population of forty
thousand swelled to three times that number by the sudden pressure. Of
course, all the Government, with its thousand employes, had come on;
and in addition, all the loose population along the railroad over which
it had passed seemed to have clung to and been rolled into Richmond
with it. Not only did this mania seize the wealthier and well-to-do
classes, but the queerest costumes of the inland corners of Georgia and
Tennessee disported themselves with perfect composure at hotels and on
the streets. Besides, from ten to fifteen thousand troops were always
collected, as a general rendezvous, before assignment to one of the
important points--Norfolk, the Peninsula, or the Potomac lines.
Although these were in camp out of town, their officers and men
thronged the streets from daylight to dark, on business or pleasure
bent; and the variety of uniforms--from the butternut of the Georgia
private to the three stars of the flash colonel--broke the monotony of
the streets pleasingly to the eye.

Hotel accommodations in Richmond were always small and plain, and now
they were all overflowing. The Spotswood, Exchange and American held
beds at a high premium in the parlors, halls and even on the
billiard-tables. All the lesser houses were equally packed, and crowds
of guests stood hungrily round the dining-room doors at meal-times,
watching and scrambling for vacated seats. It was a clear case of
"devil take the hindmost," for their _cuisine_ decreased in quantity
and quality in exact ratio to augmentation of their custom. The
Richmond hotels, always mediocre, were now wretched. Such a thing as a
clean room, a hot steak, or an answered bell were not to be bought by
flagrant bribery. I would fain believe that all concerned did their
best; but rapid influx absolutely overwhelmed them; and resources of
the neighboring country--ample to support one-third the numbers now
collected--were quickly exhausted under suddenly tripled demand. No
transportation for private supplies was available in the overtaxed
condition of the railroads; so the strangers, perforce, had to "grin
and bear it," dry soever as the grin might be. Private boarding-houses
sprang up like mushrooms on every block; bereaved relicts and ambitious
spinsterhood equally clutching the chance to turn an honest penny. And
naturally, ordinary trials of boarding-house life were aggravated by
circumstance. Discomfort of the hotels was great enough; but,
desicca