er
heroic city; and they cherished it in the darkest midnight of their
cause, with constancy and hope that nerved the strong and shamed the
laggard.

That history is one long series of perils and privations--of absolute
isolation--sufficient to have worn down the strongest and to have
quenched even

The smile of the South, on the lips and the eyes--
Of her barefooted boys!

Yet, even in Vicksburg--torn by shot and shell, hopeless of relief from
without, reduced to direst straits of hunger within--the supreme rebel
humor rose above nature; and men toiled and starved, fought their
hopeless fight and died--not with the stoicism of the fatalist, but
with the cheerfulness of duty well performed! And when Vicksburg fell,
a curious proof of this was found; a manuscript bill-of-fare,
surmounted by rough sketch of a mule's head crossed by a human hand
holding a Bowie-knife. That memorable _menu_ reads:

HOTEL DE VICKSBURG, BILL OF FARE, FOR JULY, 1863.

SOUP: Mule tail.

BOILED: Mule bacon, with poke greens; mule ham, canvassed.

ROAST: Mule sirloin; mule rump, stuffed with rice; saddle-of-mule,
_a l'armee_.

VEGETABLES: Boiled rice; rice, hard boiled; hard rice, any way.

ENTREES: Mule head, stuffed _a la Reb_; mule beef, jerked _a la
Yankie_; mule ears, fricasseed _a la getch_; mule side, stewed--new
style, hair on; mule liver, hashed _a l'explosion_.

SIDE DISHES: Mule salad; mule hoof, soused; mule brains _a
l'omelette_; mule kidneys, _braises_ on ramrod; mule tripe, on half
(Parrot) shell; mule tongue, cold, _a la_ Bray.

JELLIES: Mule foot (3-to-yard); mule bone, _a la_ trench.

PASTRY: Rice pudding, pokeberry sauce; cottonwood-berry pie, _a la_
iron-clad; chinaberry tart.

DESSERT: White-oak acorns; beech-nuts; blackberry-leaf tea; genuine
Confederate coffee.

LIQUORS: Mississippi water, vintage 1492, very superior, $3;
limestone water, late importation, very fine, $3.75; spring water,
Vicksburg bottled up, $4.

Meals at few hours. Gentlemen to wait upon themselves. Any
inattention in service should be promptly reported at the office.

JEFF DAVIS & CO., _Proprietors_.

CARD: The proprietors of the justly-celebrated Hotel de Vicksburg,
having enlarged and refitted the same, are now prepared to
accommodate all who may favor them with a call. Parties ar