sold. There was an exodus of whites from the worst
governed districts in the West and the North. Many towns, among them
Mobile and Memphis, surrendered their charters and were ruled directly
by the governor; and there were numerous "strangulated" counties which
on account of debt had lost self-government and were ruled by appointees
of the governor.

A part of the money raised by taxes and by bond sales was used for
legitimate expenses and the rest went to pay forged warrants, excess
warrants, and swollen mileage accounts, and to fill the pockets of
embezzlers and thieves from one end of the South to the other. In
Arkansas, for example, the auditor's clerk hire, which was $4000 in
1866, cost twenty-three times as much in 1873. In Louisiana and South
Carolina, stealing was elevated into an art and was practiced without
concealment. In the latter state, the worthless Hell Hole Swamp was
bought for $26,000 to be farmed by the Negroes but was charged to the
state at $120,000. A free restaurant maintained at the Capitol for the
legislators cost $125,000 for one session. The porter who conducted it
said that he kept it open sixteen to twenty hours a day and that someone
was always in the room eating and drinking or smoking. When a member
left, he would fill his pockets with cigars or with bottles of drink.
Forty different brands of beverages were paid for by the state for the
private use of members, and all sorts of food, furniture, and clothing
were sent to the houses of members and were paid for by the state as
"legislative supplies." On the bills appeared such items as imported
mushrooms, one side of bacon, one feather bed, bustles, two pairs of
extra long stockings, one pair of garters, one bottle perfume, twelve
monogram cut glasses, one horse, one comb and brush, three gallons of
whisky, one pair of corsets. During the recess, supplies were sent out
to the rural homes of the members.

The endorsement of railroad securities by the state also furnished
a source of easy money to the dishonest official and the crooked
speculator. After the Civil War, in response to the general desire in
the South for better railroad facilities, the "Johnson" governments
began to underwrite railroad bonds. When the carpetbag and Negro
governments came in, the policy was continued but without proper
safeguards. Bonds were sometimes endorsed before the roads were
constructed, and even excess issues were authorized. Bonds were endorsed
for s