its
former masters as its natural prey. As a consequence of all these
things, society as once known did not exist in the South. The social
element was of course present and recognized; but it was unable to find
expression in its wonted manner. The man who once had lived upon the
labors of his dependents was now forced to earn his own bread, generally
in scanty quantity, by his own work, manual or mental; and his wife, who
had once glittered resplendent in the social circle and had found her
every desire as well as need supplied almost as quickly as formed, was
now compelled to assume even more than the normal duties of the typical
housewife and to bend all her energies toward eking out the small
subsistence which her husband was able to provide. Naturally, under such
uncongenial circumstances, there was little thought of social gathering
or function, except in a very few of the larger towns, which refused to
abandon their ways because of poverty. Such a town was New Orleans, with
its brilliant circles of Creoles. In general, however, there was no
attempt to emulate the gaiety of the capital of Louisiana; the women of
the South faced with courage the conditions which were imposed upon
them, but they could not make merry in their sadly altered
circumstances.

In the North the effects of the war were of course less severely felt;
but still there were effects detrimental to the interests of society as
generally understood. Many a home had lost its chief worker and felt the
sting of poverty as a consequence. The war had cost the North great
treasure of money as well as blood, and the cost, while never thought of
with a pang of regret,